Things We Value - an Intercom Book
Company Intercom
Introduction Date January 3, 2018
Project Website
Why is this project worthy of an award?
The Intercom Brand team used the recognition, comfort and nostalgia associated with the Little Golden Books series to bring Intercom employees togethers and unite the company under a set of values that invoke that same warmness, a rarity in an often cold enterprise tech industry. It’s not unusual for companies to create a set of values that culminate in a mission meant to unify team members and instill a sense of pride in the work. However, those values often fall short of expectations; they are vague and difficult to visualize or feel connected to. Intercom’s Things We Value book, modeled after the Little Golden Book Scholastic series, is a mission-driven approach to instilling our company values, presenting them in a fun, approachable and personal way. The language, visuals and layout are engaging and personal, with the design itself inciting Intercom’s mission to “make internet business personal.” Intercom’s values are brought to life by lovable characters and a strong visual narrative, tying the values to something as easy to understand and eminently relatable as a children’s story book. The team created something familiar but unexpected- something that Intercom employees can hold in their hands and reference again and again, giving our values more life than a document on a server or a poster in the lobby ever would.
What else would you like to share about your design? Why is it unique and innovative?
Some quotes from Intercom partner on the project, Jolby & Friends: "We wanted to make something that reflects Intercom's values as an innovative company with a whimsical retro-futuristic approach (and a pinch of robotic humor) all wrapped up in a children's story book format."- Brett Stenson, Jolby & Friends — Art Director "We invented the main character, a sort-of wild scientist with a robotic arm whom we followed along with as he led a group of kids through an imaginary landscape of science, creativity, and wonder."- Colby Nichols, Jolby & Friends — Creative Director and Co-Founder
Who worked on the project?
The Intercom Values book was a collaboration between Intercom CEO Eoghan McCabe, the Intercom Brand Studio and Portland based creative agency Jolby & Friends.
View the project video:
Tink
Company Kurppa Hosk
Introduction Date April 10, 2018
Project Website http://kurppahosk.com/work/tink/
Why is this project worthy of an award?
Tink, a personal finance management service headquartered in Sweden, aims to bring “financial happiness” to their users. The powerful tool let’s individuals make smart financial decisions and empowers them to be more in control of their spending and finances. However, people associate financial management as something boring, too complex, and time consuming. In response, Tink teamed up with Kurppa Hosk to help them develop a new brand design and strategy that echoes the simplicity and intuitive smartness of the service. The brief was to manifest Tink’s ambition of bringing financial happiness to millions at all touchpoints. Kurppa Hosk went ahead to develop a streamlined look and feel that is atypical for a financial player and represents Tink's business as a whole. The new visual identity goes beyond just a logotype, and is more of a scheme composed of a number of core elements that come together to create a distinctive visual language that makes the Tink brand instantly recognizable and sets it apart from the rest of the fintech landscape. The new design is comprised of a new logo, typeface (Lota Bespoke), illustrations, colors, imagery, and completely new apps for Android and iOS. Surreal illustrations by Martin Nicolaussen, come to life throughout the on boarding stage and emulate the various features and walkthroughs in a fun and inviting way.
What else would you like to share about your design? Why is it unique and innovative?
The new design and strategy for Tink's website and app is a deliberate stance against the seriousness of the finance world. It empowers the users, making it easy for them to understand their money and make smarter financial decisions, and, ultimately, aiming to bring financial happiness. Custom pictograms and well thought-through hierarchy of data, make it so much easier for users to understand their spending in a glance, putting more power in their hands. Through continuous learning and processing, Tink provides its users with intelligent advice and insights, stripping them of the anxiety, uncertainty and complexity that comes with making important financial decisions. Next to this, the design elements elevate the experience: -- The Tink logo is a combination of symbol and wordmark. Together they become the strongest carrier of the Tink brand. -- The Tink symbol is the simplest graphic representation of the brand. The symbol is an abstraction of the initial “t” of tink. The two parts of the symbol represent the open meeting between Tink and the customer, but can also represent our doughnut, which has become symbolic and central in the app. -- The primary brand colors are Tink Lax and Tink Green. Together they create a dynamic duo that feels unexpected and bold. The palette connects colors in bold and playful ways. The colors are selected to work against bright and dark background to create opportunities for variation. -- Typography. Lota Grotesque (bespoke) is a typeface that reflects the values of the Tink brand and will become a part of the Tink personality. -- The icons have a clear DNA that originate from the logotype. They have been designed to strengthen the consistency of the brand experience and have been optimized for legibility at small sizes
Who worked on the project?
to be added
View the project video: https://vimeo.com/264960432
To: A New Kind of Support
Company Landor
Introduction Date July 11, 2017
Project Website
Why is this project worthy of an award?
