Also, many thanks to those of you who have given such complimentary feedback about our pop-up Christmas card. You can view the card in action on a YouTube movie online by following this link.

We enjoyed our traditional classy and sophisticated Christmas outing this week. No injunctions pending.

A quick housekeeping point, we will be working between the Christmas and New Year holidays. So keep those marketing briefs coming!

A very merry Christmas and best wishes for a prosperous 2012!

Design Inc UK is a west London based integrated online marketing agency. If you are planning your business goals for 2012, you may be interested in receiving Design Inc’s Information Pack. Alternatively, please contact us by calling 01784 410380 or emailing us to find out more.

Design Inc has considerable experience in delivering integrated and online marketing services. To see some examples of our work, please see our creative website design portfolio.

In Brief…

Christmas collection – Design Inc is pleased to announce that we have been approved as an official Associate Member of The Westminster Collection. The marketing group for prestige London venues.

Winter chill – Yacht charter specialists Oceanstyle came to us in November to design a lifestyle based advertising campaign for a Daily Mail lifestyle supplement. Very Cool.

JIM ‘Skiing in the snow’ – A bit of festive southern soul for a leading digital printer. Job Information Management – an account management solution for all seasons.

A World in Motion – We have also just delivered a new website for event logistics specialists Global Motion. We were moved by their praise!
“Everyone who has seen our new website has said it is very good; From the outset Design Inc understood what we were trying to achieve with our website. They guided us with expert advice, but never imposed or pressured us into their way of thinking; everything was driven by our needs and our requests. I am sure we will be working with them again in the future.” Tracey Scotten, Marketing Manager, Global Motion

Here come the girls – Model agency and production company One Mega Management came to us earlier this year for a print then web makeover! We asked them how they feel now?
“We chose Design Inc to create our unique, magazine style 2011 brochure to present our portfolio of assignment work to prospective clients. From initial design concepts to final delivery, the team at Design Inc understood our requirements and ideas to design and create an outstanding brochure, which translates the identity and experience of our company. Following this experience we were compelled to commission the guys to create our new look online presence too! One Mega Management would like to thank everyone at Design Inc for their vision and help; the results they achieved would be an asset to any company. We hope to work on many projects to come with Design Inc, who are all clearly experienced specialists in their field.” Michael Green Head of Production, One Mega Management

Runway success – TAG Farnborough Airport recently commissioned us to create their new flagship brochure. Our briefing included at its heart the need for compelling representation of the truly inspirational architecture and unique passenger and operator ‘experience’ that awaits private aviation travellers using this award-winning airport entirely dedicated to private aviation. The brochure cover features a striking image of the terminal building with a reflection of itself that mirrors the impression of the fuselage and tail of a jet aircraft teamed simply with the aspirational word ‘experience’.

The visual aesthetics, interior design, quality of materials, air of calm and levels of service provided by TAG Farnborough Airport provided a range of design cues for our creative team to follow as inspiration. A true temple to aviation and design for air travel deserves nothing less. The project has been very well received both by the team at TAG Farnborough Airport and beyond. The creative approach is now being developed into a very special TAG Farnborough Airport 2012 bespoke desktop calendar contained within an innovative branded engraved metal case.

International style – Happy Birthday to clients Vertis Aviation who recently celebrated a successful 1st year of trading. We created a set of illustrated printed and digital invitations for their party in Switzerland.

Going for gold? – Congratulations to all the team at the Victory Services Club for their Bronze MIMA Award for their new Events brochure. We are very happy with the project and this mention is dispatches is the icing on the cake as a successful year draws to a close. Here’s to an epic Olympic year for London venues in 2012.

Catering for One Great Christmas – Our Meetings and Marketing Industry Award Gold winning venue client One Great George Street has just ordered a new catering brochure from us. Can we tempt you to an entrée?

A year in numbers – Won 2 design awards, Won 3 sport and quiz competitions, Hired 1 new designer. Welcome George, Moved into 1 bigger office, Won 8 major creative pitches – Hurrah!, Launched 31 new websites, Created 23 advertising campaigns, Designed 9 new brand identities, 1 baby! Congratulations again to Paul our Creative Director, 2012 – our 15th year!

P.S. We have just received a very special gift ourselves. We can’t divulge details just yet, but stay tuned to Design Inc early in the New Year for news of our recent winning creative pitch for a global advertising and online marketing campaign.

A Winter’s Tale – Online Christmas Wishes from Design Inc UK is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Print design services rank among the main integrated disciplines provided by Design Inc. Effective campaigns can often include a printed element as an illustration of a point of difference or means for a client to best demonstrate a special or unique quality of a product or service. The visual aesthetics, design, quality of materials, air of calm and levels of service provided by TAG Farnborough Airport provided a range of design cues for our print design services to follow as inspiration.

The resulting brochure format and production specification that resulted from Design Inc print design services marries the TAG Farnborough Airport brand elements with a lifestyle feel that brings warmth to the cool Swiss feel and minimalist building interiors. A true temple to aviation and design for air travel deserves nothing less.

The cover features a striking image of the terminal building with a reflection of itself which mirrors the impression of the fuselage and tail of a jet aircraft teamed simply with the aspirational word ‘experience”.

The brochure has been very well received both by the team at TAG Farnborough Airport and beyond. The creative approach to the print design services is now being developed into a very special TAG Farnborough Airport 2012 bespoke desktop calendar innovatively contained within a branded engraved metal case.

Design Inc UK is a West London-based specialist in print design services. If you’re considering our print design services for any new marketing communications, you may be interested in receiving Design Inc’s information pack. Alternatively, please contact us by calling 01784 410380 or emailing us to find out more.

Design Inc has considerable experience in specialist print design services. To see more samples of our design and print work, please look through our design portfolio.

‘Experience’ Design Inc creative print design services for TAG Farnborough Airport is a post from the Design Inc Blog

These prestigious meeting industry marketing accolades were presented at last night’s MIMA Dinner at The Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel. For two of our clients to both be winners is the icing on the cake for us as we have been supporting these two leading Westminster Collection London venues with creative design this year.

Venue marketing is one of our areas of specialisation at Design Incorporated. With experienced venue marketing professionals in our team of consultants.

Reviewing One Great George Street’s winning campaign, the MIMA judging panel commended the winning combination of campaign strategy, research, insight, commercial hire package tailoring, creative execution, use of data, response handling and follow-up mechanisms as all contributing to the overall success of the campaign.

This campaign, aimed at government departments, featured a targeted eShot, used in conjunction with a printed mailpiece and a print advertisement. According to Wendy Greenhalgh, Director of Sales & Marketing at One Great George Street and Board Director of the Westminster Collection (pictured with her team). ‘One Great George Street is very appreciative of the expert help received from their loyal business partners Design Incorporated in the provision of award winning venue marketing support’.

Venue marketing is just one of the campaign areas that Design Incorporated has been working for with our other MIMA award winning client Victory Services Club. In addition to the Bronze MIMA Award for Best brochure, designed by us for corporate hire of the VSC, we have been supporting membership marketing with recruitment drives that have outstripped the performance of any previous initiatives. The ‘Reunite’ at the VSC print and email advertising campaign for Army, Navy and Air Force veterans being particularly effective this year.

For further information on our full range of Venue & Event Marketing support and design services please contact our Venue & Event Marketing specialist Darren Scurville on 01784 419380, darren@designinc.co.uk

Design Inc help two Meeting Industry Marketing Awards (MIMA) Winners is a post from the Design Inc Blog

OVERVIEW

Email marketing arrives in many forms. From the simplistic, single message announcement through to strategic eNewsletters providing interesting and relevant industry messages to its targeted audience.

Over the years, the rise and rise of the spam email and subsequent spam filters has led marketers to up their game in order to get their own message through to the recipient and for this to be opened, read, understood and acted upon. The name of the game is email marketing credibility. And through credibility comes trust, awareness and consumer loyalty.

Of course, whereas a typical eShot may look for a direct purchase for goods or services, a strategic eNewsletter looks to build up consumer confidence first and a ‘buy in’ to that company’s values. An eNewsletter, if done correctly need not bombard the recipient with requests to buy their product. Instead, it is a much more laid back ‘sales technique’. After all, as we all know, customer loyalty is earned not bought.

CASE STUDY

arvato are the experts in Loyalty Marketing, delivering rewarding experiences to tens of millions of their clients’ customers in 65 countries. With clients such as Renault, BUPA, Virgin Holidays, Sony, Microsoft to name but a few, they know more than most about establishing and growing partnerships through loyalty. So much so, that they have recently established clubarvato – a network group for Loyalty Leaders.

When clubarvato decided they wanted to maintain loyalty with their own members, email marketing was firmly in the marketing mix. A strong email marketing strategy was required and arvato turned to their digital agency, Design Inc for support.

SOLUTION

The following are six general tips we gave them for a successful email marketing campaign.

1. It’s All About the Reader, Not You

When developing an eNewsletter, it is crucial to make it relevant and interesting to the audience. Ask yourself, what is in it for the reader. If the eNewsletter is full of stories about your own company staff (“they got married”, “he did a bike ride”, “she has left”), it is likely the content means a lot to you but little to the recipient. This is a turn off and a sure fire way to click ‘delete’ now and request ‘unsubscribe’ for the future.

There is nothing wrong with having company information in an eNewsletter so long as it is relevant, for example if you have added new functionality that may benefit your clients to land a new customer. That said, a strategic eNewsletter design should also include industry news, links through to useful resources & information to help your clients grow their own business.

arvato solution: Design inc recognised that as a networking group it was inevitable that the club arvato eNewsletter should feature articles relating to all aspects of the industry, including articles about the members as well as themselves.

2. What (not who) is your Competition?

We are not talking about your company’s business competition. We’re talking about the competition for your eyes’ attention on the eNewsletter page. In addition, consider the competition in your recipients’ inbox. Ask yourself why would your recipients bother to read your eNewsletter first? Why would they read it at all? What is important is to make this relevant to them. A professional, good-on-the-eye design with a relevant subject line is key to grabbing attention.

arvato solution: The club arvato eNewsletter design was formulated to fit in with their existing corporate brand style. It is eye-catching yet easy to navigate. With regards the email subject line, this has been kept simple, straightforward and obvious. The recipient quickly knows whom it is from and what it is about.

