Brand identity « Calverts: Pressed

Brand identity

There IS an Alternative

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Here’s a sneaky peek at some of the printed elements in the new Co-operatives Fortnight toolkit. Designed and produced by Calverts, the pack is made with Paperback’s exclusive range of recycled papers and boards, and printed using Bio vegetable oil based litho inks. The leaflets and posters are on 150gsm Context FSC 75% post-consumer recycled, a premium shade and grade white uncoated. The pack folder is on 350gsm Multi Grey, an unusual 100% recycled greyboard with white blade coating on the inner side. In addition to leaflets and a set of posters, there are sheets of 37mm stickers and premium quality button badges.

As well as working on logos, key messages and print materials, the Calverts team also designed the front end for the Co-operatives Fortnight Drupal-powered website, where there are downloadable resources and a style guide for partner organisations wanting to co-promote the event.

We’re delighted to be working on the C14 campaign, which will continue to build between now and the Fortnight of June 19th – July 3rd. It’s not always easy to measure the impact of communications design and and print, but we’re confident the pack, resources and website will help win over diverse audiences to the key message of this first Co-operatives Fortnight: ‘There IS an Alternative’.

leave comment

What Do You Mean, ‘Punchy’?

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

Calverts is descended from the design and print wing of the Arts Lab, back in the ’70s, but after all this time we still wonder sometimes if designers and printers will ever speak the same language. To test the waters, we recently asked: “what do designers mean, when they ask printers to make their images look punchy?”

No two designers gave the same answer, so is it any wonder we sometimes get misunderstandings? Vincent said that punchy means “great repro (on images) to make CMYK rich and full”. Our own Scumboni interpreted it as a request for “the sharpness and ink lift you get from printing on coated paper – but on uncoated”. Our favourite answer was from John Wallet, who reckons punchy means “like full colour, but with really vivid oranges and greens” – in other words, Hexachrome for the price of CMYK.

On reflection, we came to the conclusion that ‘punchiness’, like ‘richness’, is one of those qualities designers look for when they’re anxious that the job should really impress the client and look great in their portfolio. As WDLtd told us, it’s a bit like when a client asks a designer to ‘jazz it up a bit’ – in other words, imbue it with that little, difficult-to-define, something extra.

What do you think?

leave comment

Juniper scoop environmental award

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

London’s finest collectors and recyclers of food waste have won “Environmental Business of The Year” award for 2009 at The London Borough of Havering Awards.

Earlier this year Calverts worked with Juniper to develop a new brand identity for the fledgling social enterprise.

Naming a new business or product can be challenging but in this instance our client felt that the name ‘Juniper’ was counterintuitive yet worked in its descriptiveness and graphic potential.

A number of design options were presented and a suite of elements evolved; a palette of spot colours, watermarks, logos, illustrations and motifs which, together with the Juniper message that they get Food Waste Sorted, presents a consistent yet flexible visual identity.

We believe this works as well on business cards as it does on livery but we would value your opinion…