RF Design

Santa Claus is coming to town...

2011-12-07T09:32:00.008Z

Christmas came early to RF Design when I first sat down at the beginning of October with some scrap paper, scissors and the challenge to come up with a sequel to the widely acclaimed RF Christmas card of 2010 - Desktop Rudolf.

We started with the idea of a snowman character, and I began snipping and folding away with Rudolf’s google eye upon me, the only real restriction was fitting whatever I devised onto an A5 sheet. Pictured below are some of the designs that began to fill my desk (credit to Steve for the first one) until we decided that the split pin snowman was the way to go.

However he soon evolved into a Santa character following 2011’s hottest debate, ‘should snowmen have legs?’ (realistic snowman vs. ‘the Raymond Briggs Snowman’).

Once the illustration for Santa was done, several prototypes were created to test the holes for the split pins, the ease of movement, bleed; and I realised he could probably use something to hang him up with. Before we could send him on his merry way to print, we had to source all the pieces to make him work. The RF coloured ribbon was straightforward, but trying to source thousands of red split pins (later discovered more easily via google under the pseudonym ‘mini brads’) outside Singapore was considerably more challenging!

However when one November morning 3,600 red ‘mini brads’ arrived in the post like a Christmas miracle the plan was officially on it’s way. Santa was sent to print, instructions were devised and hundreds of small polythene bags were packed, with the help of mince pies and mulled wine...

So look out for a golden envelope, because Dancing Santa’s coming to an office near you.

A brand that really has stood the test of time.

2011-10-18T14:00:00.005+01:00

While on a recent visit to the Champagne region of France I was lucky enough to take a tour around the regions famous Champagne Cellars of Veuve Clicquot.

We started our tour through a secret door in the car park, which took us down the many steps into the chalk caves under the city of Reims. In total Veuve Clicquot Champagne house has 16 miles of cellars – just a small element of the 155 miles which creates a network of tunnels under the city, and houses millions of fermenting bottles of Champagne.

We learnt about the Champagne making process, which grapes are mixed to find the perfect Veuve Clicquot taste, and how the wine is fermented, aged and bottled. Although initially this was the element of the tour I was expecting to find the most interesting, it was actually the history of Madame Clicquot herself that I found incredibly inspiring. After being widowed at 27, she fought against the odds to build a business and create a brand when it was literally unheard of for women to be entrepreneurs, and France was in the midst of a Revolution.

What’s amazing about this branding is its unique simplicity. The yellow label (which was trade marked by Madame Clicquot in 1877) is really striking; its creation was ahead of its time and now forms such a fundamental part of the brand. The other elements of the branding are symbols of hope, the anchor is a Christian symbol and the star shape around it represents a comet, which crossed the skies of Champagne during a year of outstanding harvest and was the first year of the Veuve Clicquot Prestige Champagnes. These vintage champagnes are still only produced in exceptional years.

The tour ended through the gift shop, where we sampled the 1998 vintage brut and were given the opportunity to purchase just about anything from wellies to a Smeg fridge all in the Veuve Cliquot trademark yellow!

The house now hosts the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman’s Awards, created in tribute to Madame Clicquot and celebrates those women who, like her, have the audacity and tenacity to succeed in the business world.

Overall, a very inspiring visit, if a little hampered by a few too many bubbles!

RF Design bringing you Festive Fun

2011-10-07T14:54:00.004+01:00

It’s that time of year again where I hear you think; “It’s far too early to be thinking about Christmas now!” But the reality is, that Christmas is already upon us at RF Design, as it is for many other businesses.

Our design festivities started on the 4th August (only 114 sleeps to go!) when the Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability asked us to design their “Christmas Collection” leaflet, encouraging supporters to buy their Christmas cards and give donations as gifts. It does feel a bit strange to work with images of snowflakes and Christmas stockings when it’s 28 degrees outside, but a designer’s role is to work in advance.

Shops such as Harrods and Selfridges crammed their shelves full of Christmas products back in July this year with the hope to doubling their sales. Shops like Selfridges have a thriving tourist industry with people visiting London in the warmer months with the view to stock up on luxury Christmas gifts. This can only be a good thing – I believe that early Christmas trading could help to give our economy the boost it needs.

This week at RF Design we have been busy with coming up with the sequel to the very popular “Desktop Rudolph the Reindeer”, do-it-yourself Christmas card from 2010 (images shown above). Last year we had an amazing response from our clients with some of them even asking to be sent extra copies so this year we have had quite a challenge to make it bigger and better! But, unfortunately, the RF Design Christmas card is top-secret so you will have to wait until December to find out what we have in store for you!

Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust brand in action

2011-09-30T15:15:00.005+01:00

One of the best things about rebranding projects is watching the results developing over time. We were privileged to rebrand the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust last year, and we have just seen this inspirational video. It was great to see the brand in action, featured across a range of clothing including t-shirts, sweatshirts, waterproof jackets and baseball caps. One of the tests of a good logo is for it to work well at a wide range of sizes, so we were pleased to see it also worked well on flutter flags, vinyl banners and on their wonderful new van.

If the video has inspired you to find out more about this outstanding charity, please visit http://www.ellenmacarthurtrust.org