3. Who Are You Anyway?

Over the years we have seen many eNewsletter designs which do not easily show who it is from let alone what message they are trying to say. The personality of an eshot or eNewsletter design should be clear. Understanding that most recipients split their email screen leads to ensuring the eNewsletter is designed to be recognisable at its header. This is email window shopping.

We would always suggest the company logo & corporate theme should feature in the header, preferably with the strapline message. The eNewsletter should advertise itself even before it is clicked on. Email users are very discerning and can spot something they don’t recognise within a fraction of a second.

arvato solution: Design Inc were adamant the e-newsletter be designed with a simple yet corporate header in mind, ensuring the company logo and name were available right at the top. Now, clearly visible in a split screen the arvato e-newsletter is recognisable from the moment it appears in the inbox.

4. The Hunger for Information

If you go to the trouble (and time & cost) to send out an eNewsletter, make sure you have enough to say. Too few articles and the recipient will be left hungry. This is an eNewsletter after all. Of course, it is important not too overfeed the reader with too many long articles either. If you do have a lot of articles, reduce the text accordingly and include links to other online locations where the full article can be read.

arvato solution: In the case of the club arvato eNewsletter design. Design Inc have suggested a maximum of 12 articles each time and have ensure all articles are linked to more available information either on the arvato website or elsewhere.

5. The Importance of Good Data

In email marketing the marriage of relevant message and good data is paramount. Good data does not just mean having a lot of email addresses. Good data is qualified email addresses, relevant people who have given their permission to receive your eNewsletter and who want to receive your information on a regular basis. After all, what is the point of spending valuable time, cost and effort emailing people who:

• don’t want your email
• are not interested in your product, solution or information
• are not relevant to your service

arvato solution: Design Inc helped arvato to build their own data. Every email address was qualified either as an existing member or a qualified potential lead and a consent process was undertaken. Now when arvato send out an eNewsletter, they know it will be well received.

6. Know Who’s Interested

So, you’ve gone to the time, expense and trouble to have an eNewsletter created. The design style is perfect, the articles are relevant and the data list is strong. Then you send it out. Now what?

Wouldn’t it be useful to know which recipient read your newsletter or, better still, which article they were particularly interested in? With this information, you can support them with providing more relevant information. Furthermore, knowing who read the newsletter versus who didn’t bother can help narrow your marketing into focusing on those who are interested and not wasting valuable resources on those for whom the eNewsletter or eShot is not relevant.

arvato solution: Design Inc supplied the marketing team at arvato with secure access into their eshot statistics, providing them with highly useful information relating to:

• Who opened (read) the eShot?
• Which articles they clicked through to?
• Who clicked on the link?
• Who unsubscribed?

arvato can even see which of the email addresses in their list are no longer working, leading them to update their data immediately.

RESULTS

The clubarvato email marketing strategy has been a runaway success. this has led to a high percentage readership, no ‘unsubscribes’ to date and new members joining after each message, building stronger relationships and continuing consumer loyalty.

To discuss the creation of your own email marketing strategy, contact Design Inc’s digital team on 01784 410380

Email Marketing Strategy for Loyalty is a post from the Design Inc Blog

These days a website can cost from £49 for a simple out-of-a-box template to several hundred thousand pounds for a comprehensive digital asset for a major web based business or service. This top-end ‘brand experience’ may include areas created for multiple users and tailored interfaces, an information resource, an ecommerce catalogue section, a membership area, multiple regional/branch log in areas, live social media and other content feeds such as news and events for example. A sophisticated back office database or customer relationship management CRM ability may also be built into the site. All of these can increase traffic, enhance user experience and revenue generated by a website but are not required by most.

Design Incorporated are creative web developers and we work closely with our clients to understand their business model. This results in a joined-up and unique website design solution that includes: proposing and agreeing a strategic brief for appropriate functionality and defining of the site map, creative user experience design and technical build, testing and commissioning. The website spec will be matched to the business need and role the website plays for the clients’ business and may engage some of the features listed above. However, typically Design Inc projects may require clients to invest a budget of between £5k to £15k for a 20-25 page site including Search Engine Optimsation (SEO), content origination, a Blog and/or a content management system.

Although as creative web developers for many of our clients, the website forms only part of the service as we provide integrated marketing and design. A web design project will usually be embedded within a landscape of additional online promotional campaign activity such as emarketing, advertising, Social Media Marketing. We also work across all the traditional offline media too and our specialism is connecting up a brand proposition through cross platform marketing.

Design Inc is a West London-based Website Design Agency. If you are considering updating your website and need a strategy to support it, you may be interested in receiving Design Inc’s Information Pack. Alternatively, please contact us by calling 01784 410380 or emailing us to find out more.

Design Inc has considerable experience in all types of creative web design and development, whether it be a heavily search engine optimised and marketing based website, or a fully integrated online business and associated online marketing campaigns. To see more samples of work, please see our creative website design portfolio.

How do creative web developers work? is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Georgina Field (9) is presented with an art set by Frank Norman, Client Services Director of Design Incorporated

Pupil power was demonstrated graphically this week as the new brand logo for Riverbridge Primary School was unveiled at Staines Riverside.

Riverbridge Primary School is the new school name which combines the three existing schools; Knowle Park School, Kingscroft Junior School and Shortwood Infants Schools.

Each school announced the logo competition to their pupils at the beginning of March and received over 500 entries. The winning logo design was created by 9 year old Georgina Field, a pupil of Kingscroft School whose winning concept for the new combined school features an iconic swan (a symbol for Staines) passing by the three arches of Staines Bridge.

School Head, Maggie Roberton said “we were very pleased and proud with the number of entries we received and there were some wonderful ideas here. Georgina’s logo was chosen as the winner by a panel of judges for its simplicity and creativity. The swan is recognised as a symbol of Staines and we felt that showing the three arches of Staines Bridge was synonymous with the coming together of the three schools. The new logo is smart, vibrant and also promotes the heritage of Staines. We are very happy with our new logo and proud of Georgina for such a great design.”

Staines-based website design and branding agency, Design Incorporated, provided their services free of charge – providing branding guidance to the judging panel and converting the winning entry from pencil drawing to digital artwork.

Staines school reveals winner in logo design competition is a post from the Design Inc Blog

For those who are unfamiliar with the internet, certain website creation software is available to help design and publish good-looking websites with ease. Selecting from a library of text styles, interface template graphics & multimedia options, website creation software is ideal for anyone, regardless of computer programming ability.

Over the past couple of years, the market for website creation software has seen interesting growth with more and more individuals willing to pitch themselves up against professional creative website agencies.

It is certainly true that there are significant cost savings to be made here, but that is not necessarily the sole reason behind why website creation software has been created. Individuals, be they marketing professionals, technophiles or beginners, want the flexibility and challenge that comes with creating something themselves, for themselves.

And whilst this market is set to grow further, the creative website design agencies are not worried. For them, they realise that standard website creation software is missing some very important aspects, namely the true experience & expertise they employ:

• The strategic marketer is able to quickly understand the inherent values and strengths of the company and uses this knowledge to formulate a strong digital marketing plan.
• The creative designer has a discerning eye and uses their creative skills to develop truly outstanding website designs.
• The photographer has the right equipment, creativity and methodology to develop the best imagery to promote a company’s product & solutions.
• The SEO specialist understands your product, your market strengths, your competition, and is instrumental in attracting relevant visitors to the website from various search engines.
• The creative copywriter works closely with the SEO specialist and easily finds the right words to best promote the company and its products/services to the right audience.
• The website programmer understands the most appropriate, secure code to use for the situation and is on hand to make alterations with ease.

A great website intertwines all the above specialisms and more. It can promote the brand of the company, raise its profile, attract relevant visitors to the website and communicate with its customers. More importantly to many businesses, it can bring in real profits. And this is where website creation software currently falls down.

Website creation software can certainly help you make a website, and for a fraction of the cost a creative website agency may charge, but based on the question ‘would you prefer to save money or make money?’, we know what most companies would say.

Design Inc are a creative website agency based in Staines, Middlesex.

1. View their website portfolio.
2. Find out what makes an effective website.
3. Sign up for the forthcoming ‘web freaks’ newsletter.

Website creation software – is it worth it? is a post from the Design Inc Blog

The team at MBH Practice assemble before the guests arrive

MBH Practice recently celebrated the launch of their new corporate identity and next generation website by strategic branding consultants and marketing partner Design Incorporated at their new offices in Regents Park Road, Finchley.

The multi-disciplined property consultancy’s guest list read like a who’s who of the London property scene, including media contacts, partners of established and up-and-coming professional firms, property owners, property management clients and trusted suppliers. A great opportunity for networking within the west end property sector.

Frank Norman, Design Inc’s Commercial Director and Design Inc’s built environment project specialist attended the champagne and canapé reception on our behalf and comments, “The re-launched, strategic brand identity for MBH Practice was created to represent the coming together of the property disciplines now offered by the practice, working both together and individually. The chosen design also represents a building footplate as well as thinking both within and outside of the box.”

Frank continues ‘More and more we are being seen as our clients’ outsourced marketing partner. Getting under their skin by sharing in events like this clearly benefits the strategic direction of our creative briefs and resulting campaign work. We wish MBH Practice all the success they deserve and look forward to continuing being part of that success in the future.”

Party in the Park – The Strategic Building of a New Brand is a post from the Design Inc Blog

With 30 separate conference sessions welcoming 1500 delegates, a separate exhibition hall featuring 90 industry exhibitors and with over 3000 trade visitors, the event has more than come of age this year to firmly stamp its position as the UK’s prime subsea industry event.

Subsea 2011 is an annual two-day event, organised by industry body, Subsea UK and promoted by branding specialist, Design Incorporated, who were responsible for the exhibition’s corporate branding strategies, as well as;

• corporate image
• exhibition website
• event literature
• exhibition signage
• event floorplan
• on- & off-line advertising

Design Inc Commercial Director, Frank Norman looks after the Subsea UK account and was again present at this year’s event. He says “It is always good to be present at this event. It is a very positive show with a great atmosphere and some really wonderful people. We started working with Subsea UK on the strategic branding and promotion of this event 8 months ago and it is great to see it all come together. The combination of a record number of visitors with many of the exhibitors already confirming bookings for next year means we have all done a good job. We look forward to Subsea 2012.”

