Seminar's at Hoffi

Cardiff City bars - losing their soul

As I sit here writing this post, I can hear the repetitious thud of base from yet another anonymous dance song. The song is coming from a bar next door to my flat. With the bar in question going through a major change over the last few months. For those that don't know the bar it is known as Floyd's and until recently came with a clothing shop below that was open in the day.

The clothing store was recently victim to a fire and has since been closed with it only recently being cleared up. At first it seemed like they would expand the bar downstairs, however with a recent extension to a nearby clothes store also opening a cafe it seems like they may have changed their plans and decided to let it out instead (still vacant).

So this brings me back to the bar. With the bar now seeming to be the only source of income it has been re-branded and opened for longer. It still has the same name but as you can see the new mark has fallen into the standard generic black with metallic treatment. This 'shouty' type brand has also been continued to the new barriers outside the doorway and also the loud speaker which now pumps out their dance music (which as you may now have guessed the music is also brand new). So where am I going with this?

Well let's describe my first experience of Floyd's BAR. I was around 19 and I was with some friends from college and one of them suggested Floyd's BAR? I was intrigued because firstly I didn't know about it and I didn't know where it was. So we started walking down one of the main streets into one of business areas of town. We were by a doorway with a buzzer. Hair pricking up on the back of my neck by now we press the buzzer and are greeted by a voice saying hello and to come up. We walk up a narrow set of stairs and we are met with a small intimate bar with some tables and chairs. The lights are low and the music was mellow allowing us to talk. So the experience of exploring and finding a unique intimate bar made me feel part of something special and different. It has also led me to take great delight in introducing other people to the bar and it's experience.

So time will tell if the 'new' Floyd's is successful. But for me the experience has now been lost and changed forever. No more finding it, the speakers find you now and the secrecy and exclusivity has been lost. It seems to have lost it's story and also it's fundamental values.

NOTE:
since I wrote this I have learnt that the café was rejected planning permission due to their saturation policy. Due to the café being on the same street as many other bars and clubs the plan was rejected. It seems also in the next few months there will be further pressure for empty shops within Cardiff as they will have to start paying rates even if unoccupied.

Seminars for 2011

We have three branding seminars available for businesses looking to gain more understanding of how it can be used within your business. The first one is in April so if you want to learn more drop me an email. Will pop a fuller post on the blog as soon as we have the confirmed dates etc.

ariel advert

Wales and the Welsh Brand - how do you get people to come to Wales to enjoy and invest?

2010 promised to be a big deal for Wales in terms of branding and marketing. The sporting world looked at Newport for Wales' first Ryder Cup. Indeed the Cup was a great success, baring the weather and the upset Americans for either missing the last day or watching their country lose (kind of think that was a blessing in disguise). ONe of the tightest finishes in decades ment the spectacle was all that could be hoped for. But what about the other things. Why was the Ryder Cup so heavily pushed and advertised above other events? why did the government concentrate on the event? In simple terms it was about Business.

Firstly it must be said that the Ryder Cup has been planned for a very long time and it was perhaps untimely that the Recession came when it did. Also the concept of bring Golf's premier spectacle to the our fair isles seems a fantastic idea, due to the facts such as:

"54% of Business professionals see golf as the business of Sport."

Source: Fairway to Finance - WDA and MORI research

"69% of executives believe the Ryder Cup will attract Global Business attention."
Source: Fairway to Finance - WDA and MORI research

Indeed the classic Destination Branding technique has been employed. Create a festival/event bring it to your area and watch people's perceptions change... So what is the impact of the event? has it led to this investment? should one of the richest sports be supported so much? were their other choices?

In time we maybe able to get an idea of how the Ryder Cup increased peoples perception of Wales. If some form of measurement system has been devised it would be great to understand what it has changed.

What I want to look at is the following:

- Are these huge events appropriate in todays market?
- Should we be looking at trends such as Mass Localism and niche in answering the future of Destination Branding?
- Is business about the many and not the few?

Last weekend saw the fourth (?) swn festival which took place in Cardiff. For those that are not aware of the event it is a multi-venue music festival that takes place in Cardiff every year. It has private sponsors and has no obvious government help (no supporting logo's at least). As a resident of Cardiff I heard a lot of people talking and discussing the swn festival and the gigs that were going to be on (I am nosey). When the Ryder Cup took place I also saw the odd lost American looking through the Victorian Arcades near my flat.

I however must now get back on track and re-read the quote "69% of executives believe the Ryder Cup will attract Global Business attention" Ok but I guess I am technically an executive or at least a Director of a company and have been for over 5 years. So why do I not agree with this statement? Well for me there is a confidence in Wales that is about niche, creativity and skilled workers. We are never going to be able to compete with the larger countries that can churn out thousands of machined parts a second. More importantly we shouldn't as one of few countries looking into how to be a true 'sustainable' nation we have to see producing for the sake of producing as a dead end. We must see also the fact that by concentrating of highly skilled production (manufacturing or creativity based) is the way forward also we must see the idea of service and the importance that will have in further adding value to our proposition within the World's market.

