Table of contents for November 2019 in Computer Arts

Are top 10 (or 30) lists of any real use to the jobbing creative, or just the preferred format for click-bait websites? It’s a question that comes up a bit, but in the case of Computer Arts’ annual UK Studio Listings, it’s a question that’s very easy to answer. Many lists judge studios based on factors such as how many awards they’ve won, sidelining brilliant agencies that don’t enter them, and ignoring the subtler factors that make a studio truly respected in the industry. Our UK Studio Rankings is judged by industry professionals, so it’s a snapshot in time of who’s doing the best work each year, as voted by the people who count. Hitting the top spot in 2019’s list is Superunion, the multiple trophy winner at this year’s…

BEREN NEALE EDITOR Attending the Brand Impact Awards a day after returning from San Fran, Beren felt like a pickled little sausage. What better tonic than chatting to the 30 studios in this month’s UKSR?! Mood: upside down-yet-inspired. MARK WYNNE ART EDITOR The double whammy of the BIA issue followed by the UK Top 30 often leaves our art ed glassy-eyed with designer envy. So many amazing projects and designers to cover, and never enough pages೐ CLIFF HOPE OPERATIONS EDITOR Cliff has been enjoying pointing out the masterful branding examples he’s seen over the past two issues to his children, as he’s spotted them in real life. Call it an updated version of “I spy with my little eye…”.…

It’s been a busy two years for full-time freelance designer Harry Butt. In that time his client list has grown to include Nike, Chloé, Zalando, Boiler Room, Bandcamp, Warner Music Group and Sony Music. But that doesn’t mean he’s ready to sit back on his laurels. “I always strive to make something new that I haven’t done before,” says Butt. “When I see my work together I don’t see one cohesive style or application. This used to bug me and I worried about commercial viability. But actually as a designer I’m now closer to understanding my position as a commercial artist – and so the brief rules everything. This means I’ll always create whatever best responds to the brief, rather than follow a predetermined continuation of a style.” While he’s…

HEAD OF COPY, PURPLE CREATIVE www.purplecreative.co.uk Okay, I’ll just come out and ask it. What client has your agency had the longest? Have a good think. Ooh, impressive. And now this: are you still producing the same electric, incisive and knock-your-socks-off creative today as you did when that brand first landed in your lap, all shiny and new and full of possibilities, all those years ago? Recently, I found myself thinking whether the length of a client relationship affected the quality of the creative output. Like milk, is there a time limit when creativity starts to go off and ideas start to run out? Just so everyone’s clear, at Purple Creative, we’re resolutely and relentlessly pro long-term client relationships. The longer the better as far as we’re concerned. But it’s…

SELECTION PROCESS A panel of over 50 creative directors each nominated five of their peers, in order. Their first choice received five points, their second choice four points, their third choice three points, and so on. Studios were then ranked based on total points awarded. In the event of a tie, the studio with more nominations was ranked higher; if they were still tied, the studio with the most first-choice nominations took precedence. CHANGES SINCE 2018 ⋆ NEW ENTRY ▲ UP ▼ DOWN ▭ NO CHANGE Following our annual peer reputation survey of creative directors, studio founders and design course leaders from all across the UK, we’re delighted to reveal the results of the sixth-annual UK Studio Rankings. Dominated for two years by the small but perfectly formed Studio Sutherl&,…

1 “Information can be beautiful. Making these elements exciting and new is part of the challenge of packaging design, and it’s something I try to take a fresh eye to with every project. Embrace it, don’t ignore it!” Leigh Chandler, creative director, Vault 49 2 “Make them bespoke where possible. This gives you the flexibility to integrate the labelling into your brand storytelling.” Helen Hartley, creative director, Elmwood 3 “Challenge anything that’s unnecessary. This will allow you to work with the restrictions, finding solutions that fit to ensure a holistic piece of design where every element is cared for. Of course, things can always change but we set ourselves up in the best possible way and are always quick to adapt and look for solutions with minimal effect on the…

Nearly all the jobs we do now require some aspect of photo-real rendering. We’ve had to adapt our production workflow and upgrade our systems and software. The three big areas of change are as follows: PEOPLE We need more technical problem-solving now and artists need to be a lot more savvy with procedural-based software. PRODUCTION Our workflow has changed, with more clearly defined project phases and much longer production schedules and lead times. EQUIPMENT We’ve overhauled our workstations, server and render capabilities, enabling us to deliver higher-quality, high-resolution, photo-real projects.…