Subsea 2011 also saw the industry black-tie awards dinner take place on the evening of the first day and congratulations should be given to this year’s winners, who include:

1. Subsea Company of the Year – SMD
2. Emerging Talent – Stuart Holley, GE Oil & Gas
3. Innovation and Technology – Tritech
4. Global Exports – Andrew Palmer & Associates / Penspen
5. New Enterprise – Viper Subsea
6. Subsea Safety and Leadership – RBG
7. Outstanding Achievement – Mel Fitzgerald, Subsea 7

Additional congratulations are also due to Ecosse Subsea who walked away (rode away?) with the Triumph Daytona motorbike from the exhibition’s Daytona Draw competition at the close of the show.

To view images from this year’s event, click here.

The branding of a very successful event – Subsea 2011 is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Design Inc have worked with Verderg for the past four years, supporting them with high quality marketing communications across all their engineering divisions. For the recent SMEC campaign, Design Inc designed the eye-catching kaleidoscope campaign to showcase SMEC’s range of applications. View this campaign and others within our energy sector portfolio.

VerdErg Renewable Energy Ltd wins Natural Energy Award is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Banking on a Return

‘The invention of tradition’ according to Wally Olins is key to the success of all new brands.

Chevalier Wealth Management has just been born with corporate branding strategy, print and web development by Design Inc, that included a team of the creative, marketing and commercial specialists at Design Inc.

Design Inc’s Senior Account Manager Darren Scurville, said “Our method to corporate branding strategy unites marketing strategy with perceptive creativity. The special ingredient for the creation of compelling brand communications relies on developing ‘qualities’ that the target audience emotively connects with. He continued “Our task is to define and bring to life the clear meaning and creative message of that character” He continued “We conducted an audit of the industry and competitor landscape and worked within the boundaries of the business positioning and proposition and company values”.

A name, a logotype, brand imagery. Classic architecture and sculpture, a palette of British racing green and gold have been delicately combined to portray trust, experience and transparency within the Financial Services sector. The project required print and web development to appropriately position this new company providing a new independent introduction service matching investors with investment managers and providing training in financial services sales.

Proud parents Design Incorporated provided a full service integrating corporate branding startegy, print and web development solution – having firstly conceived the company name based on research, creative selection and subsequent market testing of a shortlist.  Darren Scurville stated “This element of the corporate branding strategy originated from an initial brainstorm selection of over 100 names. We then selected a short-list of 45 names, which then went through a further filtering and criteria system that had specific values, meanings, emotions, and image interpretations. These names were then scrutinised, discussed, critiqued and scored against the criteria. The names were scored against the clients required brand identity, brand messages and brand values that had been identified in the initial brand workshop“ . The names varied from made up names, hybrid words to classic Greek and Latin names.

‘Chevalier’ was the preferred option. Design Incorporated’s Darren Scurville continued “ The chosen name reflected the client’s brand identity, brand values and brand messages in many ways such as Leadership, Integrity, Security, Protection, Relationship,  Dynamic, Growth , Wealth, Forward Thinking, Timeless, Prestigious. The branding, print and web development followed suite including: website, corporate printed brochure collateral and stationery to support the launch. Design Inc has supported the development of the company as it takes its first steps into the marketplace and as of 10^th December, 2 weeks after the project completed,  2010 Chevalier Wealth are pleased to announce their inaugural contract for Financial Sales Training services with a major FS client.

To read the full case study please click here

www.chevalierwealth.com

Corporate branding strategy for new financial services company is a post from the Design Inc Blog

For years now, we have always attracted significant numbers of visitors to our website but with visitor numbers increasing dramatically month and month – so much so that they are now double what they were only 6 months ago – we went to investigate what we had done differently over the past 6 months to help create this sharp increase in website visitor numbers:

Keyword Research – understanding which keyword phrases our potential clients are more likely to be searching for has always been critical to us. Even more important however, is the process of optimising our own website with these keywords and keyphrases so as to help ensure our website appears on the first pages of that particular Google search. Our SEO web development is highly important to us and over the past 6 months we have continued to keep our website highly optimised. We have, in fact, narrowed down the searches to be ‘quality-specific’. That is, if a potential customer is searching for a creative service at a certain high level of quality, it is more than likely that Design Inc will appear higher up the rankings.

Blog – our blog continues to grow. The quantity of blog articles is important of course but not as important as the quality (and the keyword relevance) of the content. This helps Design Inc rank higher in relevancy for all those keywords & keyphrases embedded into our blog articles. And that is one way in which Google works:- ie just how relevant is this website for the particular keyword/phrase which you are typing in? For us, we have become so much more knowledgeable in the past 6 months in understanding just how to write an effective blog, so much so that each story attracts hundreds of new visitors to our website daily.

AdWord Campaign – whilst our monthly Google spend has remained unchanged for our PPC campaign, it is important to note that in the past six months, the keywords in which we are investing have changed significantly. Having carried out extensive research into our Google statistics last Summer, we clearly saw where are money was best spent and where we felt it was being wasted. This enabled us to reappoint the Google spend in much more truly effective ways. Our AdWord spend is working so much better for us now without any increase in investment.

Social Media – last year saw the introduction of Design Inc’s social media marketing push. With accounts set up within Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Quora, etc, we have been able to create more relevant industry networks, a dedicated following as well as many more inbound links to our own website. And of course, the more inbound links you have created, the more opportunities there will be to attract more website visitors.

Inbound Links – as mentioned, the more inbound links there are to a website, the more opportunities there are for visitors to find themselves on your website. And one very good way of increasing inbound links is through entries on online directories. In August 2010, the marketing team at Design Inc invested their time researching and adding our details to over 200 online trade & industry-specific directories (some paid for but most free of charge). The upshot is that the combined might of these directories help push more new enquiries our way than ever before.

Email Marketing Services – all the email marketing solutions we send out – whether this be eNewsletters, eShots or simply the eSignature at the bottom of our everyday emails (introduced in July 2010) – all provide active hyperlinks back through to certain areas of our website, therefore offering more opportunities for increased visitor numbers. Our eShots are sent to those who specifically sign up to receive information from us, and although we have been creating eShots for years now, we can see that sign up numbers were much larger than they were than in previous years. The more people who sign up, the more receive our information, the more they mention us to others, the more new visitors we attract. And, with our own eMarketing statistics report, we can directly see just who has clicked a link through to our website, what they were interested in, who signed up, etc. This information is priceless to us.

Overall, it is impossible to pinpoint just one factor which has helped us increase visitor numbers. All the above website marketing tool (and more) are responsible for bringing more visitors to our website, and ultimately more enquiries from it. Rest assured we will continue to keep this trend going, not just for ourselves but to all of our website customers.

Attract record number of visitors to your website is a post from the Design Inc Blog

• News Events
• People
• Movies,
• Television
• Technology
• World Cup
• Sports
• Hashtags

Each Trend in the Top 10 list includes multiple related terms, to give the most accurate view of the topics that people cared about most in 2010.

From the findings we can see that the main tweeted topic overall was regarding the oil spill in the Gulf which occurred back in April.

Two films make it into the Top 10; Leonardo DiCaprio’s Inception at 3rd place as well the seventh installment in the Harry Potter phenomenon, Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, which came in in 9th overall.

And as for music, no overall Top 10 entry for Lady Gaga this year but Justin Bieber was not unsurprisingly tweeted the most in this genre. Lady Gaga does appear however – as high as third in the Most Tweeted People chart, one position behind Dilma Rouseff – Brazil’s newly elected and first female President.

Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange makes a late surge for fourth position.

In the Most Tweeted Television category, the MTV Video Music Awards takes the crown closely followed by ABC’s family TV show, Pretty Little Liars.

As expected the Most Tweeted Technology category brought up all the tweeted terms one would expect of the Twitterati. The iPad, iPhone, Google’s Android were all tweeted about accordingly. But it is the entry at 5th place; Call of Duty: Black Ops that brings video games into the Tweet charts for the first time. Not surprising for a game that smashed all records within 24hrs of going on sale.

Of course, 2010 was Word Cup year and this was the reason a Most Tweeted World Cup category was added. Not surprisingly the event itself (FIFA World Cup) was the most tweeted within this category. Interestingly a word and a product which only 12 months ago, no-one had heard of, made it into second place. The Vuvuzela was introduced to the world and now the world was tweeting its merits.

In third place, above Dunga, Maradona, Ronaldo, Messi sits Pulpo Paul a German psychic octopus who successfully predicted the results of all the games.

In the Most Tweeted Sports category, US All-Star basketball player, Lebron James out-tweeted all others.

Within the Hashtag category, the first thing that may strike you is that twitterati loved their hashtags in 2010.  Whereas they made up just 9% of the trending topics in 2009, they gobbled up a whopping 40% of the pie in 2010, stealing a good bit of ground from entertainment topics.

So, as we slowly slip towards the end of 2010 we look forward to seeing more and more of us embracing the Twitter bird in 2011 and all who fly beneath her. We couldn’t even begin to guess what the 2011 trends will be?

2010 Trends on Twitter is a post from the Design Inc Blog

As well as Season’s Greetings to all, this issue features a Glamour theme and includes news about our aviation, event and automotive related clients and shows some of the great work we have produced for them during the run up to the end of the year.

Our recent achievements include the completion of major branding projects for Sharda Architectural Glass, Crown Jets & Chevalier Wealth, as well as the ongoing marketing consultancy, direct mail design and PR support for Curries Online. This includes a range of activities surrounding their sponsorship of the prestigious Spice Times Restaurant Awards.

This includes the creation of a short advertising film to be shown during breaks in the awards presentation. And a mailshot to be included in the event goody bags. The film shows a modern urban fairy tale and features Curries Online busily generating orders for signed up CurryPartners – bringing joy, orders and profits through online orders.

You too can receive regular Design Inc email communications by signing up.

