Cost Advocates is a London based firm that handles a wide range of cost drafting, auditing, negotiation and litigation services.

They specialise in protecting clients from legal costs claims, working mainly on behalf of insurer clients who are often faced with huge legal costs bills as a result of both winning and losing insurance claims.

The Challenge:

Having previously being owned by Capita, the existing Cost Advocates logo used Capita’s generic corporate typeface and colour scheme with no appreciation for the specific market that they operated in, or their target customers.

30two was asked to create a vibrant new identity and brand personality to break free from the industry trend of blue, white and grey. The brief was to portray a confident, experienced and innovative firm to appealing to key decision makers across their customer base.

The Solution:

An important part of Cost Advocates business is negotiation. Therefore a distinctive logo marque was devised around the concept of negotiation with overlapping arrows creating a diamond shape. This shape represents the ZOPA or ‘zone of possible agreement’ and was carried throughout various other marketing materials from brochures to press adverts.

As a direct reaction to the blue/white trend, a black and green colour palette was created to give weight and gravitas to the brand. Subtle use of a brighter green was used throughout as a highlight without being overbearing.

Cost Advocates’ heart of London location is also very important within the sector, so treated images of the financial district skyline were also used throughout marketing materials and the website.

To celebrate the return of DJ Matt Appleton’s club night ‘Transmission’ to its Preston home at the Cocktail Factory, 30two created a new identity and marketing materials…

The logo is based around the idea of transmission and features a morse code graphic which also signifies the pits and grooves of a CD as a nod to the electronic music played by the DJs. 30two also created a vibrant flyer and poster to promote the night inspired by TV test-card imagery and designed to work alongside the bright colour palette of The Cocktail Factory at Fives.

30two was asked to develop a brand style and identity design for a new club night based in Manchester called Hold It Down.

Following consultation and research, a bold identity device was built around an arrow icon and a customised typeface. A teaser campaign was created using a wireframe construction where the logo was slowly revealed in a series of images broadcast across social media throughout the buildup to the club night’s launch.

The brand style was then applied to flyers and poster designs along with a website.

30two has designed a new logo for the Progressive House Fan Page on Facebook. Based on an arrow icon which signifies progression and also a house when rotated 90º, the logo is elegantly simple yet bold.

Progessive House is a genre of electronic dance music pioneered in the 1990′s by global DJs and producers such as Sasha and John Digweed, Dave Seaman, Nick Warren, Charlie May (Spooky) and others. The facebook page for the genre has a fan base of over 27,500 people worldwide.

30two has been worked with Crest Medical to refresh their core medical range packaging design.

After reviewing the substantial range of Blue Dot products in Crest Medical’s collection, a design was developed to work cohesively across all products, packaging styles and materials. A bright orange and deep blue colour palette was chosen to create a striking style, having shelf appeal while also being easily identifiable within a hospital environment.

Various other design options (see below) were produced and tested before the final creative solution was developed.

When 30two started working with Optima Legal, it was obvious that they are an innovative, forward thinking firm with some great big ideas.

So it wasn’t a huge surprise when they recently landed smack bang in the middle of The Lawyer’s Top Legal 200 list – an independent review of the legal world’s biggest and best. No surprise to 30two or Optima’s existing clients, but their inclusion has made waves in the legal world with The Lawyer citing Optima Legal as “changing the shape of the Top 100″.

To celebrate these achievements, 30two has worked on a series of adverts placed across the industry press including The Lawer, Credit Today, Mortgage Finance Gazette and Lending Strategy magazines.

30two have been working on some exciting projects with a host of great new clients. The new packaging designs for Babyway International have gone down really well and look great on shelf. We’re really happy with them!

It’s always nice to get some good feedback so we were chuffed when this email from the nice people at Babyway landed in our inbox…

“I just wanted to get in touch to tell you how incredibly impressed I am with the new products that have arrived in to us. The quality of the artwork, design and presentation has elevated our products beyond what any of us thought was even possible. You really have given us the edge. I have also had feedback from contacts here as to how pleased they have been with someone so easy to work with who has produced everything above and beyond.

Thank you again and I look forward to seeing what else you can do for us.”

For more information about this innovative manufacturer of baby care products, take a peek at their website and keep an eye out for them in your local stores.

A wise person once said…
“Good design can make the everyday a little better.”

Oh, ok it wasn’t really a wise person, it was that big blue global furniture brand trying to sell a few more BïlliBöb bookcases in one of their adverts.

