Halfway through making his film about John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s first years in New York, director Kevin Macdonald received an unexpected treasure trove. He was sent hours of never-before-heard phone calls that Lennon and Ono recorded in the early 1970s – the couple assumed their calls were being bugged by the US authorities and wanted their own record of what had been said. The incredibly intimate recordings feature conversations with friends, journalists, Lennon’s manager, and activists like AJ Weberman, who was involved in a bizarre plan to raid Bob Dylan’s bins, for which Ono demands he apologise. Macdonald first listened to them on a long train journey and realised they should play a central role in his documentary. “They were this little window into their private life,” he says. “Usually you hear them when they’re being interviewed and they’re prepared, and presenting an image of themselves. This is just them chatting on the phone.” Through the calls, even major fans learn far more about the couple, Macdonald says, through “the tone of voice, the turn of phrase and the wit.” But given the phone calls make up around 15 minutes of screen time in the final film, this presented an unusual design challenge. “Of all the films that I’ve ever done, this is definitely the most graphics dependent,” Macdonald says. “The graphics are a major part of what the film is.” Planning Unit’s phone call graphics for One to One: John & Yoko. Courtesy of Plan B/KM Courtesy of Plan B/KM Films and Mercury Studios. Macdonald was already working with London-based Planning Unit on the film – the studio had previously designed for his 2018 Whitney Houston documentary, Whitney, and his 2021 Guantanamo Bay legal drama, The Mauritanian. To focus viewers on the content of the calls, Macdonald knew he wanted them to be animated type, and he worked closely with Planning Unit co-founder Jeff Knowles to try out various options, from the size of the text to the timing of the animation, and the way they are structured on screen. “We tried a lot of different things to get something that felt right, that felt like it was going to occupy your mind and be visually satisfying, but not feel overwhelming, with too much movement,” Macdonald explains. https://d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/04/PhoneCall016_1.mp4 Knowles says that a key unlock came when they decided to use Franklin Gothic for the type – the same font used on Lennon and Ono’s famous 1969 War is Over poster. They also developed a split screen design with one speaker on each side. The final visuals animated word for word, “like a game of Pong” and individuals are colour-coded for clarity – Lennon is yellow, like the famous submarine. Macdonald says the simplicity of the graphics is paradoxically powerful. “I have this feeling that the most cinematic moments happen when you don’t see everything – when you’re given space for your mind to do the work,” he says. Planning Unit’s title graphics for One to One: John & Yoko. Courtesy of Plan B/KM Films and Mercury Studios. One to One: John & Yoko is set against a turbulent era in American history and tells the story of Lennon and Ono’s personal, political and artistic responses to that upheaval. It also includes footage of Lennon’s only full-length performances after The Beatles, remastered by the couple’s son, Sean Ono Lennon. Planning Unit worked on everything from the titles and the posters to other in-film graphics – like an electoral map for Nixon’s 1972 presidential victory. For the captions that help contextualise the narrative and archive footage, Macdonald was inspired by Lithuanian filmmaker Jonas Mekas, himself a collaborator of Lennon and Ono’s. Mekas created captions by typing sentences onto paper, sticking them to a wall and filming them. “There’s something very homemade about those poorly-typed captions, and it spoke to me about that period and its lack of pretentiousness,” Macdonald says. But it turned out replicating Mekas’ style was easier said than done. Knowles tried various tricks in After Effects, adding “grain and jitter” to try and recreate the same sensibility. https://d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/04/Jonas-Mekas-001.mp4 “We did a lot of work trying to match it, but in the end we couldn’t quite get the quality of the typewriter,” Knowles explains. Eventually they borrowed the typewriter from the reconstruction of Lennon and Ono’s flat used in the film, and Knowles typed them out himself, much like Mekas used to do. “It looks very simple, but actually it was a lot of work to figure out,” Macdonald says. “The digital versions all felt a bit ironic.” Knowles is proud of the final outcome and pleased that the studio was able to work on such a wide range of the film’s visuals. “As designers, one of our bugbears is when we’re watching a film and the graphics within it are different to the titles, which are different to the end titles, and that’s all different to the posters,” he says. “That’s when we start twitching. But this was a lot more hands-on than just being given a list of deliverables.” He says it was important that Franklin Gothic was contemporaneous with the time the film depicts – he recalls designers’ widespread horror at the war film 1917‘s use of Futura (released in 1927) – but also that it was used consistently. “We were keen to create a thread going through the movie that becomes its graphic identity,” Knowles explains. https://d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/04/Main-Title.mp4 Planning Unit’s poster for One to One: John & Yoko. Courtesy of Plan B/KM Films and Mercury Studios.

