Social media platforms definitely like to keep us all on our toes. The constant changing of image sizes and algorithms make it hard to keep up. So to make sure you stay on top of your social media game we have put together a handy Social Media Cheat Sheet (yours to download and keep — and don’t worry it’s printer friendly) that contains all the latest sizes, best times to post, and a little top tip thrown in there for good measure. In this blog post, we’re going to break down each platform and delve into each section of the cheat sheet to give you some extra information.
Twitter
Starting with Twitter, our most social of the platforms. Focussing on creating a community, engaging with your customer, and keeping the sales advertising to a minimum is the best way to approach this platform. Giving behind the scenes access or sharing information that is valuable to your customer are great ways to build a personality for your brand.
The best days to post on this platform are during the working week (Monday – Friday) with people being most active during their lunch hour through to the afternoon (12.00 – 15.00). Another great time to post is around 17.00 when people are likely to be commuting home from work looking for some post-work light relief.
When sharing images the best size is 1024 x 576px. While the desktop version can support square images, the mobile app chops your images into a rectangle shape so keeping to this aspect means that no important information will be lost when sharing on mobile.
Top Tip: Brand Recognition Through Hashtags
Creating a branded hashtag is a great way of tapping into user-generated content and engaging with customers easily. This means you won’t miss any tweets related to your brand if they only use the hashtag and not your company’s Twitter handle.
Example: Alzheimer’s Research UK uses the hashtag #sharetheorange to not only create awareness of their campaign but to collate user-generated content that they can retweet and share on their own social media channels.
Facebook
Next up it’s a social channel that most of us are very familiar with; Facebook. With so many people and businesses across the world using this platform, it really is a must have for any business.
The best days to post on this platform are during the working week (Monday – Friday) with people being most active between 09.00 – 15.00 (when most people should be working — but we will keep that between us). By posting between these times, it gives your content a good chance to be seen throughout the day and ready to hit that key sharing time (18.00).
So now that you know when to post, let’s talk about what to post. For Facebook, the best size to use for posts in 2000 x 2000px. This gives you more vertical real estate making your images a greater chance to be seen and clicked on when scrolling through the newsfeed.
Top Tip: Human Stories
People like people. So whether it’s a member of your team raising money for charity, somebody making a great contribution to the company, or even a birthday celebration — let your viewers get to know the people behind the brand for maximum engagement.
Example: Our ‘Meet The Team’ campaign last year featured each team member and a few of their favourite things. This allowed our followers to gain an insight into the people behind the designs. Using a short gif made the post visually interesting and helped keep viewers engaged for longer.
Instagram
Now for our most visual platform — Instagram — where your images really do the talking. Whether you are using photography, graphics, or video, this platform is a great place to promote your brand and it’s personality.
Engagement on Instagram is pretty constant throughout the week with Sunday being the only day that can see a slight dip. Again, commuting times (07.00 – 09.00 or 16.00 – 18.00) and lunch times (11.00 – 13.00) come out best for engagement so you want to have your post ready to hit these key times. With video engagement on the rise, the best time to post these is before 21.00.
Instagram has been pretty constant with its image sizes, with the standard size being 1080 x 1080px remaining unchanged since the platform launched. They now offer portrait and landscape alternatives, but square still remains the most popular.
Top Tip: Use Hashtags Quickly & Effectively
Keep a pre-organised list of hashtags that relate to your content in your emails or on your phone so they can quickly be copied and pasted into the comments section. You’re allowed a maximum of 30 hashtags per post.
Example: At the loft, we keep between 15 – 20 key hashtags saved in the notes section on our phones. This means when we post a new image, we can quickly copy and paste the relevant hashtags into the first comment of the post. Putting the hashtags into the comments section rather than including it in the caption ensures that the post doesn’t look messy.
LinkedIn
And last but certainly not least, the business heavyweight; LinkedIn. Professional and a great way to make some key B2B connections, LinkedIn is the perfect place to show off your expertise.
With work on the mind, the best days for engagement are between Tuesday and Thursday once again with commuting times (07.00 – 08.00 or 17.00 – 18.00) being the best time to post. Avoid between 22.00 – 06.00 when engagement will hit a lull.
Like Facebook, posting square images gives you more vertical real estate on the LinkedIn newsfeed and luckily using the same post size (2000 x 2000px) works perfectly. This will make your post stand out while the image quality remains high on both desktop and mobile.
