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LOFTCAST Episode 2, ‘Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things with Brian Williamson’

Posted by benbordone / News

We are absolutely thrilled and delighted to present the second in our LOFTCAST series this week. For those, that aren’t in the know, this video and audio podcast features high-impact, transformative and radical thinking individuals who are rapidly changing the world in which we live today. For the second episode, our founder Benedetto Bordone interviewed Scottish entrepreneur, investor and multiple-award winner Brian Williamson who talks to us about ‘Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things.’

In a wide-ranging interview, Brian speaks about his up-bringing, the tremendous success of R&D Tax Credit specialists Jumpstart and how his early experiences as a manager in a factory in the highly unionised 70s and 80’s shaped his career for the better. He gives some great insights into how he has been able to effectively engage, energise and create more efficient workforces, his passion for entrepreneurship, how the significance and benefits of a 4 day work week with current company 4icg is shaping their success and finally how receiving ‘the yellow card’ (cancer) has affected his outlook and the changes he’s made since going into remission. There is also a special Q&A at the end of the interview with questions from the Scottish Business Community.

This film is rich with advice, stories and experiences from Brian’s past, present and future. It is absolutely perfect for people who are looking to develop a more entrepreneurial mindset, for business leadership, for managing people at work and anybody with a desire for personal development to become more successful with their careers.

Finally, we’ve taken the entire interview and divided it into 27 mini-films that seamlessly flow from one to another, so you can pick and choose those that are most relevant to yourself.

We hope you enjoy watching this series as much as we’ve enjoyed producing it for you.

15
Sep

From Brand Communication to Brand Experience, A Subtle Shift…

Posted by benbordone / News

We’ve been having a good look at ourselves at the loft recently – thinking about our values, our culture and where we want to be in the next 18 months or so, a great exercise..

One of the things we’re most excited about is the subtle shift of what our company does from Brand Communication to Creating Brand Experiences For People.

What’s the Difference?

Well communication means engaging people on one level whereas producing an experience is much more profound, encouraging of creativity and most importantly – is effective for the client.

In practice, the services remain the same, and the way we do them to a certain extent too. But we now build on those details which make a difference. The magic touches that create an experience – more creative print techniques, better paper-sourcing for brochures, websites with buttons that people want to press, campaigns that are more dialogue and less broadcast, brand marks which truly capture the imagination, etc.

As stated, all things we’re already doing but with a greater emphasis on surprise, delight and a proper commitment to the end-user experience.

Benedetto

29
Aug

Dr Iain MacRitchie, MCR Pathways and the LOFTCAST Video Podcast Production

Posted by benbordone / News

Some of you may or may not know but the loft released its first ever video podcast production last month called loftcast, yes we like that title too. The loftcast is a brand new series designed to help individuals with big goals, ambitions and aspirations fulfil them by sharing the experiences of other high-impact people. Those who have seen it, done it and are now ready to talk about it. The first in our series seen us interview Dr Iain MacRitchie, a hugely successful commercial entrepreneur who is helping disadvantaged young people through his charity MCR Pathways. They really don’t come much more high-impact!

You can see the full interview on YouTube at http://theloft.video/loftcast

However, for those of you that are a little in a hurry check out these smaller clips of the interview.

Enjoy!

Benedetto

1. Introduction
Introducing a leader, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Iain has delivered over £500 Million in shareholder value, overseen a 6-fold increase in company profits and received international acclaim for the 18+ organisations he’s worked with. All of which, he states, pales into insignificance compared to the ‘challenge of a lifetime’ in supporting disadvantaged young people to realise their potential despite circumstances. 2000 young people supported so far with a plan to reach 5000.

2. MCR Pathways
Introducing MCR Pathways, a transformational programme supporting young people through the education system to make sure their talent defines them and not their circumstances.

3. A Journey From Commercial To Social Entrepreneur
From making money to making a difference, how a restless journey of goal-setting, being on the edge of the comfort zone and an ultimate search for satisfaction has led Iain to doing what he does today.

4. Creating Positive Change
How success is down to persuasion – persuading others that a change is the right thing to do and coming out your own head to understand, help and eventually lead others to success.

5. Being Comfortable With Failure
How thinking, dwelling and eventually boxing-off failure, or the fear of the unknown, in your mind can lead to freedom.

6. From A Mindset Of Failure To Success
From defining the best version of something to understanding where you are now and creating the steps in-between can lead to real transformations.

7. Removing Uncertainty
How uncertainty takes the wind out of everything and the importance of understanding – then removing it – for the success of your venture. All starting with a thought-process.

