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Motion graphics video for Prinovis

March 14th, 2012

We’ve just signed off another motion graphics project! This piece was for Prinovis, a leading gravure print group with its head offices in Germany. Studiowide was commissioned by the Liverpool division of Prinovis, located in Speke.

The company is actually one of the largest printing plants in the UK, covering 500,000 sq. ft.!!! and have launched a new mobile couponing service at the retail business technology trade show in London. Prinovis required a motion graphics video to play on the stand and inform prospective customers of their products, including features, benefits and the competitive advantage.

We were asked to plan and produce a three minute motion graphics, animated project to be displayed at the exhibition show. Whilst three minutes might not seem like that much, in animation, it’s quite a lot! Imagine getting a pad of A4 paper; say the pad has 200 pages, if each page is a frame, and the standard frame rate for video is 25 frames per second. If you were to draw an animated stick figure in the corner of every page in the pad, and then flick through it; that’d be only 8 seconds worth of animation. So this video was the equivalent of a flick book animation, it’d take 22, 200 paged pads, and 4,400 pages of drawing. Nice little analogy for you there.

The challenge with this video wasn’t predominantly the length but the fact that all of the information had to be delivered visually – the hustle and bustle of the show would drown out any narration the video had. This meant that we had to be smart in the way that we presented the information and facts. The whole content had to be engaging and exciting, and hold the viewer’s attention.

We decided to take the style of video down the infographics route. This means that all data, facts and figures were represented graphically – this style is perfect for this project due to the fact that the show meant NO sound.

Using infographics in a motion graphics piece is very exciting, much more so than the typical standard PowerPoint style bullets – ‘death by power point’ would not do the trick in this case; it had to be more engaging.

For example; in one composition we use a stack of mobile phones to the left of the screen representing mobile couponing, then on the right hand side of the screen a single paper coupon would flutter in and land on the floor, representing the fact that the paper coupon is ten times effective than mobile phone coupons.

In most of the animated sequences we also inserted text captions to re-enforce a particular message. It takes a lot of lateral thinking in this style of motion graphics. This is key to effectively represent the information in an engaging and concise manner.

Prinovis had tonne of information they wanted to get across in the video; this proved a tricky balancing act, fitting it all in whilst remaining engaging and interesting. However, with a bit of clever animation and motion graphics techniques it wasn’t too difficult. Overall, the motion graphics video met all of the objectives required by Prinovis for the video to be displayed at the show.

Not only was the video to be used at the show, but also on the Prinovis’ website. Visitors to the site will be able to watch the video and come away suitably informed about Prinovis’ mobile couponing and what it involves.

If you’re interested in having your own motion graphics video produced by us, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Tags: After Effects, animation, infographics, motion graphics, prinovis
Posted in Video Production, Videos | No Comments »

How Google Works For Us

March 12th, 2012

by Carl Da-Costa-Greaves

I’ve been meaning to make this post for a few months about how Google products work so seamlessly for us as a business. However, each time I sit down to write, Google announce another cool feature or product notification and I get ‘excitedly’ side-tracked.

Studiowide was setup 2 years ago, based in Liverpool city centre. We’re a small but quickly expanding business and I would hazard a guess that our representation of the current SME landscape is a good one.

I’d sum up our work as business creativity and chartered marketing. What does that mean? Well, we identified a growing market in the UK for start-up companies and expanding small to medium sized enterprises, and then set about creating a range of services to help these businesses promote themselves in the most progressive way possible.

Our go-to-market approach is an eclectic mix of professional marketing at the highest level (we are registered chartered marketers), offset by a very creative edge. We’re the type of professionals who would turn up to a business meeting in a battered Land Rover Defender. This is then offset by the perfectly-dressed business attire. We have fun in business – this fuels our creative side. However, once the creative dust has settled we make no mistake in demonstrating that we understand business.

My own personal computer history goes back to Windows 95 OS and the usual Microsoft associated packages, such as Office. Yes, I have to admit that I came through the ranks as an avid user of Microsoft Outlook for email, as most, if not all businesses at that time were. Along with Microsoft 95 came Internet Explorer. This was my world to the internet for the next 10 years.

Over the 10 years I began to notice an unobtrusive brand that gradually became part of my daily life. Maybe it was the crisp clear interface that didn’t ask anything of me other than ‘Search’ and ‘I’m feeling lucky’. Whatever it was, Google was my new home page (and has been on a multitude of browsers to this day).

As the years went by, Google products were silently rolled out – minus the usual PR machines. It was at this moment in time that it started to dawn on me just how clever this company was. The more I knew of them the more I liked and shared their values. Google was getting on with doing what it did best and knew exactly ‘why’ they were in business (to organise the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful… if you don’t already know).

From Google Alerts to Keyword tools I was using them all on a daily basis. Admittedly, some products never become stars, but a lot of them did. Such as the Google toolbar with Pagerank and in-page spell checker – a must have for plain text forms that didn’t have built in spell checkers. These tools proved invaluable to me.

Then along came Google Apps for business. I would hazard a guess that somewhere on the Google master plan this was a crucial point. It certainly was for Studiowide regarding how we used the Google suite of products.