Top Tip: Educate & Delight
Infographics are 300% more likely to get shared than any other content. Label each infographic with your LinkedIn page as the source so viewers can easily find your page.
Example: GE Renewable Energy used an infographic to explain the benefits of their product quickly and easily to their customers. Keeping it simple and highlighting key details makes the infographic effective and it definitely attracted attention with over 400 likes in just one day.
We hope this blog post has unravelled some of social medias greatest mysteries. Is your media in need of a refresh? Let’s get social, find us on all good social media platforms @tlcstudios.
Laura, Designer & Director of Noise
Miss Noisy! The team’s very own socialite and one who masters every situation she finds herself. Laura is the lady for every occasion. She has a formidable array of skills as a creative, diplomat, agony aunt, blogger, Tweeter, art-director, team player and our own favourite — noisemaker. A more perfect dinner companion, you will be hard-pressed to find.
THE BLOG
Aug
Let’s Get Social
Posted by benbordone / News
Social media platforms definitely like to keep us all on our toes. The constant changing of image sizes and algorithms make it hard to keep up. So to make sure you stay on top of your social media game we have put together a handy Social Media Cheat Sheet (yours to download and keep — and don’t worry it’s printer friendly) that contains all the latest sizes, best times to post, and a little top tip thrown in there for good measure. In this blog post, we’re going to break down each platform and delve into each section of the cheat sheet to give you some extra information.
Twitter
Starting with Twitter, our most social of the platforms. Focussing on creating a community, engaging with your customer, and keeping the sales advertising to a minimum is the best way to approach this platform. Giving behind the scenes access or sharing information that is valuable to your customer are great ways to build a personality for your brand.
The best days to post on this platform are during the working week (Monday – Friday) with people being most active during their lunch hour through to the afternoon (12.00 – 15.00). Another great time to post is around 17.00 when people are likely to be commuting home from work looking for some post-work light relief.
When sharing images the best size is 1024 x 576px. While the desktop version can support square images, the mobile app chops your images into a rectangle shape so keeping to this aspect means that no important information will be lost when sharing on mobile.
Top Tip: Brand Recognition Through Hashtags
Creating a branded hashtag is a great way of tapping into user-generated content and engaging with customers easily. This means you won’t miss any tweets related to your brand if they only use the hashtag and not your company’s Twitter handle.
Example: Alzheimer’s Research UK uses the hashtag #sharetheorange to not only create awareness of their campaign but to collate user-generated content that they can retweet and share on their own social media channels.
Facebook
Next up it’s a social channel that most of us are very familiar with; Facebook. With so many people and businesses across the world using this platform, it really is a must have for any business.
The best days to post on this platform are during the working week (Monday – Friday) with people being most active between 09.00 – 15.00 (when most people should be working — but we will keep that between us). By posting between these times, it gives your content a good chance to be seen throughout the day and ready to hit that key sharing time (18.00).
So now that you know when to post, let’s talk about what to post. For Facebook, the best size to use for posts in 2000 x 2000px. This gives you more vertical real estate making your images a greater chance to be seen and clicked on when scrolling through the newsfeed.
Top Tip: Human Stories
People like people. So whether it’s a member of your team raising money for charity, somebody making a great contribution to the company, or even a birthday celebration — let your viewers get to know the people behind the brand for maximum engagement.
Example: Our ‘Meet The Team’ campaign last year featured each team member and a few of their favourite things. This allowed our followers to gain an insight into the people behind the designs. Using a short gif made the post visually interesting and helped keep viewers engaged for longer.
Instagram
Now for our most visual platform — Instagram — where your images really do the talking. Whether you are using photography, graphics, or video, this platform is a great place to promote your brand and it’s personality.
Engagement on Instagram is pretty constant throughout the week with Sunday being the only day that can see a slight dip. Again, commuting times (07.00 – 09.00 or 16.00 – 18.00) and lunch times (11.00 – 13.00) come out best for engagement so you want to have your post ready to hit these key times. With video engagement on the rise, the best time to post these is before 21.00.
Instagram has been pretty constant with its image sizes, with the standard size being 1080 x 1080px remaining unchanged since the platform launched. They now offer portrait and landscape alternatives, but square still remains the most popular.
Top Tip: Use Hashtags Quickly & Effectively
Keep a pre-organised list of hashtags that relate to your content in your emails or on your phone so they can quickly be copied and pasted into the comments section. You’re allowed a maximum of 30 hashtags per post.