Design Inc’s Christmas eNewsletter is a post from the Design Inc Blog

In the face of digital everything, a unique corporate brochure can achieve stand out creatively by your target audience receiving something really intriguing or special. This becomes a bespoke gesture and project and should feature print production values matching the business proposition. What about sustainability? I hear you say – well yes and I read that story in Campaign about the high tech Landrover CRM mailer that went down like a lead balloon too. Truth is, if the recipient is targeted and proven to be genuinely interested in the message contained in a unique corporate brochure printed on resources that are sustainable or recyclable what’s the harm?

A unique corporate brochure can involve interesting cardboard engineering, new printing techniques and special effects, material textures, binding methods and formats can all contribute to impact and if the design theme is a metaphor for the message too then so much better. At Design Inc we have recently designed and printed some very special branded and individually assembled boxes for the extremely tailored marketing of an executive jet presentation preloaded onto an iphone to a luxury brand. These DM pieces were varnished with branded messages and also protectively packed in bespoke recycled cartons. So a unique corporate brochure can really set you apart, engage intrigue and entertain – and combined with a digital or online component truly provide a memorable brand experience for head and heart.

Design Inc is a West London-based Brochure Design Agency. If you are considering designing and printing a new corporate brochure for your business, you may be interested in receiving Design Inc’s Information Pack. Alternatively, please contact us by calling 01784 410380 or emailing us to find out more.

The return of the unique corporate brochure is a post from the Design Inc Blog

So, they are thinking that by changing the name of the town from Staines to Staines-on-Thames they can improve the image of the suburban Surrey town. Staines-based branding specialists, Design Incorporated went (not far) to investigate.

Commercial Director, Frank Norman admits that most people outside the area associate the town with comedy gangsta Ali G, a fictional character played by Sacha Baron Cohen. He says “But it is also true that most people don’t know Staines is situated on one of the most beautiful stretches of the River Thames and I agree that a name change to Staines-on-Thames may certainly make the town sound more desirable, but we have to be careful that any name change or rebranding, whether for a product, business or location is always carried out for the right reasons. In the case of a town however, it is important to understand its heritage.”

The Romans settled in Staines in 43AD and the first Staines Bridge was constructed to provide an important Thames crossing point. In fact it is assumed there was more than one bridge as the Roman name for Staines was ‘ad pontes’ (at the bridges). The present day name of Staines actually comes from Old English meaning ‘the place of the stones’.

In fact a border stana, or stone, on the bank of the River Thames, dated 1280, still remains, indicating the western limit of the City of London’s jurisdiction over the Thames.

The Thames therefore, and Staines’ situation as a major crossing point has always been key to its heritage and its involvement in national affairs; the barons assembled there before they met King John at Runnymede in 1215, and Stephen Langton held a consecration there shortly after the issue of the Magna Carta. Sir Thomas More was tried in 1535 in a Staines public house, to avoid the outbreak of plague in London at that time. Kings and other important people must have passed through the town on many occasions: the church bells were rung several times in 1670, for instance, when the king and queen travelled through the town towards Windsor.

The river has also been key in the decision of locating industry, with the Linoleum Manufacturing Company settling in Staines to set up business in 1864. Linoleum soon became the main industry of the town and the company was a major employer in the area up to the 1960s. These days, the town is home to a number of blue chip companies including BUPA, British Gas, Logica, Siemens, Centrica and Samsung.

And, bringing the town right up-to-date, Staines is poised for major expansion with construction already started on the ‘Staines Central’ scheme – a five storey, 3 building, retail, office, hotel & communications hub in the centre of the town. Creative agency, Design Inc is located directly opposite.

Frank Norman met with Alex Tribick, chair of Spelthorne Business Forum which made the proposal. He said: “A lot of businesses are moving from Central London out to the Spelthorne and Staines area. Everything we can do, even if it’s a small thing like changing the name, can only be good for encouraging business and investment in the area.”

The Forum insist there would be a public consultation before any formal decision was made and they are fully expecting to meet with opposition from residents who see no need for a name change.

Many residents we met felt it a good suggestion, with one prominent businessman commenting, “Of course there will be many who don’t like the idea of change and may think this is pretentious nonsense. But it’s not. With the 2012 Olympics almost upon us, we have a real opportunity to promote & showcase Staines to a wider audience. The Thames is integral to our town and we are proud of our association with the river.”

Another commented “We have Kingston-upon-Thames, Richmond-upon-Thames, Walton-on-Thames and they are all as beautiful as they sound. I can only see positives from renaming our town Staines-on-Thames and showing that we are so much more than just the home of Ali G.”

No doubt the debate will continue and we will of course look forward to the outcome. We certainly understand and acknowledge the reasons behind the suggestion of this name change. Frank Norman gives his final thoughts, “As a branding agency, we know that creating the right message and values in a name is crucial to any brand. I believe the name Staines-on-Thames is certainly a positive one for the town and the area within which it is situated. The name creates a promise of beauty & tranquillity and, if this change happens, it is important the council continue to back up that promise.”

Goodbye Staines. Hello Staines-on-Thames. is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Today’s special buildings need special glass. Sharda Architectural Glass are the industry specialists who manufacture this glass and work in partnership to deliver specialist glass solutions globally.

Design Inc are proud of our relationship with Sharda and are pleased to have conceived, planned and built a regenerated online presence for them. Being an integrated agency, we started working with Sharda last year when we created a series of printed direct mail campaigns, including their innovative & award-winning, Inspired-Desired! mailers. Following on from the success of these campaigns, Design Inc were asked to look at a major overhaul of the brand to take the company forward for its next stage of evolution.

And this is where the ‘See the Bigger Picture’ campaign was conceived and developed, demonstrating both:

How Sharda’s architectural glass products and attention to detail enables the design and construction of amazing landmark projects worldwide.

And

How Sharda form larger partnerships with leading firms of architects, engineers, designers and construction businesses. Working as a project team component requires an integrated approach and flexible attitude as well as a deep understanding of the building design supply chain.

The branding components that were included in the repositioning were:

Identity and name: Evolving the outdated Sharda Glass identity and creation of a new descriptor “Architectural Glass’ to reflect the new positioning as partners to the major international players in the built environment sector.

Web Design: Web site interfaces, site architecture, imagery, typography information hierarchy and programming. Including lead capture devices. The homepage movie shows a series of striking glass building applications, representing the endless range of projects served by Sharda Glass. Each time zoomed out to reveal that the image is part of a bigger picture.

Content: The site map has been designed to cater for both the high level user looking for a strategic partner for a project or framework agreement or alternatively the project architect looking for a specific innovation in glass technology, technical information or application examples.

Quote from MD of Sharda Glass

“Design Inc have provided a truly integrated solution for us, the team combined an understanding of both the built environment sector and our need to achieve a website design that worked on several levels for us at this stage of our business evolution. We were again looking for the wow! factor from them, not just in design terms but also in the strategy of our message. The Bigger Picture concept does exactly that.”

If you are considering a forthcoming creative/marketing project, you may be interested in receiving Design Inc’s  Information Pack.

Shouting From The Top – Sharda Architectural Glass is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Troika is the name for a collection of three elements that once combined increase strength, stability and power. It is the power of three. And when three seasoned hospitality recruitment specialists came together to form a new, powerful recruitment company, the name ‘Troika’ was the natural choice.

To set their offer and brand apart, the three principals of Troika Recruitment created a brief that demanded a corporate website design that was very different from those of the established, larger, more general recruitment agencies.

Of course, in a heavily networked industry, ‘word on the street’ is all powerful, and it was this knowledge that inspired us to create a Banksy-inspired, graffiti streetscape that provides a truly interactive experience for the web visitor.

Sounds, tools and posters all provide exciting navigation around the site, with many hidden treasures to be found now, and many more being planned for the future. All in all it’s a website that punches above its weight for a start-up business and not just another brick in the wall.

According to Troika Director, Suzie Boyd, “the team at Design Inc took our brand aspirations & the vision we have for our boutique business and have created for us a online presence that is as unique as we are – we love it – and better still our clients love it.”

If you are considering a forthcoming creative/marketing project, you may be interested in receiving Design Inc’s  Information Pack.

Has Banksy finally designed a website? is a post from the Design Inc Blog

He continues, “The big question still being asked is, how is the industry performing? In response he quotes “The 2^nd quarter of this year has started to see some momentum with the increase of confirmed events, an increase in new venues and venue refurbishments and more importantly the green light for the release of funds for event budgets”

Further adding, “ However we are still in unsure times and no doubt there will still be some casualties ahead, for example with Sound London becoming the latest venue to follow the unfortunate trend of nightclubs in trouble by going into administration. But Venues that invest in marketing are likely to be rewarded for their efforts and increase their clientele, raise their profile and secure bookings”

Q. Has the event industry suffered from budget cuts in both the private and now public sectors?

A. The continued financial scene has meant that budgets are tighter and negotiations will be stronger. Smaller venues and a new generation of venue spaces have been given the opportunity to rattle the older, established venues who have had it too easy for too long. In some cases there is definitely a change in the perspective of the client/supplier relationship and a new approach required. Venues sometimes fail to recognise the real value of the creative elements that needs to be invested in the lead up to winning business.

From the point of view from an ex-Events Manager, it is not always the costs that affect the decisions around where to host events. It can also very much depend on how a venue engages with their audiences from first time contact to post event evaluation and markets & advertises themselves through the quality of their communication tools such as websites, promotional literature, direct & email marketing pieces etc.

Leaving that compelling first impression can do wonders for the confidence and trust of the event organiser to know that this is a venue who are professional, experienced and can cater for all aspects of the event.

Venues such as The Business Design Centre has invested heavily in its website and a newsletter to keep its customers informed. “It’s an important way to build relationships with organisers,” says BDC head of venue sales Graham Stephenson. The north London venue also hosts social events for organisers so they get to know the venue.

In an effort to generate awareness in London, one London venue had branded two black cabs following an overhaul of the venues’ customer and event marketing last year. Bespoke campaigns are now tailored to the individual needs of organisers. The strategy has seen the venue awarded a respected Business Superbrand title by independent brand analyst SuperBrands, alongside household names such as Shell, Samsung and Rolls-Royce.

