Tag: LOFT

28
Oct

New Design & Branding Projects P1

We are delighted to present a series of exciting and new Design & Branding projects created by the loft in the last few years..

 

A DECADE OF SUCCESS

Visual of Portal Security Timeline Infographic

We’ve been really delighted to be working with Declan, Michael and the rest of the wonderful folks at Portal Security for a number of years now…

A few weeks ago they celebrated their 10th birthday and what a 10 years it has been – innovative new products, set-piece client wins, offices in both Scotland & England, accreditations of excellence in their operations and a real attitude of giving back to the communities they serve through countless hours of charity work and so much more. All of this has been at the heart of this decade of success for the organisation..

Of course we were more than happy to wrap all of these outstanding achievements into this special timeline infographic (hey it’s what we do..) Ascending timeline showing the growth of the company, a special hybrid mix of photos, icons, words and most of all cloaked in the most Portal of Portal Blues..

Happy birthday folks….

THE LOFT

 

 ‘HELPING TO REDUCE VIOLENCE IN SOCIETY TODAY’

One of the projects that has given us the greatest satisfaction in recent times is our creative work with The Scottish Violence Reduction Unit. The SVRU are responsible for thoughtful, practical and ultimately effective actions reducing violence in our society today. They have made a significant difference over the last 15 years or so in Scotland and a similar body is now being set-up in London.

There is still much work still to do here in Scotland but one of the real successes of the SVRU has been the ultra-targeted method with which different projects are used to incrementally and effectively reduce different types of violence in our homes, streets & public places.

We were delighted to be given the opportunity to help this exceptional organisation bring these different programmes to life with these graffiti-inspired illustrations – Street & Arrow, Mentors in Violence Prevention, Navigator, Ask Support Care (ASC) and One Community.

Each illustration looking to summarise what these exceptional programmes does in the most imaginative and captivating ways possible.

 

 

 

We hope you like…

 

WORKING TOWARDS A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

‘Working towards a more sustainable future…’ Or ‘Andare avanti verso un futuro più sostenibile..’

We’ve been busy bees at the loft in the last couple of months creating new identities, websites, campaigns and in this case infographics…

One of the things we’ve been most proud off is this lovely little visual we created alongside Letizia Macri, the Vice President of the ESG European Institute in Rome, Italy. Letizia and the ESG’s vision is to help create a more sustainable, accountable and socially responsible form of commerce across Europe and beyond.

A lovely little project (and with strong Italian roots,) a great little project to be personally involved in…

Infographic is available in both Italian & English languages, but we thought we’d go for Italian for this particular post..

You can find out more about Letizia and the ESG at… https://esginstitute.it

A presto…

Infographic of a more sustainable future

If you’d like to find out more about our Design & Branding services contact us…

Benedetto

 

Benedetto is an enthusiastic creative and business person.

His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder of the loft – A Design & Branding Agency based in the heart of Glasgow.

He is honoured to manage a great team, work with great clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many great people in business.

<<< To see more of the loft’s brand solutions 

For more information on brand-building by Benedetto >>>

 

13
Mar

Creating Company Culture – ‘Getting Buy-In’

We’ve been doing some work on the old folio recently – going through the back-catalogue, reminiscing about projects of yore and doing a bit of work on some of the company’s greatest hits. At the exact same time, we’ve also begun to work with a new industrial client on defining a very rich, strong and vibrant company culture for their brand.

Working on the current project and by stumbling upon past attempts has reminded me of some of the challenges involved when creating or defining a company’s culture. One of the main hurdles is ‘getting buy-in’ from everybody in the company. You see the brands with the strongest, most effective and successful cultures are the ones that have as many people bought-in as possible – this includes commercial people, technical people, financial people, other leaders, etc…

Successful and culturally strong companies will use their values, a vision or mission to inform every decision they make such as who to hire, how to manage resources or even manage crisis. So to help those who are thinking about giving this a go, we thought we’d put together a quick guide to help you get buy-in from other directors, board members, staff or stakeholders when creating that cultural framework for your brand. Enjoy!

