We have a new name!

WILLIAMS MURRAY HAMM AND IDENTICA JOIN FORCES IN A NEW CREATIVE AGENCY

Williams Murray Hamm (WMH) and Identica, two iconic and respected agencies in the world of branding, innovation and design, are joining forces from 28th June 2021 to create WMH&I

The combined agency will be jointly led by Carol Lavender as Managing Director and Wybe Magermans as Growth & Development Director, supported by Garrick Hamm as Creative Director and Chris Cleaver as Strategy & Planning Director.

Both agencies are part of the Branded Group and for the past four years have been working ever closer together. WMH&I will combine their complimentary areas of expertise to provide clients with increased breadth and depth and deliver the widest range of branding, communications and design ideas that build exceptional brands

The highly successful WMHAdaptive team will be fully integrated within the combined agency, and WMH&I will continue its role as the creative driving force within Branded.

Carol Lavender; “Both agencies have a long tradition of creating truly iconic brands through the combination of groundbreaking creativity and exceptional work. Having worked together successfully over the past four years we are now cementing our relationship and look forward to this next exciting chapter for us and our clients.”

Wybe Magermans: “It’s a fusion of big ideas backed up with beautiful craft. There is so much that unites WMH and Identica – the only question is why we didn’t do this sooner!  Before co-founding WMH our Creative Director Garrick Hamm started his career as a junior designer with Michael Peters who went on to found Identica, and several of our team have worked at both WMH and Identica in the past”.

The new company will open its doors from 28th June and will be based at WMH’s long time home in Dallington Street, London. We also have a new website at www.wmh-i.com, so please visit us there to find out more.

 

Pernod Ricard teams up with WMH for new Midleton Craft Collection

Midleton Distillery is home to Jameson – the number 1 selling Irish whiskey across the world – as well as a further six premium, global whiskey brands, each with their own story to tell. Williams Murray Hamm was asked to create an identity that brings these brands together in one collection that resonates with consumers across the globe.

Irish Distillers, a Pernod Ricard-owned company, has been leading the renaissance of Irish whiskey, with Jameson claiming its spot in the top 10 global spirits brands in 2019. Irish whiskey is projected to grow ahead of the total whisk(e)y category, and Irish Distillers wants to continue to lead this next phase in the Irish whiskey journey: premiumisation. Their portfolio of brands produced at Midleton Distillery provides an array of premium, super premium and ultra-luxury whiskey offerings, each targeting different consumers, price points and taste profiles.

Our key challenge was to define the bond that holds these seven brands together in one craft collection, whilst letting each individual brand sing in its own right. The team unearthed a unique truth about Midleton and why it exists, before expressing it through a compelling visual idea.

The source of water is always hugely important when deciding where to locate a distillery and this was the case with Midleton Distillery, where the Dungourney River passes through the distillery’s grounds. Yet this does not fully explain why these seven amazing brands all originate from this single source.

After centuries of worldwide success, by the early 1960s political and economic challenges left just three distilleries in Ireland, clamouring for prominence in an ever-decreasing domestic market. Thankfully, John Jameson & Son, John Power & Son and Cork Distilleries Company came together, to form what we all know now as Irish Distillers, relocating all of its production to the renowned Midleton Distillery in Count Cork. This historic merger safeguarded the source of amazing Irish whiskeys for generations to come.

The design of the Midleton Craft Collection brand world is inspired by water. The Dungourney River became the symbol of this source. From the flowing lines of one letter to the next in the logo, to how the water of the Dungourney has become the collection’s key colour – the river can be found in every aspect the brand world. The monogram is a double-arched bridge crossing the river, incorporating the letter “M, and for the beautifully fluid illustration WMH worked with renowned illustrator Si Scott.

WMH produced a comprehensive kit of parts that provides Irish Distillers’ local markets with full flexibility to select the brands from the portfolio that are appropriate for each market. The brand world assets include key visuals, merchandising, web banners and items for the on trade.

Laura Hanratty, Head of Prestige & Specialty at Irish Distillers says about the new Midleton Craft Collection: “We are delighted to honour the bond between our families of Irish whiskeys by showcasing where they come from. Midleton Distillery is steeped in craft, tradition and innovation and it’s a joy to see this celebrated through The Midleton Craft Collection”.

Wybe Magermans, director at WMH, mentioned: “It’s been a great challenge to work with these seven amazing brands, and find the overarching story that is relevant to both people who already drink Irish whiskies and those who are novices to the category.”

The collection will see its launch later this spring across the Irish, UK and US markets.

Click here for full case study.

Searching for an artwork brain with an eye for design

We are looking for a Creative Artworker with 2+ years’ experience to join our activation and production team, WMH Adaptive.

WMH Adaptive work with a number of large global retailers, delivering high quality packaging artwork for use within their stores. As part of our team, you will be vital to the creation and delivery of these projects. You will have a keen creative eye, and are able to take created design concepts and run them across a multitude of different sized pack formats and ranges. This is a fantastic opportunity to grow and develop your production, retouching and creative artworking skills.

For the last 20 years, WMH has been inventing and reinventing brands. We are an eclectic mix of creative thinkers, with one thing in common: we all get a kick from defying the rule book. There is no house style and we take on projects of all sizes, from local start-ups to large global brands. We only work with ambitious clients who want to build remarkable brands.

Your responsibilities

  • Creation of a wide range of packaging artworks, delivering to print.
  • Have a good understanding of creative implementation- taking a design file and then running it across a wide variety of packs.
  • Meticulous attention to detail with an understanding of range consistency.
  • Taking responsibility and ownership of your projects and work together with the team to create work of the highest standards
  • Able to work quickly and effectively.
  • Interrogate the briefs and get under the skin of the issues
  • Treat every project as an opportunity with the same passion, ambition and resilience
  • A team player, happy to work closely with the production team, designers and project managers

Your experience

  • Strong background in packaging artwork creation – ideally experience from an agency environment.
  • Good Understanding of production and print techniques
  • Excellent Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign skills
  • Excellent Retouching skills (visualising skills would be beneficial)

We can offer you

  • Competitive salary and benefits
  • A place where you are empowered to grow and develop
  • The opportunity to work on a range of clients
  • An open agency culture that encourages debate
  • A fun place to be, with people you want to work with

Please send us your portfolio and a short message on why you would like to join us. You can email us at: recruitment@wmhagency.com

No agencies please.

 

Helping Castrol Switch On An Electric Future

WMH has collaborated with its long-time client partner Castrol, to create the name and identity for a new umbrella brand that will cover its range of e-Fluids for the electric vehicle market. Castrol ON signals the business’s move into electric mobility.