8. Creating The Best Version of Something
How there are sparks in everybody and the right combination of Motivation, Commitment and Resilience – can lead a person to become the best version of themselves.

9. Turnaround Professional Of The Year to Bust! (ALMOST)
How an unforgettable evening for Iain at the Savoy London, with 2 major award wins, almost went sour.

10. MCR – Motivation, Commitment and Resilience
How connecting Motivation, Commitment and Resilience can become the chemistry of change and propel individuals, teams and organisations to real and lasting change.

11. Bridging Vision With Reality
What do we want it to be? What is it right now? And what do we do in between?

12. Transformational Impact of MCR Pathways Mentoring
From 48.8% of young people progressing to University, College or University over a three-year period to 83%. Ridiculously effective but with simplicity at its heart.

13. Creating Sustainable Change
How spending time with those that need it and applying MCR principles has led to a more sustainable form of change – both in organisations and with young people.

14. Liam’s Story
From 4 years behind at school to a degree, job, home ownership and now mentoring others alongside his new wife – The Ripple Effect.

15. Realising Potential Despite Circumstances
How giving individuals the way, the choice and support can lead to freedom.

16. Testing Yourself & Challenging Habits
You don’t know what you’re capable off until you’re on the edges of your comfort zone.

17. The Future Of MCR Pathways
How Iain wants every single young person, close to the care-system or with social work involvement, to have MCR Mentoring as a right. And for the model to be introduced in every Western economy too. Dead Easy!

18. The Future For Iain
How sharing MCR’s techniques wherever they can be applied – institutions, organisations and even countries – gives us a glimpse into Iain’s future.

Thanks for taking the time to watch Iain. If you enjoyed our first video podcast production then, why not check out our second… ‘Brian Williamson, Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things.’ >>>

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13
May

A shout-out to the successful ones…

Posted by benbordone / News

It’s been sooo gratifying to hear about some of our clients successes recently. I ended the week last Friday on the train looking at LinkedIn on my phone and seen that one of our customer-experience clients had just won a competitive pitch to represent a global brand – nationally.

Another pitch win for a company that is doing remarkably well. We helped with the opening stages of the design of that pitch which included some pretty late-nights, 11th hour changes and one or two deck overhauls to get it into shape. To see that they had finally got it over the line a few months later was truly wonderful.

This comes at a time when many of our clients are expanding internationally, recruiting new people, opening offices, winning awards and experiencing phenomenal growth.

‘Partnership’ is something we take seriously at the loft – taking responsibility for the success of projects whether a task falls within our remit or not. It can be harder, at times, much harder. But in the end, it is also so much more rewarding and mutually beneficial.

So a quick shout-out to those who are knocking it out the park and for those that aren’t YET. We promise to do more!

Benedetto

Benedetto is an enthusiastic Creative and Business person.

‘Design with soul’ may be the company tag-line, but to Benedetto, it is also a way of life. He believes that creative and commercial enterprise is about purity of thought, honesty of construction and boldness of execution.

He believes in bringing out the true essence of human endeavour and considers his job of articulating the great work of people and companies an absolute privilege.

His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder and Creative Director of the loft, a branding consultancy in 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

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27
Apr

7 Years, happy birthday the loft…

Posted by benbordone / News

It’s kind of unbelievable to think, but on the 27th of April 2012, I got the Companies House certificates e-mailed from our accountant and the loft was officially born.

7 years ago today.

It’s been an incredible journey and if somebody had told me what the future would hold, I would have thought they were absolutely mad! So I wanted to take a moment and celebrate the 7 best things about the journey so far. Here they are, in no particular order..

1. Friendships

Some say you shouldn’t mix business with friendship. I honestly don’t think you can have a business which doesn’t have true friendship at the heart of it – particularly in the services sector. I’m truly humbled and honoured with the friendships we have made in the last seven years – clients, partners, suppliers, some of our old staff and even people we’ve just happened to meet along the way. We’ve had friends lend us office space when we didn’t have a home, we’ve been paid early at times by people who wanted to help and we’ve been the beneficiaries of some great advice too.

To give an example of just how amazing our friends are… A few weeks ago, I was discussing a challenge we were having with a lawyer friend and old client. In addition to some good advice, he ended our coffee meeting by asking ‘what’s your mailing address?’ and one day later I received the absolutely amazing ‘Shoe Dog,’ the biography of Phil Knight, the founder of Nike in the post – an Amazon Prime gift. The most incredible gesture from a wonderful person and we’ve been blessed to have experienced so many of these in the last 7 years. People really are good, full stop.

