What we do

Capabilities

Eight disciplines, one team. This is a map rather than a menu — nobody orders a logo from column A. Every engagement is led by V. as creative director, who builds the team for the brief from what follows. Most briefs need several.

Brand

Identity in the full sense: marks, wordmarks, type, colour, illustration, packaging, and the art direction that holds them together. It shows up whenever an organisation is new, renamed, or no longer looks like what it has become — and it is rarely the only discipline in the room, because a mark is only as good as the name and the positioning underneath it.

Shows up in: The Botanist, Ashlar, Vela, Halcyon, Studio North, Project Super Jumbo, Volta Coffee, The Gannet
In the collective: Josie R., Riley W., Edward S., Marvin H., Diane G.

Studio North — identity system

The Gannet — a system for drawings

Web

Websites and digital products designed and built by hand: structure, interface, front-end development, and the interactive work that leaves the screen for a gallery or a shop floor. It shows up wherever the site is the place — a studio's portfolio, a museum's collection, a product someone has to understand before they will buy it.

Shows up in: Ashlar, Studio North, Tessel, The Cabinet
In the collective: Kevin O., Tasha P., Kendel B.

The Cabinet — the website on a tablet, with the headline Open every drawer.

The Cabinet — a collection you open, not search

Ashlar — a site that gets out of the way

Video

Brand films, documentary and launch idents, and the post-production that finishes them: direction, cinematography, editing, colour and sound. It shows up when something is better seen happening than described — a foundry at work, a production company announcing itself, a product that doesn't exist yet.

Shows up in: Vela, Hollowell, Tessel
In the collective: Mike J., Alex D., Ted W.

Hollowell — a foundry worker pours molten iron from a hand ladle, sparks scattering in the dark

Hollowell — four days on a foundry floor

Vela — the identity, in use on set

Photography

Portrait, campaign, architectural, product and specimen photography, with the art direction that makes a set of pictures belong together. It shows up in nearly everything, because most brands are met first as an image — and because no amount of design rescues a weak picture.

Shows up in: The Botanist, Ashlar, Halcyon, Hollowell, The Cabinet
In the collective: Hector C., Robbie S.

Halcyon — a model in a vast gown of crushed ruffles, in black and white

Halcyon — one gown, one window's worth of light

The Cabinet — a single green and copper jewel beetle on white

The Cabinet — three thousand specimens

Motion

Motion systems, title work, 3D and CGI: how a brand behaves when it moves, and how to show a thing that can't be photographed. It shows up in identities that live on screens, in launch films, and wherever the product is still a drawing.

Shows up in: Vela, Project Super Jumbo, Tessel
In the collective: Derik T., Janesh S., Kendel B., Ted W.

Tessel — exploded view of the speaker, its parts floating in a line on blush pink

Tessel — a launch film with nothing photographed

Vela — the mark's reveal shown all at once: a yellow V on black with frame outlines nested around it

Vela — one reveal, used everywhere

Copy

Naming, verbal identity, brand voice, and campaign and packaging copy. It shows up at the start of a project rather than the end — a name is a positioning in one word — and in any brief where how something is said matters as much as what.

Shows up in: The Botanist, Studio North, Project Super Jumbo, Volta Coffee
In the collective: Michelle R., Jean B.

Volta Coffee — three forest green bags labelled Slow Burn, First Light and Night Shift

Volta Coffee — three roasts, renamed

The Botanist — a backlit street poster with the headline Plant. Process. Proof.

The Botanist — three words on a street

Strategy

Research, positioning and the brief: deciding what an organisation is before anyone designs what it looks like. It shows up first — on rebrands, launches, anything involving a change of direction — and it stays on, to keep the work honest.

Shows up in: The Botanist, Studio North, Project Super Jumbo, The Gannet
In the collective: Rumi K., Edward S., Jean B.

Project Super Jumbo — a double-deck airliner at dawn, its tail vermilion with a small white star

Project Super Jumbo — selling the night, not the destination

The Gannet — a harbour wall mural of a diving gannet, crab, shells and lighthouse in navy line

The Gannet — a hotel that belongs to its harbour

Campaign

Launch planning, campaign direction, social and content: who sees the work, in what order, and what happens the day after. It shows up whenever something is being introduced — a product, a season, a reopened hotel — and wherever a launch has to last longer than a week.

Shows up in: The Botanist, Halcyon, Hollowell, Volta Coffee, The Gannet
In the collective: Priscilla A., Diane G., Ava J.

Halcyon — three black and white campaign posters pasted on a city wall

Halcyon — stockists first, streets second

Volta Coffee — a green poster in a grocery window reading Now in aisle five.

Volta Coffee — now in aisle five

Which disciplines each collaboration involved
Project	Brand	Web	Video	Photography	Motion	Copy	Strategy	Campaign
The Botanist	Brand	—	—	Photography	—	Copy	Strategy	Campaign
Ashlar	Brand	Web	—	Photography	—	—	—	—
Vela	Brand	—	Video	—	Motion	—	—	—
Halcyon	Brand	—	—	Photography	—	—	—	Campaign
Studio North	Brand	Web	—	—	—	Copy	Strategy	—
Hollowell	—	—	Video	Photography	—	—	—	Campaign
Project Super Jumbo	Brand	—	—	—	Motion	Copy	Strategy	—
Tessel	—	Web	Video	—	Motion	—	—	—
Volta Coffee	Brand	—	—	—	—	Copy	—	Campaign
The Cabinet	—	Web	—	Photography	—	—	—	—
The Gannet	Brand	—	—	—	—	—	Strategy	Campaign
Projects	8	4	3	5	3	4	4	5