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.

 

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.

 

Why success shouldn’t change the octopus

Octopus Energy’s widely reported £3bn deal will catapult the energy business from a start-up into one of Europe’s biggest renewable energy investors and fastest growing energy suppliers. Octopus is now targeting 50 million customers in the UK by 2027 and has plans to increase its new renewables division to generate as much clean electricity as it sells.

This kind of trajectory means that it will soon lose its start-up badge. How will this affect the brand?

In the UK, 41% of households switched their energy provider in 2020. People generally shop between the Big Six, led by British Gas, EDF and E-on and currently excluding Octopus Energy. The trigger to switch is more often than not price, with decisions being made easy by the plethora of price comparisons sites. This price war is hard to keep up with for any business. Start-ups attempting to take part in such a war and who solely focus on a price message will inevitably erode their brand’s value over time. For example, AirBnB, who instead of focussing on cheap rooms focussed on local experiences overcame the problem of brand erosion.

Messaging is not the only consideration; many people will think that now is the time for Octopus to rebrand. Many modern start-ups, from Twitter to Deliveroo, reinvent after extra funding is secured. Perhaps they feel that a more ‘grown-up’ brand is required to appeal to a wider audience. This however does not have to be the way. Ryanair has hardly changed, and its brand experience is as unslick as when it started. From its advertising to the on-board experience, the brand’s non-design is considered and there to reassure passengers that they are not paying for any unnecessary fluff they would be paying for with the big, shiny airlines.

With growth comes change. The temptation to evolve everything is sometimes a hard one to resist, from what brands say, to the way they look. But change can be destructive.

Firstly, even if price was the initial reason for the switch to Octopus, the brand needs to remind its customers that they’ve made the right choice beyond a cheap deal. Customers need to constantly recognise Octopus as one of the flagbearers in the fight against climate change. They need to be repeatedly delighted by meaningful promotions and see how the business uses its influence in other areas through brand partnerships. Octopus should leverage its current feel-good factor and build salience. Only then will it be able to change its customers from bargain-hunters to fans that show loyalty beyond reason.

Secondly, Octopus Energy would be making a mistake to shed its current identity. Many people who have come in contact with Octopus Energy often site how much they love the way the brand interacts with them – from Constantine, their loveable octopus mascot, to personalised waiting music (which is based on what was No.1 in the charts when you were 14). Having said that the brand can come across as a little one dimensional. It sings one purple note, which isn’t always in tune and its visual assets don’t seem to work well in the digital space. Nonetheless, there is a lot there for Octopus’ marketing department to maximise. Could the octopus mascot come more to life – meerkats spring to mind?

Octopus Energy should be wary of not losing its sense of self. Its brand has quirks that are based on social values and its wish to do things differently. This does not mean Octopus should keep things as they are. The business needs to galvanise what it has and say it better and louder.

From musicians to politicians, everyone can fall victim to their own success. Similarly, thriving challenger brands can grow into exactly the thing they were originally rebelling against. Octopus Energy is an exciting player to watch in a hugely important sector. Let’s hope they can continue to use their business growth for good.

Author: Wybe Magermans, as originally published in MarComms News

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.

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.

 

 

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.

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.

FABulously Free From

It has been a winning first half of 2019 for Williams Murray Hamm, adding another 16 gongs to its trophy cabinet. The wins include work for Waitrose & Partners, Network Express, Network Rail, 21 Sid, Jewel & Temple, Baerbar and its own 20-year book (Blood, Sweat & Ideas).

Yesterday evening, WMH was awarded a Gold and Silver for its work with Waitrose & Partners. WMH created ‘Free From’, a completely new sub-brand concept for the retailer. The new design presents Free From as a positive, progressive eating choice, regardless of whether you have allergies or not. WMH’s visual identity, including pack designs, had already won several awards, including at New York Festivals, Transform, Creative Pool and Fresh.

The FAB Awards is a prestigious international awards program focused entirely on work done for Food And Beverage industry. It recognises the contribution that outstanding creative work makes to building brands. Entries from over 60 countries across advertising, design, digital and other media makes this a sought after award. WMH’s Free From won a Gold in Brand Redesign, and Silver in Packaging Design. Whilst our work for the London coffee shop, 21 Sid, also picked up a FAB Silver in the Brand Identity category.

As a proud partner of the Branded group, WMH collaborated with sister agency Technik on the artwork production of the Free From 50+ product range. Whilst photography was produced by Jonathan Gregson.

Author: Wybe Magermans – Managing Director.

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.

Hirsh London hires Williams Murray Hamm for rebrand

Hirsh London, Mayfair’s luxury jewellery house, has appointed Williams Murray Hamm to handle its rebrand ahead of its 40th birthday celebrations in 2020.

Founded in 1980 by Anthony and Diane Hirsh, today the business is run by their son Jason Hirsh and his wife Sophia. Whilst the company is thriving, it was felt that their existing identity and communications failed to capture the attitude and essential Britishness of the business. Consequently, WMH was appointed to create a sharper, better defined brand essence and to reflect it in completely new creative work.