2. Mentors

Mentors are great, they provide inspiration and a pathway to a better tomorrow and I’ve been so lucky over the years with the ones I’ve had. Lots of people have mentored me in some small way but I’ve also been fortunate to have three ‘kind of’ official mentors too. All three are business owners, all are incredibly successful and titans in their own ways. I can’t tell you how much wisdom, support and great ideas I’ve had from all three of them.

3. Values

There is nothing better than making a living from just being yourself and I’m so proud that the loft has an abundance of great values and lived them to the max too. Everything from pushing the limits of what is possible, to giving great ideas energy to grow, to doing more than you’re paid for, to treating clients like partners not customers, giving something back, finding the beautiful in the seemingly mundane and taking ‘Action’ at every opportunity. There are just so many and we’re at our very best when we live them in the truest way possible.

4. Great Work

We have done some staggeringly good work over the years, and again it goes way beyond what I’m personally capable off, something thats been truly satisfying. Branding projects packed with meaning to infographics that are almost works of art to brochures that are so inviting that you have to read what’s inside. Soooo many great projects and we invest so much time, effort and energy to painstakingly get it right time and time again and without this it just wouldn’t be worth doing. ‘Design With Soul’ IS more than a tag-line, IT IS a way of life.

5. Learning & Limits

You don’t really learn anything until you jump in and test your limits and boy have we jumped in at times. Some times we’ve got hurt, some times it’s been sore but each time we’ve gained something of incredible value. The kind of experience school can’t teach and money can’t buy.

6. Teamwork

We’ve been fortunate to work with some outstanding creatives – both in the team and also contractors and it is their contribution which really should be celebrated. Each of them have given and developed thousands of ideas, some of them absolutely mind-blowing and it is their energy that has helped our hundreds of clients over the past 7 years to achieve their outcomes using design and branding. They are the giants whose shoulders we stand on to make us taller as a company, a creative provider and as a brand.

7. Gratitude

This whole post is a little bit of an acceptance speech but it is worth mentioning again. I am just so grateful to the people that have helped, and you know who you are. But I am even more grateful to have had this experience, it has truly been a blessing. Every day I wake up – sometimes insanely early, sometimes with virtually no sleep, sometimes running on empty – but I just absolutely love what I do. I really love it in a way that words can’t describe. Helping people bring brilliant ideas to life is the most rewarding profession in the world and I’ll happily do it until the day I die.

Or at least for another 7 years.

Happy birthday the loft…

Benedetto

Benedetto is an enthusiastic Creative and Business person.

He believes in bringing out the true essence of human endeavour and considers his job of articulating the great work of people and companies an absolute privilege.

His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder and Creative Director of the loft, a branding consultancy in 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

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13
Mar

Creating Company Culture – ‘Getting Buy-In’

Posted by benbordone / News

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.

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.

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

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.

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09
Mar

The Power Of ‘A Quick Sketch’

Posted by benbordone / News

20 odd years ago, it was the romance of hearing about the then Alfa Romeo Head of Design, Walter Da Silva using his menu to sketch the design of a new car to a journalist in a Milan restaurant that sealed my love for the creative process. It made me want to become a designer and more importantly realise the power of a sketch. Something that has remained with me ever since.

Anybody that has worked with the loft in recent years will know that the one thing we do is sketch – quite a lot actually. Thumbnails of details on a post-it note, story-boarding an infographic on the back of an envelope, at times we even provide clients with hand-drawn sketch sheets to present ideas with their proposal.

Why??

Well firstly, it puts the person back in control of the process. In the days with more and more machine input – we believe in the richness, inspiration and creativity of the individual first and software tools second.

Secondly, it’s just faster. When timelines are getting squeezed – sketches allow you to explore more ideas quicker – taking a few minutes to draw something can also save hours of going down a wrong route with the computer.

Thirdly, they are usually more inspirational, more raw and crucially more open to interpretation. This is important at the early stage of the process when you’re wanting to get on the front foot with your ideas without too many restrictions that can kill creativity.

Fourth, they can give an invaluable insight to clients to help them visualise what you’ll create for well in advance.

Finally they democratise the creative process – anybody can have an idea and sketch it. Even if it is a bit rough at first. We’ve had work-experience students, clients, MD’s even accountants all make significant contributions to a creative project with some swipes of a pen on a scrap sheet of paper.

Want to accelerate, strengthen and enrich the creative process? Go back a step and go for a quick sketch.