The UK’s Expo 2025 pavilion has opened, showcasing British creativity through digital projections, interactive games, and character animated storytelling. The World Expo takes place every five years and is a global showcase of different nations’ culture and achievements. This year’s event is being held in Osaka, Japan, under the theme of “designing future society for our lives.” The UK Pavilion, designed by Immersive International and commissioned by the UK Government’s Department for Business and Trade, opened on 13 April and runs until October. Visitors are taken through a series of rooms and corridors where projection mapping, responsive lighting, layered audio, and interactive games immerse them in the story of Kenji, a Japanese father, his daughter Mei, and the pavilion’s mascot PIX. John Munro, the CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Immersive International, described the exhibition as the “UK’s first story-led pavilion.” The pavilion route takes 23 minutes to walk through “It’s really funny being in Expo and seeing everybody else’s pavilions, because that’s when you realise, it wasn’t just unique for the UK to design a story like this pavilion,” said Munro. “I think it’s quite unique for the entire Expo to have so much of a character animation based story.” After winning the initial competition to design the concept in April 2023, Munro and his team spent six months bringing their designs to life. They worked with building contractor ESG and WOO architects, whose modular system prioritised sustainability. “Part of our original concept was to create the most sustainable, remountable and redeployable pavilion,” said Munro, who explained that sustainability is one of the Expo’s central themes this year. The UK Pavilion is designed by Immersive International and commissioned by the Department for Business and Trade Accessibility was similarly prioritised in the pavilion’s design. “We were taking note of the way that people can navigate around the space – disabled people, people who are hard of hearing, or sightless people – in terms of braille everywhere, braille books and audio descriptions,” Munro explains. Organisers estimate that 28 million people will visit this year’s event, 80% of whom will be Japanese, and 20% from overseas. Munro worked closely with creative director Jordan Foster and associate creative director Aoi Matsushima to bring the story-led experience to life in both Japanese and English. “The whole time we’re mirroring the UK and Japan,” he said. “So we’re not just singing the praises of the UK – we’re hoping that everybody’s feeling proud of both cultures and seeing how we’ve worked together for so many years. The goal was to create an experience that could work for everyone The challenge was to create an experience that worked for any nationality, while retaining its personality. “We wanted to make sure the story could work for everyone, yet not be so bland that it’s just basic. I think the characters, the spatial design, the way that you move through the pavilion, the way that some parts are interactive, some parts are huge and overwhelming, some parts are incredibly detailed – it means you’re constantly firing on all cylinders in your mind,” he says. One of the ways in which Immersive International hoped to engage visitors was through the pavilion’s mascot PIX – a playful character brought to life by Mei, the daughter in the story. “We realised the character that sits in between the father and the daughter needs to be able to draw out the best emotions from both, but also take the audience through this fourth dimension,” said Munro. As a result, the pixel character was born, guiding visitors through the story. “PIX basically transforms into multiple different ideas,” Munro explained. “There’s an interactive section in one of the rooms, where people are playing a quiz. Every time PIX talks about something inspirational, like the spark of an idea, he also changes.” Although the pavilion route takes 23 minutes, Munro believes it feels much shorter due to the amount of content and interactivity there is for visitors to absorb. He also acknowledges that, due to the number of exhibitions at Expo, visitors may not be their most energetic when they come to the UK pavilion. “We know that people are tired and busy, and they’ve seen a lot of other pavilions,” he said. “We wanted to make sure that through the physical action, the interactive games, and by hanging out with such a personable character, the notion of constant inspiration would hit.” Creativity and imagination were key to the UK Pavilion, characterised through Kenji, Mei and PIX, and the interactive elements of the pavilion. Everything about the space was designed to engage with visitors and leave them energised. “No