By May 2011 we were using virtually all of Google’s tools to help us in some ways; either with our day-to-day productivity or with our business activity of SEO and digital marketing.

After a 4 weeks trial with Google Apps for business we finally pointed our email server to Google. In June 2011 we switched over to the Gmail email client. From that point on we have been using the full Google Apps for business suite of products.

Funnily, it was at this point that the Google team visited Liverpool on a local campaign drive. They apparently selected us from a random list of businesses and preceded for no reason other than apparent Altruism, to hand us with a very nice box of cupcakes. However, we keep telling ourselves that the cupcakes were from Larry Page and Sergey Brin as a gift for our lock-stock-and-barrel move to Google. See image above.

As a small business owner, Google Apps provides us with not only the most cost effective integrated IT solution, but technically the facilities are also industry leading (if not, the best). We run all of our daily tasks from within Google and we handle our sales pipelines and customer relationship management from the suite of chrome apps and extensions available.

All of this means that we have access to all of our information from within any browser. It also makes setting up a new user account on a PC a doddle. Not to mention the integration of this information from within our Google Android devices – everything we do online is now also available on our smart phones and Asus tablets. Hats off to the Google team for pushing on with the Android system when the doubters started…, well… doubting.

In November 2011 Google+ for business officially arrived. Up to this point, as a business and personal user of Social media sites, I had used all platforms available to man. This was partly to serve my curiosity as a techie, but mainly because as a digital marketing company it’s our duty to offer a range of ‘suitable’ services to our clients, and we continue to do so.

However, Google+ is not just another social media platform, it appears to be another market changer – the Google master plan once again makes sense. As you can probably guess, we hurried to set up our Google+ business page and immediately set about creating our circles – straight away the difference with this platform compared to Facebook is obvious.

The biggest differentiator that I can see between the 2 services is Facebook is about communicating with people you know, relating to things that are of probably no use or interest to anyone other than the original poster. Whereas Google+ is all about meeting new people. Already on Google plus we have seen a value in our communications and in the new circles which we now belong to.

So that brings us up-to-date in the world of all things Google. I hope this post can help anyone who is seeking to manage their online business activities as efficiently as possible. Maybe in 12 months I’ll come back and update this post, as I’m sure there’s more to come from the on-line giant.

PS. We are in no way affiliated with Google – we’re purely brand advocates who want to tell a story.

Tags: business tools, case study
Posted in Business, Case studies, Useful tools, knowledge | No Comments »

Packaging Design

March 9th, 2012

Background

The Grim Reaper Food company are specialist chilli manufacturers based in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, headed up by well-known Chef, Russell Williams.

The premium, artisan producer are winners of the ‘Fiery Foods Festival’, 2010 and 2011 and are quickly making a name for themselves in the chilli world. They are now seeking to expand their lines for chilli products, with the introduction of a chilli based rapeseed oil.

The Challenge

The Grim Reaper had introduced a chocolate bar range (of which, Studiowide also created the concept and designed the packaging) and has now developed 3 rapeseed cooking oils.

Our client provided us with the brief based around the design and production of the 3 labels for an assortment of oils, which consisted of the following flavours:

Rapeseed Oil infused Chilli called – Vengeance
Rapeseed Oil infused Chilli and Garlic – Tempest
Rapeseed Oil Oak Smoked and infused with Chilli – Incinerator

Our objective was to come up with the packaging design concept and to create the labels to be used on the bottles. The design had to remain consistent with the previous packaging.

The whole Grim Reaper Foods collection is chilli orientated and targets only the daring chilli lover.

The company is currently working on introducing even more product lines; therefore our challenge was to create a brand identity that would be easily recognisable and transposable throughout the range.

The final concept also had to communicate what fiery delights Grim Reaper Foods were offering. Thus the company required a clear, modern and creative approach for the brand.

The Solution

After research and brainstorming we concluded, the best way to achieve the required strong brand identity for Grim Reaper, and to help differentiate the products from its competitors, was to utilise colours and icons to identify the 3 alternative flavours; Vengeance, Tempest and Incinerator.

Colours instantly provoke emotions – used in many representations. This is also a great technique when used in food categorisation, e.g. in crisps, pink more often than not represents prawn cocktail flavour.

Hence, using the colour yellow to identify the ‘oils’ assists the consumer with the instant recognition of the product.

By simply placing a subtle band of colour on the top of each design we created a slight detail, balanced with the right amount of emphasis required to evoke the desired impact.

Alongside the introduction of colours we included additional graphical assets to specifically represent the Grim Reaper rapeseed oil line; we designed an assortment of icons to highlight the exact flavour of oil on offer. A vector, illustrated Grim Reaper character is present in all Grim Reaper food packaging, clutching his chilli formed scythe.

In the design of the rapeseed oil labelling the Grim Reaper is also seen holding the icon in his grasp, almost as if he is presenting the product to the consumer himself. This was replicated through all 3 oil designs with the character ‘owning’ a different oil icon for each flavour.