Benedetto

Benedetto is an ideas-driven Creative Entrepreneur. He is on a mission to unleash the power of creativity to create a better world – for people, business and society. 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. A real man on a mission. Benedetto likes to make things happen fast and in a big way.

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04
Mar

In Celebration of Great Mood Boards

Posted by benbordone / News

At the loft, if there’s a part of the creative process we truly believe in, it’s the creation of mood-boards. We love mood-boards because they take us to a different place mentally, they give them an almost infinite source of creative ideas and they also help to guide in the process further down the line.

This week we were having a chat about mood-boards in the studio and stumbled across a few crackers..

Both were for car-design projects and both are absolutely brilliant.

The ‘INDUSTRIAL’ board by Kevin Roy shows old abandoned factories and warehouses as the main inspiration. What’s so brilliant about this board is the way the images aren’t just industrial but have been treated in an industrial way too. Mainly black and white with flashes of colour, some of them are horribly low-quality and the line-tracing is rough too but all that adds to the desired emotion being chased by the designer. Ken goes further by experimenting with typefaces that are similar in style too as well as inserting the bold ‘YELLOW and BLACK’ striped caution signs. Finally, the acid-feel of the album cover on the top-right of the page completes an outstanding board.

The ‘ART-DECO’ board by Nick Turner (https://bit.ly/2MgJN6l) is equally as impressive. We have a beautiful exploration of shapes, patterns and rich colours which are all key to the ‘ART-DECO’ look. We have subtle nods to Futurism and Art Nouveau in there as well but what’s really lovely is the subtle vector lines over the top of the entire board.

Both are amazing mood-boards and what makes them so good is that they completely describe the themes they are covering in the purest, most expressive and honest way possible.

For us, inspiration is vital to any creative action, it’s what makes it all worthwhile. If a mood-board’s job is to inspire, then both of these would give any designer of any type the richest source of inspiration to get going.

Bravo!

Benedetto

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01
Oct

Meet Ellen

Posted by benbordone / News

The lovely Ellen is joining us in the studio this week while Reiss is sunning it up on his well deserved holidays. And what better way to get to know Ellen than some quick fire questions?

1. What’s your name?
Ellen McLean

2. Your age?
22

3. Where did you study?
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Dundee.

4. Favourite piece of work?
This is a tough one. I think the Selfridges Sustainability Animation by Anna Ginsburg & Sara Andreasson because I like that it is illustration combined with animation.

5. Favourite designer & why?
Kate Moross — the first designer that showed me that you could combine illustration and graphics.

6. Favourite design tool?
Always sketchbooks and pens to start off with. Digital-wise, it has to be InDesign.

7. Your go-to font?
Value serif or the classic GT Walsheim

8. Tee or coffee order?
Oat milk flat white

9. Favourite studio music?
A mix of upbeat songs. Something that will keep me awake and inspired.

10. What did you want to be when you were younger?
It’s always been an artist. Both my grandparents are artists, one in textiles and the other in fine art, so originally I thought I wanted to be a painter.

We are really looking forward to working with Ellen over the next week and seeing all of the awesome ideas she comes up with.

29
Aug

Is There Method To This Madness?

Posted by benbordone / News

Hello, you lovely design people! It’s been a while since I’ve posted on here and felt it was time to start flexing my linguistic muscles once again. We have been doing a lot of brains forming in-house recently — from developing exciting new brands from scratch to shaping the future for existing companies — all if which requires idea generation.

And what do you know, that brings me right to the main topic I would like to talk about: what is the most effective process for coming up with amazing ideas?

Below you will find our tried and tested route that we find works best. There are of course many external factors at play during a project, but this process keeps us grounded and allows ideas to flourish — always crucial at the initial stages of any project. The method to our madness:

1. Truly understanding what you’re trying to communicate

How could one generate new ideas based on something they have no idea about? Ridiculous, I know, but chocolate teapots aside, having a deep understanding of the requirements, requests, and responsibilities is key to developing a killer idea. A dear friend of mine, Abraham Lincoln, was right to say, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe”. Ask as many questions as you need, or ask as many as you feel is socially acceptable — whichever comes first.

2. Start with the words

Once our brains are stuffed to the brim with knowledge of the task at hand, we move onto refining the language that surrounds the requirement. This involves chopping up meeting notes, re-reading initial emails, and honing in on the first bright sparks that come to mind. We find brainstorming can signpost potential directions for projects, which later develop into themes.