So is it about time that the unique Wales Brand advertising about bad reception, clean air two hours away the very uniqueness of Wales should be further pushed into supporting unique and niche projects? That while only attracting a few small groups of people, with mass Wales can become a truly special place? People want bespoke, customisable and unique so why don't we give that to them?

I would be really interested in hearing what people think about this subject and whether there are new ways to look at Destination Branding for the future... Finally as I wrote this I was sent this video my Carwyn enjoy, all about the uniqueness of us...

Customer service and a small little juice bar

Well it's 2010 and the recession is still on-going. While we have all been cutting back there has been one indulgence that I have allowed myself. Over the last year or so, if I was not climbing I would have a lazy sunday, walking around the city and going to a smoothie bar called Vive. More recently due to the changes in the city centre they have moved from one place to another. so I was really happy to see that they have now got a new unit right in the cross roads of the new shopping centre. So for the last two or three weeks I have had a number of smoothies from their new place.

So where is this blog going? well today I arrived at 3:35pm wanting one of the 'Gin Slings' (a mixture of ginger orange and apple), there I was eager for my hit of fruit when I was told that they had packed their juicer away for the day and the customer before me had had the last juice drink of the day?????? Ok so now I am confused. I can understand if they had run out of the ingredients. But a full half an hour before they close and they are already packing away. I thanked them for the information and walked off. Then as I started to walk off I began to think about how bad the situation was.

Firstly in today's economy, customer service is key. Companies have to go beyond selling products and give them something they can't get from their competitors.

If they are going to close early then they should have signs saying so.

If for them it is all about money then lets say on average they work 300 days a year, and this happens every day they are open. I ordered one of the cheaper ones so lets use that as an example, I think it comes in at £3.50, so times that by 300 that's £1.050 per year less in the bank.

I am thinking about the times at Hoffi we have worked over time and gone the extra mile. Well beyond the 'opening hours' of the studio. While there has to be a cut off point.

So finally to sum up. If you are setting up a brand or business it has to be genuine and authentic. The owners have to believe in it and they have to talk about why they are doing it, rather than what and how. In the same way brands that have been established for years have also got to look at why they exist.

Irony

On our way back from meeting one of our customers. The project is about lactose free and soya based products. Ironic about the company nearby.

Shoppers 'greenwashed by misleading eco claims'

Following on from my last article about Puma I came across an article in Metro by Fred Attewill. The article discusses a recent report by Which? who have been involved in investigating a number of 'eco' toilet cleaners, laundry tablets and nappies. These products all had varying degrees of 'eco' claims.

Tesco's Naturally label noted it did not contain hazardous chemicals, so by implying others in the range did which is not the case, since the report Tesco has changed it's labeling. Other companies such as Ariel and Persil have used logos suggesting they encouraged greener behaviour which is not been proven. The problem is obvious in a consumer sense, how can we be sure what we buy is the best possible product? in terms of not damaging the environment or improving it when there seems to be very little regulations to bring companies and brands into order?

Specialisation in sectors and businesses'

NOT A BLOG ABOUT BIKES.



On friday I went to one of the Pierhead Sessions. I managed to get a ticket for the George Monbiot's keynote lecture. (thank you @harri80 for the ticket). For me it was interesting to hear someone who I had recently quoted in my MA thesis. While most of the speech was about climate change and the impact of Carbon Dioxide is having on the planet. I was particularly taken with a small section of the lecture around the concept of specialisation. The sheer complexity of climate change and the science surrounding it has made the language in Monbiot's words, almost impossible for people to penetrate and understand the scientific facts. To such an extent that 'even the scientist don't understand what another scientist means'. There are a number of points that I have been thinking about around this subject;

Over the last few years Hoffi has moved from a company that has tried to do everything for everyone to a much more focused approach where we target branding both on and offline. This specialisation is then introduced throughout all market sectors. It is a classic way of structuring a business. For example can provide many different services for a particular sector or you can provide a specific service for all sectors.

Although it has been documented before this, it is probably Kevin Roberts book 'Lovemarks' that discusses the idea of brands moving away from the traditional attention advertising, to an attraction economy. This is taking place through many different portals both on and offline but there are two things that seem to be a re-occurring themes. The first being storytelling and the second is conversation. So for me the interest lies in how companies / brands / scientists / governments / people, communicate complex issues to the correct audiences in a way that they understand yet do not feel spoken down to or unengaged / uninvolved?

My final part of this brainstorming ramble is the 'missing link'. Recently my work with ARK and investigating other similar co-design programmes such as dott and creative co-op I have come to think that maybe there is a group of people that could be the link between these groups of people. As translators these people could bring information together and then tailor them to the reader. In someways this has been what 'designers' have done for years. However traditionally they have done it through a physical response. It could have been a website, brochure even an tv advert. But what if the designers role were to change from being a 'maker' in this sense and move more to facilitator? The rise of co-production or co-design are some examples as to how this maybe slowly taking place. The role of a designer could ironically become more and more specialised to allow for people to understand each other? Some designers choosing a traditional craft approach. With others using socialising as their 'craft'.

I do believe that people may have differing views of this and indeed if there are groups of people that are this missing link it would be great to hear about it.

