Duke of york square jubilee tea party – Hot on the heels of their busiest ever week with Chelsea in Bloom, the lovely people at Duke of York Square will be hosting London’s most extravagant tea party in honour of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
Inspired by the famous Buckingham Palace Garden Parties, the festivities will include ‘tea with the Queen’, a dress up photo booth, and live coverage of the Thames River Pageant for all. There will be over 300 seats, high tea served by the ‘Royal Footmen’, a military band performing, and a complimentary green screen for visitors, friends and family to have their photo taken on the ‘Buckingham Palace balcony’ and inserted into their very own royal photo album.
The Square will be fully dressed for the occasion by Underscore, and it all kicks off at 11.30am so one simply should not be late! You can find out more about the event on the Duke of York square.
The Underscore digital team are delighted to reveal the launch a new website for Lunson Mitchenall – a market leader in the UK retail and shopping centre property sector.
From Canary Wharf to the o2 Arena, they have overseen an incredible £4.5 billion worth of retail investment in 85 transactions over the past five years, equating to 18.3 million sq.ft of shopping centre space.
Their new website highlights some superb imagery of their extensive portfolio, contains a full property listing system, case studies to highlight their finest instructions and detailed profiles of the people that make Lunson Mitchenall unique.
As part of Lunson’s ongoing digital strategy, we will be working with them to analyse their traffic to help improve their search engine optimisation, improve their online content and learn more about their audience to create more targeted, engaging website of the future.
So if you’re after retail, catering and leisure advice from a team with experience from Abu Dhabi to Buenos Aires why not have a look at the Lunson Mitchenall website.
As featured earlier this year in Design Week, Underscore’s design theme for Chelsea in Bloom has now been rolled out across Chelsea’s alternative floral art show.
A big departure from last year’s Oriental theme, this year the show celebrates the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. The area’s most acclaimed retailers have been attempting to outshine previous winners such as Cartier, Ted Baker, Paule Ka, Jo Malone and Tiffany, and this year’s floral art show was possibly the most exciting and competitive yet. The square attracted a record number of visitors over the week, even more than they have had over Christmas.
Our design appeared on printed collateral, signage, promotional items and even branded rickshaws! Our client was very pleased with the result:
“The Chelsea in Bloom flyers and pocket guide look amazing in their physical form. The paper quality is just right too. Huge thanks to you and your team for all your hard work on this.”
– Will Lewis, Centre Manager, Duke of York Square
We also designed the Chelsea in bloom website, and our back end support included data analysis, to help Duke of York Square track their sources of traffic to optimise their marketing efforts. The site drew thousands of people to vote for their favourite display in the hotly contested People’s Champion award.
The winner was Scottish retailer Brora, with their pretty as a picture ode to Her Majesty. Homewares retailer The White Company took second place, and leather specialist Smythson came third. You can still view all the entries online, so why not head over and have a look for yourself?
Facebook is finally going public and the demand is creating a frenzy! This is exciting times for the world of digital. It is global recognition that social media is regarded as a monster of a tool for both smaller businesses and multinational corporations.
The social media website has been valued at $118 billion dollars and IPO (initial public offerings) will take place today.
So lets answer the question everyone has had on their minds this week. “How can I buy Facebook stock?” Well… unless you have a highly influential broker (and I mean a dude who wears a gold diamond crusted tie clip to work) and you are his preferential client to the point where he likes you enough to trust you with his kids, his dog, his boat in the south of France and the keys to his house, then the truth is… you can’t.
It is true that a lot of investment firms are taking requests but there are rules. The majority will require you to have £500’000 balances or for example trade 30 times a day! While some claim the $40 a share market price to be over estimated the world is still going crazy to get a piece or even a crumb of the big blue Facebook cake! Because the site allows commercial users to connect so very specifically with their audiences, it is a communication product that is valued extremely highly by marketing teams.
Social media has indeed changed the world. It has changed the way we communicate with each other, it has changed the way we build our circles socially, it has changed the way we are able to connect with our customers online. Will the hype be long term? As a lot of people have been saying “do you see Facebook not being used anytime soon?” It seems there are no obvious clouds on the horizon for social media platforms and that skies will indeed stay… well… blue!