Working with tourism promotion bodies can also help raise a venue’s profile: “London tourist bodies promotes the city internationally and at home. It’s about keeping the venue in the loop and making sure people are aware of the venue.”

A very effective way to reach markets in specific industry sectors is to apply direct & email marketing. Targeting organisers with this medium can increase hits on the venue’s website, build awareness, strengthen the brand, raise the venues profile and more within a very cost effective budget.

Q. How is the latest technology including augmented reality and design tools, changing the way a venue markets itself on line?

A. I see that in the very near future that venues will need to embrace in the technology of ‘Virtual Tours’ to attract more visitors and engage more deeply with their audiences. This has already started with the successful launch of Event and C&IT Virtual Venue Visit. However for venues to truly differentiate themselves and promote their USP’s, the virtual tours should not be presented in a traditional video scenario as is being done, but by the use of a more dynamic and interactive design and system which allows the visitor to explore in more detail the venues spaces and may even include the user to create a virtual event which will include designing room plans, stage sets, room lighting and even a selection of themes that can integrate the creative production into the virtual event.

Q. What about the London Olympics, this is going to be a boom time for UK venues surely?

A. The next 12 months will see numerous public and private events relating to the 2012 Olympics leading up to the games including conferences, seminars, roadshows, product & promotional launches and corporate hospitality. Competition is still rife however and venues need to be proactive in their marketing to share in this business.

We are very excited and looking forward to the many ‘event’ based communication & design projects that we are currently discussing with many of our clients in providing compelling design and effective event marketing strategy for their networking events, experiential campaigns, product launches, conferences, tradeshows, road-show campaigns, exhibitions, hospitality events and the many other events that will be incorporating the theme of the Olympic Games to promote their events.

The key challenge will be to create the association and incorporate the spirit of the Olympic games in all the design & strategy elements and succeed in overcoming the strict design & marketing guidelines in place. We have been researching this area intensively and have some very creative and strategic ways around this that can be implemented for events, email & direct mail campaigns and all online marketing campaigns.

If you are considering a forthcoming creative/marketing project, you may be interested in receiving Design Inc’s  Information Pack.

Darren’s event and venue marketing clinic is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Following on from my last post about Augmented reality, I thought I’d share with you some examples of this amazing new communication tool.

Making your business card design really stand out.

Even Lego have embraced this tool. See 3D versions of your model before you buy.

A great tool for your next augmented reality hallowe’en party. Swapping heads with a rat.

I’ve got a few magazines in my car. Here’s how to fit a car into a magazine.

The car right in front of you is a Toyota.

Should have gone to the augmented Specsavers.

Bringing your trading cards to life.

Making your tattoos come to life.

You can even try this for yourself. James Alliban’s webpage allows you to print an AR code symbol and try it out on your own webcam. You’ll be amazed.

Augmented reality – some great examples is a post from the Design Inc Blog

It’s not just business cards, but company brochures, magazine advertising & direct mail too. By adding little barcode symbols, which, when viewed through a webcam, come to life, providing more information about the company, the service & the campaign. A single page advert is no longer a single page – it becomes a video, a website, therefore packing so much more into that single page advertising fee.

Even June’s edition of BBC Focus Magazine has been set up to show you just what can be done. Hold the magazine’s front cover up to a webcam and watch what happens on screen. Perhaps if you are an arachnophobe, don’t try it, but the sight of spiders crawling around the page is exciting and bewildering at the same time.

Augmented reality is relevant for many industries – even the fashion world has embraced it. Benetton is using AR for their It’s My Time campaign that kicked off last month, in which it is trying to find models from among the general population.

Adidas, too, has launched trainers with AR symbols in the tongues: hold them to a webcam and you are taken to interactive games on the Adidas site.

Augmented reality – AR, as it has quickly become known – has only recently become a phrase that trips easily off technologists’ lips; yet we’ve been seeing versions of it for quite some time. The idea is straightforward enough: take a real-life scene, or (better) a video of a scene, and add some sort of explanatory data to it so that you can better understand what’s going on, or who the people in the scene are, or how to get to where you want to go.

Sports coverage on TV has been doing it for years: the superimposed winning line in a rowing race orthe swimmer’s name superimposed onto the lane they are in. More recently cricket, tennis, rugby, football and golf have all started to overlay analytic information on top of standard-speed replays – would that ball have hit the stumps, the progress of a rally, the movement of the backs or wingers, the relative flights of shots – to tell you more about what’s going on.

AR took its first lumbering steps into the public arena eight years ago: all that you needed to do was strap on 10kg of computing power – laptop, camera, vision processor – and you could get an idea of what was feasible. The American Popular Science magazine wrote about the idea in 2002 – but the idea of being permanently connected to the internet hadn’t quite jelled at that point.

“AR has been around for ages,” says Andy Cameron, executive director of Fabrica, an interactive design studio which works with Benetton, “maybe going back as far as the 1970s and art installations that overlaid real spaces with something virtual.” He mentions in particular the work of pioneering computer artist Myron Krueger.

What’s changed in the past year is that AR has come within reach of all sorts of developers – and the technology powerful enough to make use of it is owned by millions of people, often in the palms of their hands.

The arrival of powerful smartphones and computers with built-in video capabilities means that you don’t have to wait for the AR effects as you do with TV. They can simply be overlaid onto real life. Step forward Apple’s iPhone, and phones using Google’s Android operating system, both of which are capable of overlaying information on top of a picture or video.

Within the small world of AR, one of the best-known apps is that built by Layar, which – given a location, and using the iPhone 3GS’s inbuilt compass to work out the direction you’re pointing the phone – can give you a “radar map” of details such as Wikipedia information, Flickr photos, Google searches and YouTube videos superimposed onto a picture you’ve taken of the scene.

More usefully, Yelp offers an augmented reality application that will show you ratings and reviews for a restaurant before you walk in – the sort of thing that could make restaurants quiver with delight, or shudder in horror.

Going further, the application can get personal, very personal. A prototype application demonstrated at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February showed the scary future. Point the phone at a person and, using facial recognition software, it can pull their information off the web and attach details – their Twitter username, Facebook page, preferences and other facts – and stick them, rather weirdly, into the air around their head (viewed through your phone, of course).

Social networking may never be the same again.

Augmented Reality – the new communication is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Market intelligence and message development at these planning stages can help exhibitors to make the most of the commitment to attend. Apart from the obvious attraction of some December sunshine, many smaller companies who offer highly specialised services are investing in shared-stand accommodation. This can be very cost-effective as not only enabling the face-to-face on stand contact, but in participation as show exhibitor enabling additional supporting guerrilla activities on the show fringe. The organisers of most aviation industry trade fairs like MEBA encouraging and accommodating creative participation as business seeds are sown.

The design of exhibition space usually falls into two clear camps, the ‘stakeout your territory approach’ all walls and stools with flags and towers at each corner, demonstrating the maximum acreage of your expensive floor space – but a little intimidating to approach as your visitors may be fearful of being rounded upon by lurking salespeople. Better perhaps to design an innovative stand with a seamless boundary transition that blends into the surrounded aisles – the prospect then being drawn onto the stand by the ambient feeling of space and calm. Actually arriving right in the middle of your brand and message without even being aware that they have strayed into the zone! Gotcha.

Design Inc at MEBA 2010 Dubai is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Wenlock and Mandeville, created by iris

On 19th May London 2012 finally revealed the mascots that will help characterise the capital’s Olympic experience. The futuristic part alien one-eyed figures, called Wenlock and Mandeville, were unveiled at an east London school.

The mascots will soon be everywhere, with merchandise going on sale in July to mark two years to the London 2012 opening ceremony.

Chosen from more than 100 designs, including animated teapots, pigeons, lions and a Big Ben with arms and legs. The characters can be customised into recognisable costumes and even celebrity identities due to their digital potential.

Design Inc Event & Venue Marketing specialist Darren Scurville commented “There will be numerous public and private events relating to the 2012 Olympics leading up to the games including conferences, seminars, roadshows, product & promotional launches and corporate hospitality events heavily tied in with investor relation events to name a few. Undoubtedly the mascots will be integrated into these events and even required with the “ceremonial scissors” to hand to launch and promote the events. “The brand & Identity of the mascots will also be heavily incorporated into the design for the event marketing & promotional literature.

He added “We are very excited and looking forward to the many ‘event’ based communication & design projects that we are currently discussing with many of our clients in providing compelling design and effective event marketing strategy for their networking events, experiential campaigns, product launches, conferences, tradeshows, roadshow campaigns, exhibitions, hospitality events and the many other events that will be incorporating the theme of the Olympic Games to promote their events.

He continued “ The key challenge will be to create the association and incorporate the spirit of the Olympic games in all the design & strategy elements and succeed in overcoming the strict design & marketing guidelines in place. Also to navigate successfully through the minefield of the brand protection rules set out for all non-official sponsors. He commented “We have been researching this area intensively and have some very creative and strategic ways around this that can be implemented for events, email & direct mail campaigns and all online marketing campaigns.

London 2012 Mascot Branding …. On your marks, get set, go for your 2012 Olympic Events & Promotions? is a post from the Design Inc Blog

With 2012 on the horizon, professional sportsmen and women know there is nothing more detrimental than carrying out dead weight. So, for those considering a weight loss program, accurately assessing your body fat percentage is one of the most important measurements you can take.

Moreover, with the knowledge that excess body fat is directly linked with a number of serious medical conditions, including heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers, accurate measurement and continual monitoring is crucial.

Founded in 1923, Tanita Corporation is an ethical health care product manufacturer. They are the supplier of choice for body composition monitors, and supply their monitors to fitness and health organisations, surgeries, clinics as well as to the end consumer. Tanita monitors provide instant measurement, not just of weight but also:

• Body Fat
• Visceral Fat
• Body Water
• Muscle Mass
• Bone Mineral Mass
• Daily Energy Requirement

With the London Olympics only 2 years away, Tanita Corporation made the decision to push their brand and products further into Europe through international print advertising for both consumer and trade campaigns. And in March 2010 following a creative pitch from several marketing communications agencies, Tanita Europe selected Design Inc as their preferred partner.

Our winning creative promotes an aspirational message: healthy bodies tattooed with a ‘food packaging ingredients’ list.