Example: At the loft, we keep between 15 – 20 key hashtags saved in the notes section on our phones. This means when we post a new image, we can quickly copy and paste the relevant hashtags into the first comment of the post. Putting the hashtags into the comments section rather than including it in the caption ensures that the post doesn’t look messy.
LinkedIn
And last but certainly not least, the business heavyweight; LinkedIn. Professional and a great way to make some key B2B connections, LinkedIn is the perfect place to show off your expertise.
With work on the mind, the best days for engagement are between Tuesday and Thursday once again with commuting times (07.00 – 08.00 or 17.00 – 18.00) being the best time to post. Avoid between 22.00 – 06.00 when engagement will hit a lull.
Like Facebook, posting square images gives you more vertical real estate on the LinkedIn newsfeed and luckily using the same post size (2000 x 2000px) works perfectly. This will make your post stand out while the image quality remains high on both desktop and mobile.
Top Tip: Educate & Delight
Infographics are 300% more likely to get shared than any other content. Label each infographic with your LinkedIn page as the source so viewers can easily find your page.
Example: GE Renewable Energy used an infographic to explain the benefits of their product quickly and easily to their customers. Keeping it simple and highlighting key details makes the infographic effective and it definitely attracted attention with over 400 likes in just one day.
We hope this blog post has unravelled some of social medias greatest mysteries. Is your media in need of a refresh? Let’s get social, find us on all good social media platforms @tlcstudios.
Laura, Designer & Director of Noise
Miss Noisy! The team’s very own socialite and one who masters every situation she finds herself. Laura is the lady for every occasion. She has a formidable array of skills as a creative, diplomat, agony aunt, blogger, Tweeter, art-director, team player and our own favourite — noisemaker. A more perfect dinner companion, you will be hard-pressed to find.
Aug
Tradeshow Banner With A Difference
Posted by benbordone / News
At the loft we love a challenge, so when the Violence Reduction Unit Scotland came to us and needed a unique, bespoke tradeshow banner in 48 hours we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. As part of the Police Scotland, the Violence Reduction Unit Scotland was formed to target all types of violence — ranging from gang fighting to domestic violence to bullying in the workplace and schools. The work they do is incredible and we have had the pleasure of working with them over the past year.
VRU Scotland didn’t want a pull-up banner, they really wanted something bespoke, that was in keeping with the graffiti visuals we had created for them. With this in mind, we came up with a few alternative ideas to the traditional tradeshow banner. In the end, it involved some MDF, vinyl and a whole lot of black spray paint. And here is how we did it.
1. Vinyl & Vans
The tradeshow banner was for one of their projects, Street & Arrow. This project hires former offenders for twelve-month blocks. During that time workers are paired with a mentor who can help them master everything from basic employment skills like time management to managing money and relationship issues. The design we went with included the Street & Arrow visual which features a man taking his hoodie off to reveal a chef’s uniform. This visual comes with a double-take message on perceptions.
In order to get the Street & Arrow visual on to the MDF board, we decided to use vinyl as a stencil. First we started with creating the artwork and sending it off to a printer who was able to get the vinyl cut and ready for us the next day. Next, came the problem of working out how we were going to transport a 2-metre tall piece of MDF to the warehouse (where we were going to create the tradeshow banner) and back — introducing the van.
2. Prime & Prep
Van hired, vinyl collected and MDF bought, early the next day we headed to a warehouse to get started. Before we could apply the vinyl we needed to prime the wood. For this, we used two coats of clear primer. This took the better part of the morning as each coat needed a good few hours to dry. Once they had dried we applied the vinyl. This part of the process was the most delicate and had to be carried out slowly. Starting at the top and only applying a small section at a time, we smoothed the vinyl so that there was no bubbling. To ensure this we got inventive and used a credit card to smooth each section. Before peeling off the outer layer of the vinyl to expose the stencil we sprayed the board lightly with water to make it easier to remove.
3. Spray & Reveal
Vinyl applied and ready, it was time to spray paint. One bit at a time we covered the full stencil in black spray paint ensuring we kept an even coverage across the whole design. While we waited for the spray paint to dry we went for a quick donut and coffee stop. Feeling re-energised it was time for the big reveal, after double checking that the paint was dry, we removed the vinyl stencil piece by piece to expose the final design.
