Todays industry talk came from Merlin Duff of Wonderstuff studio, a design studio based in Gosforth that specialise in brand and design consultation. There was no denying from the off that Merlin was confident in what he preached, giving blunt and helpful advice right off the bat, this is my kind of person, getting the point across in a sentence rather that muttering for half an hour and getting to the same result.
Some projects that you might be familiar with that were designed by Wonderstuff is Lane7, the boutique bowling alley just outside of the centre of Newcastle, offering a place for people to socialise in something that is completely different to what youll find currently in the town centre. There is no denying that the visuals in Lane7 are great, the on trend us of wood all around giving it that slightly rustic feel, the type sprawled across the walls and of course the logo that has a special concept behind it. At first glance the logo for Lane7 has a stand out feature to it, people will probably notice that if you rotate it 180 degrees it reads exactly the same, but not a lot of people will know the concept behind this. Merlin explained that the logo does this so no matter what direction the bowling ball is spinning (of which the logo is printed) the branding will still be legible as saying Lane7. Clever! Another project you may be familiar with is the Durham Distillery and their Gin, this was a project that Merlin said they started off with a client approaching them with the simple idea of "I want to make Gin", and after questioning and pushing the brief with the client they got a greater concept and ended up with what they have now, a design that has been feature on blogs such as the Dieline and Design Week.
The question was raised of the creative process within Wonderstuff, the answer was broken down into five parts. Firstly comes the Purpose, other than money, what is the aim for the business. The Vision, if it was all blue sky thinking and nothing went wrong where would the brand be, where do you strive to be. The Values, how does stuff get done, economic? or quick and get as much out as possible? The Position, this should relate to an audience, why do you do what you do and who do you do it for? This needs to be definite for the brand to be as effective as possible and lastly the Promise, this is one sentence that sums up everything about the brand.
This talk was primarily based around branding and what a brand actually was, but Merlin raised a few extra points on top of these to help us along our journey, mentioning how many people approach him for placements and compliment the Lane7 work, he stated "We know its good work, we did it, we put it out". So a helpful tip, talk about the work that an agency has done in the past as a conversation starter, but just think how many people do exactly the same food for thought... What you should be putting forward is that youre a friendly person that can work in a team, if you put yourself out there and are nice to people theyll be the same back and youll be memorable (mentioning even bringing donuts into placement for the team, a hint maybe?), to sum it all up it goes to a simple statement, the title of this post, "Just be a good person", your work obviously has to do something for you as well, but if youre arrogant and that over shadows the standard of your work youre going to get no where.
If you want to see more of Wonderstuff's work, including their work for Lane7 and Durham Distillery check out their website: http://wonderstuffstudio.com/
0 comments