Design Inc Marketing Consultant David Parker says, “We wanted to show just how delicately balanced the human body is and show just what the healthy body is made of. We are all made of the same stuff, although of course, the amounts differ from one person to the next. Our creatives provide the message that Tanita body composition monitors accurately keep your health on track to what is right for you. The new Tanita advertising campaign has been designed to provide a simple, strong and on-brand message. We look forward in ensuring this campaign is delivered over the next two years.”

The Design Inc team were involved with all aspects of this advertising design campaign including:

• Creative & Marketing Strategy
• Creative Design
• Artworking
• Copy Writing
• Photo Shoot
• Photo Manipulation
• Models
• Project Management

If you are considering a forthcoming creative/marketing project, you may be interested in receiving Design Inc’s  Information Pack.

What are you made of? – Fitness versus fatness. is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Whether your business is actually based and sells online or simply marketed online, an effective website is your most important communications asset. There are many elements to the location, design, build and population and promotion of your site. All of which present both opportunities and threats. Opportunities that is, to get it very right, and the real threat of getting it very wrong.

Here is our guide to the elements; can you tick all the boxes? First off, what is the desired response from your user? If you can answer that question instantly and have the resources in place to react to that response, then you know what we are working to achieve.

If you are considering a forthcoming creative/marketing project, you may be interested in receiving Design Inc’s  Information Pack.

Design Inc’s guide to a sucessful website is a post from the Design Inc Blog

This issue features an aviation theme and includes news about our private jet charter, aviation and travel related clients and shows some of the great work we have produced for them recently and on the lead up to EBACE 2010.

Our recent achievements include the completion of an interactive online brochure promoting an amazing Boeing 727 private jet, as well as the delivery of promotional materials for Bombardier. This includes a range of collateral for the Learjet 45XR and the groundbreaking Learjet 85 business jets, along with trade show exhibition stand designs and various client email communications.

You too can receive regular Design Inc news updates by signing up on our website.

Come fly with us is a post from the Design Inc Blog

a. Those that make things happen

b. Those who watch things happen

……………….What venue are you?

I’m sure we all like to think we are venue a, but are you??? Darren Scurville, Design Inc’s Events & Venue Marketing specialist explains ‘Building an effective venue-marketing plan is like sowing a field for a successful crop. There are certain methods that are absolutely necessary. You can tweak a little here and there adding your own special methods as long as you include the main components’

He added ‘“Distributing seeds instead of planting them in one place by not just reaching people individually and telling them what your venue does or has is a tough way to do it and an uphill battle. Instead thinking of each person you interact with as someone who can carry the seed of your venue to someone else is valuable. Your goal shouldn’t be just to convince them, it’s to give them some way, large or small to carry your venue message forward.

How are you as a venue making things happen and distributing the message? Do you…..

Blog – demonstrating your venue industry awareness, expertise, knowledge and establish yourself as a recognised venue industry voice connecting to the topics of the moment.

Send tactical e-shots & newsletters – To reach out and engage with your audience, telling them about your venue’s successes, latest events at your venue, your venues new features, the venues new services or even the venues new staff.  Also to solidify your current client relationships, strengthen your venue ‘brand’ and keep your venue constantly in the public eye.

Strategically Advertise – With calculated planning, compelling copywriting and powerful messaged advertising design for your entire venue advertising campaigns. Making sure it is tailored to appeal to your target market using compelling and strategic design, graphics and messaging to entice a reaction, an enquiry and a venue booking.

Design your marketing collateral tactically – Making sure your brochure and direct mail pieces truly reflects and delivers your venue’s image, values and core services. Creating interactive elements such as incentivised response devices for data capture and the use of enticing formats and tactile materials.

Stand out at Exhibitions - to distinguish and differentiate your venue amongst all the other venues doing the same thing. Making sure your stand fascinates, captivates, generates interest, interacts with your audiences, creates the WOW factor and leaves a compelling impression on your visitor.

Optimise your Website – incorporating strategic, valuable keywords & phrases that relate specifically to your industry so your prospective clients find your website ahead of your competitors. Integrating strategic creative designs, high impact copywriting and a fully comprehensive statistics area to gather that all important marketing data.

Do you wait for opportunity to knock at the door or do you knock at the door of opportunity? is a post from the Design Inc Blog

This support extends across all aspects, covering branding, websites, advertising, events, exhibitions, directories, brochures and newsletters.

As the governing body for the UK’s subsea industry, working alongside government, industry bodies, research & education institutes as well as for the benefit of the 1000 UK companies and 50,000 people involved in the industry, it is crucial that their message and creative profile is always accurate, trustworthy & knowledgeable.

Aberdeen-based Subsea UK rely on creative agency Design Inc not just for these values but also to manage their needs in the most cost-effective, hassle-free and innovative ways.

The publishing of the quarterly Subsea UK newsletter is just one of many design & creative projects for which Design Inc is responsible.

Design Inc Commercial Director, Frank Norman explains “A well-designed newsletter campaign can be a great way not just to inform your subscribers of all your company’s latest news, products & services, but also to keep your name on their ‘radar’ to maintain & enhance customer relations. For Subsea UK however, the newsletter keeps all subscribers informed of the latest trends, innovations & research within the industry as a whole as well as providing a platform for industry bodies, members and associated companies to announce their own news.”

Paul Munday, Design Inc’s Creative Director adds, “How our clients’ brand identity and values are effectively reflected through their corporate literature will be at the heart of our newsletter design concepts. For Subsea UK, we have always opted for a more news-based creative style with a more conceptual design style being implemented when the publication coincides with a major industry event.”

Paul continues, “The way the process works couldn’t be simpler. Subsea UK, their members and associated companies are invited to provide their latest news and press releases, and once approved by Subsea UK we are responsible for artworking, formatting, illustration, image supply and image retouching where required. We also offer the full range of litho and digital print management services ensuring this publication perfectly meets the required quality, cost and timescale.”

View more creative work for Subsea UK and the subsea industry.

View examples of brochure design, newsletter and corporate literature.

Subsea UK – Newsletter Design & Publishing Services is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Whilst researching a regional campaign for one of our aviation clients, we came across this amazing video which illustrates clearly how and where the air traffic started again, which routes became active first, and how gradually it all got back on track.

It also shows how busy European flight routes are normally, so it’s easy to understand the level of disruption that absolutely no flights at all would have caused!

The flight data is courtesy of aviation video specialist flightradar24.com.

Click here to see the film.

Aviation gets moving again in Europe is a post from the Design Inc Blog

As part of a photography proposal currently being written, Design Inc are suggesting this rather interesting, but widely underused photographic technique which really brings images to life.

HDR (high dynamic range) imaging, gives a larger dynamic range of luminances between the lightest and darkest areas of a photo and combines them. This offers a larger dynamic range and visually represents evenly all the intensity levels found in any one scene.

This technique can be constructed either by the photographer using camera at the photoshoot, or by merging and photo manipulating images of the same scene taken with varying dynamic ranges back at the studio.

I hope it is considered, as it would create a very individual brand style indeed. Let us know what you think!

3D Photography is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Of course, the events are your clients and they bring in the money. If you have no events, whether they be celebratory, conference or expo, then your venue can sit empty. As a venue you need to market all the forthcoming features and events, where permission is granted. As a venue marketer it is so important to market the venue as a brand.

Some may say that venues are only as good as the events inside them. This may be true but prestigious client, events and shows like to host in prestigious venues. How you brand the venue can help you sell to host the events that you want.

Understand that your venue is an unique brand and needs an individual approach to market it. Your venue requires unique branding, message & design throughout all your communications. So what really is your unique selling point?

Could this be your;

• Location
• Style
• Size
• Architecture
• History
• Blank Canvas appeal
• Clients
• Theme
• Food
• Experiential and sensory experience

Events and venue marketing specialist, Darren Scurville reports, “Once distilled and defined as the single-minded proposition, venues can then tailor a targeted, results-driven creative campaign. The key is to know your own strengths within the saturated market and to deliver a differentiated marketing communications package based around this.”

“Of course,  once the message is understood internally, it can then be promoted externally through new or tried and tested channels such as website and email promotion, direct mail, advertising or a combination of all of these. Differentiating your venue brand and setting your values, profile and identity is the key to engage interest from your audience.”

It is true that we cannot all have the same USPs as

• 30 St Mary’s Axe- for its icon appeal
• The Crypt at St Pauls for it’s architecture
• Altitude 360 for the view

But, understanding what you do have to offer and how to turn this offering into a strong brand is vital in these times. Perhaps, more importantly, is whether this brand can be strong enough to be also applied for London 2012 marketing. More on that later.

Does your venue act as your brand? is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Seb Coe

With 850 days to go til the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, many companies have planned their marketing and advertising strategies.

The closer we get to the event, we will inevitably see more and more advertising by brands and companies hoping

to associate themselves with such a sensational & prestigious event.

But businesses should bear in mind that a legal minefield awaits the unwary, and it’s crucial to get the publicity just right.

The Olympic organisers and ‘official partners’ have invested heavily to create the event, and the law aims to protect that investment and the value of licensing deals.

Back in April 2006, Seb Coe announced he wanted a “clean advertising environment” following new intellectual property rights of the new London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006.

Any non-official company’s marketing or advertising that refers to the event are very tightly restricted. The 2006 Act even clamps down on ‘ambush marketing’, whereby businesses try to advertise near an Olympics venue to bask in the event’s reflected glory.

In all these locations, businesses will have to avoid infringing something known as ‘Olympic Association Right’ under the Olympic Symbol etc (Protection) Act 1995 as well as the ‘London Olympics Association Right’ (LOar) under the 2006 Act.

Use of words such as ‘Olympic(s)’, ‘Olympian(s)’, and ‘Paralympic(s)’ are restricted. Meanwhile, a person infringes LOar if he uses a “representation” (of any kind) in the course of trade in a manner likely to suggest to the public that there is an association between the London Olympics and his goods or services.

Put simply, it’s unlawful to pass your business off as being ‘associated’ with the Games. Knowing where to draw the line can be tricky.