Two brothers came to us with the ambition to create an inspiring investment fund that supports non-traditional initiatives. They saw a marketplace where connections are overlooked, and opportunities to build a better future are lost. To: is a financial fund of a different kind: they support a new way of doing business, by investing in companies and that operate for kindness, health and responsibility. Using the power of business, To: connects the dots between industry-agnostic companies to maximize positive impact to their communities and to the world. We built on the specificity of an investment fund: because To:’s impact only exists through the companies and initiatives it invests in, so does its brand: each touchpoint is layered over existing digital and print material from companies it supports. Since its creation, the support To: provided has transformed their reach and impact. The brand helped To: go from supporting three partners to nearly twenty, with no end in sight.
What else would you like to share about your design? Why is it unique and innovative?
To: retrieves all materials possible and imaginable from the companies it supports—both digital and physical—such as past-season catalogs, leftover posters, business cards or letterheads. Overprinted, they are upcycled and used in their brand expressions. In order to amplify To:’s innovative way of investing as well as their sustainable dimension, no resource could go untapped. In the To: system, virtually any discarded or leftover material from the companies they support can be used: even L. condoms are transformed into business cards to promote the L health initiative. Thus, To: is defined through its partner companies, and each piece of their communication simultaneously gives voice both to its own responsible ambition, and to all the brands they partner with to realize it.
Who worked on the project?
Luc Speisser - President Landor Europe, Senior Copywriter Tristan Macherel - Executive Creative Director, Landor Europe Maureen Baroni - Prod/Imp/Real Director Anna Kohl - Strategy Director Jérémie Barry - Creative Director Olivier Thoi - Senior Production Designer Pierre de la Saussay - Senior Strategist, Copywriter Marine Vallat - Client Manager Sean Knowles - Designer
View the project video: https://vimeo.com/222229178
Tom Ford Beauty Interactive Installation
Company Tom Ford
Introduction Date November 20, 2017
Project Website
Why is this project worthy of an award?
Scent is a strong yet complex sensory experience, one that is difficult to demonstrate through digital and visual experiences. As part of Tom Ford Beauty’s scenting experience, 2x4 designed an interactive installation for their flagship store in Covent Garden that introduces guests to the brand's Private Blend Collection. Our concept looks to augment the sensory experience through technology, pairing scents with narrative elements and evocative visuals to convey the unique idea behind each fragrance. Guests begin the experience by removing a scented ceramic cartridge from the wall. The removal of the cartridge triggers the digital experience on a large-form digital tabletop integrated into the scenting display. As they sample each perfume, cinematic and atmospheric vignettes materialize across the installation's screens, while a description of key notes and attributes appear. The installation reflects a distinctly Tom Ford approach to brick-and-mortar retail, one that privileges experience and storytelling as cornerstones of the shopping experience.
What else would you like to share about your design? Why is it unique and innovative?
2x4’s design fuses explanatory content, such as key perfume notes, inspiration for each scent, and product qualities, with more experiential visual elements. Our design combines complex narratives with visual elements to offer an immersive sensory experience that feels integrated into the store design and distinctly non-digital. By augmenting the scenting experience with rich visual and narrative elements, our installation pushes the boundaries of how olfactory experiences are conveyed in retail.
Who worked on the project?
2x4: Georgie Stout, Partner, Executive Creative Director Timothy Gambell, Design Director Paul Hoppe, Associate Design Director Laura Zimbaldi, Project Manager Partners: Tom Ford Beauty/Estée Lauder ELC, Client Rare Volume, Software Developer Visual Image Display, Hardware Technology Solutions
View the project video: https://vimeo.com/270775661/c029b15dc9
Toyota Type
Company Monotype
Introduction Date October 31, 2017
Project Website https://www.toyota.com/brandguidelines
Why is this project worthy of an award?