PERNICLAS BEDOW Turn to page 16 to discover the range of collectable (and occasionally unreliable) furnishings that Perniclas Bedow has assembled in his Stockholm studio. www.bedow.se BEKKI STOVEL The creative director of Steele & Stovell explains on page 22 how it’s not good enough for studios to produce authentic work – they need to do it with soul, too. www.steeleandstovell.co.uk ERIK JONES Hyper-realistic female forms meet a kaleidoscope of geometric possibilities on the canvas, in the hands of New York artist Erik Jones. More on page 64. www.erikjonesart.com HELEN HARTLEY Our food branding feature on page 70 brings you insights from industry experts, including Helen Hartley from global design consultancy Elmwood. www.elmwood.com GABOR SCHREIER The chief creative officer at multi-national consultancy Saffron reveals on page 80 how teams collaborate on…

GARRICK WEBSTER FREELANCE WRITER As well as writing about creative identity design and excellent VFX promo animations in Computer Arts, Garrick has been helping develop brand identities for a digital agency and a major UK hat manufacturer. TOM MAY FREELANCE WRITER Tom has been finishing his first book (which he can’t officially talk about yet) and has been glued to the TV for updates on British and American politics. In the process, he may have forgotten to have a life. Production Notes PRINTERS TEXT AND COVER CMYK William Gibbons PAPER COVER Precision Special Gloss FSC 250gsm P3–98: Ultra Mag Plus Gloss 90gsm TYPEFACES Trump Gothic West, Akkurat, S-L, Simplo, Kondola and Calluna PRINT FINISHING PARTNER…

Creative director, Steele & Stovell www.steeleandstovell.co.uk Over the past few years brands have embraced a more authentic way of marketing and communicating. By being more open about their process and showing a willingness to accept and act upon feedback, they’ve made a refreshing departure from the false advertising, fake news and paid-for hype we’ve been subjected to for so long. The initial buzz around this shift has been exciting, but with time – and as this becomes the norm for more organisations – the novelty has begun to wear off and we’ve started to ask deeper questions of these brands. Sure, you’re not misleading us in order to sell your product/service, but are you actually a good company? Are you good people? Do you have values that we respect? We’re…

Tommy Taylor Alphabetical, London Mike Moloney Art & Graft, London Sally Hope Arts University Bournemouth, Bournemouth Nick Asbury Asbury & Asbury, Macclesfield Lee Bradley B&W Studio, Leeds Matt Baxter Baxter & Bailey, Brighton Tim Beard Bibliotheque, London Louise Sloper Here.We.Go, London Mike Bond Bond & Coyne, London Nick Carson Brand Impact Awards, Bristol David Jones Buddy Creative, Exeter James Littlewood Design Project, Leeds SImon Dixon DixonBaxi, London Rob Skelly Elmwood, Leeds Ben Steers Fiasco, Bristol Roz Fraser GBH, London Gareth Howat Hat-trick, London Mark Paton Here, London Jack Renwick Jack Renwick Studio, London Michael Johnson johnson banks, London Sean Thomas Jones Knowles Ritchie, London Miles Gould Kaleido Grafik, Bristol Laura Haines Kingston University, London Amber Smith Leeds College of Art, Leeds David Azurdia Magpie, London Mark Lester Mark Studio, Manchester…

1 “Try not to follow trends or steal from Pinterest. Take a look if you must – then go in the opposite direction.” Rachel Smith, Creative Partner, & SMITH 2 “Never start a project from the viewpoint that the end result is purely packaging. Always approach from a ‘head up’ position. Consider food packaging to be part of a broader set of touchpoints that together create coherency, distinction, ownership and energy.” Caroline Dilloway, client service director, StormBrands. 3 “Throw yourself into research. It will open your eyes and mind, and give you, your client and the consumer the best quality work possible.” Leigh Chandler, creative director, Vault 49 4 “Honesty is paramount. Whether that’s depicting the food in its genuine presentation or representing portion size, food should only ever be…

Founded in 2001 by Jacob Benbunan and the late Wally Olins, Saffron is an independent global consultancy with a client list as long as your arm, featuring the likes of YouTube, The City of London, Gulf Air, Siemens, Fujitsu, Warner Music and many more besides. With offices in London, Madrid, Berlin, Istanbul, Mumbai, San Francisco and São Paulo, you might expect the company to have devolved into ‘fiefdom’, with each branch guarding its territory and client list jealously. But it doesn’t work like that at all. Instead, global teams are put together across borders, depending on the need of the project. We sat down with Gabor Schreier, Matt Atchison and Roberto Verona to talk about pulling in the same direction, keeping international clients happy and building authentic brands. What’s the…