The 2006 Act gives some guidance, stating that when considering whether a particular advert has breached the rule, a court may “take account of” its use of specified – but otherwise innocuous – words, including ‘London’, ‘Games, ‘twenty twelve’, ‘gold’, and ‘summer’.

Errant advertisers who refuse to accept that parts of the English language may now be off-limits could face a claim for damages, an account of profits, and an injunction. They could also be prosecuted for a criminal offence.

London venue marketing specialist and Design Inc’s newly-appointed Senior Account Manager, Darren Scurville says “The 2012 Games remain a golden opportunity for brands & local businesses. However, Olympic-associated promotions can be a minefield and no company would want to infringe on the intellectual property rights. The key is knowing the safe-zone, or ‘reference without association’. There are many specialist lawyers who can help get your marketing approved. And, if you get it right, you will come out with the business equivalent of a gold medal. Get it wrong, and the disappointment of not being a business medallist could be accompanied by serious – and expensive – litigation.”

Olympic marketing – be careful what you say! is a post from the Design Inc Blog

The first national survey of the UK design industry since 2005, released by the Design Council, shows an industry in growth, increasingly comprising freelances and micro businesses.

The design sector has grown over the last five years despite the recession, according to the figures, with numbers of designers increasing by 29% to 232,000 and combined fee incomes of freelances and design consultancies and budgets of in-house design teams increasing by £3.4bn to £15bn.

The Design Council’s research also shows that the design industry is increasingly fragmenting with more independent freelancers and micro businesses. There are now 65,900 freelances, 39% more than in 2005, with total freelance fee income growing by 22% over the same period. And whilst there are 35% more designers working in design consultancies than in 2005 – bringing the total to 82,500 – the total number of consultancies has declined by 13% to an estimated 10,800. Despite budget cuts, in-house design teams are being retained. Collectively in-house design team budgets are down 34% since 2005, but the number of in-house design teams in the UK has increased by 10% to 6,500 suggesting that employers are holding on to creative employees despite downward pressure on budgets.

The Design Council has organised a national debate with leading industry figures to discuss the important issues which the survey raises around the composition of the industry. The debate will be webcast live from Royal Society of Art in London from 9.30am to 11.00am on Friday 26th March.

Designers who would like to attend the event are asked to register by emailing: info@designcouncil.org.uk.

During the debate designers at the event and watching online will be able to comment, pose questions and vote online on three motions:

1. Recessions are good news in disguise for designers
2. Networks are fine but they won’t keep me in business
3. Tighter finances mean more on the job learning and that’s a good thing

Digital design specialist Simon Waterfall is the compere for the debate and the pairs of speakers debating the motions are celebrated product and furniture designer Tom Dixon and creative industries number cruncher Mandy Merron (speaking on ‘Recessions are good news in disguise for designers’); design business advisor Shan Preddy and retail design specialist Callum Lumsden (speaking on ‘Networks are fine but they won’t keep me in business’); and graphics grandees Mike Dempsey and Brian Webb (speaking on ‘Tighter finances mean more on the job learning and that’s a good thing’)

The survey was conducted by the Design Council in autumn 2009 and is the second comprehensive analysis of the UK design industry. The survey examines design consultancies, in-house design teams and freelances working in communications design, digital and multimedia design, interior and exhibition design, product and industrial design, fashion design and service design. As such it provides a fascinating analysis of how UK design is evolving and a profile of UK design in the 21st century. The results also show:

• The South East region is home to one in six design businesses with London being home to almost one in four (23%)
• Well over half (60%) of design consultancies employ fewer than five people and a further quarter (27%) have less than ten staff. In-house teams tend to be larger than consultancies, with over a third (37%) of them comprising five or more designers.
• Many design businesses are relatively young: at least 29%, in every region or country of the UK having been in business for three years or less.
• 55% of design consultancies have an annual fee income of between £100,000 and £500,000, 58% of freelances have an annual income of less than £50,000
• There is still a lack of diversity in the industry, with the average designer being male, 38 years old and white.
• Most designers are not members of national design bodies. Designers rarely join networks, but are most likely to be members of business organisations like the Federation of Small Businesses (14%) and the British Chamber of Commerce (12%). Beyond this, they are also more likely to have joined a regional design network or forum (9%) than a national design body.

If you are considering a forthcoming creative/marketing project, you may be interested in receiving Design Inc’s  Information Pack.

Research highlights the need for good designers is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Kiera Knightley before & after image manipulation

It is said that beauty is eye of the beholder. Or perhaps that should be ‘…in the eye of the beholder after a lot of photo manipulation’!

Marketing communication tools such as company brochures, website design, direct mail, advertising campaigns, etc all rely on promoting the right message to the right people at the right time. Use of imagery to project the message & values of a company, service or product is paramount. But who do we turn to if the actual image is flawed in some way?

From the earliest days of expensive scanners and Barco Creator software to the recent explosion of Adobe Photoshop and the digital backed camera, one thing has remained constant and all-important: the creative flair and eye of the digital artist.

Some creative teams in marketing & design agencies employ specialists in image retouching and manipulation. They provide many services, from simple clipping paths that cut around the edges of the product image so they can be pasted onto a new background, through to complex retouching services to enhance the overall image, whether this be a product, person, building or landscape.

Rest assured, the team at Design Inc have extensive experience in digital retouching. Our services are wide-ranging for a whole host of creative image requirements and include:

• Expansion of image
• Image changing (reshape, resize, re-angle, reverse)
• Image editing (creating images that do not actually exist to be photographed)
• Removal of items
• Addition of items & filling in gaps
• Merging
• Street litter removal
• Replacement backgrounds, skies, landscapes
• Image/body reshaping & recontouring
• Recolouring & colour enhancement
• Restoration of damaged areas
• Face improvements (eg blemish & wrinkle removal,teeth whitening, hair adjustment, etc)
• Dust and glare removal
• Shadowing & reflection (addition and removal)

Contact us now for more information.

Changing Faces – image retouching & manipulation is a post from the Design Inc Blog

This issue, as well as a gallery of horribly romantic designs, we are showcasing the launch of the Senate House venue marketing website. This has just gone live. Targeting both the historical academic conference marketplace and a new dynamic events offering: the site takes users on a journey in either direction to a final destination that results in venue bookings.

You too can receive regular Design Inc news updates by signing up on our website.

Happy Valentine’s from the team at Design Incorporated.

Happy Valentine’s with love from Design Inc. is a post from the Design Inc Blog

A design/marketing project without a good brief is doomed to failure before the project has begun.

Here are some examples of poor briefs we have seen.

1. The Closed Book. Here, the brief is so tight, with no room for manouevre that you wonder why the client has approached a creative agency rather than an artworker, or worse still, done it themselves.
2. The 360. In this scenario, the client doesn’t really know what they want and cannot provide any information beyond the size of the document. You are left with all options open and no tangible route to go down.
3. The Chameleon. This brief changes constantly over hours, days or weeks. This is where the client keeps seeing new ‘inspiration’ in other places and constantly adds these new requests
4. The Collision. Here the client’s brief is full of contradicting info, making it appear as though it is actually a merge between two separate briefs
5. The Dreamer. All creative agencies have seen this one. The expectation here is so high, yet the budget or deadline is so low.

There are loads more examples, and I shall describe them in a future blog, but for now, we continue to support our clients with a set of brief guidelines that will help them help us help them.

These are a few things we would always ask;

• Information about the company, what they do, their product/service/solution
• The market & the competition
• The profile of the ideal recipient/buyer/customer
• What makes them different? MSPs, USPs
• Expectations -what are they really trying to achieve with this project?
• The profile – how would they like others to perceive them?
• The project message/theme
• Are there any corporate guidelines?
• Examples of similar things they like
• Examples of things they have done before
• Budgets & deadline
• Technical Spec

The more information we have, the more likely we are to fulfil the clients’ requirements.

If you are considering a forthcoming creative/marketing project, you may be interested in receiving Design Inc’s  Information Pack.

Bad Brief – Good Grief! is a post from the Design Inc Blog

The calendar we had designed and created for global engineering company, NOV ASEP Elmar had been entered into the Pictorial Bespoke Calendar category.

The calendar, entitled A Toy Story was inspired by the toys that their engineers first played with when they were children.

Twelve items of the company’s equipment (ranging from small items to multi-ton trucks) were selected and our team of creative designers set about recreating those items by using the toys.

The equipment was recreated with a number of ‘engineering’ toys including; building bricks, fuzzy felt, balsa wood, needlework, etch-a-sketch, mould maker , lego, meccano, airfix, etc.

The calendar can be viewed here.

We were very pleased to hear that this calendar was indeed shortlisted for this award. There were six entried in this shortlist, these being:

• Cuba – 50 years of Revolution
• JCB 65th Anniversary
• Pirelli Calendar 2010
• The Sun Page 3 Calendar
• Royal Academy of Dance

Regrettably, A Toy Story did not win. The renowned Pirelli Calendar 2010 scooped first price, with JCB 65th Anniversary receiving the silver prize.

All was not lost however, as A Toy Story was specially selected for display & commendation for ‘possessing a strong creative flair’.

If you are considering a forthcoming creative/marketing project, you may be interested in receiving Design Inc’s  Information Pack.

National Calendar Design Awards is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Jenny Saville’s original painting for the cover of Manic Street Preachers’ Journal for Plague Lovers took second place in the competition, while Martin Ander’s design for Fever Ray’s eponymous album was named the year’s third best cover. A total of 50 awards were made, with an appearance by Damien Hirst – for The Hours album See The Light – at number 20.
Andrew Heeps, director of vinyl framing company Art Vinyl, says album cover design is enjoying a revival, driven by last year’s vinyl sales rise of 30 per cent.

‘With CD sales losing their importance, the canvas that a vinyl record sleeve provides is really adding value for the owner, as they are also purchasing a piece of collectable art. Also, both the majors and indie labels are investing money in really stand-out sleeve art,’ says Heeps.

He picks out the Florence and the Machine album cover, which was placed 17th in the list, as being particularly labour-intensive. It involved a team of at least four, including art director Tabitha Denholm, layout designer Hugh Frost, photographer Tom Beard and illustrator Orlando Weeks

The 50 winning designs will be on display at The Art Vinyl Gallery at Selfridges in London, the Snap Galleries in Birmingham and the Georges House Gallery in Folkestone.