4. Display & Deliver
Next, we attached a fixing to make it stand. To make it easy to transport we went for a photo frame style stand. Now at the loft, we love any excuse for a couple of photos so after we finished posing with the completed tradeshow banner, it was time to put the banner carefully back into the van ready to be delivered to the client early the next day.
Creating the tradeshow banner was a whole lot of fun, the client was really happy with how the banner turned out and Reiss got to fulfill his lifetime dream of driving a van!
Laura, Designer & Director of Noise
Miss Noisy! The team’s very own socialite and one who masters every situation she finds herself. Laura is the lady for every occasion. She has a formidable array of skills as a creative, diplomat, agony aunt, blogger, Tweeter, art-director, team player and our own favourite — noisemaker. A more perfect dinner companion, you will be hard-pressed to find.
Aug
‘Designers-With-Soul’
Posted by benbordone / News
At the loft we’ve been working with MCR Pathways for a number of years now.
For those that aren’t in the know, MCR Pathways are an incredible charity that exists to ensure that ‘every disadvantaged young person in Scotland, gets the same education outcomes, career opportunities and life chances as other young people.’
They mainly do this by providing supportive mentors who meet the young person for one hour each week at their local high schools.
In the past, the loft has provided creative support and work-experience opportunities to the charity. However, amazing designers Reiss McLeod and Laura Campbell have taken this not one but several steps further. They’ve passed their exams, did their training and are now fully-fledged mentors. Pictured here in their favourite haunt (Paesano Pizza,) they will both commit one hour a week to help their mentees create a better life for themselves. An absolutely wonderful commitment!
They meet their mentees in a few weeks time and are incredibly excited to help a young person as well as make a contribution.
‘Designers-With-Soul’
We salute you both…
If you would like to help a young person and want to get involved in mentoring, please check out… http://mcrpathways.org
Jul
Sergio Marchionne 1952 – 2018
Posted by benbordone / News
Heroes. Most people grow out of them quite quickly but as I’ve got older I’ve more and more embraced that part of me that remains eternally youthful. I have sporting heroes, design heroes and today I’m absolutely devastated at the loss of my business hero – Sergio Marchionne.
Sergio Marchionne represents every value and ideal that I hold dear – courage, strength, drive, humanity, the desire for a better tomorrow, the knowledge we can shape it and above all else – the belief in the impossible.
In an incredibly packed career, he saved two massive car companies from bankruptcy – Fiat and Chrysler, turning them into great companies, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to keep or obtain employment, he turned Ferrari into the most valuable car company on the planet and sorted the F1 Team as well.
More than that, he was famous for doing it all on 5 hours sleep a night, drinking far too many espressos a day, chain-smoking and refusing to wear anything but a black sweater. I never had the privilege of meeting him but he sounded like an absolutely amazing man.
I am unbelievably sad at his passing and feel a bit robbed of what was yet to come. However, those emotions pale into insignificance compared to the incredible gratitude I have for the inspiration, an inspiration which I’m sure will last a lifetime.
Sergio Marchionne
Thank you, rest in peace.
Benedetto
Jan
Malcolm Cochrane | Design Highlights 2017
Posted by benbordone / News
All this month we’ve been taking a look back and celebrating the wonderful achievements of our creative team in 2017. We kicked the month off in fine style with some of the excellent works of our Reiss, we then featured Laura, followed by Marek. As the month draws to a close, we’d like to end our series by acknowledging and celebrating the achievements of Malcolm Cochrane — a photographer that we have worked with many, many times over the years.
Whether he was working on factory shots, intimate portrait images, or something a little more creative, Malcolm was always able to deliver photographs that told a story, had an enduring quality, and a sensitivity which regularly delighted. Pretty much another member of our creative team, we all loved working with Malcolm in 2017 and we can’t wait to work further with him in 2018.
These are Malcolm Cochrane’s highlights with the loft in 2017…
Iona of Bridge of Weir
One of Malcolm’s greatest strengths is his ability to capture people and one of the best examples of this was with his capturing of Iona from Bridge Of Weir Leather. Iona is one of 10 leather production and manufacturing apprentices undertaking a 2-year course with Scottish Leather Group. As part of her apprenticeship, Iona will undertake many different roles within the factory. This effortless shot by Malcolm excellent captures Iona in front of the leather she has dedicated her career to learning about.
Anthony of Tradeprint
Tradeprint are one of the largest print suppliers in the country providing an unparalleled level of quality and service. ‘The People Behind the Print’ was the campaign we co-created with them, highlighting the magnificent people in their team. People that really add value to the client relationships, the process, and what they are looking to achieve.