The business approached WMH over 18 months ago to create the positioning, name and identity for this advanced range of products which are already used by the Jaguar Racing Formula E Team.

Focusing on the desire to position Castrol as pioneers in e-mobility, WMH wanted to create a brand that was forward thinking, bright and futuristic. Positioning Castrol as a business that helps the global switch to electrification, the name ‘ON’ was established as the brand name and created simultaneously with the brand identity which uses the globally familiar digital toggle button – swiping from left/off to right/on – as inspiration.

Easily recognisable, the physical movement is represented on the graphic, as the ‘O’ comes from a colour gradient going from dark blue, through vivid blue to bright fluorescent green communicating both its e-mobility credentials.

The silver ‘O’ and ‘N’, at a slight angle shows a brand forever in motion and always moving forward whilst emitting a future-focused feel. In its online activated state, the Castrol ON switch energises illuminated graphics, while the energy lines communicate progress and show how Castrol ON helps to make the switch to an electric future.

On the launch of Castrol ON, Phil Neck, Global Marketing Lead for Castrol e-Fluids, said; “The launch of Castrol ON is a clear indication of the work we are doing at Castrol to help drive the electric vehicle sector forward. The new name and identity are crucial to position Castrol as a credible player in this future market”.

Garrick Hamm, creative partner at WMH added; “We been working with Castrol for over 10 years now and I’m thrilled we are part of this next bold & pioneering step with them, as they launch their e-Fluids brand.”

Click here to read the full case study.

The Role Of Creativity In A World After Covid

As governments across Europe announce their post-lockdown plans, people are slowly starting to dream of a sunnier life. This hazy optimism may well keep us going through isolation but how might we prepare for what’s coming. For every CEO who is banking on a potential economic boom, there is an economist with a grim outlook. Many of us in the creative industry who struggled through 2020, will be wondering how much need for our skills there will be, or will creativity have become a nice-to-have luxury.

The good news is that business needs us, be it hospitality, retail or any other sector that has been radically altered by the pandemic and business-as-usual-thinking does not apply anymore.

Whenever pubs do reopen, drinkers will be lining up three rounds at a time to minimise visits to the bar, which will make for pretty long queues of (hopefully vaccinated) people. What is the innovative service solution to getting the new customer service right?

The thought of shopping might be anxiety inducing right now, is it possible that shoppers might soon expect a radically different approach to product display? Something that limits their exposure to the next contagious devil’s spawn.

Governments might find it even more difficult to maintain discretionary services and balance the books. Where a pre-pandemic response may have been to slash and burn, what is the solution in a society that is now far more aware of its neighbours? Who will be the creative thinker that will encourage central or local governments, who are inherently uninventive, to change the way they service their communities?

The world has changed, the creative industry can be certain that opportunities won’t come in the same shapes or sizes. It is only the agile creative who is able to spot new openings and trends, in order to adapt what they offer. You can already see this happening with branding agencies starting to provide social media content for their clients. And with moving image producers growing their creative teams to go direct to end-clients, cutting out traditional (and less agile) advertising agencies in the process.

As lockdown is lifted, we are going to get busy. Afterall, it is creative thinking that clients continue to come to agencies for. From redefining customer journeys to advising local authorities, from creating new products and reinventing existing ones, creativity will play a key role to economic survival.

There is much to do.

Author: Wybe Magermans, as originally published in MarComms News

Going back to a ghost town

Since the Mayor of London declared a state of emergency on 9th Jan, Zone 1 Londoners have been living in “28 Days Later”. The centre of London has turned into a ghost town.

The latest UK lockdown closed everything apart from the essentials and the government’s strong advice to stay indoors continues. But of course, people still need to get out. The result of this need is that we are once again promenading like we did in the 18th and 19th centuries, packing out suburban parks and other local open spaces in huge numbers, leaving Central London rather sad and empty.

The burbs are back

This reinvigoration of open and green space is also affecting where we want to live. The PropCast of The Advisory is a weather report that shows levels of ‘buyer demand’ in UK housing markets. Their latest forecast shows Central London as cold as the Arctic, whilst property demand in the suburbs and further out is not only rising in the UK but in other European countries too.

The lockdown will eventually ease and vaccines will reboot (some) of our old lives. But how likely are we to return to our love of the dense and smoggy inner city now we’ve had a taste of what’s on the other side of the hill?

In order to bring back residents, workers and visitors, local authorities and property developers will need to reinvent central areas into remarkable destinations. A strong brand will both increase the value of property assets and support the tenants and retailers within. Too many destinations however currently rely on cliché messages that do not reflect the authentic personality of a place.

A sense of place

Look at The City for example, London’s financial heart, where currently the only activity is the hustle and bustle of hard hats and high-viz jackets. New glossy towers of glass and concrete are still going up. This nonstop global development ready for the arrival of ubiquitous shops, restaurants and buildings leaves less and less distinction between London, Frankfurt or New York.

Leadenhall Market in the City by contrast offers origin and heritage – when you visit you know precisely where you are in the world. In the City’s maze of narrow passageways, Leadenhall Market opens up as an oasis. This unique feature could be more prominently used as a vehicle for visitor attraction.

Focus on what matters

There are areas of focus, which may seem obvious but combining and applying them in a meaningful way is less so.

1. Digital
Online will very soon be our primary shopping channel, with in-store purchases becoming a secondary consideration. Retail destinations will never be able to compete with the endless product selection and always-on nature of online shopping. But how technology is used to deepen relationships with people before and after a visit is something that Local Councils and property developers should be considering now.

2. Experience
Often developers will focus marketing efforts on the launch of a destination, forgetting that any space needs to continuously evolve and surprise visitors. Innovative destinations are already incorporating elements that regularly reframe what each place and space is about. In its simplest form this could mean keeping 10% of your retail space open for short-term experiential elements, such as concerts, classes or even pop-ups that provide a level of entertainment that cannot be successfully replicated online.

3. Sustainability
Consumers are beginning to demand true sustainability from their favourite places. This means that treating sustainability as a part of CSR is no longer enough. The Nordic Citycon shopping centres have as their motto: “We believe that operating sustainably is a key cornerstone in creating long-term value”. They apply this principle to the way their destinations connect to public transport, how they approach the community and their commitment to continuous improvements on CO2 emissions, energy use and waste in all of their operations.

