Projector Brand Communications Ltd » Brands We Enjoy

Beacon Purchasing – 20 Ways to save money without costing the earth

dom — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 09:49:32 +0000

We’ve recently completed a job for our clients Beacon Purchasing. “20 ways to save money without costing the earth” is a pocket sized A7 guide showing how companies can save money by purchasing eco friendly items through their suppliers. Using environmentally friendly Greencoat Offset from Howard Smith, we showcased 20 products from Beacon suppliers, illustrating the benefits which they give to hotel owners. We used a hand-drawn illustration style to liven up the stock imagery provided, accompanying them with a graphic that was specific to the product, which housed the product number. The open stiching on the spine giving it a nice rough feel.

Projector are currently: Working, working and then working some more.

Young Mercantile

dom — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 08:19:20 +0000

Here’s a quick sneak peek at some work we’ve been doing for one of our client’s new brands Young Mercantile, an online store for high end menswear. The brand is designed to be clean and punchy and uncomplicated, with a typographic nod to supply crates as hinted at in the “Mercantile” name. Mercantile being synonymous with the merchant navy and their delivery and transport of overseas goods. The first piece of print has arrived, here are the business cards, from our good friends and suppliers Glasgow Press! Lovely letterpessed ink on 540 Pristine White Colourplan.

Projector are currently: Gearing up for the 2nd 5 a side of the week. Knackered.

15 Best Male Vintage Fashion Brands

dom — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 09:50:39 +0000

What draws people to certain clothing brands? The style and quality of the garment? Celebrity’s wardrobes influencing how you wish to look? There are a multitude of factors. A large part of the decision you make is based on the brand. Fashion brands make a statement about the kind of person that wears the clothes.

We’ve recently been working on a project for a client launching a High Quality Menswear online store and while it’s different to what we’d normally tackle it’s a project which we’ve greatly enjoyed and we came across great brands and their logos during research.

1. Albam

Based in London, Albam design menswear with hints towards workwear. A very simple and clean brand, very much in sync with their fashion design.

2. Our Legacy

A lovely clean brand from Swedish brand Our Legacy, contemporary menswear, with a look back to traditional wear.

3. Baracuta

A distinctive logo and brand work from British menswear brand Baracuta, with nods to traditional British imagery and also British Pop Culture of the 70s and 80s in the overall brand, using celebrity endorsements such as Steve McQueen and Frank Sinatra.

4. Filson

Seattle, Washington based Filson base their brand on pioneering American settlers, delving into a deep and rich history. The marque evokes a nice feeling of the classic American outdoors environment.

5. Heritage Research

Heritage Research base their collections on certain periods in recent history, and it’s mimicked in their logo, which evokes a certain feeling of nostalgia with a characterful illustration. The brands itself draws on the particular period of history they are covering with each collection.

6. Penfield

Penfield have a background in producing outerwear for the outdoors and their logo. Fashion and function dictates their garments. The logo and brand is completely in sync with this offering, a mountainous range and bear hidden in a contemporary typeface, and brand imagery of outdoors situations mixed with high fashion.

7. Brooks

Brooks’ marque and brand hark back to their founder’s age the 1860s. John Boultbee Brooks developed a comfortable leather saddle to help cycling comfort. The brand is now synonymous with the recent trend of fashionable cycling. They manage to tread a fine line of being contemporary, but also evoking a vintage classy feel.

8. Edwin

Japanese brand Edwin endeavour to create the feel and rigour of well worn vintage (they invented stone-washing) denim but in newly produced jeans. The brand marque definitely exudes a sense of classic denim and has an ageless quality, despite obviously being of a period.

9. Nigel Cabourn

Newcastle’s own Nigel Cabourn’s designs are created from a love of all things vintage. The logo and brand fit the collections perfectly. Just perfect.

10. Gitman Bros

Gitman Bros Vintage brand is entrenched in Americana as shown in their classic typographic logo. Washed Oxfords, muted madras, bright plaids.

11. Sperry

Sperry Topsider’s take their brand from a passion for the sea, everything to do with sailing. Their marque gives nudges toward the painted style of boat names, which gives an enduring style.

12. Universal Works

Universal Works is based on the concept of good quality honest British workwear and outdoors wear. The typewriter style typeface automatically conjures up a vintage feel.

13. Dockers

Dockers fashion is based around the preppy high status university fashion. A very much business casual style of clothing, for the kind of man that likes to spend his summertime aboard his yacht, as denoted by the anchor marque.

14. Engineered Garments

New York’s Engineered Garments create their collections from their obsession with American Sportswear. Creator Daiki Suzuki aims to create clothes people love, that they repair when damaged. Again, with the stamped type, it creates a real feeling of nostalgia and heritage.

15. Belstaff

The original creator of the waxed waterproof and motorcycle fashion specialist, Belstaff, are a highly sought fashion brand. The abstract symbol of the Phoenix shows Belstaff will continue through good and bad times, an enduring label of quality. Belstaff are often seen in the films, as they use features such as Iron Man, The Expendables and The Dark Knight.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this showcase, we’re going to unveil our final logo for our client’s brand very soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

Projector are currently: Waiting for the curtain call for the week. Busy times!

Mark Westerby 3rd Edition Portfolio

dom — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:39:00 +0000

We’ve just received printed samples of the recently completed Mark Westerby third edition portfolio. Following on from the previous editions we produced for Mark (blogged about here), we were really pleased when he returned asking us to help put together his latest portfolio.