Malcolm beautifully captured the entire team with a range of poses showing off the different sides of their characters. Subtle lighting, bold compositions, and a real variety of expressions truly brought these magnificent photographs to life. They became the focal point of a wonderful campaign.
THE LOFT ‘Master Plan’
The loft have worked with Malcolm on many, many shoots and we have been privileged to have him photograph us many times. In the summer of 2017, Malcolm did this lovely little overhead shot of the loft team drawing out their master-plan for the future. A fun shot where he beautifully captures the energy of a dramatic scene from a wonderfully interesting angle. Another great image from what is an ever-growing collection.
‘Tartan Hats’ with YOUNG ENTERPRISE SCOTLAND
One of the great things about working with Malcolm is some of the brilliant off-camera moments he captures. A recent shoot with the great folk from Young Enterprise Scotland is about to spawn some brilliant new professional photos which are going to be used for a new publication. In between the serious stuff, Malcolm caught this fun image of Lucy, Geoff, and Christiana from Young Enterprise Scotland trying on their hats — complete with the YES tartan colours.
This concludes Malcolm’s design highlights with the loft in 2017 and the end of the series. We’ve loved every minute of reliving these highlights and are massively, massively grateful for the entire contribution made by everybody in 2017.
We look forward to seeing what everybody does in 2018.
Jan
Marek Brol | Design Highlights 2017
Posted by benbordone / News
‘Soulman!!’
That was the name we gave the incredibly talented Marek Brol.
As January draws towards a close, we are using the rest of the month to celebrate the creative achievements of our team. Marek Brol joined us in March of 2017 and it’s to safe to say that we were bowled over by his desire, creativity, and intensity. Marek did many wonderful things for the loft before sadly departing back to his homeland towards the end of the year. Although Marek’s no longer with us in the studio, the memory of a wonderful person, lots of great times, and some staggeringly beautiful work remain with us. Acts of creativity that we are truly grateful for. We can’t wait to see what Marek does next, but in the meantime, these are his highlights of 2017:
1. SOCEX 2017
The first thing Marek did for us at the loft was the beautiful SOCEX 2017 brochure. A person who loves the symbolic and meaningful, Marek got his teeth into the project with a drive which immediately impressed us. He thoughtfully and intelligently built on the SOCEX visual framework which had been established with previous publications but he breathed new life into it with a serious of super-dramatic backdrop images on various pages, eye-catching colour scheme, and an impactful front cover. The cover shows a menacing hooded figure against a backdrop of several of the conference themes constructed as a mosaic. Instant Impact! Marek, as with all our projects, was ably supported by the team, but this one really does have his personality all over it.
2. YOUR CREATIVE SPACE
One of Marek’s greatest talents was his ability to use bold creative ideas to bring just about any subject to life. The loft last year was offering hot-desk spaces in its large South Block studio and one of the greatest challenges was the presentation of a space which would be originally sparse and empty until used. Marek, along with his colleagues, beautifully used the idea of putting props such as your ‘laptop, photo, and creative family’ into a beautiful descriptive drawing, complete with annotations, which truly brings the scene to life while selling that all important element of ‘individuality,’ so important to creatives. The campaign was a huge success, with enquiries being received to this day, we believe, due in no small part to Marek’s wonderful illustration skills.
3. Fedrigoni 365
Fedrigoni is one of the world’s most celebrated, famous, and successful paper manufacturers. Designers from all over the world aspire to use Fedrigoni in the projects they work on. In 2017, they had the idea to create a book which celebrates some of the UK’s most prominent designers and design studios, giving each of them a date of the year to creatively represent. Safe-to-say, we were absolutely thrilled and honoured to be given the opportunity. The 27th of May was the date they chose for us. The only condition of the brief was that we had to use black paper, silver ink, and the number had to look like the date being represented. As always, we wanted to give the illustration some meaning and found that the 27th of May is a celebration of ‘Japanese Navy Forces Day.’ The full team put forth ideas and Marek eventually took it on, beautifully illustrating a ship with the hull creating the number ‘7’ and the number ‘2’ being represented as a swan. As it says in the book, “A coincidence of the natural form of the sea, resulting in two contrasting elements unified.” We’re all delighted with the final result.