The Results

The Grim Reaper Foods oil collection differs from its competition in the sense that at present, the visual aesthetics of the packaging ensures the brand will stand out from any other chilli oil in the market.

The use of a character, alongside a creative narrative surrounding the brand, provides an authentic vibe. Early signs are the new packaging design engages and generates excitement from consumers.

“For a company to understand a client’s idea and bring it to life, for me, is amazing. Excellent to deal with, fast efficient service, from concept to final design – within timescales, and informed at each stage."
Russell Williams – Managing Director, Grim Reaper Foods Ltd

Tags: cases study, graphic design, packaging design
Posted in Case studies, Design | 1 Comment »

Brand Identity Design

February 29th, 2012

The Background to the Campaign

In January 2012 Studiowide tendered for, and successfully won, a project to create a consumer identity for a new business venture within an established insulations systems manufacturer.

The project outline was to deliver a complete integrated marketing suite of services for the new venture, including; website, demonstration videos, photography, PR, graphic design, strategic marketing and direct marketing. And, as a further project, the company also required a redesign of their current company website.

In January 2012 Studiowide tendered for, and successfully won, a project to create a consumer identity for a new business venture within an established insulations systems manufacturer.

The Challenge

Our client required a marketing company and creative partner who could deliver a total solution within the agreed timescales of 12 weeks for phase 1.

The main objectives were as follows;

Create a new brand name – ensuring its uniqueness and ability to trademark
Create a complete brand identity and associated marketing materials
Design and build a dynamic website with content management system
Provide tactical marketing assistance
Promote the new brand in selected markets

The initial target market consisted of a consumer demographic within East Sussex. This area was regularly subjected to periods of high wind storms and wind driven rain, with a risk of flooding.

The campaign pieces had to communicate directly to this target market; highlighting the problem, whilst demonstrating the product could provide the solution.

Our client had previously operated at a business to business level and now required a partner to assist them with their business to consumer image. Studiowide was hired to provide a professional creative design service, whilst also acting as a sounding board and for strategic marketing advice.

The Solution

Following the creation of a project plan we organised an initial brainstorming sessions at the client site. After which, we came away with a shortlist of potential names that could be further developed and stylised.

At our next meeting we presented mood boards, incorporating the outline for the new identity. Following the unanimous decision for a name we set off to create further imagery – inserted into mock-ups so that the client could get a feel for how the name would work in a variety of designs and layouts.

As part of the initial name checks, the trademark application came back with some minor recommendations. This report cast a slight doubt as to the probability of a successful trademark application going through for the preferred name. The name was therefore altered slightly to a more suitable format which was guaranteed its uniqueness as a trademark name.

After receiving feedback on colours and style we then finalised all marketing materials and literature, including website. The whole phase 1 of the project had to be completed in less than 6 weeks. This was quite a challenge, as most creative companies would require 4-6 weeks to design and build a website only.

Our progress was communicated at all stages of the project and regular meeting were held, both at the client’s site in Accrington and also at Studiowide offices in Rodney Street, Liverpool.

On the 22nd February the deadline for phase 1 was met and the following marketing materials were signed off;

Website
Brochure
Business Cards
Id Badges
Letters
Envelopes
Direct mail pieces
Power point presentation
Appointment cards

Our client also allowed us the opportunity to provide a combined design and print service for all printed materials.

The Results

All marketing materials were signed off in under 6 weeks. This is a significant challenge for any creative marketing company. The result was achieved not only through focus and experience, but is also testament to the client; demonstrating that demanding projects can be achieved through close collaboration. This was a great success – not only did we achieve the original objectives; we significantly strengthened our relationship though a new partnership.

The success of the project was attributed to the creative ability and marketing knowledge of all the team at Studiowide. Furthermore, the project was kept within control by adding the additional printing service – we were able to offer all printed materials on this project to the required specification and timescales. Because of this, Studiowide was able to remain in full control of the project from concept, to design, through to ordering and supply of printed materials. Having this offer of a total solution helped us to deliver a complicated project within the planned timescales and budget.

As a company, Studiowide is positioned to deliver projects of this nature. Our service offer had been devised around a deep understanding of what small to medium sized businesses require in order to promote themselves in the best way possible – this total service approach was perfectly matched to the needs of this project.

“Studiowide have designed and produced a marketing identity for our brand new division. This is from name, logo, colour scheme, right through to multiple literature pieces, co-ordinated with a great website. All in under two months – with a very down-to-earth attitude and a commitment to both excellence, and the schedule!”
Craig Treanor –Technical Marketing Manager.

Tags: case study, Design, identity
Posted in Advertising, Case studies, Creatives, Design, Strategic Marketing, Web development | No Comments »

Liverpool Media Wall Motion Graphics Goes Live

February 24th, 2012

The animation piece we completed for 'Lamb & Co' has been displaying on the Liverpool Media Wall since Monday (20th February), and will be showing all the way till Sunday (26th February). If you haven't already seen it, go check it out! It's located right opposite Liverpool Lime Street train station, you can't miss it. Or, if it's raining outside, sit back and watch our video! (above)

Liverpool Media Wall