It’s been a busy year for Mark, working on shoots internationally and gaining highly deserved recognition along the way. Winner of the Fashion & Beauty Category of the Campaign Photo awards, listed in the top 200 Photographers in the world by Lürzer’s Archive and 8 honorable mentions in the International Photography Awards to name but a few.

Continuing the theme of previous editions we kept the design simple and clean, allowing the stunning photography to be showcased to the full. Generous A3 size pages really allow the viewer to see the detail of the imagery printed in high resolution on specially selected art paper.

We wish Mark every success for the coming year – may it be as rewarding as the last!

Projector are currently: Melting in the sun.

Howard Smith Profiles

dom — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:45:41 +0000

We’re pleased to announce a recent project of ours is to be featured in the latest issue of Howard Smith Profiles publication which will be distributed with Design Week magazine.

The publication showcases a selection of outstanding design and print work from across the UK, printed on Howard Smith Papers.

We submitted the Beacon Supplier Awards call for entries pack which was created as a follow up to a brand refresh project we undertook for the client. The pack, printed on Regency Satin stock, featured an unusual sized booklet, bespoke printed envelope, perforated self seal reply form and spot gold ink to create a prestigious feel to the items.

Thanks to our friends at Statex for doing us proud with some fantastic print work and of course to Howard Smith for producing a great product (and choosing our project to be featured in the latest issue).

Projector are currently: Getting to grips with some new comms work.

Top Ten Packaging

dom — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 13:02:13 +0000

Here at Projector, we’ve been on a packaging research mission. It’s been a long time since we’ve produced any packaging work, usually staying in the realm of graphic design. But with some prospective design work for one of our clients in Newcastle we thought we should have a look through our archives and highlight some really great pieces of work. Whilst on our travels, we’ve come across some really beautiful examples of packaging and decided to give you our Top Ten Packaging examples. Let us know if there’s any great examples we’ve missed! We haven’t given rankings, as all are winners in our book.

A great solution for getting just the right amount of spaghetti from design student Neal Fletcher.

Buddy Mulled Wine using inspired copy and measuring jug graphics.

A minimalist, beautiful solution from BVD for Restylane, with some nice print finishing.

Traditional illustration livening up tortilla packaging for United Supermarkets by Imaginaria.

Love in Manchester suggesting some fun ways to re-use your Silver Cross packaging.

Pentagram introducing a bold typographic look to Budgens own brand wine range.

Albion producing the lovely looking, category breaking, gourmet dog food brand Lily’s Kitchen.

Pearlfisher with a very rustic typography route for Jamie Oliver’s Jme range.

Dentsu Young & Rubicam Pte producing an innovative use of the bikini string for tan-thru bikini brand Buttcheeks.

My favourite of the lot, Panasonic Earphones packaging, brilliant use of shape from Scholz & Friends Berlin.

We hope you enjoyed the Projector Top Ten Packaging!

Projector are currently: Preparing to head off to a conference!

Protected: Global Investment Bank Comms project

dom — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 11:16:20 +0000

Peter Jones Enterprise Challenge

dom — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:26:28 +0000

Happiest of funday fridays to all readers,

We’d just like to let you know that Jamie of Bespoke Radio, has been accepted into the final 10 of gigantic tall man business supremo Peter Jones’s Enterprise Challenge. This is a thoroughly great piece of news, as Jamie has the chance to win a £10,000 cash injection into his business, and in addition to this, 10 hours worth of Legal, Accountancy aid, International Trading top tips, PR Guru support and HR recommendations from leading companies.

Congratulations Jamie!

You can find out more tit bits of information on the competition here.

Projector are currently: 1 hour away from the weekend. Our weekend activities vary. The Open at St. Andrews, Wallpapering a Guest Room, “not a lot” and going to see Inception. Have a good one!

Northern Print Screenprinting Course

dom — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:22:59 +0000

Over Christmas time, Dom at the studio was given a lovely present of a screenprinting refresher course by “Mumsy Taylor” to rekindle the desire to do some more hands on work. The course took place at the North’s finest printmaking establishment and gallery Northern Print. Some amazing print work was seen on the walls by some prolific print makers one of particular note being the obviously very talented illustrator Sara Ogilvie.

The course allows each person to design and produce a 3 colour screenprint, which will hopefully give the person enough impetus to then become a fully fledged member of Northern Print. Dom is quite determined to make a go of this and we’re looking forward to seeing his hopefully half decent final piece on Monday of next week. So interweb, keep those peepers peeled for some updates!

Projector are currently: Trying to get a milllion things done at once.

Cool Brands 2008/09 Results

dom — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:58:59 +0000

The results are in for 2008/09′s “Cool Brands” There are certainly some great ones in there. However, what we are wondering is how many have you actually come into use of? I managed to get a total of 10. That makes me 50% cool and 50% square. I’m luke warm and vaguely popular.

01. Aston Martin. Automotive – Cars

02. iPhone. Technology – Telecommunications

03. Apple. Technology – General

04. Bang & Olufsen. Technology – General

05. YouTube. Online

06. Google. Online

07. Nintendo. Leisure & Entertainment – Games & Toys

08. Agent Provocateur. Fashion – Lingerie

09. Rolex. Fashion – Accessories, Jewellery & Watches

10. Tate Modern. Leisure & Entertainment – UK Attractions & The Arts

11. Dom Perignon. Drinks – Champagne

12. Virgin Atlantic. Travel – General

13. Ferrari. Automotive – Cars

14. Ducati. Automotive – Motorbikes

15. PlayStation. Leisure & Entertainment – Games & Toys

16. Sony. Technology – General

17. Nike. Sportswear & Equipment

18. Bose. Technology – General

19. Facebook. Online

20. Lamborghini. Automotive – Cars