At Punch we believe in building relationships and the positive effect this can have on our business. As a design agency, we will always be judged on our work of course, but in an increasingly crowded and competitive marketplace (in Leeds alone !) relationships really matter.
An example of this is the relationship we enjoy with Bonner & Hindley, a Leeds based communications agency working primarily in PR and marketing. We met them only a few months after we started Punch in 2007 on a collaborative project that we still both work on today – the Cedar Court Hotel group.
We enjoy working with B&H because essentially their outlook is the same as ours, and our core services gel together well to provide a turnkey service for our clients. We handle the design, web and digital bits, they do the communications and we get together to discuss ideas and strategy that will benefit the client.
So, we were really chuffed when they approached us to look at their own rebrand that would incorporate a new logo and design creative for print and web.
But, like the best man at a wedding, we were also nervous of messing this up for our friend…this was never going to be a normal client / agency project.
The new website proved so effective the B&H team literally hid from the phones...
Encountering a new brand for the first time is just like meeting a person, we make an instant assumption that, if negative, is very hard to shift.
To begin to build the brand we looked at contemporary design work in relevant sectors that successfully achieved what we wanted to do. We all loved the design work associated with the Guardian newspaper and the Victoria & Albert museum. For us, these are modern brands showing their creative, modern personality in perfect balance with their standing as well informed and respected institutions.
From that point we set about our initial creative design on the new B&H logotype in various applications and colour variations. The logo was constructed around a simple idea: use a classic old English font (Caslon) and set it against a palette of modern, fresh colours. This in essence summed up B&H perfectly, a mixture of experience and expertise alongside creativity, personality and fun.
The brand design developed as a main logo that was underpinned by a series of B&H ‘buttons’ in a variety of engaging colours. This keeps the branding fresh and varied and allows each member of the B&H team to be creative and own their own part of the brand. Then we developed the logo to present the core services of the agency in a series of highly visual sub brand buttons.
This logic was then translated onto the website design. This would have the new brand at its core and move the website from being a standard static brochure, to a fluid statement about B&H, its personality and the work they do. You learn about who they are and what they do quickly and easily, without feeling like you are having to work hard to extract the information you need.
But, the best thing about the new brand and website (for us) is that in an industry that is often simply about self promotion, B&H show what matters most to them – personality, relationships and good communication.
So, having waxed lyrical about our own work, the best way to finish a project blog like this is to end with a word from the client about the thrill of working with Punch Creative !
[blockquote]Bonner & Hindley have worked with Punch for some time now and we regularly recommend their creative services to our clients and contacts. When it was time to consider our own rebrand they were the logical choice and the resulting creative has been a breath of fresh air to our brand image. We are all reinvigorated by the new branding: it is a firm statement about our company and creates a great impression of our agency to the people we meet”.
Dan Jeffrey
Account Director[/blockquote] You can read more about the project and visit the B&H website by following the link below:
https://bonnerandhindley.co.uk