Think differently

Our cities have undergone dramatic changes before of course. It wasn’t a virus but racism that drove the White Flight of the sixties, the mass exodus of white people from areas becoming more racially diverse. Although this phenomenon was most apparent in the States, it happened across Europe too. While many businesses stayed, it wasn’t uncommon to find entire downtowns with little street life after 5:00pm. The new Millennium then saw a return of downtown population growth. It was innovative thinking that created New York’s High Line, Paris’ Velib bike scheme and London’s Silicon Roundabout all of which have helped to completely reinvent each city centre. With the mass roll out of vaccines, hope is on the horizon. Now is the time for reconceptualisation. It’s creative vision that will once again repopulate our ghost towns.

 

Author: Wybe Magermans

Originally published in Marketing Communications News

 

 

Two pencils!

D&AD has awarded WMH with two pencils at this year’s ceremony.

We are incredibly proud to have added two more beautiful D&AD pencils to our awards cabinet. The recognition was for our poster design that raised funds to bring Afghanistan’s First All-Female Orchestra to Oxford, and support their music education. The poster is an image of a wool rug we created. A rug is an iconic symbol of Afghan culture, often used as a stage. They say, “when you look at an Afghan rug, you can see its soul”. We designed a traditional handwoven rug, incorporating the apparatus of war depicting the orchestra’s incredible journey from hardship to musical harmony. We commissioned its production with a women’s charity from Kabul and then photographed it to create a poster.

It is a project that has captured jurors’ imagination at many awards this year, including Design Week and winning the Grand Prix at the Drum Design Awards. Read more about this project here.

A rug tells the story from hardship to harmony

 

These awards are rubbish

On the 18th June 2020, FAB announced the winners of the 22nd FAB Awards, who will all receive a newly designed award’s trophy.

FAB are the only international awards programme that recognises the best creative work for food, beverage and restaurant brands. Although they liked their 21-year old logo, FAB came to Williams Murray Hamm to create a new identity that reflects their special place in the creative industry.

WMH hit upon FAB’s zest for what it does, delivered in a simple, unpretentious way. After all, the clue is in the title, so we set out to capture the creative and joyous world of Food And Beverage. For example, the striking sans serif logo has a bite mark out of one its letters. Whilst you can also see the new logo magically appear in all kinds of your favourite food and drink.

Garrick Hamm, creative director at WMH, said: “The old logo served FAB well, but it was definitely time for a new look. Working with FAB we quickly saw that they needed an identity with a bold personality that was, well, just as fab as they are.”

Right from the beginning of the project, FAB wanted to change the actual award trophies. They felt that they should be made out of recycled food and beverage packaging. WMH made this into a reality working together with Smile Plastics, who are specialists in manufacturing exquisite hand-crafted materials from recycled packaging.

Each trophy is made from recycled material and is 100% recyclable. For instance, the Silver award is made from recycled yogurt pots. Its white, marble-like surface has fragments of silver from yoghurt foil lids to reveal the material’s unique recycling story. By using waste to create FAB’s prestigious awards, we hope we can change people’s perceptions around recycled materials and unlock their hidden potential – turning rubbish into beauty.

The identity has also been rolled out across all other FAB properties, including FAB News, which is being supported with a Google partnership and the FAB Forum.

Neeraj Nayar, Chairman of the FAB Awards, said: “We are absolutely delighted by WMH’s genius. The simplicity and boldness of the new mark had us hooked the minute we saw it. Sitting perfectly across FAB News, Forum and Awards this is truly excellent and hopefully reflects the creative excellence acknowledged here at FAB.”

We want to thank the many people who collaborated with us on this project. In particular we would like to mention Smile Plastics and Unit 22 Modelmakers for creating the beautiful award trophies, and our sister agency, Studio4, for their help in the image production.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000. Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2020 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

 

When The Mask Comes Off

Whilst we are starting to feel some easing off from the lockdown measures, it might be easy to forget that our caregivers are still fighting on the frontline for us every day.

Debbie Thomas, skin health expert, wanted to show her gratitude and started offering free skin treatments to NHS workers who have suffered irritated or sore skin through wearing PPE.

She called this idea: “When The Mask Comes Off“.

Now this initiative has grown into something greater. As it’s not just about skin. These amazing front liners won’t have any time or ability to do any self-care treatments, yet they are caring for all of us.

Debbie Thomas is therefore calling in the help of her hair, health and beauty industry colleagues to give something back to our caregivers. If you are a hairdresser, beauty therapist, nails technician, aesthetic practitioner, fitness coach or holistic practitioner, you can join the “When The Mask Comes Off” and provide some TLC through free treatments.

The idea is that many will give a little, so no one feels the burden while it will help the wonderful care givers to feel more human and boost their moral.

Williams Murray Hamm have been working with Debbie Thomas on various projects over the past year, and we of course wanted to help and do our bit too. So, over a month ago, we got involved and designed its logo and some of the communications material. See below one of the animations we created.

To learn more visit their Facebook page here.

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000. Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2020 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

 

 

Letting go in lockdown

When lockdown happened, I imagined that everything was going to hell in a handcart and I’d cling on to things I knew and trusted. A metaphorical reaching out for the banister rail.

In fact, I’ve done the opposite. BBC Radio has been the first casualty. I never want to hear a politician ever again, so bang, out goes the Today programme. You and Yours and Woman’s Hour make me glum, so no thanks. I have discovered Scala Radio as I wake with the sunrise and it’s as though I’m in the park. Lockdown bliss.

Roaming the supermarket aisles, as I have always done since I started out as a designer, is now strictly verboten. Packaging design was, and remains, my first love and the supermarket has been both my art gallery and social anthropology laboratory. Watching people scan the shelves and pick up something we’ve been involved in has always had a frisson about it. How did we capture their attention and what tipped them over the line into putting the product into their basket? Online grocery shopping offers none of this. It is like the difference between Spotify and vinyl. Super convenient, but utterly soulless. Nothing beats picking up a product, turning it over in the hand, feeling its weight and, of course, looking at the label. Call me sad, but it is one of life’s simple pleasures.

Back to my first supermarket love

An unexpected change is the enforced switch of supermarkets. After years of loyal shopping, Waitrose doesn’t seem to want me and Ocado is too unpredictable, so I’m back where I started. Sainsbury’s is ‘my supermarket’ again. They were dead easy to sign up with and their delivery people are delightful, but what has happened to the brand that Peter Dixon and, on occasions, Williams Murray Hamm laboured so hard to make classy, intelligent and joyful? As one unloads the bags, where’s the story? I just can’t make out what the brand stands for. What is all this ‘by Sainsbury’s’ branding and what in heaven’s name is ‘Stamford Street Food Company’? Has anyone walked down Stamford Street lately? Let’s just say it’s not Tenterden High Street. If ever there were a right time to reshape Sainsbury’s, to make us fall back in love with it, it is now.