1. Involve everybody
The most powerful cultures are created when everybody’s had a say in shaping it. So if you can… ask the team about the company vision, get everybody’s thoughts on the values and find out what makes your company special compared to all the others? There are different levels of practicalities with this and some stakeholders will be more involved than others. For example, for those owners who want to keep a tight grip on things – determine the values yourself but give everybody in the team a say in how they enact those values each day for a more effective outcome.

2. Use language that people can relate too
Vision, mission statement and values may not be words to everybody’s liking. In the past we’ve used phrases like – Who We Are, What We Do and Where We Are Going. We’ve used the word ‘Beliefs’ instead of ‘values,’ we’ve used expressions like ‘Reason to Believe,’ ‘Purpose Beyond Profit’ or even ‘Our Cause’ instead of ‘Mission Statement.’ At the end of the day, getting people to buy-in is more important than using a particular set of words, so have some fun and use whatever words you are most comfortable with.

3. Go beyond the obvious
Integrity, trust, honesty are regularly brought out as values by corporate organisations, these, alongside behaviours like ‘moulded around our customer’s needs.’ There is nothing wrong with any of them at all, however they are likely to be seen as the minimum people would expect from an organisation rather than the hallmarks of a great company.

Better to think a bit more deeply about this one – for example, go past integrity or honesty and talk about your transparency which is a bit more distinctive. However, if you must have ordinary values, then compliment them with extraordinary examples of behaviour which emphasise your commitment to that value.

For example…

Trust

‘We are the only company in the Wealth Management Sector which discloses all possible fees over a three-year period to our clients so they understand the maximum investment  – before an initial meeting.’

Or…

Integrity

‘We will always help you find the most cost-effective solution for your requirements  – even if it means suggesting products from a competitor.’

4. Use practical examples
Practical examples are absolutely brilliant at getting buy-in from potential sceptics. A few years ago, we worked with a ‘systems and software intelligence provider’ and and once we began to talk to developers about some of the more practical parts of what they do day-in, we started to get real buy-in for the values.

In this case…

‘Updates are made to our software, in advance of forthcoming legislation changes.’ helping form a company value of creating ‘Legislation Driven’ solutions.

This was something the entire team, particularly the technical people, were very proud off and a powerful customer-facing message too.

This nod to more practical concerns undoubtedly helped to get buy-in from the entire team for other values too.

5. Make something which can be customer-facing
Using the previous words as an example, it is always easier to get buy-in from the more commercial people in your company if you are able to craft something which is customer facing. Everybody who has the commercial success of their company at-heart always prefer some words that they can also present to potential customers – whether it’s on a pitch document, the website or somewhere else.

This also includes the creation of designing something presentable that can represent the values – anything from a one-page document that people can keep at their desks to something more imaginative like a cool vinyl wall-display or even a lanyard for people to wear so they can see the values they‘ve potentially helped to shape while they are working

6. Be creative
Again, in addition to the previous words, you can have sooo much fun doing creative things with your values – play with the words, combine different parts of the exercise, introduce graphics, etc…

I’ve included a few cracking examples below.

officeBranding

You can’t beat a creative wall mural which creatively shouts out what the company is about.

Team lanyards with the company values are excellent for fostering team spirit, creating a deeper understanding and are cool to wear too.

 

s3-brewdog_charter--default--600

The Brewdog Mission is unsurprisingly as compelling, authentic and uncompromising as you would expect. Genius!

That’s all for now, have fun putting those values together and don’t forget to get buy-in from as many people as you can. As always, if you need some help, give us a shout…

Benedetto

BB

Benedetto is a Creative Entrepreneur. He is on a mission to create a more exciting future for people using the power of bold and beautifully developed ideas. He is the founder of the loft, a design and branding house which operates worldwide helping companies bring their brands to life in the most imaginative and effective ways possible. He likes to make things happen fast and in a big way.