The Year that was

Well it's that time of year again when people reflect on the year that is slowly losing it's grip. This year has been difficult for everyone. Financially the recession has hit and it's been all doom and gloom, if the media is anything to go by. For us experiencing a recession for the first time it was initially quite daunting. While we are not fully out of it, we seem to have weathered the storm.

I think what has been different from previous recessions has been access to information. People have been able to look historically to see what happened before and what brands came out stronger from these recessions. From our experiences. People seem to be looking at their businesses and brands ever so slightly differently. It's now seems to be a case of looking broadly as to how a business can contribute to society rather than only making money. It has been really exciting to explore this new way of working with people through the strategy and branding process. For us personally it has been something that has been integrated into Hoffi from the beginning.



Having setup NakedWales - a community space that allows for artists and designers to share information. We set it up with the idea of raising the overall profile of design in Wales. With this added awareness we hoped to raise the overall perceived importance of Design. With the idea of raising standards and exposure of design. In a similar way the recent work I have been involved in through ARK which has been set up to try and answer some of the current social issues.

Finally one thing I really need to remember is when attending launch events I need to take home the goodie bags.

Learning about electricals

This last few weeks have been manic getting an advertisement ready for our client Wyeverne Electrical. We have recently produced their brand and have been looking at ways to increase their presence in Cardiff. To this end we have used an empty shop front as an advertisement for Wyeverne's flagship store on Cyfartha street.

This is me being stopped by packaging. Why is packaging always so hard to open?

Branding Obama book launch

Over the last year or so I have been really interested in the president elections in America. For me it was the first election I have been aware of where design/branding of a campaign was used to such a degree that people could have been swayed to vote by the power of media design and in essence branding of a person. See some more related articles here.

Designing Obama from mas / menos on Vimeo.

Independents at their own game?

I cam across this post via Moving Brands blog and thought after the recent launches of independent bars and clubs in Cardiff it seems appropriate to highlight the huge corporations and how they are starting to look small. To me it seems similar to innocent in a way of seeming small and bespoke but actually being huge. I wonder what everyone else thinks?

Future of branding

I came across this article via marketing week's website and think that the examples of the way branding and communication are potentially changing is very interesting and exciting new direction for this type of design. As the article suggests the future logo's do seem like they will have to be so much more than just a stationary 'mark'. It seems like it is almost mirrored in history by painting, to photography, to animation, to film and now virtual reality and even 3D which seems to be having a bit of a revival recently.

As technology allows this the brand and the ability to move and alter and perhaps personalise is fantastically interesting for us at Hoffi and something we would be really interested in investigating further. There is also a strong sense that with this type of branding then there is a much greater need for a strong strategy and story behind it and it is something I have been looking at in terms of ARK's recent development and how through story telling it is possible to include people from various sectors in complex issues through simple language.

Did Walt have it right all those years ago?

As you have probably guessed. This year I have been moving into responsive community projects both through public involvement right the way through to encouraging a different way of viewing business and branding. Bringing it back to basics. Which for me is to concentrate on people rather than profit. While I am not sure Walt Disney was purely about this the organisation chart seems to have a refreshing feel of community.

John Lewis Handbag

Unless you have been on Mars this last week or so in Cardiff, then you could not have missed John Lewis' opening of it's first store in Wales. The launch of the store was preempted by a number of over sized objects being placed around Cardiff to advertise the store. For us at Hoffi we loved this idea, mainly due to the fact that we had proposed a very similar project for the launch of a free entry campaign for Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, about a month or two before. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful in our pitch, but for us to see how successful the campaign has been for John Lewis then we will be sure to think outside the box for future proposals at Hoffi. We have also recently being short listed for this project in the recent Cardiff Design Festival, and we should learn our fate this monday so wish us luck.

IMG_0598, originally uploaded by julian marshall sykes findings.

ARK exhibition

At last I have managed to finish my MA. The final presentation of ARK took place at the end of last month. For me it has been a great year, and I have learnt allot of new things. I have managed to meet a number of great people and been able to invest in an on going learning programme which has been really good to have a constant on going project. To this end the final piece of the MA is going a bit further and we are trying to get it up and running. We have already managed to get a number of interested parties involved and cant wait to get some investment. We are holding a launch party on the 28th of this month. The launch will hopefully produce the manifesto for ARK and will be formed by the collaboration of all those who attend.

ARK exhibition, originally uploaded by julian marshall sykes findings.

spillers records - contribute

spillers records - contribute, originally uploaded by julian marshall sykes findings.

I have been working alot on projects surrounding collaboration and community. Through my MA, Hoffi and ARK work the projects have been about how the changing face of brand is allowing the public to engage with their brands. Instead of the traditional being spoken to, the best brands are now being formed by their customers.

I came across this invitation in the shop frontage of Spillers Records. The oldest record store in the world. It just goes to prove that you can be old but still on the bubble.

Hoffi brand seminar

Well it's over... It's been a long day and I am knackered but it's been good. Our first seminar took place this morning at gwdihw and we had a great turnout, and I think everyone got something from it. We have have already had a good response and will definitely be doing some more in the future. If any one would like to be informed when the next one is going to be just drop me an email.

think this sums it up for me...