I didn’t expect to drop the BBC and I thought that Waitrose and I were pals for life. We will see if those relationships are revived if lockdown ever ends. One other quite unexpected change of behaviour is the joy to be found in anticipation. I am not gifted with patience. It is not a virtue and generally gets in the way of doing stuff, but my lockdown has seen a subtle change in this.

I am to be found, for the odd hour or two, wielding power tools and timber as I attempt to rebuild some rotten decking. With the closure of DIY stores, I have to rely on various businesses all around the country to deliver the multitude of fixings that Builder Bodge needs.

The excitement of home deliveries

‘My 6-inch Hex bolts have arrived!’ won last week’s loudest whoop. The big tease was that they couldn’t be touched until the next day in case there was Covid all over them. They took on the same lure as the Hornby Trains Royal Mail Van I lusted over in a Boxing Day shop window in 1960. Learning to wait has been rather wonderful.

There are, of course, vital items that one misses in lockdown. Marmite went AWOL from Sainsbury’s online. If you were desperate it could be found on eBay for £6.99 for a jar, plus £4 postage. Apparently, they’ve sold 48 of them so far. It makes one think about brand value. What brands would you pay extortionate prices for if they went missing? A quick scan of eBay shows a can of Ambrosia custard selling for £7 (inc postage) and a 1.5kg pack of Allinson’s Strong White Bread flour for £12 (admittedly the postage is a whopping £8). But then eBay is a mad place. Who in their right minds would buy Andrex ‘Natural Pebble’ lavatory rolls? A snip at £33.78 for 45 rolls by the way – it seems they are in ‘New Condition’ which is, no pun intended, a relief.

Author: Richard Williams

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com  or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000. Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2020 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

A rug tells the story from hardship to harmony

We are thrilled to announce that Williams Murray Hamm received the Grand Prix at The Drum Design Awards 2020.

The recognition was for our collaboration with the Orchestra St John (OSJ) in Oxford. The orchestra is a charity who passionately believes that music has the power to transform lives. They raised funds to bring Afghanistan’s First All-Female Orchestra to Oxford to support their music education.

To thank all their supporters, the OSJ asked WMH to create a commemorative poster. We designed a traditional handwoven rug incorporating the apparatus of war depicting the Orchestra’s incredible journey. We commissioned its production with a women’s charity from Kabul and photographed it to create a poster. The posters were sent in a rubble sack which traditionally Afghan rugs get dispatched in.

Together with the Grand Prix this poster received another four Golds in the following categories; Physical Product Design, Poster Design, Illustration and Design for Good.

The Drum Awards Jury’s thoughts:

“The judges felt it impossible to ignore this entry and during the judging sessions found that it covered many categories. We found ourselves on occasion split, then almost-simultaneously unanimously in favour of it. Any Grand Prix award needs to inspire conversation, debate and passion and considering the isolated conditions enforced on us all we found no shortage of exchange. In many ways this piece of work brought us closer together.

“The entry represents many things – a struggle, a journey, resilience, liberation, a story that needed to be told. This story perhaps was the thing that engaged us the most. It inspired rage, disgust and sadness but also a wonderful feeling of optimism and possibility brought through imagination and honest craft. If ever there was a symbol of overcoming adversity and delivering a message of hope, then this is it.“

 

 

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com  or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000. Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2020 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

COVID-19. Expect the Unexpected

Many people will have never witnessed a worldwide emergency like COVID-19. The banking crisis was twelve years ago and 9/11 nineteen. We all thought things would never be the same again. For the young, COVID-19 must seem earth shattering, but for people of a certain age age, well, it’s just another global catastrophe from which the commercial world always seems to recover.

However, seismic events do engender new behaviours and we never quite go back to our old ways, but the effects of these events are not always what we might have predicted.

When the PLO took to blowing up civilian aircraft in the late 1960s and 70s, we thought we’d stop flying because it had become so unsafe. That did not happen – there were 4.5bn air passengers in 2019. Instead, we created a massive new airport security industry. There were new jobs for security officers, expensive new detection devices became essential and airlines screwed more money out of us by creating Fast Track. A crisis is always an opportunity to make money.

In 1973 OPEC made oil prices quadruple. For a time, Americans resorted to buying smaller cars made by Japanese companies they’d never heard of, but once the crisis passed, they reverted to their old gas guzzling ways. By then the Japanese had a foothold in the market that they’ve never lost. Japanese cars subsequently destroyed Detroit and their manufacturing methods had a huge influence on worldwide manufacturing – all courtesy of OPEC.

Beyond gloves and face masks becoming fashion accessories, what might change thanks to COVID-19?

1. Air travel
Hundreds of passengers, cooped up for 14 hours, sharing the same air and spreading their germs offers a business opportunity. Imagine sterilised air becoming the value added. Business and First Class would be ‘Cleanroom’ clean, while poor old coach class breathes its own fug. Who is going to be ‘The World’s Most Hygienic Airline”?

2. Business meetings
For most telepresence is Skype or Zoom. Better than nothing, but a bit rubbish. Video conferencing will improve, but the real breakthrough will come when we feel we are really together. That transformation will happen when virtual reality meets telepresence. If you are sceptical, shell out £140 and try an Oculus Go. You will look an idiot wearing it, but things will never seem the same again – you are really there, in the jungle, in a Spitfire or perhaps, in a meeting.

3. Working hours and time zones
If COVID-19 proves anything, it illustrates just how strongly we are interconnected. With technology that lets us meet sufficiently well online, how long is it before we adopt more aligned working hours/days? It is mad that the UK and Europe do not share the same time zone. Should the US become a magnet for our trade, might we see a swathe of businesses running two shifts, one for Europe and one for the US? It’s called service and Americans swear by it.

4. Exercise
Do we really want to go to a sweaty gym and share unhygienic equipment? Peloton has paved the way for online training. Expect exercise to be done at home, with innovatively designed trainer devices that morph like Transformers into the exercise device of your choice that you can keep under the bed.

These are just some random thoughts and they probably won’t happen, of course. Please get involved and add your own comments and observations. Tell us what you think the consequences might be and remember…the exception to the rule is always the rule.

Author: Richard Williams

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com  or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000. Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2020 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

“I’m glad I was along for the ride”

Remembering Richard Murray (1965 – 2010)

Ten years after Richard’s untimely death at 44 years old, very few people currently at WMH worked alongside him. Yet, remarkably, his influence on the business remains very strong. WMH’s positioning, attitude and behaviour all derived from him and continue to course through the veins of the company today.