Many have asked why Google+ have then decided to launch a separate video platform as an extension of the original video chat features within its existing product.
As we all well know, a lot of successful digital campaigns encompass the use of video communication. Since 2005 sites such as Youtube and Vimeo have allowed internet users to share their videos with the world.
Internet video fanatics are also comparing Hangouts On Air to Blog TV, the internets previously most familiar live video broadcasting website. Hangouts On Air brings one fundamental difference to the world of internet video broadcasting as it incorporates user account ability to host live video communications that tie in with Google+ profiles and networks. Previously a private hosting service, a switch in the software now allows the user to broadcast live to non users.
With the service now available through Google user dash it allows social media awareness campaigns to incorporate a really interesting aspect into their existing networks for external communications. It’s still early days as Google’s You+ network project in general is still over shadowed by Facebook and Twitter. But with such a powerful investment engine behind Googles social media concepts, You+ video features are something to keep the awareness creation sensors tuned in to.
Hangouts has tapped into large name celebrities who already have a large following to help spread platform awareness. Google has already hosted On Air Hangouts with David Beckham and President Barack Obama as well as investing training resources into large firms such as Wired and the New York Times.
Excuse our obvious punned up sign off. But Watch. This. Space!
Pinstantgram? No, not a spelling mistake.
We all agree Pinterest and Instantgram have been two of the most sexy startups in the last years. Now, what would happen if these two hot web properties were combined into one?
That is exactly what Pek and Brandon wondered. What began as a joke and continued as a weekend coding adventure may end up being the next big thing on social networks, so stay tuned!
Here’s how it works: After connecting your Instantgram account, you view your photo stream in the waterfall layout Pinterest is known for. You can like and comment on pictures, as in the Instantgram app while pinning photos to your Pinterest pinboards.
Want to give it a shot? Here’s the link.
http://pinterest.com/epicmom/pinstagram-party/
To join the Pinstagram Party, leave your Pinterest username in the comment section below and they will add you as a contributor to the Pinstagram Party Board.
Enjoy your pinning!
Creating a brand identity is not always as easy as it seems. A great logo should be memorable, right, you look at it and you just get it.
To the untrained eye a logo may seem to have little thought or meaning behind it, it’s just an image with some text thrown next to it. As a designer strives to make something unique, something that looks beautiful and something that might have a deeper meaning.
So there in lies the challenge, keep it simple but make it have a deeper meaning. As designers sometimes we overlook the simple ideas, like it’s not worthy because of its simplicity.
The amazon logo is a good example of having a deeper meaning while retaining a simple idea. At first glance it appears to have a orange smiling face, but when you look closer its an arrow that goes from a to z. This is almost subliminal and tells you that they have everything under one roof.
What is a brand identity?
Well in its simplest form a brand identity is the visual elements of a company, its name, sign, symbol, colour, typeface, its slogan and even its sound. Done right a good brand identity can convey your unique position in a market and leave a deep and long lasting impression to your customers.
A brand identity is not your brand. Your brand is the impression that your customers form for themselves. Once your brand identity is public in the form on a product or service you will not be able to control every aspect of it, it’s your customer’s interactions and reactions that build your brand.
Building your brand identity
The starting point for a creating a powerful engaging image begins with its name. With the growth of the Internet, choosing a name has become that little bit harder. Not only do you want a unique name, you will also require the domain name. The three rules for selecting your business name are
1. Keep it short, memorable and easy to spell
Your clients and customers must be able to remember your name. Not only that, they should be able to easily recall the name when looking in stores, online and when they are recommending your product to friends and family. Making a unique name that is hard to spell is simply creating a barrier for success and that is a bad idea.
2. A good brand name must have positive connotation
The brand name must invoke an idea or feeling in a person that generates a good, affirmative or constructive quality. Some believe that a great name should be abstract; the abstract nature of the name makes it more memorable. Other people think that a name should be informative so clients and customers immediately know what your company is. In reality any name can be effective whether its abstract, literal, an acronym or informative.