4. Arcman Sub-Brands
Real design sensitivity is one of the hardest things to achieve as a designer; the understanding of those nuanced details which can make all the difference when creating things. Marek has a rare sensitivity which belies his younger years and this was never shown to greater extent than with his creation of the Arcman sub-brands. He created a full range of icons for Arcman, bringing each of their services to life — welding, fabrication, installation, etc… Each of the different icons show the person doing their craft, but where these particular figures shine is in the dynamism of the poses, the drama of the light-shade, and the careful interpretation of the details such as the sparks of the welder. Real design sensitivity indeed. This wonderful concept image where the welder is working on the letter ‘A’ is beautiful, memorable, and truly eye-catching. An image, which eventually spawned a full series, was used endlessly with different communications by the brand as the year came towards a close and most importantly something that was loved by everybody.
A fitting end to a wonderful year — we wish Marek the very best of luck and can’t wait to see what he does in 2018.
Jan
Laura Campbell | Design Highlights 2017
Posted by benbordone / News
Last week we were delighted to kick off our series in celebrating the achievements of our creative team in 2017. We started with Reiss McLeod and this week we are delighted to be taking a look back at the exceptional work of his ‘partner-in-crime’ Laura Campbell.
Laura Campbell, a graduate of ‘Gray’s School of Art’ in Aberdeen, joined our team in March 2017 and what an incredible year she has had. Laura quickly became a go-too person for creative ideas, managing the ever-intricate print process and finally adding some much-needed video to the loft’s social media presence. Such was her deftness with social media that the young lady, we once thought was quiet, became our ‘Director of Noise.’ A role she has led with absolute distinction since.
Laura is multi-talented – a person who is comfortable at all stages of the design process, a keen developer/illustrator and somebody who the clients often rave about, she is one of the most trusted members of our team and is also great fun to be around too.
These are Laura Campbell’ highlights of 2017.
1. Tradeprint ‘People Behind The Print’
One of Laura’s biggest successes of 2017 was her fantastic work on the ‘People Behind Print’ campaign for Tradeprint. Tradeprint is one of the country’s largest providers of online print where their team helps large companies, organisations and agencies with their printing requirements. They have incredible geographical reach, an extremely wide variety of products and most importantly their print coaches – Laura very skilfully acknowledged the value of the ‘print coaches’ in a commoditised market flooded with competition.
She built on this by creating a range of beautiful concepts with the print coaches being at the heart of the campaign, they were captured with simple portraits, expressive poses and then some beautifully creative mixed-media collages using Tradeprints own stock. The concepts were all Laura’s while working with Tradeprint brand Director James Barrett Bunnage and photographer Malcolm Cochrane on a range of materials spanning print advertisements, social media posts and beautiful landing page micro-sites. One for each of the print coaches. Top work indeed…
2. VRU Scotland ‘Street & Arrow’ Display Stand
Laura, with her cohort Reiss, played a pivotal part in the development of this unique and very special display-stand created for VRU Scotland’s ‘Street & Arrow.’ ‘Street & Arrow’ is a programme led by The Violence Reduction Unit to help people make the transition from leading lives of crime back into employment. As part of a wider creative project and the opportunity to do something different for a trade show, Laura captured the chance to bring this incredibly interesting piece of work to life. Created in record-quick time, you will see the transition of the individual from criminal to worker in the artwork, the spray-painting of the characters carefully produced on actual chipboard and Reiss and Laura celebrating a remarkable day’s work. All carried out from the warehouse of a good friend. Not your typical trade-show stand. Not your typical day at the studio but a wonderful result.
3. Scottish Leather Group Sustainability Report 2017
This was the second Sustainability Report we created for Scottish Leather Group after a successful 2016. The team were asked to take the concept of sustainability forward and Laura duly obliged. Her concept of ‘using less ink’ with the text, graphics and mainly the images of the brochure was seen as very fitting for a document celebrating some remarkable achievements by the company regarding its sustainability. The image of leather off-cuts on the brochure shows this concept to beautiful effect – once again with the exceptional photography of Malcolm Cochrane.
4. Geckotech Calendar
One of Laura’s biggest achievements of 2017 was the design of the 2018 Geckotech Calendar. Geckotech Solutions are a company which supplies clients with access engineering solutions including industrial rope access, confined space entry and the installation of temporary working platforms. She worked closely with Nancy Pearson from Geckotech Solutions and Ruth McFarlane of Exactaprint where she selected the most eye-catching images available, sensitively developed them with a ‘Black & White’ theme with very dramatic orange accents and once again managed a very intricate print process. The final calendars were wonderfully received by the client, their clients and all involved. Yet another exceptional outcome for our Laura.
