All Posts By

Martin Hamblin

Folding charger concept is designed to reduce electronic waste.

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11,000 tonnes of electronic waste is created by old and unused chargers every year. Congratulations to London-based design studio Blond for trying to do something about it through innovative design. 

London-based design studio Blond has revealed a folding charger concept, which aims to address the growing problem of electronic waste in the tech industry. 

People could repair and upgrade the multi-purpose charger, named Fold, instead of simply throwing it away when it became useless. 

More details can be found at Designweek

Why do some exhibitors waste their money?

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We recently went to the Confex exhibition at the Excel in London with the view to meeting some new suppliers. I had some interesting conversations and with three in particular who agreed they would contact me after the show as I had some live enquires.  

Of these one did and gave me some costs as agreed. The other two have yet to make contact in just over two weeks. 

My point is why is this?

As we all know exhibitions cost a great deal of money considering the space itself, design, stand build, logistics and staff time. Why bother to spend all this money, time and effort to generate enquiries and not follow up especially where someone has shown some genuine interest? 

New Hermes branding will certainly divide the crowd.

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As a customer of Hermes, the parcel delivery company we were made aware on Friday that they were in the process of changing their name to Evri and relaunching the brand.  

In a company statement they said, ” It is more than just a name change – it is a statement of intent of our commitment to leading the way in creating responsible delivery experiences for ‘Evri one’, ‘Evri where’

Part of this change it must be said is in part get away from their perceived level of bad service and the idea is that this will give everything a fresh start. 

They have stepped away just updating the somewhat tired Hermes identity and gone for a completely different name and look. This is brave but also can be a risk as history shows. One of the most well-known of course is when Royal Mail changed its name to Consignia and sixteen months later and changed it back. Customers were quite clear; they just didn’t like it. 

Evri have already been some strong opinions voiced on social media, more about their level of service rather than the new look.

The designers for the Evri brand have come up with a distinctive look and feel using interesting very playful typography which has been carried through to some of the initial executions. Not sure how this will work longer term before running out of treatments. Visually I have to say I quite like it and it’s a bit of grower but never been a fan of taking elements of a logo and using them as some sort of a theme.

It will be interesting to see how it will be received. Mind you design can only do so much, it’s the customer service that will count in the end. 

Creative Artworker

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We are an event and design agency based in Windsor and work with some of the UK’s leading brands including Virgin Media O2 and Co-op.

We are looking to build our studio team and require an experienced creative artworker, starting immediately.

You will need at least 2 years commercial experience and be expert across InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. Knowledge of website design and build and any 3D programs such as Sketchup would be an advantage. You must have experience with working within brand guidelines and attention to detail is vital.

Working within a small team you will be asked to work independently and with initiative and you will be required to work closely with our key print and production partners.

Salary £28,000 per year.

Please send your latest CV to Antony Crafford,  [email protected]

Bird’s eye view

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When it comes to marketing a property that covers a large area, capturing the scale and extent of the site is often difficult using conventional photography. However, the use of drone photography gives you flexibility to provide a bird’s eye view from every angle and show all the details required. 

The overlaying of graphics and captions really brings it to life and puts it in context with the surrounding area which helps the selling process. 

A good example of this is the work we have just completed for Avison Young on behalf of Sainsbury’s for a site in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.  Take a look here

In the case of an emergency

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In the case of an emergency 

Following a series of tragic events in 2017 including the Manchester Arena bombings and the Grenfell fire, the Charity Commission for England and Wales recommended a new approach to national emergencies.  

Sector experts and emergency survivors came together to conceive the National Emergencies Trust, an independent charity dedicated to responding to UK disasters.  The Trust was launched in November 2019 by its Royal Patron, HRH The Duke of Cambridge.

Whilst the charity did fantastic work, it was felt that they needed a much stronger identity in order to create better awareness and instil trust and belief in their audience, especially potential donors.

Original branding focused on the shortened name of NET, which didn’t capitalise on the required awareness, so through our branding consultancy Designroom we were asked to develop a new identity that would give the charity the clarity and stand out they required.

We brought National Emergencies Trust to the front and centre of the new identity using a bold typeface, set in caps to create real presence.  To support this, we introduced a chevron device to graphically symbolise emergency.  It was important to ensure the right balance between name and graphic to enable reproduction at all sizes.

For continuity and to keep an association with existing collateral, we opted to keep the original colour palette therefore enabling the charity to reduce changeout costs where not necessary.

Creating Sustainable Events

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Creating sustainable events is one of the biggest challenges facing the events industry.  We all recognise the importance of live events and the fantastic experience that we can deliver for brands and delegates, but we are also very aware of the negative affect these live events can have on the environment.
 
Events can be extremely wasteful, so at Ice we look at every element of our planning and organisation to limit this as much as we can, without sacrificing the quality of our work or the experience we offer our clients and event goers. 
 
We are a member of ISLA, a non-profit organisation founded by event professionals and industry leaders focusing on a sustainable future for events.
 
weareisla.co.uk
 
#weareisla
#sustainableevents
#smallchangebigdifferenc

Going down the drain

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Have you ever wondered what happens to a great deal of milk after in goes past its ‘use by’ date?

Well, it gets thrown away! Yes, some 490 million pints* are disposed of each year. Not to mention all the plastic it creates, but that’s for another day. 

A great deal of this waste is generated because milk is sold with a ‘use by’ date as opposed to ‘best before’. For some consumers if a product goes a minute passed its ‘use by’ date its perceived as no longer any use and must be disposed of. It is estimated the 85 million pints* of milk waste may be due to customers following ‘use by’ labels despite research showing it can be used after the date. 

Supermarket Morrisons is to scrap ‘use by’ dates on most of its milk and instead place ‘best before’ on 90% of its own brand milk and encourage customers to use a sniff test to check quality. Morrisons say “good quality well-kept milk has a good few days life after normal ‘use by’ dates and we think it should be consumed and not tipped down the sink”.

I think this is great move by Morrisons and feel sure they won’t be the last main supermarket to implement such an initiative.

* Source: WRAP 

#smallchangebigdifference 

Have a sustainable Christmas

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In the UK, consumers use approximately 227,000 miles of wrapping paper each Christmas, enough to stretch nine times around the world, and 1 billion Christmas cards (the equivalent of 33 million trees).

Some things you can do to help:

1. Get crafty 
Switch to brown paper which is 100% recyclable. Get inspiration from Pinterest and create your own patterns with stamps, paint or pens. Plus any leftover paper can be used all year round.

2. Do the scrunch test 
If your paper scrunches up into a ball and stays then it can be recycled. If it bounces back, then it’s off to landfill!! 

3. Sticky situation
Sellotape is made of polypropylene, a type of plastic that is not recyclable. To avoid contaminating your recycling remove all tape from your wrapping paper before you put it in the bin.

4. Waste not, want not 
Use scrap paper, magazines and newspapers to create unique gift wrap. Get thrifty and use what you already have – a pillowcase, a scarf or an old (clean) tea towel.

These numbers and tips were supplied by isla, the members organisation helping the events sector transition to a more sustainable future.

 

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