Perhaps their next campaign should tout “The Devil’s in the Detail”. Why, you might ask? Well because they have made a small change that has caused a big uproar amongst designers around the world. IKEA has tossed aside their custom made corporate font, IKEA Sans, in favour of its ubiquitous cousin from Microsoft, Verdana.

So, should we really be surprised when a company decides to use the lowest common denominator in the pursuit of cost cutting. Even if it is a brand who likes to shout about good design? No probably not. As much as it pains me to say it because I really love typography – you can’t really blame IKEA for their decision. While they may love to shout about being individual, they are basically a global company who design generic furniture for the masses. It seems fitting for them to use a generic font, designed by a global company for the masses.

The reason for the change is it allows them to standardise typefaces across their digital and print media. An Ikea spokeswoman, Monika Gocic, has said that Verdana is for them because

“it is more efficient and cost-effective”

This is a fair point, but aren’t they also at risk of homogonising their brand with the millions of other companies using Verdana? When speaking to Business Week, Allan Haley, director of Words & Letters at Monotype Imaging, the firm that created IKEA Sans (the old typeface) had this to say:

“It’s a tremendous risk. They are pulling the typographic foundation of their branding out from underneath themselves… People do notice fonts and letters. The general public has become very tuned to it. When a company makes a drastic change to a very strong brand it can have a negative effect. People make buying choices based off brand identity. The brand becomes an old friend and they can feel betrayed; it can seem like it may not be the same company anymore.”

When asked if it will affect them, with IKEA being one of the most recognized companies in the world, he replied…

“Ikea will look like any company that uses Verdana. It will look like any newsletter or menu from a deli around the corner. It doesn’t differentiate them.”

Aside from the ubiquity factor of Verdana, the other issue the designer community are having with IKEA’s choice is suitability. While Verdana really is a great typeface, it was designed purely to be legible at small type sizes on a computer screen. It really wasn’t designed to be used in big headlines, and when printed on huge banners it starts to look really clumsy.

Why should we care? Well, I don’t expect the majority of the population do, or ever will do, but to designers and typographers it’s just not right. It’s like Rooney leaving his Nike T90 boots and stepping onto the pitch in ballet shoes. Or going drag racing in a Fiat Panda. Yes, it may do the job but there’s far better options!

And that is why there is currently a petition doing the rounds trying to persuade IKEA to rethink their decision. Nearly 7000 designers are fighting the cause, while thousands of other people are telling designers to get down off their high horses and stop moaning about mundane trivia.

Will it stop people buying their strange Swedish-named stuff from the Big Blue Mecca? No, in fact the publicity is probably having the opposite effect!

Die-hard font junkies may claim otherwise, but in the grand scheme of things – a font change is not nearly as important as climate change, the credit crunch or world peace. But it’s still important to look after the little things in life, and sweating over the small stuff is exactly what designers do. The things that the mass majority don’t even notice until it’s missing. Without designers here to take care of the details, the world would look a very different place.

So don’t blame us for being picky – we’re just trying to make the everyday a little better, one good design at a time

For more info on IKEA’s font uproar, click here…

UPDATE:
Th offending typeface has now achieved Pro status, meaning that the range has been expanded to include much more weights which are far more suited to headline text and print media. Basically, that’s good news for IKEA and typographers. Win/Win! Find out more about Verdana Pro…

CMS Software Developers asked 30two to rebrand their leading Mind Mapping iPhone app – iThoughts.

After using the application to mind map ideas – numerous design routes were submitted and refined before the final logo was chosen. The identity will be applied to splash screens, in-app graphics and website designs.

iThoughts is a mind mapping tool that runs on your iPod Touch or iPhone. It enables you to create, view, edit, upload and download mind maps in Freemind, MindManager and OPML compatible file formats. It can be purchased from the Apple iTunes ‘AppStore’ for £4.99

The app is proving to be really useful for keeping track of ideas and planning projects with reviews of the current version consistently keeping it in the Top 50 Productivity Apps on Apple’s App Store.

As part of an ongoing sales and marketing initiative, 30two worked with the leading supplier and wholesaler of medical products in the UK, Crest Medical to design their latest 108 page full product catalogue.

The catalogue features a comprehensive selection of products on offer from Crest Medical including first aid kits, bandages, dressings, and plasters as well as eyewash, medical gloves, and a wide range of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals (including antiviral flu protection). Our refreshed design is more contemporary than previous versions and the increased size from 36 pages to 108 pages has allowed us to integrate hundreds of extra products, many of which now have brand new product photography. We’re really happy with the results – see what you think…