5. Research Scotland Report on the 14:19 Fund
Infographics have been round a long-time, starting with everything from the pie and bar charts used in office packages on original PCs, they became more widely popular in recent years to tell longer, more complicated and intricate stories in an easier, friendlier and more digestible way. They are seen everywhere today from business plans to product instructions to the communication of complicated financial information. At the loft we have been very much at the heart of the development of the infographic and how they are evolving, particularly with motion graphics. Laura took the original infographic concept and gave it a new lease of life with the combination of high-impact visual photography to create images of tremendous effect. The infographics Laura created for Research Scotland’s reporting of ‘Inspiring Scotland’s 14:19 Fund’ are some of the freshest and most exciting that we’ve seen and been involved in a long time.
It’s safe to say that it’s been an absolutely incredible year for Laura and we could easily have created another week’s worth of materials.
Looking forward to seeing what she creates in 2018!
Jan
Reiss McLeod | Design Highlights 2017
Posted by benbordone / News
2017 was a big year for Reiss. After a summer internship and a year of working part-time, Reiss became a full-time member of the loft team once he finished his studies in July. Anybody that knows Reiss knows he is an incredibly talented guy with exceptional basic skills, an uncanny ability to generate ideas out of no-where and he’s a great wordsmith too. His puns are quite the thing of legend in the studio.
As expected Reiss eased into his new role and quickly became a pivotal part of the team adding the role of ‘Director of Client Happiness’ to his design responsibilities. Already an exceptional creative-thinker and problem solver, he added some real weight to his development skills throughout the year culminating in several exceptional pieces of creative work which we’d love to celebrate.
Although we always work as a team at the loft, we wanted to take a moment to value individual contributions to creative projects and Reiss really delivered tremendously in 2017, these were some of his highlights.
1. Cashback Infographic for Inspiring Scotland
Quite possibly the highlight of the year for Reiss was his interpretation of the positive information for ‘Cashback for Communities’ for Inspiring Scotland. The programme involves taking the proceeds of crime and re-investing it back into local communities for young people — £20,000,000 has been re-invested into improving life opportunities since 2014. The programme is led by the Scottish Government alongside Inspiring Scotland and Reiss took an incredibly large amount of information and alongside his cohort Laura developed a beautiful illustration-infographic hybrid depicting a wonderful tale of the programme. The interpretation of the individual mini-stories where Cashback has made a difference in the community is a real highlight. The infographic has been such a success that it adorns the walls of the offices at Inspiring Scotland as well as The Scottish Government.
2. SOCEX Financial Crime Conference Brochure
The loft has worked with the event organisers for The Serious & Organised Crime Exchange (SOCEX) since 2015 and have since created a number of set-piece conference brochures. Reiss took the lead with the latest instalment — The 2017 Financial Crime Conference in November. Reiss built on the visual frameworks of previous brochures but where his creativity really shone through is with the imaginative, purposeful and almost iconic design of the front cover which cleverly shows two people exchanging ideas – ideas that are all emblematic of themes being dealt with by the conference. A beautiful, abstract and fitting depiction for the newly formed financial conference. We can’t wait for the 2018 events…
3. Arcman Winter Campaign Image
Our Reiss is an accomplished wordsmith and real creative thinker. Never was this more beautifully brought to life than with his campaign image and advert for the winter edition of print magazine ‘Urban Realm.’ Building on the Christmas theme – Reiss cleverly realised that the ad created for Arcman was going to be seen just as much in January as December so beautifully saw past the obvious Christmas theme and instead brought the sentiment of ‘getting back to wor’k to life. A Christmas calendar with the various services of Arcman as windows remain in place but are all secondary to those strong words ‘The Holidays are over. Let’s Get To Work.” In-keeping with the company values and a real success.
4. Introducing ‘the pigs’
Reiss has an absolutely wonderful imagination and a real ability to creatively communicate information. Part of his role as ‘Director of Client Happiness’ is to share best-practices with others in the team. His creative ability was on full-display when he introduced a series of odd-looking creatures to us as his way to demonstrate his ideas for ‘Client Happiness.’ These little creatures which we affectionately christened ‘the pigs’ have since found their way into many parts of the loft’s brand presentation in 2017.