matter how old they were, no matter what their position or career is, we wanted them to know that inspiration is just there at every single moment, and at any moment, you could come up with an idea that could go on and change the world,” said Munro. “I think we’ve all had moments in our life – as a kid or as an adult – when someone said something and it just clicked,” he added. “And you’ve thought you could go ahead and do anything, and maybe even gone ahead and done something incredible. “We want every single person that goes through this pavilion to know that they have that ability. That’s what success looks like – people leaving and knowing that.” The UK’s Expo 2025 showcases British creativity through digital projections, interactive games, and character animated storytelling Visitors are immersed in the story of Kenji, a Japanese father, his daughter Mei, and the pavilion’s mascot PIX. Creativity and imagination were key to the UK Pavilion

23 April, 2025 Christina Gleave tells Clare Dowdy about Archibald Knox, motorbikes, and her passion for local work. What’s got four towns, two villages and 84,000 people? The Isle of Man, of course. The 221-sq-mile self-governing British Crown Dependency sits in the Irish Sea between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Christina Gleave is the graphic designer responsible for dozens of the island’s historic sites, attractions and events. Her role is lead creative designer at Manx National Heritage (MNH), the charity which looks after the Manx Museum, Castle Rushen, the British Isles’ oldest open-air folk museum, the former home of the world’s oldest continuous parliament, and the Old Grammar School (which has the oldest roof on the island). That’s a lot of “olds” and so part of Gleave’s role is a balancing act between bucketloads of heritage and making things seem fresh and accessible. That balancing act is now on show at Manx Museum’s current exhibition, KNOX: Order and Beauty. Manx-born Archibald Knox played a pivotal role in Britain’s Arts and Crafts movement Manx-born Archibald Knox is probably the island’s most famous designer. At the turn of the 20th Century, he played a pivotal role in Britain’s Arts and Crafts, British Art Nouveau and Celtic Revival movements, and was Liberty London’s principal designer. This show features more than 200 of Knox’s works, including Liberty London pieces, silverware, jewellery, clocks, textiles, sketches, woodwork and garden-ware. This is not the first time the island has showcased Knox, but it is the first time it’s focused on his creative output, rather than his life. “Previous exhibitions often used Knox’s own typography – busy, intricate illuminated lettering – as a primary design element, but we wanted to explore something different this time,” Gleave says. “We chose Liberty, a clean, modern typography style inspired by the aesthetic of Liberty & Co, and paired that with elements drawn from Knox’s flowing, Celtic designs and chattering bird motifs.” “The simpler typefaces on the interpretation boards allow the varied pieces to shine.” Gleave wears many hats as lead creative designer, including labelling for locally-sourced balls of wool Exhibition designer is just one hat Gleave wears. She creates interpretation and display graphics for MNH’s historic sites, digital and print materials for marketing and communications, event material, educational resources, plus point-of-sale, graphic displays and packaging for the heritage shops – including labelling for locally-sourced balls of wool and honey. She has been doing this job for 16 years, following a BA in art and design from the University of Chester, and three and a half years with an ad agency on the island. More recently she completed an MA in graphic design from Falmouth University. “On the isle, it’s a very small community, and there were not a lot of opportunities for graphic design when I started,” says Gleave, who was born there. “My role is all about making sure our visuals connect with people and help tell the unique stories of the island.” That starts with MNH’s own branding, which Gleave updated ten years ago. Gleave redesigned MNH’s logo, dropping red in favour of purple The original MNH design included a Celtic knot. “We dropped the knot and kept the triangle logo and the three legs emblem,” she says. The identity, in Optima, is now cleaner and easier to apply. She also dropped the colour red – which is used on the flag and in branding elsewhere on the island – and replaced it with purple which distinguishes the new identity from previous work. Gleave’s base is the Manx Museum in the main town, 27,000-strong Douglas. “It’s great to be in the museum, as I can build relationships with the curators; I understand the stories they want to tell.” She’s responsible for designing four exhibitions a year, and will next work on a “treasures” exhibition for the autumn – the island holds more Viking silver than anywhere else in the British Isles. And islanders’ fingers are crossed for an exhibition on Manx-born pop phenomenon The Bee Gees in a couple of years. The current Archibald Knox exhibition includes his silverware One challenge here is the mix of audiences that Gleave must cater for. As well as school groups and other locals spending a day at a MNH site, there are the cruise ships. 