3. Your brand name needs a visual element.
Humans are generally hard wired to store images, we can instantly recognise thousands of images, and we do it every day. When I say apple computers, you immediately visualise the apple logo in your brain or an apple product. Including a visual element to your brand identity can thus help your customer recall your brand. Just like the apple type with an apple logo the visual element could be part of your brand identity story, lets explore that.
Your logo could be the first impression your company has on a potential client; just like the real world you only get once chance to make that first impression. So it must be professional and memorable. There are three basic design considerations when creating your company’s logo:
1. Design your business name
A custom font or a designer’s treatment of a typeface to make it unique to your business name can massively help recognition of your company. Many businesses use just the custom logotype as their brand identity, think Google, coke and Disney. Some larger companies go as far as creating a whole typeface, so that everything they do is unique to them – or at least the look of it is.
2. Your icon, the symbol or image or symbol that often accompanies the name
While not essential for a brand identity the icon can play a major role in customer recognition of your brand. It could also help to stand out from the crowded marketplace. Examples of this are again McDonald’s golden arch or ‘m’, apple, hp, bmw, bp, Pepsi and Mitsubishi to name a few. Established brands can use just the symbol on its own without the full brand name, and customers now who they are and what they stand for.
3. The brand strapline or tagline, the small group of words that state your companies mission.
A good strapline or slogan can help identify your company. There is no real science behind writing a successful one. Being truthful, witty or catchy are all good ways to generate your strapline, its not easy and will require many revisions. In general try to reflect something about your brand image that connects to your audience in some way. Examples are Nike – just do it. Apple computer – think different. British Airways – The world’s favourite airline. Tesco – Every little helps.
After your business name is chosen, your logo is designed and your strapline is created, your brand has the building blocks on which to build your identity. Everything you do from this point be it online or offline should now have a consistent brand identity and every communication should remain true to that identity.
A powerful brand identity can position a business ahead of its competitors, its that simple. However, creating a strong brand takes money, a lot of effort and time. It takes time to shape a brand in the mind of your users, they need to live with your brand, feel it, touch it and above all experience it.
It is no longer as easy as just designing a logo or creating a clever strap line. Its the emotional experience that your users have that will make people choose your brand instead of your competitors.
How do your create a brand
A brand is not what you think it is. Its what your customers think it is. Successful re-branding should differentiate your from your competitors. It should cultivate emotional responses with your customers rather than a rational response. Your brand is your personality and how that is shaped by your customers. You can’t design a brand, you have no control over the audience and its your audience that creates your brand. Your business can however create the foundation of your brand, you can help shape and manage it.
You can project your corporate image that shows your core values, what you believe in and the aims of your business as a whole. This corporate image should resonate with your audience and your employees. Your employees are your brand, they believe in your company and have a vested interest in its success.
The employees could determine if your brand is a success or failure, and they must be part of your businesses brand identity. If they get on board your will have a business that is full of motivated, happy and successful brand ambassadors.
To view a selection of brand identities that we have designed here at underscore take a look at our portfolio.
Well here it is everyone…. are you ready to celebrate? It appears Diamond Jubilee mania is nearly up on us, and to celebrate all things great about the British Fashion Industry, underscore’s neighbours in Oxford Street are flying a 147 Union Flag display as homage to the “heroes that put the great into Great British Craft and Design”.
There are over 200 Great British brands available on Oxford Street, including Alexander McQueen, Aquascutum, Mulberry and Stella McCartney – all helping to attract over 100 million shoppers from 200 countries per year. Wowsers.
Farther afield, for a spot of design culture the V&A’s exhibition “British Design 1948–2012: Innovation in the Modern Age” celebrates significant moments in the history of British design and how Britain continues to be a world leader in creativity and design – and we at underscore are certainly proud to form part of that cultural cutting edge.
At underscore we are certainly playing our part, and we are well underway with planning Jubilee themed retail events and promotional campaigns for Duke of York Square in Chelsea and Alexandra Palace in North London. Both approaches are very different takes on ‘patriotism with a modern twist’ so be sure to come back soon for a doilie-tastic dose of British design from us this Diamond Jubilee year – and if you are in London for the celebrations why not pop in to underscore for a classic British cuppa?!