Brand leader: Global companies choose UK design firms

Effective branding and design is crucial for a business. It can make a product instantly recognisable, immediately desirable – and commercially successful.

The UK is a world-leader in branding design, with more and more international companies choosing British design agencies to brand and package their products.

London-based Pearlfisher has designed identities for Coca-Cola, Balducci’s food market and Tezon tequila in the USA; Elmwood Design (based in Edinburgh, Leeds and London) has produced branding for Nike, Coles Myer in Australia and the Australian National Sports Museum; and The Team (also in London) has worked with American Express, Microsoft and Nokia.

Lewis Moberly

Then there is London-based Lewis Moberly, an international brand and corporate identity consultancy which won a record four golds at last year’s prestigious Design Effectiveness Awards.

The company was created in 1984 by advertising account director Robert Moberly and graphic designer Mary Lewis, and has worked for clients including Pol Roger, Dunhill, Le Bon Marche, Jasper Conran, Jaeger, Johnson & Johnson, Grand Hyatt, Tefal and Moet et Chandon.

Robert Moberly states: “I think international companies come to the UK because they know we have such fantastic art colleges here producing diverse design talent – and British design and branding consultancies have the pick of graduates from those colleges.”

“Plus, we are more sophisticated in the way we approach design. For example, no other country has an equivalent of the UK’s Design Business Association, which is such an important organisation” he adds.

The DBA is a trade association which exists to promote professional excellence through productive partnerships between commerce and the design industry - and it also runs the Design Effectiveness Awards.

The Design Business Association

“The Design Business Association is the UK's most vocal champion of the role of effective design in the creation of business growth,” says its Chief Executive, Deborah Dawton.

The DBA was founded in 1986 to recognise, communicate and reward the integral role that design effectiveness plays in commercial success.

Yet design effectiveness doesn’t just apply to off-the-shelf products, says Robert Moberly. Services, organisations and places can all benefit from British branding excellence.

Indeed, Lewis Moberly recently created the brand identity for St Pancras International in London and Sherborne public school, in Dorset. In the case of Sherborne, this involved creating a central brand ‘image’, right the way through to the design of brochures and literature, and even signage around the school.

Sheffield-based studio The Designers Republic, launched in 1986 by Ian Anderson, has even been consulted on the re-branding of a city – Quito in Ecuador - and was invited to design the flag of Slovenia.

The Designers Republic is well-known for its cult record sleeve artwork for bands such as Autechre, Pop Will Eat Itself, Pulp, Supergrass and Moloko; but it has also produced design projects for big corporations, such as Nokia, Nike, Coca-Cola and Sony, plus Issey Miyake, Powergen and Swatch (for which it produced a limited edition Designers Republic Swatch watch).

“As a designer, you are given a platform and a voice that you wouldn't have if you just painted a few watercolours for your own amusement," says Ian Anderson.

“A designer can get ideas over to a mass audience... so he should say something constructive” he adds.

Moberly believes that a design works best if understanding its message involves engagement by the viewer.

Advertising

An advertising guru once stated: “When a person sees an advert for the first time, their reaction should be: ‘Huh?’ immediately followed by ‘Ah!’ I believe the same is true of design: part of the design is unresolved and the viewer has to work, fleetingly, to understand it. And in that moment of understanding is the main message of the brand.”

To help their clients comprehend the design and branding process, Lewis Moberly has even developed a unique semiotic research procedure called Visual Intelligence.

“For example,” says Hilary Boys, the firm’s Strategic Planning Director, “in China, red is an auspicious colour, culturally speaking. Yet if you look at it through Western eyes, it could signify sexuality (red lipstick) or celebrity (red carpet)… or, at a subconscious level, even the meaning of cultural myths such as Little Red Riding Hood.

So, by working with skilled semioticians, we can effectively understand a brand’s DNA, its signs and symbols. This can be an important first step. As designers we know we are operating in a commercial world - and we have to understand the client’s brief and their brand at a very deep level.”