5. ‘MAKING METAL WORK’ for Arcman
Once again Arcman were looking for a series of print ads for the Urban Realm annual, something which would demonstrate the high-energy nature of their service, commitment to clients and desire for excellence. Reiss came up with a rather simple concept but one which really shone. He mixed the excellent photography of Malcolm Cochrane with an exceptionally well-selected typeface to bring the vibrancy of the Arcman message to life for print, digital and everything in between… The campaign advert was so widely liked by the company founder Jamie Doak that it proudly adorns his I-Phone and is mounted on the front of the Arcman workshops.
Reiss was a huge part of the loft’s success in 2017 and we can’t wait to see what ideas, graphics and even puns he has up his sleeve for 2018.
Oct
‘Soaring Spirits’
Posted by benbordone / News
Spirit’s an interesting concept – intangible, unquantifiable, easier to feel than properly articulate. Every now and then you can experience it at its strongest – a football match where your team score at the last minute, a gig where your favourite band just kill it on stage and tonight at the Kelvingrove where the kids from MCR Pathways have just wowed us with an amazing music and drama performance.
For those that aren’t in the know, ‘Young Glasgow Talent by MCR Pathways’ is an organisation that helps young people unlock their talent. The organisation teams up with schools and provides mentors to students, some of whom, have had the most ridiculously difficult starts to life. The organisation has an exceptional record (over 700 young people supported, 15 schools participating, 800 plus mentors and 1321 volunteers registered – and all in a very short space of time.)
Tonight was the Creative Showcase, we had the great and good of Glasgow out in their many, we had the launch of a painting by the world class Gerard M Burns and it was all hosted in the most magnificent of settings – The Glasgow Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
However, all of that pales into insignificance when compared to the soaring spirits of the young people who thrilled, entertained and moved us from the stage tonight.
Where do you start?
The evening was kicked off with an incredibly moving drama performance of the students just oh-so gently reminding us a little of what they had been through before kicking into a wonderfully moving cover of Bruno Mars’ ‘Just The Way You Are.’
We were treated to the story of Gerard Burn’s painting and how some of the students had contributed to its creation – the painting itself really is something.
And the evening was concluded by the incredible Mya, a 14 years-old singer-songwriter who confessed on stage that she suffers from autism and anxiety, but whose renditions of ‘Firefly’ and ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ left the audience absolutely stunned of the sheer potency of a 14-year old voice.
What amazing things can happen when talent is unlocked!
She mentioned she was looking to get her Facebook fanbase over 1000 and if you happen to be reading – check out https://www.facebook.com/MBmusicProductions/.
It’s definitely worth a like.
Individual talent aside, what is even more impressive is the spirit and togetherness of the young people – there was an incredibly moving moment at the end of Mya’s performance when her friends from the organisation just gate-crashed the stage, clapping, singing and all wildly encouraging us to share in the most joyous of moments.
We all did.
What’s more, the spirit of the young people is matched by each and every person in the MCR Pathways team. Whether it’s Claire O’Hara urging the audience to leave the safety of their seats to embrace the magic of the young people by standing closer to the stage. Iain MacRitchie, the founder absolutely making sure the Gerard M Burns Painting could be photographed and sent to the Herald before 730PM to make the deadline for Page-3 tomorrow. Or Robin Dewar, the IT manager who just went out in the cold Glasgow rain to get me a laptop to write this with my phone out of juice.
To a person, each and every-one of them care so much, give it everything they’ve got and exemplify this ‘soaring spirit’ themselves.
Whether you are a person interested in mentoring, an employer who wants to provide a talent taster work-experience or just somebody looking to get a little more involved – this is an organisation that’s worth knowing and supporting.
‘Soaring Spirits’ each and every one of them.
Check out http://www.youngglasgowtalent.org for more info…
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.
Oct
Clients: A How-To Guide (Part 6: Building Relationships)
Posted by benbordone / News
We’re not just talking about secret handshakes here — having a sustainable relationship with a client solidifies the aspect of trust and results in many more seamless projects.
Here are some top tips to going the extra mile…
Remember that when it comes to relationships, it takes two to tango.
Now that we’re done scratching one another’s backs, we’re well on our way to working harmoniously with our clients. What a journey! Try to remember these little tips and your passion for graphic design will shine through in every project you star in.
It’s been a pleasure,
Reiss, Designer & Director of Client Happiness.
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