Hirsh is one of the London’s most respected jewellery boutiques.

Its speciality is in its large variety of unusual, natural coloured gemstones which it goes to extraordinary lengths to source. All its one-of-a-kind pieces are designed around an individual gem and handmade in its London atelier.

Hirsh’s devotion to coloured gems chimes with the current trend towards coloured engagement rings and the very personalised nature of its service means that customers find exactly the right piece of jewellery and gem to suit them perfectly.

WMH was introduced to Hirsh through a former client and won the project through a chemistry meeting and subsequent competitive proposal. Its creative input will stretch across advertising, packaging, website and a new logo. First fruits of the relationship will be seen in January 2019.

Garrick Hamm, WMH’s creative director, says “Hirsh imagines and produces the most exquisite and joyous colour driven jewellery in town. They have a wonderful British quirk to them, and our new brand identity and campaign captures this spirit at the same time as giving them visibility and cut through in a sea of mainstream, luxury jewellery sameness.”

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.

Real reasons why Gillette #metoo toxic masculinity got it wrong

We all have hair. Thus we are all equal.
We all have hair. Thus we are all equal.

I’m sure you’ve seen all the brouhaha by now about the new advert for men’s razors Gillette, which hitches a ride on the #MeToo movement to riff on its ‘the best a man can get’ tagline in a bid to tackle toxic masculinity.

Just search Gillette on Twitter if not – it’s divided between those praising the long-form ad for putting a positive spin on masculinity, and the massive backlash from those bristling that it puts all men in a bad light, to the extent they’re now pledging to boycott any products from makers Procter & Gamble.

Piers Morgan has been one of the most vocal critics so far, Tweeting: “I’ve used @Gillette razors my entire adult life but this absurd virtue-signalling PC guff may drive me away to a company less eager to fuel the current pathetic global assault on masculinity. Let boys be damn boys. Let men be damn men.”

GiletteOne of the most high profile defenders of the spot meanwhile has been Bernice King, daughter of late civil rights activist Martin Luther King. She Tweeted: “This commercial isn’t anti-male. It’s pro-humanity. And it demonstrates that character can step up to change conditions.”

In case you haven’t seen it, the ad called ‘We Believe: The Best A Man Can Be’ starts with news clips referencing the #MeToo movement, toxic masculinity and sexual harassment, before moving on to bullying, sexism on TV, fighting between boys and mansplaining in the boardroom while a voice intones: “Is this the best a man can get?”

Still that ancient binary

The overall message the ad gives out that being the best a man can be is about respecting others is actually a really good one. And I admire Gillette taking a stand on this. But the ad fails because it is still using outdated, old-fashioned tropes about what being a man is as well as demonstrating a very heterosexual male, middle-class view of what respect should mean. It’s saying that men have a certain amount of power over women and they should just use it more respectfully. This only further emphasises the ancient binary that it’s Men Versus Women.

It’s saying you must be soft and gentle to respect others – to ‘feminise’ what being respectful means via the ancient lens of gender stereotypes. They’ve failed to keep up with the times and have fallen back onto an old, typical vocabulary that masculinity is x,y and z and therefore wrong. They’re trying to resolve current gender issues by using the same old metaphors and cliches that created the inequality in the first place. You should use a new language to move this conversation along.

Don’t you lecture me!

The lecturing tone is all wrong too which is particularly disingenuous when it comes from P&G, who’ve spent decades marketing cleaning products specifically to women or saying women have to look a certain way with their beauty products, while flogging their pink Venus women’s razor range for more money than their men’s.

But then, by and large, advertisers are massively behind the times, and they often trip themselves when they try to tackle (or benefit from) societal issues – just look at the disastrous Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad from a couple of years back which tried to piggyback on #BlackLivesMatter.

Gilette #metooThe advertising industry has huge power to contribute to societal change, but it still doesn’t seem to have the language to describe the new normal. TV soaps on the other hand have historically been far better at challenging stereotypes about gender and sexuality, from the first gay soap kiss in 1987 on EastEnders, to the first transgender character in Coronation Street in 1998, who was the world’s first permanent transgender character in a serialised drama. Even more recently, look at the amazing way EastEnders tackled rape and issues around consent at the end of last year.

The big missed opportunity

Gillette missed a trick – they could have done it so well to bring the gender equality conversation bang up to date. As a brand, they have a right to re-evaluate what masculinity means in the modern age. But not in this way. The real opportunity for Gillette would have been that, as a brand that makes both men and women’s products, to announce that they’re making their products gender neutral. That would make a true statement about respect and equality.

Or at the very least, before putting this ad together, they could have taken some inspiration from British soap operas to see out how it can be done when it comes to tackling current social issues on our screens.

 

Author: Wybe Magermans – Managing Director

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.