I have never encountered anyone so confident in their own views and as keen to dominate proceedings as Richard Murray. It was his clarity of thought that gave WMH its provocative stance – a simple extension of his personal beliefs that marketing and design had become moribund and unoriginal and needed goading.

To him, we were shooting at an open goal and it should have been easy to make a success of things. It was not, for the simple reason that most people in marketing are surprisingly risk averse. Richard railed loudly at the failure of other firms to create ground breaking work and readily walked away from clients who didn’t share our views. For a start-up business, this was wonderful stuff, because it gave us a common enemy – lazy thinking. Some thought we were arrogant, some cultish, but we didn’t care we, and particularly Richard, knew we were right.

In the ever more complex world of branding, it was good old packaging design that Richard held closest to his heart. Whilst other agencies, once established, moved swiftly into the more lucrative corporate identity world or focused on ‘digital’, Richard believed you could still command most fame through packaging design and it was fame that Richard sought for us. Packaging also connected him to the audience that he was most comfortable with everyday people, going about their everyday lives. ‘Big Brother’ and tabloid newspapers were what fascinated him, not the ‘C-Suite’.

Whilst kind and, on occasions, immensely caring, Richard would be the first to declare himself ‘difficult’ to work with, indeed he would be proud of the moniker. In his world, there was little worse in life than being beige. Chipped cups were publicly dropped onto the concrete floor, accountants and architects roasted for sloppy thinking or missing the brief. It did not stop people admiring him – you were never in doubt where you stood with Richard Murray.

He could be immensely funny. He had the wit and delivery to make a good stand-up comedian and, at one time, nurtured thoughts of a one-man show. Company drinks and Christmas parties always saw him centre stage, as did awards ceremonies, as long as we had won. If we hadn’t, he cleared off quickly, trailing a stream of invective behind him.

I always thought Richard was a designer manqué. He loved design and peoples’ reactions to it and, of course, he was obsessed with big ideas. He held designers in awe. Everyone else, including him, was there to serve them and, in turn, he commanded huge respect from them.

Like so many brilliant people (and Richard was brilliant) he was loved and feared equally. Clients didn’t get special treatment. He’d still show up an hour late for their most important meetings, tell them they were being lazy or he’d stop the meeting until they put their phones away. It just reinforced the message that this larger than life character was different to all the rest and he was.

Richard was a complex and endearingly funny man who had the remarkable power to make complicated things frighteningly simple. I am indebted to him for a helter skelter ride that I’d never have wanted to miss.

 

 

Author: Richard Williams

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com  or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000.
Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2020 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

Untangling the tracks

WMH creates campaign for “Untangling The Tracks” exhibition at London Transport Museum.

How can you keep millions of passengers moving while undertaking a huge project to transform an ageing railway and its stations – and make sure they’re kept up to date?

The UK’s railway network is the oldest in the world and today railways are more congested than ever. Passenger journeys in London and the south east have more than doubled in the last two decades leading to a capacity crunch. The Government-sponsored £7bn Thameslink Programme was an ambitious 10-year programme of extensive infrastructure enhancements and the delivery of 115 new trains that have (and continue to) bring faster, more frequent, more reliable, better connected journeys for passengers.

As the majority of the work has now been completed, Thameslink had the incredible opportunity to showcase the  Thameslink Program in an exhibition at the London Transport Museum. The exhibition is entitled ‘Untangling the tracks’ where visitors can learn about the upgrades through the ages and how Thameslink have done things differently in their decade long program.

The campaign follows various projects WMH has worked on with Network Rail and Thameslink that inform travellers on these engineering upgrades and the benefits they bring. Yet this campaign needed to not only reach travellers, it needs to grab the attention of kids, parents and teachers, making them feel as though they can’t miss out on this fun (and educational!) exhibition. The idea – Wow, What A Fact! – is therefore centred around the amazing facts and figures of the complex underground works, the rebuilt stations and new trains. The media includes out-of-home, digital and direct-to-passenger communication. WMH collaborated with its trusted production partner, Magnet Harlequin, on the implementation.

The run of the exhibition has been extended, so you can still visit the exhibition this Spring time at London Transport Museum.

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000. Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2020 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

Formula 1 is dead. Long live, erm Formula E?

Boris Johnson recently revealed that a ban on selling new petrol, diesel or hybrid cars in the UK will be brought forward to 2035 so we can be carbon zero by 2050. In the not too distant future, our ‘personal mobility solution’ will be an autonomous electric vehicle that we will call up whenever we need it. This will be the final nail in the coffin of our century old love of the automobile.

No more lovingly polishing the beast in the driveway (it’s already banned in Germany) and no more excuses to treat your wife to a chrome exhaust or a pair of leather driving gloves. All this will be a thought crime – in some parts of woke Britain it already is. Sports cars will disappear and Formula 1, that great testing ground for automotive development will go the way of Linoleum. While we stress over whether our hummus pot is recyclable, Formula 1’s annual carbon emissions are about 256,600 tonnes. It’s done for.

It’s electrifying!

Unsurprisingly, “I’ve just bought a Nissan Leaf” is a conversation stopper, even at a vegan dinner party. Electric cars just aren’t sexy, but there is some light on the horizon for those who can’t live without a bit of four wheeled derring-do on their TV screen. Last Saturday a Kiwi chap called Mitch Evans won an accident strewn race in Mexico City without using any petrol and making hardly any noise.

To many race fans Formula E, the electric racing series, is a poor show. There is some truth in this. The drivers are all has beens and the upcoming ‘London E Prix’ will actually race through a shed called the ExCel exhibition centre somewhere in East London and nobody will bother going. However, Formula E is the perfect testing ground for electric vehicle development and it’s why Porsche, Jaguar, Mahindra, BMW, Audi, Citroen, Mercedes and Nissan have all piled in.

Electric vehicles are not perfect. They drop minute and harmful particles into the atmosphere from their brakes and tyres and electricity still needs to be generated, much of it still from dirty fossil fuels. As for Lithium mining, don’t even go there. However, Formula E will be the laboratory for all sorts of innovation from braking systems to low wear, low emission tyres and high-tech lubricants that the drivetrain manufacturer puts in that you’ll never see – we are working on these with Castrol already.

EVs will spawn a massive growth of new supporting brands to service the biggest revolution in private transport since the introduction of the internal combustion engine. So far, the Formula E paddock is a bit short on sponsors. Where is the trusted international charging network, the ethically source lithium brand or the wiper free glass? For anyone interested in innovation and branding look no further than the EV revolution and Formula E. There’s tons to do.

