Having recently returned from the 2013 Cheltenham Design Festival, it’s safe to say I’ll be looking to return next year. The festival itself was focussed around the theme of ‘Who cares about design?” and had some inspiring talks, that filled me with the confidence, passion and urge to create innovative, fresh and unexpected designs that make people smile.

I have always believed that good design should make people happy and leave them feeling motivated when they interact with it. Ultimately that’s how we, as designers, engage with our audiences and build relationships.

If a design has no character or soul, then it’s cold, lifeless and meaningless. Who is going to engage with something so uninspiring?

The talk that highlighted this sentiment the most, and reinforced the importance of soul and happiness within design, was given by Bruce Duckworth, founding partner of Turner Duckworth design consultancy. Throughout his talk he spoke of engaging with audiences by consistently delighting them. He showed the audience a Christmas card that was designed by Turner Duckworth with the intention of sending it to their suppliers and clients.

The brief was given to both their London and San Francisco studios with the remit that it should incorporate somehow both offices. The solution was, in my eyes, brilliant. The recipient was presented with a card that when rotated revealed the London skyline and the San Francisco skyline. When I first saw the card, I didn’t instantly see the beauty of it, however after a closer look I saw the unexpected idea. The design uses very clever but simple negative space to create both city skylines.

What I loved most about the design was that I didn’t instantly see the clever idea behind the Christmas card. However, when the card rotated to reveal the clever and simple idea, it made me smile and engage with the talk even more, as I was instantly made more curious to discover more about Turner Duckworth.

In my opinion this is how all design should perform. It creates engagement, and builds relationships.

It gave me extended confidence that the way I see design was reinforced by a world leading design consultancy that are achieving results following this approach. In my opinion design should be about creating experiences and engaging an audience through their experiences. I’m not saying that this is the only way to approach all design, however it’s an avenue that works and proves very successful.

I believe there is a lot of design out in the world that lacks thought and imagination which results in an end product that doesn’t engage. Although in contrast I do believe that it’s important that your client is open minded and creative and trusts you as an agency, otherwise the creativity and idea gets diluted down to something that no one will truly engage with.

Bruce Duckworth spoke of the Turner Duckworth design approach ‘Delightful Simplicity’ and illustrated the execution of this by showing the audience a packaging design for Waitrose Honey. He showed how simple the packaging could be with the design displaying only the words “Waitrose Honey” and described this as simplicity in its purest form – there was nothing else to it other than what the audience needed to know.

He then changed the slide to reveal the actual packaging where the team at Turner Duckworth had made a small design addition transforming the ‘e’ in honey to a bee. This highlighted how simplistic packaging design can be when teamed with a clever hook, successfully engages with the consumer.

This instantly changed the emotional reaction to the design for everyone in the audience making them smile and engage with the design on a much more emotive level. He explained that this design now subconsciously engages with the audience in a stronger way and forms stronger positive opinions of the Waitrose brand. The physical reaction of the audience was an example of the effects this packaging would have on the consumer. In my opinion it’s an example of simple and effective customer engagement at its finest.

When we’re out shopping at the supermarket, how much packaging do we really engage with? I feel most of it is considered design that works, but could it (and should it) be more?

Are we really pushing branding and challenging an audience in order to keep them intrigued?

I don’t think we are, there’s a lot of safe design out there, however who am I to say it doesn’t work. It does work, otherwise these brands wouldn’t be making millions of pounds and retaining the same customers.

However are these customers truly engaged with that brand, and is there a long lasting customer relationship. Only brands and their customers can have the answer to that. The Coca Cola case study by Turner Duckworth is an example of how pushing branding beyond what is safe has incredible results for the brand and the relationship with the consumer.

The following images are a case study of work created for Coca Cola North America by Turner Duckworth. The team were asked to reinvent the visual side of the Coca Cola brand, but retain strong, identifiable brand recognition.

The above image is a visual representation of how Coca Cola appeared in North America before Turner Duckworth began working with them. Although the brand was very consistent it had become cluttered and over engineered which in turn gave it a dated aesthetic.

Turner Duckworth applied their ‘Delightful simplicity’ approach to the brand refresh, stripping back the brand elements to their most basic forms. However, Bruce Duckworth again discussed how simplicity alone is not enough, and that what was needed was the addition of character and personality.

These examples are just a small handful of how they continually, creatively executed the Coca Cola brand by focussing on coherence, as opposed to tight consistency which was how the Coca Cola brand was previously treated. As a result sales of Coca Cola significantly increased following this brand refresh, and sales are continuing to climb due to the evolutionary work Turner Duckworth continue to produce.