“For this project we worked in Cinema 4D using Octane as our render engine of choice. Octane is particularly great for realism and detail, and using X-Particles enabled us to create and control the movement along paths. We also experimented with brush textures to dial up and dial down the translucency and intensity of colour until we found the right balance. Once the initial look and feel had been approved by the client, we moved on to animation, with the aim of creating a series of animated sequences that best represented the organisation’s new positioning and brand assets. I think one of the most interesting things about the final transformation graphic is that we actually created all the animations first, making sure that they flowed seamlessly and organically, and we…

Hjalti Karlsson founded the award-winning design studio Karlssonwilker Inc. with partner Jan Wilker in 2000, based in New York. He lectures regularly around the world. www.karlssonwilker.com When Computer Arts contacted me and invited me to contribute this article, the brief sounded something like this: “Please write 800 words on a subject or object that you are passionate about”. I right away gravitated to “subject”. Easy! Design. Music. Music videos. Iceland. New York. Public speaking… And then I glanced at the word “object”. Nothing came to mind other than the usual suspects: my iPhone, a Tesla, our sofa. I couldn’t think of anything special. I was born and raised in Reykjavik, Iceland, and my parents owned and lived in the same house since I was pretty much born. I loved the house…

When we approached Superunion to design our UK Studio Rankings cover, we knew there would be no half measures, no compromises, and no lack of ambition. We knew we’d get something witty, smart and eye-catching. A cover that would stand out. But we weren’t expecting them to set fire to it… “We started the process by opening up the brief to the whole creative studio,” explained executive creative director Stuart Radford. “We had a couple of brainstorms, sketched out a bunch of ideas, then settled on the one we thought was the strongest – a simple idea that could provide really arresting visuals. Then we had to figure out how we’d do it!” The ‘bright sparks’ of the creative industry flickering in an effigy of the number 30 was beautiful…

www.garbett.com. Our selection of the hottest new design, illustration and motion work from the global design scene CareerTrackers is an Australian organisation that seeks to further the careers of Indigenous university students, and their successes are honoured in an annual awards gala with over 2,500 attendees. Garbett was brought on board to create the identity for the 2019 event and produced all visual materials including menus, posters, banners and programme, as well as the trophies. “As part of the design research process, we studied the colour, landscape and graphic qualities of Indigenous markmaking in Australia,” explains creative director Paul Garbett. “We wanted to create something that felt ‘of Australia’ but was also distinctive in its own right.” The event’s identity uses bold graphic forms, unified by a simple yet striking…

Erik Jones was born and raised in Florida, and studied at Ringling College of Art and Design before making a name for himself in the art world. Based in New York, he exhibits his fine art all over the world, as well as dabbling in commercial work, including large-scale murals. www.erikjonesart.com Erik Jones is a fine artist whose works owe a lot to the world of graphic design. His highly recognisable output combines strikingly accurate figure painting and vibrant, nonrepresentational graphic forms. He’s equally experimental with media – a typical artwork might require everything from oil paints to a Wacom tablet and an airbrush. Jones is now based in Brooklyn, and creates fine art for galleries all over the world, including a recent New York exhibition that saw him push…

1 “Delight up-close. Think crafted imperfections and surprising details that make a consumer fall in love with what they’re holding. If you’re aiming to engage the consumer in both these ways, your work will connect to the right kinds of audiences and pique their interest.” Leigh Chandler, creative director, Vault 49 2 “Talking about illustration and sharing additional creative on their feed is a great way to expand the brand world, and great for supporting creativity in general.” Rachel Smith, creative partner, & SMITH 3 “Create a visual world that feels unique and disruptive in the category. This is the core of our work at Vault49 – if you’re not delighting and disrupting, how can you expect your work to make an impact?” Leigh Chandler, creative director, Vault 49 4…

1. CHOOSE GOOD CLIENTS We like to work with everyone who is ambitious, honest and gives us the opportunity to work in partnership with them to create good work. Someone willing to invest and consider brand a core part of their business, with a story to tell. 2. HAVE A CONFIDENT ATTITUDE We attract people with our attitude. People tend to like that we’re direct, we’ve even been called a little brutal, but charming. Some like it, some don’t. 3. ADAPT TO SURVIVE The branding industry is evolving and suffering a deterioration in culture. We’re asked to pitch for free, timings have been slashed, and deadlines accelerated. In effect, clients are asking for more work for less money in less time. We’re exposed to this, and we’ve adapted. 4. BECOME…