Name creation for TfL
Creating a name for a scheme that will change the way we think about moving around London.
Source London is a new London-wide electric vehicle charging network initiated by the Mayor of London with a view to promote the widespread use of electric vehicles (EV) throughout the capital. From Spring 2011 there will be a phased installation of 1,300 public charging points on residential streets and off-street locations such as car parks, supermarkets, shopping and leisure centres.
It is a very important initiative, designed to change the way we think about getting around London. We worked with Transport for London, one of the principal partners and the organisation that will run the scheme, to develop the new brand.
The challenge was to create a name that would apply not only to the network but also to the charging points themselves. Since the charging points would be located across London and in many public locations, the views of the London Boroughs and other organisations had to be taken into consideration in the naming process. Our usual naming process perfectly fitted the bill.
We held a naming workshop to which a diverse group of stakeholders, including representatives of the London Boroughs, were invited. Those present at the workshop participated in a series of exercises designed to elicit the most favoured brand names already in use and to generate suggestions for name candidates and types of names that would be relevant for the scheme.
Such workshops do not always produce a suitable name but are invaluable in providing direction as to the type of name (common usage, made up name or hybrid), the meaning behind the name, sound of the name etc. Following the workshop we had a clear sense of direction and were able to generate a good number of name candidates for the long list. In due course the long list was whittled down to a short list which included the word Source.
Already there are more electric drivers in London than anywhere else in the UK and when the scheme is complete there will be twice as many charge points in London as there are petrol stations. Transport for London has offered the Source brand to other cities in the UK so we shall no doubt be hearing this name many more times in the future.
Naturally we are supporters of the initiative and personally some of us are looking into the possibility of changing our preferred form of transport to EV.
To find out more visit https://www.sourcelondon.net/
Artoil opens in Ufa
The second Artoil station has opened to much aclaim in the Urals city of Ufa. The first station in the wealthy Moscow suburb of Rublevka caused quite a stir but not as much as Ufa where retail is still a few years behind. Ufa customers were very pleasantly surprised that an oil company had finally decided to present its offer up to the standard and beyond of any other major shopping centre retailer. See russian tv story.
Minale Tattersfield head of retail David Davis comments that it was great to see that such a city as Ufa should benefit from outside investment dedicated to bringing some colour to a normally dreary and functional retail sector. It was also a personal milestone for owner Rishat Safin who is native to this region.
Photo and construction courtesy of Etalon.
Repsol Solar Water Heating Car Wash
Outside Barajas airport in Madrid can be seen solar panels on top of the Repsol jet wash bays. Look closer and it’s clear that these are not solar PV electricity generators which have appeared on petrol station canopies over recent years but water heaters for supplying warm water at the jet wash nozzle.
By using solar water heaters in this way Repsol will gain from offsetting the cost of either a gas fuelled heater or an electricity fuelled heater. Savings will be manifest not only as reduced energy bills but reduced maintenance costs for conventional heating apparatus.
...but why not communicate the environmental benefits more obviously?
Some big ideas just keep on getting bigger
In July 2008 we were asked by Harlequins Rugby Club to create a brand for what would be the biggest event in their calendar.
Their idea back then was to stage a match just after Boxing Day which would take place at the country’s largest rugby stadium, Twickenham. Instead of their usual crowd of 13,000 at their home ground they would have to attract a crowd of 50,000. (Twickenham actually holds over 80,000 but due to the lack of public transport over Christmas they were not allowed to sell more than 50,000 tickets).
So the challenge was to put together a campaign that would sell four times more tickets than was usual for a club match.
Their idea back then was to stage a match just after Boxing Day which would take place at the country’s largest rugby stadium, Twickenham. Instead of their usual crowd of 13,000 at their home ground they would have to attract a crowd of 50,000. (Twickenham actually holds over 80,000 but due to the lack of public transport over Christmas they were not allowed to sell more than 50,000 tickets).
So the challenge was to put together a campaign that would sell four times more tickets than was usual for a club match.