Sales did significantly increase, and so did the relationship with the consumer improve and become a stronger bond. As the brand is creatively coherent, nothing looks the same for long. Designs are regularly changed and updated to keep the brand fresh and unexpected. This therefore creates packaging that is limited edition, their physical product becomes a collectible item. They now have an audience that is emotively engaged with their brand.

For me, this case study and the others presented show how simplicity and original unexpected creativity forge strong people based relationships for brands.

I believe design is all about making people smile and creating a happy brand experience. When we do this as designers, and we follow our own design philosophies, we can create great timeless work.

The inspirational mindset that I gathered from this talk has already started to have a strong positive impact on the way that I will approach creative briefs in the future. Although I have always been passionate about simplicity within design, Bruce Duckworth has created an enhanced realisation that simplicity needs to be teamed with a clever, delightful and engaging hook.

From 1st – 2nd June 2013 Looka’ Teesside will transform Stockton High Street into a hub of activity with live music, street performances, pop-up galleries, fashion shows, arts and crafts fairs, film showings and much more!

More about Looka’ Teesside:

Looka’ Teesside is our opportunity to show the rest of the world what Teesside has to offer. We are throwing a spotlight on the creative talent of the region and inviting local communities and beyond to Looka’ the work on offer from both established and up-and-coming people.

We are inviting submissions of work from across Teesside as well as engaging and promoting the Arts within schools and community support groups.

Looka’ Teesside has grown from an idea by local artist and owner of NEUA.co.uk Stephen Irving, through talks and discussions with other creative people across the region. The Looka’ Teesside event is part of the Festival of the North East which will celebrate the region’s creativity, inventions and discoveries from the 7th century to the present day. It is as an exciting regional celebration heralding the arrival of the Lindisfarne Gospels in Durham for three months in July 2013.

While the website is under construction if you would like further information or like to register your interest in being a part of the event please email info@lookateesside.co.uk.

Sponsors & Supporters:

So, this is the first in, what will hopefully be, a weekly compendium of the things we’ve seen and experienced; those things that we love and those things that we have an opinion on. 

Falcon Enamelware.

First up, is a lovely re-brand of Falcon Enamelware by MoreStudio. It’s simple and effective, with a playful edge. We love it.

Farm Credit Mid-America.

Working with an existing, well-established brand identity can sometimes prove tricky when attempting to move brands forward from a visual perspective as we found out with our recent work with Lakelovers (more to come on this one soon). This treatment for Farm Credit Mid-Amercia, by agency COLLE + McVOY shows that established brands can still be seen to push the boundaries of expectations. Ryan talks more about this in his story ‘The boldness of Simplicity’.

Manhattan Loft Gardens.

Tom Hingston Studios and Keep Agency have collaborated to create the brand strategy, graphic identity, website and print collateral for Manhattan Loft Gardens, an ambitious high-rise development by Manhattan Loft Corporation that is currently under construction in Stratford, East London. We think that the end result is stunning.

Festival Photography – Mehdi Benkler.

We spotted some fantastic Festival photography by Mehdi Benkler just in time for the madness that summer brings to music lovers. These images capture the unique experiences that people commit to each summer. Lovely stuff!

The Times.

The Times sets up meetings between two eras. We loved these amazingly beautiful and well crafted adverts, that effortlessly juxtapose two eras, for The Times.

Petrol Stations.

Sebastien Reiser shows there’s more to petrol stations than overpriced confectionary – or “cooling” pasties. As someone who spent far too much time as a student working in a petrol station, I never ever thought I’d say they looked stunning. But these photos certainly make them just that.

Northern School of Jazz.

Simply put, this is an amazing new identity for the ‘Northern School of Jazz‘ by Loose Collective. Not only do we think the execution of the identity is spot on, we love the fact that the delivery makes use of letterpress, technique that we all adore.

Author: Peter Jones, Creative Director and the studio.

As the blizzards raged outside Wynyard Park House, Willie thoroughly entertained us with his stories of plantations in the cloud forest of Venezuela, his love of adventure and travel, his passion for pure cacao and the wonderfully generous and supportive people he seems to have a knack of bumping into just when everything looks as if its about to hit a wall.

And, as we heard about the trials and tribulations of his personal journey, what struck us was Willie’s sheer determination to succeed. “Sometimes the road less travelled is longer, harder and less certain but that is why it is exciting. You do not always end up somewhere you want to stay, but you learn so much getting there it is always worth the journey.”

That’s an important lesson for us all.