Author: Richard Williams – Founder Williams Murray Hamm

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000. Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2020 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

Tackling hunger in schools

The faculty of the South Bank Arts Centre, Bedford, approached Williams Murray Hamm to help with a project for their 2nd year graphic design students. WMH wanted to use this opportunity to tackle the Hunger in Schools problem. In the UK, 1.8 million school children are at risk of hunger each morning. A hungry child cannot concentrate and research shows that hungry children find it more difficult to learn, and are harder to teach as a result.

We believe a great creative idea can create a meaningful difference – from igniting dialogue to initiating long lasting change, also with child hunger.

Chris Ribet, senior creative at WMH, headed up this project and asked the students to think of different ways to inspire a call to action. To help them on their way, his brief set out three approaches:

1. Government led awareness campaign
2. Campaign to reform policy led by an NGO
3. Fundraising and activation in collaboration with a brand

Choosing the best idea

The students separated into seven teams and created seven great ideas, which they presented at our studio to a panel of experts from relevant NGO’s, local government and the marketing community. In a Dragon Den’s style format, the judges discussed the projects. After some deliberation, the judges chose “The Whole Truth”, by Alex Wong and Oliver Judd as the winners. Runners up were “Bloom Card” by Amber Serali & Jordan Jones and “20p” , by Grace White & Cameron Dunn. The winners have been awarded an internship at WMH.

Chris Ribet says: “By identifying a clear insight about Hunger in Schools, the Bedford College students developed bold, creative and ambitious ideas that tackled the problem head on. Congratulations to the winners and runners up. The Whole Truth stood out as a brave, single-minded campaign delivered in all its unvarnished truth to the policy makers. We look forward to having Alex and Oliver in the WMH studio later this year.”

Many thanks to the judges who gave up their precious time to review, discuss and critique the ideas.

– Ellie Kershaw, Programme Delivery Manager at Tower Hamlets Council, tackling poverty
– Claude Barbe-Brown, Marketing Manager at Inspire
– Molly Long, reporter at Design Week
– Richard Williams, founder of Williams Murray Hamm

And of course many thanks as well to Bedford College and its 2nd year graphic design students.

 

 

For any press enquiries, or if your college would like some involvement from WMH, email press@wmhagency.com  or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000.

A new look for FAB Awards

Proud to announce that Williams Murray Hamm is behind the new identity for the international FAB Awards programme, which recognises the best in creative work for food, beverage and restaurant brands in over 60 countries.

FAB awarded WMH the brief without a pitch and asked the agency to create a new identity that would reflect the unique status of the awards and make it feel fresh having had the same look since the 1990s. The identity needed to work across other FAB properties, including FAB News, which is being supported with a Google partnership and the FAB Forum.

WMH hit upon FAB’s zest for what it does, always delivered in its simple, unpretentious way. The new look captures the creative and joyous world of food and beverage.

The logo uses a bold sans serif brand name with a bite mark out of the A and a straw in the B. WMH decided to keep the red and white palette but adjusted it to a new, deeper red.

FAB unveiled the initial part of new branding with the first call for entries for the 22nd annual awards in 2020. The complete brand identity will be presented over the coming months, including an entirely redesigned awards trophy to be unveiled at the ceremony in May next year.

Garrick Hamm, creative director at WMH, said: “The old logo served FAB well, but after 20-plus years it was definitely time for a new look. Working with FAB we quickly saw that they needed an identity with a bold personality that was… just as fab as they are.

Neeraj Nayar, Chairman of the FAB Awards, said: “We are absolutely delighted by WMH’s genius. The simplicity and boldness of the new mark had us hooked the minute we saw it. Sitting perfectly across FAB News, Forum and Awards this is truly excellent and hopefully reflects the creative excellence acknowledged here at FAB. We LOVE it and hope you do too.

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000. Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2019 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

 

Italian Hand Gestures and Traditional Etchings Inspire Design for 21 Sid

Brand strategy and design agency Williams Murray Hamm (WMH) has designed a visual identity for London-based coffee shop and bakery 21 Sid, which builds on the importance of hand gestures in Italian communication.

21 Sid, near London Fields in East London, is run by self-taught baker Laura Giovanna Lo Faro, who supplies baked goods to numerous cafes around London and bakes goods for her café on site.

With a myriad of independent coffee shops in London, creating a personal and unique brand for Laura’s business that went beyond a simple typeface or set of colours and was capable of not just standing out but engaging customers emotionally was key.

WMH’s solution is a visual identity based on the theme ‘Dolce Handmade’ – to reflect Laura’s handy skills both as a cook and also a passionate communicator – and ‘Liquid Perfection’.

The agency commissioned Italian illustrator Gabriele Grassi to capture, in a series of unique illustrations, a wide range of Laura’s hand gestures which are typical of the exuberance of Italian communications.

The hand-drawn, monochrome, illustrative style is inspired by traditional etchings and encyclopaedias.

The branding comprises dozens of illustrated hand signals, such as a raised hand with a raised forefinger (denoting ‘Just a second I need a coffee’); a closed hand with a raised pinkie (‘A latte skinnier than this’); and two hands rubbing together (‘Get excited, cake inside’).

The designs – which were done pro bono by the WMH team, who are regulars at 21 Sid – is being used across a wide array of items including badges; bills; staff aprons; cups and wrapping as well as in-store.

Garrick Hamm from WMH commented: “Hand signals can communicate as much as words, especially in Italian culture. Having bought our morning coffees from Laura for many months, we immediately knew that the branding for her coffee shop would need to reflect her personality, her Italian heritage, her passion and her charisma.”

Laura added: “Williams Murray Hamm has created a beautiful visual identity for the business, with the iconic hang gestures helping to convey the trust and the affection that we hope our customers feel when they walk into 21 Sid.”

By 

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com  or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000.
Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2019 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

When ciders become wine

WMH takes Somersby from orchard to glass.

Somersby is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing cider brands and the only global cider brand in the Carlsberg Group portfolio. It is successful within the younger, fast-living consumer market; however, it had limited appeal to the wider, mature audience who prefer to savour a more sophisticated tipple.

The innovation of a new premium range called ‘Somersby Orchard Selection’ focused on the sense of occasion for the more evolved palate. Positioned as a premium light social drink, these apple ciders have been crafted especially with the same grown-up flavours and structures of wine, but are lighter and more refreshing.