A big challenge calls for big thinking, and big thinking led to the big
brand. So it was that Minale Tattersfield created the Big Game brand
as well as all the promotional material. The event was highly successful
with all tickets sold. Its success led in 2009 to Big Game 2 and Minale Tattersfield was tasked with producing an even bigger campaign with promotional material including a short film, posters for buses and train stations, newspaper advertisements, leaflets etc. This time the authorities relented and allowed 80,000 tickets to be sold so the challenge had got bigger. The campaign obviously hit the mark because virtually all 80,000 tickets were sold.
Now in the run up to the end of 2010 the Big Game is still going strong. Big Game 3 is being promoted throughout London and another full house is expected. The original Minale Tattersfield promotional material is being updated for this year’s campaign. Although the updating is not being carried out by Minale Tattersfield, the brand template has already been clearly established. The look and feel, brand values, colour palette, layout and photographic style have been set out so precisely that it is easy for the club to now insert the latest details.
The Minale Tattersfield ethos is to build brands on firm foundations.
The foundation is to understand fully the client’s objectives, the customer motivation and the competitive set. So the customer motivation was all about getting out after the Christmas blowout to something that could be enjoyed by all the family that would be different and special. The big idea to communicate this was the idea of a Hollywood blockbuster or epic.
We think the Big Game will run and run.
A look into our archives
As examples that showed creativity, with layers of meaning and a strong idea behind them where three identities, of which two where ours, The Royal Armouries Museum and The London Transport Museum. The third identity mentioned was The National Grid by John McConnell.
This article tempted us to a bit of nostalgia (typically a bad word with us) and we took a look at our archives to remind ourselves of these two identities we had created during the 1990s.
The London Transport Museum identity was commissioned between 1992 and 1993. The art director responsible was Alex Maranzano, (retired from Minale Tattersfield in 2009) and the senior designer was Jon Unwin (today he is Graphic Design Programme Leader at Falmouth Collage - http://www.falmouth.ac.uk/component/contacts/352/view/design-graphic-design-bahons-119/jon-unwin-105/index.html).
The brief was to develop a new identity as part of the London Transport Museum’s refurbishment programme. This needed to be compatible with the classic London Transport identity and expressive of the relationship between a great urban transportation system and the people using it – past, present and future.
Our solution was selecting different people from different times travelling on London Transport. From a top hatted Victorian gentleman to a modern passenger time appears to be speeding up as we reach the present day. A case of travel, traveling through time…
In 2008 the London Transport Museum went through another major refurbishment and the identity was dropped in favour of the famous TfL roundel. However powerful and iconic the roundel is we feel that the museum has lost its own personality as a place of transport enlightenment and delight and now resembles more the depository of Transport for London’s decommissioned transport vehicles. The London Transport Museum website is http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/
The Royal Armouries identity was commissioned between 1995 and 1996 and was the last project Brian Tattersfield, one of our founding partners, art directed and personally worked on before retiring.
The brief was to design the visual identity and signage for the then newly built Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds.
The solution was to base the identity on one of the most extraordinary objects in the collection – a grotesque horned helmet, all that remains of a suit of armour made for King Henry VIII. Visually startling, elegant, beautifully crafted but slightly sinister, this helmet embodied all the qualities inherent in the collection. E.g. Weapons with the purpose of maiming and killing which are, yet, so beautifully crafted and fascinating to look at.
Outside the main entrance two granite columns presented the mask in 3D to greet visitors as they enter. Because of the simplicity of the building there was no conventional sign system required, instead a secondary set of symbols where created to identify the main areas of the museum, from the horrors of war to the thrill of the tournament. Visitors would then be directed to these areas by huge banners which would hang the full height of the internal street.
At the time of presenting our design concepts to the museum’s curators we also highlighted that the name Royal Armouries Museum, could eventually be abbreviated to RAM, an appropriate anagram seeing the famous helmet used ram horns which are symbolic for confrontation and warfare.
Sadly over the last years the identity has slowly diminished to near oblivion and replaced by a somewhat anodyne and rather boring identity. The Royal Armouries Museum website is http://www.royalarmouries.org/home
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