3. Move on to mind mapping

With ideas ripe and ready for the picking, the mind mapping process allows us to delve deep into our subconsciousness and connect the dots. It’s important to start very broad and general with mind mapping — sometimes you can find yourself putting pressure on linking these ideas back to the brief’s final outcome. But by starting wide and honing in nearer the end it grants us the ability to develop ideas that would never have been available with a narrow viewpoint. Also, as we are visual creatures; the endpoints of our mind map are most effective when they are nouns, as this is something we can visually represent.

4. Researching key terms

After some group discussions and along these ideas to soak in, we then select some key terms that become apparent on the mind maps. We take inspiration from books, artwork, and online research. Initially, we find it most effective by staying away from similar outcomes (be that a logo for example) and focus more on literal representations of the key terms. And if anyone uses a ‘Stock_3D_business_people_putting_puzzle_pieces_together.jpg’, they’re fired (see image above for reference, you heathens).

5. Reflecting on research imagery

A core part to idea generation is joining the dots — seeing the emerging patterns in the research and deciding which is most fitting for the brief. I previously mentioned that it was initially most effective to not link back to the brief’s final outcome — but now is the time to do so. Moving away from the wide and honing in on particular parts of the research that fit the brief’s message. These groups are what form out themes.

6. Thumbnailing the themes

Time to start drawing. Putting pen to paper and making some initial marks gets the creative juices flowing. It’s always a good idea to keep things rough and loose, unrestricted and free from too much control. I personally find it most effective if I continue sketching multiple ideas inspired from the research imagery until I can’t see it from any other angles. At that ‘burn-out’ point it’s time to take a step back and review.

7. Breath and refine

Go on, grab a cup of coffee, take 5, and give your brain a breather. Fresh eyes unclog the mind and open up a new perspective on some of your design choices. Upon reflection of thumbnails, we like to select the ones that are working well and have potential, before refining these ideas with help from our research and words taken from the brief.

8. Rinse and repeat

Continue developing and refining these thumbnails until you are confident in a selection of ideas. It’s never smart to propose a design that you don’t feel works just to please the client because the client will always choose this one. Survival of the fittest I say, let the thumbnails battle against one another until a brilliant (and slightly intimidating) group of ideas have formed.

9. Digital development

Only after the intense labour of love for our thumbnail sketches is over will we then move onto the computer. We feel it’s good to see the computer as a tool, instead of a creative outlet (an expression that is engrained from college lecturers). Paper and pencil are quick, loose, and unrestricted — and although it may seem faster to just jump on a computer, the process will take much longer if not executed properly. A lot of the time we will send our clients refined sketches before moving onto the computer, just to really nail the initial idea.

Our process is always changing as we learn and adapt to the current design climate, but it’s something we use on a day to day basis. It makes even the most ambitious projects much more manageable and exciting, no mean feat!

Alongside this process list, we want to share some top tips on idea generation, you lucky devils you:

A lot of idea generation is simply finding links between existing ideas
Recreate literal objects in interesting ways which tie together multiple messages
Always start broad and work your way back in
Take inspiration from absolutely anywhere, not just Pinterest…
Breaks are important
So is coffee
Don’t be afraid to explore the unknown, that’s where excitement lives
Fall in love with your ideas

Alas it’s time to conclude the chronicles of idea generation. Go forth and shower all projects with wonderful and weird ideas. Now with numb fingers, I bid you farewell, but I’m sure we’ll speak again very soon…

Reiss, Designer & Director of Client Happiness.

Reiss is a multi-purpose designer with a broad range of skill-sets.

He loves being a part of any creative activity — whether it’s mapping out a user experience, getting his hands dirty with some copy or even re-building bits of his motorbike.

A born people-person, Reiss is never happier when showcasing ideas from his vividly wild imagination and working with clients to see them through to completion. Once an architect, he has a keen eye for conceptual ideas and never tires of learning new things.

THE BLOG

LOFTCAST Episode 2, ‘Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things with Brian Williamson’

Posted by benbordone / News

From Brand Communication to Brand Experience, A Subtle Shift…

Posted by benbordone / News

Dr Iain MacRitchie, MCR Pathways and the LOFTCAST Video Podcast Production

Posted by benbordone / News

A shout-out to the successful ones…

Posted by benbordone / News

7 Years, happy birthday the loft…

Posted by benbordone / News

Creating Company Culture – ‘Getting Buy-In’

Posted by benbordone / News

The Power Of ‘A Quick Sketch’

Posted by benbordone / News

In Celebration of Great Mood Boards

Posted by benbordone / News

Meet Ellen

Posted by benbordone / News

Is There Method To This Madness?

Posted by benbordone / News

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