Like an Estate or Vineyard Selection, this creative idea communicates provenance and authenticity in a ‘new world wine’ style. WMH took the existing Somersby logo, and puts it back into the orchard. The three flavours – Secco, Sparkling Rose and White Dry – are launched in the Nordics.

 

 

Making chocolate even more irresistible

With Easter here, we can finally welcome the spring season. A perfect time to share with you some WMH news that involves chocolate.

Fortnum & Mason is Britain’s most famous luxury department store. As part of the significant rebrand a few years ago, WMH created the original designs for Fortnum’s enormous ‘Chocolossus’ biscuits. A seriously indulgent biscuit that’s double-coated in chocolate. These became famous for being a favourite of President Obama. So successful had they become, that two new variants were planned and we returned to create the packaging for them.

WMH’s work focused on a strong idea that customers might ponder as they enjoyed the product at home – that idea was about the biscuits’ irresistibility.

The new variants ‘Sticky Toffee Pudding’ and ‘Morello Cherry’ were, unsurprisingly, renamed by WMH as ‘Toffolossus’ and ‘Cherrilossus’. The packaging is adorned with images of sugar cane and cherry trees respectively. A bird steals cherries from a tree while an elephant, known for its love of sugar cane, drips golden toffee from its tusk.

Toffolossus and Cherrilossus are available to purchase at Fortnum & Mason’s flagship store in Piccadilly, as well as additional stores in St Pancras railway station, Heathrow Airport and Dubai. They’re also available online and at various stockists worldwide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com  or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000.
Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2018 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

Vote 100 Creatives

To mark the celebration of the ‘UK Women’s Vote Centenary’ and International Women’s Day, WMH commissioned a set of portraits of 100 female creatives.

Women who, as trailblazers themselves, will all have benefited from and flourished thanks to the suffrage movement. The portraits have been created in close collaboration with illustrator Hiffy Ulrich.

We felt it was important to recognise women who are known for making a meaningful difference in the creative world. They have been chosen from a wide range of creative disciplines, such as illustration, design, architecture, photography and film. We have included some well-known visual artists, as well as some unsung creative heroes, or women who are still early in their career.

This project is a collaboration between WMH and Hiffy Ulrich. A designer and illustrator, whose witty and playful work communicates feminist ideas and thoughts.

Over 100 days, we have and will be posting the 100 portraits on the various WMH social media channels, and a specially created Instagram “Vote 100 Creatives” account.

http://instagram.com/vote100creatives

In addition, WMH’s studio has a street level window, which is updated every month. In the window, we showcase a host of different projects, from photographers we admire, to collaborations with the local primary school. For this initiative we have installed 20 of Hiffy’s portraits, in combination with her own hand lettering work. The “Vote 100 Creatives” installation will remain at WMH’s studio window until the end of March.

You can check out more of Hiffy’s work at: www.hiffyulrich.com

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For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com  or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000.
Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2018 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

The power of creativity in delivering change

On 21 February, Wybe Magermans will be speaking at an evening by the Change Management Institute.

There are countless theoretical models about how an organisation can transform successfully. Yet for all the good these models do to structure change, the crux of successful transformation is centred around how people feel and behave differently. A rational approach alone isn’t sufficient.

Make sure to join Wybe, as he will be sharing key insights on how creativity helped Lamb Weston reshape from a company processing potatoes, to a $3,2bn multinational brand. One that is on now firmly on its way becoming the world’s No.1.

Wybe will be joined on stage by Leon Labovitch. An experienced business change and transformation consultant who has worked at the likes of KMPG, Shell and Sema Group, before setting up his own consultancy.

Register for tickets here!

The event is in partnership with King’s College London. The venue will be the remarkable Bush House in Aldwych, Central London. This iconic building has seen some huge changes since its opening in 1925. The Grade II listed building was originally an American-owned trade centre before becoming the headquarters of BBC World Service. Bush House’s latest purpose is that of higher education. King’s College moved in 2016, this time transforming the building into a centre of knowledge, learning and creativity.

An award-winning start of 2018

Williams Murray Hamm wins Best Of Show at Mobius Awards.

The new year kicks off in a celebratory fashion, with trophies for our work on Aberlour and RCS at this year’s Mobius Awards. Aberlour is awarded First Place statuette and Best of Show in the Brand Identity category. Whilst our work for RCS Advertising takes Second place ‘Certificate for Outstanding Creativity’ in the same category.

For Aberlour single malt whisky, WMH created a new brand world. Despite growing to the 6th position in the global market, Aberlour was relatively unknown. Equally, they hadn’t changed their communication much since their inception in 1879.

WMH looked at Aberlour’s long legacy, only to discover the founding family’s motto, ‘Let The Deed Show’, meaning ‘actions speak louder than words’. It’s the people, process and place surrounding Aberlour that create a whisky with such distinct character. WMH unearthed these deeds and, working closely with Scottish artist Liz Myhill, brought them to life. We used traditional lino cutting and printing techniques, to create original illustrations gleaned from books of storytelling in the 1900.

RCS came to WMH earlier in 2017. A 20-year-old Japanese advertising agency had metamorphosed into a brilliant new offering. They needed a new positioning and identity to reflect this. RCS helps clients identify, understand and optimise cultural differences. WMH called this ‘cross-cultural marketing’. The identity was built around a globe because RCS deals in global differences. It’s a cultural maze out there, so the ‘globe’ was fine-tuned to reflect this and a magenta ‘dot’ was created at the very core, to represent RCS – a point of consistency in unfamiliar territory.

“When I first met with WMH, I knew they ‘got’ who we were. They were able to interpret who we are, what we do and what makes us special in a way that went well beyond my imagination.”

Ron C Sternberg, Founder, RCS Advertising
For press enquires please contact:
Telephone: +44 (0)  20 3217 0000
Email: info@wmhagency.com

It’s a wrap!

Williams Murray Hamm, WMH, Network Rail

This Christmas, Williams Murray Hamm was tasked by Network Rail to create a campaign telling people about the many great shops at Glasgow, Victoria and Waterloo stations across various dates throughout December.

We created Wrapland, a free gift-wrapping service in the shape of a giant present tied up with a bright red ribbon and accompanied by a Christmas Pudding head-in-hole stand.

The project was done in collaboration with the production team at Magnet Harlequin, and the campaign itself is in partnership with Barnardo’s.

From all of us at Williams Murray Hamm, a very Happy Holidays and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year!

