elliottyoung featured in Design Week

We're very pleased this week to be showcased in Design Week for our work on the 2009 Royal Variety Performance brochure.

"Elliott Young produces brochure by royal appointment – the Royal Variety Performance takes place on Monday 16th, with a brochure designed by Elliott Young.



The event is being held in Blackpool for the first time since 1955. Elliott Young claims that it was briefed to incorporate the town’s ‘visual excitements’ in its imagery.

Dan Elliott, creative director of Elliott Young, says, ‘We focused on the Blackpool illuminations as the inspiration for bringing the brochure to life. The cover was the result of a lot of hard work in linking the iconic Blackpool Tower with the heritage of the event, using a series of heraldic shapes’.

The Royal Variety Performance takes place on Monday and airs on ITV1 on 16 December."

Grab a cup a coco and enjoy the show.

ey joins abba

We're ecstatic to announce that we've been selected to become members of abba – the UK's Association of Business-to-Business Agencies.

With a commitment to excellence derived from only the UK's best and brightest, abba is dedicated to supporting the agencies and client marketers that work in B2B marketing and communications. To be chosen to be a part of abba is akin to a petrol-head being invited to the VIP lounge of Formula 1.

Thanks to all at abba. We're honoured to climb aboard.

10:10 initiative

ey are proud to have signed up to the 10:10 initiative.

By committing to cutting our emissions by 10% in 2010, we will join thousands of individuals, schools, hospitals, businesses and organisations all actively helping to combat climate change by making some simple changes to their lifestyles, homes and workplaces.

Check out the full details at 1010uk.org

Sign yourself up today!

I wouldn't usually post client feedback, but this comment received today from the CIPD, (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) really lifted the mood in the two offices.

Nice one Eleanor!

ey.Twitter

ey are now fully paid up members of the twitter community (I know, took us long enough). We will now endeavour to micro-blog any day-to-day news that's of any interest, and most likely a load of stuff that's not.

twitter.com/elliottyoung

Same difference

After having the very fortunate experience of a trip to Dubai last month to visit our client – Arabian Travel Market, it lead to a unique perspective on the branding challenges the region offers.

The biggest challenge, it seems, is the range of typefaces available to translate the same level of contemporary or traditional/established values a brand captures.

Take Rolex for example. For me, this fails remarkably on face value. It's very difficult to gauge what is perceived as a luxury or established typeface in arabic, but the chosen script face does not convey the brand values of Rolex for me.

The identities that tend to work the best are specifically crafted for a particular brand and then translated again for the foreign market. Fanta works very well. A direct translation of the fun, forward thinking brand.

Brands that rely on a twist within the typography face an even greater challenge. Luckily the FedEx logo still manages to retain the hidden bonus within, pointing instead to the left, the direction of reading. Even though I know what the logo means, the arrow seems more obvious. Possibly because the surrounding text has no direct meaning to me. Nice work.

... and the colour doesn't look right, can you fix it?

It's somewhat common, though not at all remarkable, that we're often asked to 'please fix the colour' within a piece of design collateral. The question is nearly always asked as though the colour needing to be 'fixed' is a given. No other possibilities considered - and why would there be? The colour doesn't look correct, so fix it.
Right?

Well, as you'll see from the image here, sometimes the colour is just fine and dandy. It's you, the beholder, who needs fixing. Or more correctly, your eyes and brain need to evolve just a little more to overcome the problem of 'bridging information gaps' which result in an incorrect analysis.

So, you're looking at embedded spirals, of green, pinkish-orange, and blue. Right?

Wrong! What you think is blue is precisely the same colour as the green. Go ahead - grab the image and blow it up. It's green I say. Green green green.

The reason they look different colours is purely because our brain judges the colour of an object by comparing it to surrounding colours. In this case, the stripes are not continuous as they appear at first glance. The orange stripes don’t go through the 'blue' spiral, and the magenta ones don’t go through the 'green' one.

Without us being consciously aware of it, our brains compare that spiral to the orange stripes, forcing it to think the spiral is green. The magenta stripes make the other part of the spiral look blue, even though they are exactly the same colour. The overall pattern is a spiral shape because our brain likes to fill in missing bits to a pattern. Even though the stripes are not the same color all the way around the spiral, the overlapping spirals makes our brain think they are. The very fact that you have to examine the picture closely to figure out any of this at all shows just how easily our little brains can be tricked. Grrrr!!

Anyway, just spare a thought about this the next time you think your Pantone 405 doesn't look quite right. Perhaps the reality is actually different to what you're seeing.

There’s no such thing as an original idea!

This ones for all of you out there that's had the idea of the century in a brainstorming session, think you've nailed it and are bubbling with excitement to tell the team of your epiphany. Only to then be told, "I've seen that before".

Stumbling across this site today, it's clear in the world of advertising is full of shameless copycats or unfortunate coincidence? You decide. (Line borrowed from the site)

Spam truths

Whatever your opinion about spam, here are some facts you may or may not be interested in:

_ More spam comes from the USA than anywhere else

_ Most spam comes from one region in the US – Austin Minnesota

_ Spam's been around for a very long time – the first known record of someone receiving spam was in 1937

_ In 2002, spam number six billion was produced

_ There are more than a dozen recognised categories of spam, including Spam Lite and Spam Singles

Ok, I'm bored of this. If you want to read more exciting facts about spam, you can read about all the above and lots lots more here.

 

iPaint, therefore I am

I recently uploaded a new painting application to my iPhone. I thought I'd mastered it until I stumbled across this fellow painter.

Jorge Colombo, a NYC based artist creates all his images using a finger (or thumb), his iPhone and an app called Brushes.

I'll keep practicing for now I think.

We've just launched the IMSBDMLCD (The Institute of Marketers who are Sick of being forced to Boil Down our Messages to the Lowest Common Denominator)

The more clients we meet, the more we hear a phrase that goes something like, 'Cor boys, you lot really duz gets this 'ere 1on1 malarketing... we've been looking for an agency that can put our data through its paces for yonks... you guys REALLY need to own it, and put it out there!'.

Perhaps it was gutsy of us, but we said 'Ok then, we'll own it'. And so we're now proud owners of:

1on1.dm
1on1dm.com
1on1dm.co.uk

The time has come, all ye marketers who've been looking for that special somethin'. If you're needing an edge. Actually forget that. If you're needing a total and radical transformation of your marketing methodology, then start by chanting three times daily:

'I NO LONGER NEED TO BOIL DOWN MY MARKETING MESSAGES TO THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR.'

... and then take a look at our fancy new website.