Muse album picks up sleeve cover design award is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Each quarter we will bring you news of our proudest moments, they may be strategic, creative or technological as well as updates on what is going down at the office. This issue, as well as a gallery of glorious festive designs, we are introducing our Incorporating process, how we approach all projects, combining our 3 core skills and targeting the brief. While we are talking about briefs, a big thank you for all the briefs from clients old and new this year and we look forward to moving into the new decade together in January!

You too can receive regular Design Inc news updates by signing up on our website.

Happy Christmas from the team at Design Incorporated.

Season’s greetings from the Design Inc. is a post from the Design Inc Blog

1. we are specialists in brochure design
2. we invest in SEO, specifically for ‘brochure design’ and for ‘website design’

One interesting statistic however is that approximately 50% of people requesting brochure design do not actually need a brochure. They may want one to be designed, but they certainly do not need one. It just may be it’s the first thing they thought of.

One of the first questions any design & marketing agency should ask the customer here is “What do you really want your brochure to do?”

Of course, there are many answers including;

“…to bring business in.”

“…advertise a new product range.”

“…provide a back up to our sales force.”

“…inform my customers about the company.

The team at Design Inc delve further. We want to work out whether the brochure route is the most appropriate for the campaign. This research includes finding out about:

The recipients – is there a suitable list to send the brochures to? What sort of companies/people are they?
The industry – what approach is expected? What is frowned upon?
The competition – what is the competition doing? What makes our client different?

From here, we can work out the true options for our clients. Don’t get me wrong, often a brochure is the correct medium, but sometimes alternate approaches may be more appropriate:

• - direct mail
• - website
• - SEO / PPC campaign
• - advertising campaigns
• - leaflet design
• - exhibitions
• - sponsorship
• - face to face presentations

Check out our portfolio to see these alternatives.

Is it REALLY a brochure you need? is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Working with an agency that has driven the course before has many benefits. No nasty surprises. No schoolboy errors. No time wasted on duplicated briefing. The agency adds value in terms of experience – what works, what doesn’t in that specific market.

These learnings are applied to the strategy, the creative as well as the delivery and measurement mechanisms of a project. Allowing greater focus and genuine innovation within the experience-based parameters of what will work and what won’t or can’t.

Our portfolio pages now group together some of our main market specialisations:

• Aviation
• Subsea
• Medical & Pharmaceutical
• Venues & Events
• IT & Telecoms
• Energy & Engineering

The lie of the land is a post from the Design Inc Blog

iPhone - iDeal for Creative Designers

There is no denying that there are many different applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. But how many of these are useful to those of us involved in the creative industry?

Below we feature four iPhone apps that may be of use to graphic designers and those in creative industries. Some looked to be useful organisational tools, others we thought might help inspire or motivate creativity, whilst others we have included simply because captured our imagination.

Whilst researching this, in many cases we found that there was more than one App which performed a similar function. We have simply listed the ones which appealed to us most. So it may be advisable, when at the iPhone App store, to do a search for similar Apps, as there may be one which is better suited for one purpose over another.

Anyway, in no particular order, here are four design Apps that we liked the look of from the iPhone App Store.

Palettes is an iPhone App for creating colour schemes. With Palettes, it is possible to sample colours from websites, iPhone photo album images or other colour schemes. It will import and export colour palettes to and from Adobe Photoshop and supports a number of colour modes, including RGB, HSV, HSL and CMYK.

There is also a Lite version of Palettes, which does not cost anything, but has some features removed (such as importing and exporting palettes from Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and other programs.

Another colour-based app, which functions by providing a swatch library and interactive colour wheel to help enable creatives to select, showcase and identify colours. Colour Expert includes various Pantone swatches, web safe and HTML colours. It is also possible to add custom colours and email Adobe Swatch Exchange (ASE) files.

PhotoWizard is a photo fixer. It can auto fix the under exposure photos taken from iPhone camera. A manual tool is also available to manually adjust brightness, contrast and color saturation. This App supports  five filters;

• oil paint effect
• fish-eye & anti-fish-eye effect
• sketch
• block waves
• monochrome

We know there are many more useful applications and new ones being created every day. We would love to hear from other designers regarding any other apps they think worth mentioning.

iPhone Apps for the Creative Designer is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Ilsa is a 3D creative and Director of REthinkthings product design agency. She is also Course Leader for 3D design at Liverpool Community College.

Philippe Starck is the world famous French product designer behind some of the most recognisable product design of our time. From motorbikes and watches to toothbrushes and lemon squeezers, Starck knows no limits.

Ilsa Perry's Flo design

In this latest reality TV show, he set about unearthing the best of British design and invited open applications from UK designers for a place in his Paris school of design. Hundreds applied but only 12 were chosen based on the quality and creativity of their designs. Following the same format as The Apprentice, the fortunes of the 12 candidates were then followed over a ten week period. Each week Starck set the students a series of creative challenges, with the weakest being eliminated.

Ilsa won the show with her innovative Flo design. An inspirational & unique walking aid device that gave an insight into Ilsa’s design thinking, observation and understanding of how design affects everything around us.

One entry on Ilsa’s blog says it all… “Ilsa, I always hoped that designers would remember that older and disabled people needed products that would express how they feel. The aids out there are miserable and ugly. Thank you for having the courage to think differently about an often neglected market.”

Ilsa, we salute you.

What do you think about the Flo, we’d be keen to hear your views.

Philippe Starck goes with the Flo is a post from the Design Inc Blog

This event will be welcomed with open arms by the creative community as graphics underpins so many strands of commercial design, yet goes largely uncelebrated in the UK, due to the popularity of 3D design.

Graphics are the basis of so many creative applications, from advertising, design, branding, etc, yet there is a decline in teaching skills such as drawing and typography in colleges.

By celebrating the best in graphics through the Somerset House festival, we hope these issues can be addressed.

London Venue, Somerset House to Host Graphics Festival is a post from the Design Inc Blog

The date for the National Calendar Design Awards has been announced for 12th January 2010.

The presentation evening will take place in the Stationers’ Company Hall in the City of London and will provide prizes for a number of categories including;

• Best Natural History photographic Calendar
• Corporate Stock Calendar
• Best Celebrity Title
• Best New Creative Calendar

For those creative design companies like ourselves, who are regularly commissioned to design bespoke calendars, the deadline for this years’ entries has been set for December 7th.

Design Inc is entered into two categories this year and we have our fingers crossed for a good result. See our entry.

National Calendar Design Awards 2010 is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Design Inc incorporates marketing as part of our portfolio of services. With our sector specific consultants available for booking on a day by day or project by project basis.

Services

• Marketing audit
• Brand review
• Brand purpose workshops
• Marketing plans
• Communications plans
• Media strategy
• Web performance review
• Search marketing optimisation

Sectors

• Luxury & Lifestyle
• Medical & Pharmaceutical
• Venues & Events
• Energy & Engineering
• IT & Telecoms

Outsource Your Marketing! is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Not all however, may know that the Metal FX company is no longer trading and therefore able to supply their own brand of metallic silver printing inks to printers and creative design agencies in the UK.

Middlesex design agency Design Incorporated are able to use their own choice of metallic silver inks to create the same unique look and feel as Metal FX without the price tag. So if you would like to add something special to your next brochure design, business card design or whatever corporate design project is coming up next then let us know and we would be happy to explain the process to you further.

Design Inc. picks up where Metal FX metallic inks leaves off is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Ask yourself….

• How can my brand be front of mind for all my clients 365 days a year without spamming them daily?
• How can I thank my clients for their loyalty over the last 12 months and be politically correct about it?
• How can I position an advert for my business proposition in front of my client for 52 weeks for a single media spend?

A creative bespoke branded calendar is your answer to all of the above.

A bespoke branded calendar design is the sign of a secure and robust business. It can engage your client on a number of levels from practical to aesthetic. It can provide a metaphor for your provision of a time sensitive or continuous joined-up service. It can reference historical or future significant dates for your business or include industry specific useful reference information.

An effective corporate calendar can have an Interactive element, it could link to an online time released CRM mechanism such as monthly updates or offers. It can be the opportunity to take a sideways look at a brand. A vehicle to deliver your proposition in a different way.

It will be perceived as a tailored, high value gift for clients, associates, partners & employees. Desktop, wall hanging or planner formats can all be effective brand ambassadors – your contact on the inside! A Trojan horse!

2010 a new decade – make it a year of 365 todays.

With your permission – we enter all our personally designed calendars for the Business Calendar Awards.

364 tomorrows is a post from the Design Inc Blog

That got us discussing an X Factor for creative agencies and Design Inc’s dream of winning a national design competition. After all, this is all we’ve ever wanted. This is all we ever think of. This is what we were incorporated to do.

Design Incorporated - winners of Design Factor?

Of course, we would use a sob story to get the sympathy vote first…we used to design on a Power PC 7600, we were best friends, we were inseparable, creating designs all day long. One morning however, when we booted up, it didn’t stir. And despite our ‘kind’ pleas, slaps and punches, the Power PC had finally moved to the great silicon city in the sky.

But still, we would be so excited to get into the final 12. The weeks would go by and whatever design genre they threw at us, we would show our versatility and make those designs our own. Brochure design one week, web design the next, and on it would go with other agencies being voted out each week. Xmas would come and our hard work would get us into the final with two other creative agencies.

For the final we’d have to design like we’ve never designed before. We would need to design, illustrate and brand our creative hearts out. And then would come that statement. The statement that would make or break us. The one that would make this day the first day of the rest of our lives. And so, with our hearts beating fast, it would be read out…….

“The winner of Design Factor 2009 is……………”

The Winner of Design Factor 2009 is… is a post from the Design Inc Blog

Is considered a safe pair of hands? or prompts an immediate association with service excellence or innovation in clients hearts and minds?

Don’t undervalue the worth of branding your company correctly. Not just the design of a logo, but the combined assets of all your marketing elements creating one consistent and powerful message. It all counts, and can be addressed at different levels and at for realistic fees

Make yours memorable, compelling, descriptive.

Corporate Identity and Brand Design – Vastly Undervalued? is a post from the Design Inc Blog