Toyota enjoys its position as one of the most well-known, innovative and trusted automotive brands worldwide. However, the company is about more than automobiles, and is placing a greater emphasis on “mobility” technology, launching campaigns that show how they can reach people through this technology in every stage of life. While Toyota’s brand purpose was expanding, it realized the need to create a more consistent and unifying voice that would carry to all the different places where existing and prospective customers could experience the brand–including through mobile platforms and devices. Toyota’s existing communications and advertising had a lot of variation in both font style and choice, and the inconsistency was causing confusion for audiences in identifying the brand. For example, advertisements for different models sported a range of typeface designs, configurations and treatments. While the ads were certainly eye-catching and aesthetically pleasing, they did not offer a consistent voice that carried Toyota’s message. Toyota approached Monotype to help create a typeface that would not only be adaptable and consistent across all the different places where audiences would experience those Toyota’s vehicle brands–on billboards, in magazines, on websites, in apps, on signage and most important, through mobile devices. Toyota has always understood how type can impact the in-car experience in regards to in-console displays, but this was a chance to build holistic brand equity that extended beyond the vehicle itself. Toyota and Monotype approached the design of the typeface in the same way that Toyota builds its vehicles. The design team took special care to make the design approachable by incorporating warm, human-like qualities, while also being consciously engineered for high functionality, especially for mobile platforms. Taking inspiration from the brand’s word mark, Monotype’s Creative Type Director, Steve Matteson, set out to create a geometric sans typeface–dubbed Toyota Type–that would effectively convey brand messages in small and large sizes, without impacting legibility. Mobile platforms can pose very specific challenges related to legibility. The screens of mobile devices are often moving and scrolling, so the typeface needs to accommodate that, while also having a thickness (or weight) that balances legibility and the space available in apps and mobile websites. Monotype leveraged extensive research into legibility to inform the design details of Toyota Type to ensure a clear and effective reading experience across font sizes and weights in all types of reading environments. The result was transformational for the brand. Toyota Type is a single solution that unifies Toyota’s brand message with consistency and authenticity. Audiences are presented with branding that unifies the entire product family so that both the look and the content of the Toyota message are consistent, no matter where audiences experience it. The typeface is also timeless, making it ideally suited to extend Toyota’s brand values and attributes beyond the automobile to mobility, in whatever ways that people around the world define it. Through Toyota Type, the brand is creating a connection between the impact it has on its customers now and in the future.
What else would you like to share about your design? Why is it unique and innovative?
The design of Toyota Type is innovative for a number of reasons. First, with a single typeface family solution, Toyota solves many of the challenges that the brand and audiences alike would encounter with an inconsistent and at times, off-brand, mix of typefaces the brand previously used. The typeface creates an ingrained consistency in how Toyota communicates with its key audiences. Additionally, the typeface features design characteristics that were deliberately created to align with Toyota’s values. For example, the entry and exit strokes (in other words, the points where a pencil starts drawing a letter or character, and the point where it lifts off the page) were designed to be warm, approachable and full of motion. This was meant to align with how a person would write the letters if they were to do so by hand. This design feature may seem subtle to some, but it imbues a sense of humanity and trust into the message being conveyed. It also aids in readability by helping to guide the eye from one word to the next in a very natural and comfortable way. With letters like the lower-case l and t, the reader’s eye is naturally led to the next letter. Toyota and Monotype also designed an arrowhead into the capital G character, which denotes a feeling of movement and reinforces the brand’s advertising tagline of “Let’s Go Places.” Finally, Toyota Type was extensively tested across a full range of sizes and weights. Knowing the audiences will experience the Toyota brand on mediums that range from small mobile device screens up to billboard ads, the designer wanted to ensure that large or small, there was no mistaking that those people would associate these words and messages with the Toyota brand.
Who worked on the project?
Jason Schragger, Chief Creative Officer, Saatchi & Saatchi Kenji Shimomura, Creative Director, Design, Saatchi & Saatchi Tara Stephens, Group Director – Branding and Design, Saatchi & Saatchi Steve Matteson, Creative Type Director, Monotype Morgan Raskin, Account Manager, Monotype
View the project video: https://www.toyota.com/brandguidelines/typography/