 

 

 

Williams Murray Hamm, WMH, Network Rail

 

 

Williams Murray Hamm, WMH, Network Rail

 

 

Williams Murray Hamm, WMH, Network Rail

 

 

Williams Murray Hamm, WMH, Network Rail

 

 

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com  or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000.
Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2017 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

WMH Creative Origins: Richard Williams at Sainsbury’s

WMH-THROWBACK-THURSDAY-RW-SAINSBURYS-PET-FOOD-FIRST-JOB-WEBSITE-130717

This week’s #ThrowbackThursday is a nod to the creative foundations of WMH – quite literally. It comes courtesy of our esteemed co-founder, Richard Williams, who created these pet food packaging labels when he began his design career working for Peter Dixon’s famous in-house design team at Sainsbury’s.

“The cats were portraits of the first cats my wife and I had. A nod to dear friend, the late Nick Wurr (co-founder of The Partners) who inspired the silhouettes and yellow eyes and to the great Peter Dixon. A fine man.”

WMH-THROWBACK-THURSDAY-RW-SAINSBURYS-combined-FIRST-JOB-WEBSITE-130717WEBImages: ‘Own Label: Sainsbury’s Design Studio 1962-1977’ © Fuel Publishing, all rights reserved.

It’s not lost on anyone how WMH once again worked with Sainsbury’s (some years later) designing their Basics and SO Organics ranges – the latter is still in store today.

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You can find further examples of Richard’s early work in ‘Own Label: Sainsbury’s Design Studio 1962-1977 (ISBN: 0956356281, Fuel Publishing).

 

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000.
Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2017 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

 

Five ways to spot a business trend

WMH-GUARDIAN-ED-HEBBLETHWAITE-FIVE-WAYS-TO-SPOT-A-TREND-THAT-WILL-LAST-100717Photograph: Tetra Images/Getty Images/Tetra images RF

Ed Hebblethwaite joins Nick Harrison (co-lead of Oliver Wyman’s Retail Practice), Hayley Ard (head of consumer lifestyle at innovation research and trends company Stylus) and Mark Wright (founder of SEO agency Climb Online) to discuss spotting business trends that will last.

>>>>>See full article in The Guardian here. <<<<<

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For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000.
Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2017 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

New Blood Judging 2017

This May, WMH’s Design Director Mark Nichols visited D&AD’s new swanky offices as part of the D&AD New Blood jury. He was a judge on the Arjowiggins Creative Papers brief which set out to unite print and pixels, asking how print and digital platforms might form a new, symbiotic, relationship.

The task was to create a campaign, product or service for Sony Music, Facebook or Instagram that reminds digital customers of the power of paper.

Mark was joined on the multidisciplinary jury by Jack Renwick, acting D&AD President, Rob Newlan, Facebook Creative Shop’s EMEA Director and Sean Perkins, Director at North Design, along with a wide range of other creatives from advertising, design and paper artistry.

The work well received, but did it break the mould?
The provisional online round of judging saw 265 entries from across the globe, some underwhelming and well wide of the mark, some entertaining, but off brief, some ‘good’ and a handful that stood out as being truly great.

On the day, the Arjowiggins jury awarded two wood pencils, three graphite pencils and one yellow pencil.

WINNER of the Yellow Pencil: Colorgram is a concept for Arjowiggins Creative Papers that engages Instagram users in real life. It identifies shapes and colours in Instagram posts and transforms them into minimalistic die cut art. Congratulations to Jack Welles and Danae Gosset, from the School of Visual Arts, NYC.

Click here to see all of the 2017 D&AD New Blood Winners.

So what tips does Mark have for creating a winner?

“To start with, it’s imperative to interrogate the brief fully. Not only must your work answer the brief but it must stand out, stretch the brief and turn it upside down and look at it from a new, and relevant, perspective.

It’s unlikely your first answer will be the winning answer (no matter how good you think it is). Chances are, if it comes easily, many other people will have thought of the same solution. Trust me, we saw a lot of the same ideas regurgitated and skinned slightly differently. You have to persist until you’ve created something you’ve never seen before.

Having a proper grasp of the latest technologies, creative platforms, relevant social issues and a thorough and un-biased understanding of the target audience, will also help elevate your entry.

Once all of the above is in place you’re in with a chance. Now, to test if your idea will translate, can you easily and confidently describe it in no more than two short sentences? If it takes an essay and tons of boards to explain your ground breaking creation, the chances are you’ve overcomplicated it and got lost in your own genius.

Of course the one thing all the winners had in common was a great and original idea at the heart of the work.

To get to the higher pencil levels the work had to be well executed and commercially achievable – it’s a lot easier to have a great idea without thinking of its practicalities.

To win you need to have the jury arguing over who’s going to employ you first and be nervous that they’re going to be left behind by the next generation of creative mega minds! Easy right? No. Design is and will remain a challenging discipline, but with the right amount of blood, sweat and ideas your work just may get rewarded with the coveted D&AD pencil”.

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com  or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000.
Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2017 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

Facebook Live interview with Richard Williams

FUTURE LONDON ACADEMY FACEBOOK LIVE INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD WILLIAMS – Wednesday, May 31st at 16.00 UK time (GMT+1)

Our esteemed and humble Co-Founder, Richard Williams, had the privilege of taking part in the very first WMH Facebook Live interview with Future London Academy.

Sharing anecdotes and advice from WMH’s 20-year history, Richard talks about creating difference, first bosses, starting your own creative agency and inspirations.

Future London Academy provides immersive courses for like-minded creative professionals to broaden their horizons, expand their personal networks and find inspiration in one of the world’s most exciting cities.

Through practical experiential learning, their mission is simply this to erase borders between creative communities from different countries –­ and to inspire people around the world to achieve more every single day.

Williams Murray Hamm is a brand innovation, design & strategy agency. We have 20-years’ award-winning, creative expertise of inventing and reinventing brands. Clients include Castrol, Jamie Oliver, Barclays, Fortnum & Mason, Carlsberg, Absolut and many others.

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com  or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000.
Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2017 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.

Point of Light shortlisted for Design Week Award 2017

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We are excited to be shortlisted for a Design Week Award in the Poster Design category for our B2B work with Point of Light.WMH-DESIGN-WEEK-AWARDS-POINT-OF-LIGHT-POSTER-SERIES-WEBThe series of posters form part of the overall Point of Light brand identity.  The brand mission to “tell extraordinary stories with light” is brought to life using evocative and mysterious monochrome illustrations in the purest 2D presentation of light and shadows.

Click here to see the full case study.

 

For any press enquiries email press@wmhagency.com  or call +44 (0) 20 3217 0000.

Unless otherwise cited, © copyright 2017 Williams Murray Hamm, all rights reserved.