2023 was a bumper year, with more than 34,000 passengers and crew dropping in – that’s around double the previous year. And then for two weeks every summer, the island is inundated with motorbike riders and enthusiasts for the TT Races. More than 43,000 of them descended on the isle in 2023, which is creeping back up to pre-pandemic levels. Some years, she designs visitor information which is tailormade for that audience, as well as special passes and pin badges. Optima is the main type for wayfinding across the island Meanwhile, as the new tourist season gets underway, she looks around the island to see if any graphics or external signage – again she uses Optima as the main type for wayfinding – needs to be updated, or has suffered from wear and tear. Because the island gets its fair share of weather. If an outdoor photo shoot is planned, it might be a long wait for a sunny day. “It can be very foggy and rainy, when we want to portray happy holidays and bright sunshine,” she says. And winter storms can delay deliveries from the mainland. “It can be frustrating when the boats are cancelled and I’ve got a deadline to keep, and can’t get paper to print my Open House programme.” But being so embedded in the venues gives Gleave an insight into how her audiences engage with her work. “It’s lovely to walk round the heritage sites and see visitors engage with what I’ve worked on. You haven’t designed something and it’s shipped off and you never see it again.” This Knox exhibition is on for a whole year. That means she’ll be able to see what people pick up on. “Standing in the space, and listening, and getting a feel for how people like to interact with it, I’ll make a note, and then I might change something next time.” Manx Museum’s current exhibition, KNOX: Order and Beauty Manx Wildlife Week branding and logo Gleave is also responsible for MNH’s print materials for marketing and communications Design disciplines in this article Industries in this article Brands in this article What to read next Online letterpress font shop launches Type Design 4 Mar, 2025

24 April, 2025 From saying no to learning business best practice, design leaders share the things they wish they'd been aware of. It feels like barely a day goes by without a new design studio announcing its arrival on social media. As the industry shifts amid economic uncertainty, and more designers set out to start their own thing, we asked ten leaders what they wished they’d known in the early days of running a design business. Charlie Hocking – Be patient with your own point of view Understanding how to stand out takes trial and error. Out of habit, Kiln started life replicating what we had learnt from other agencies in an effort to validate our own place in the industry. Over the last three years we’ve learnt the pitfalls of this and have started to naturally find our own process and our own point of view. We couldn’t have predicted where we landed. We let the work guide us and when we came up for air, we stepped back and were able to draw a line between what worked and what didn’t. Be patient with your own point of view and accept that where you start might not be where you finish. Charlie Hocking is co-founder of Studio Kiln, based in Cornwall. Emily Penny – Learn to say no My one piece of advice is don’t be scared of saying no. I wasted far too much time doing pitches, and working on things that weren’t right. We all know this. Saying no is saying yes, right? It’s easier said than done. But I was much happier when I figured out what I stood for, who I wanted to work for, and how I wanted to work. I started to describe Becolourful as an “agency that’s not an agency.” I made peace with growing the business to enjoy it, not sell it. There would be associates not staff. We would work for founders driving real change. And there would be no pitching. Dare I say it, I created a brand. Yes, that thing we keep banging on about to clients. Weirdly, lots of studios think they don’t need one. Not true. With some broad brush principles, I found my confidence. Did it work? It’s still pocket-sized as an agency. But now prospects don’t ask us to pitch, they ask when we’re free. Emily Penny runs South Coast-based brand strategy and voice agency Becolourful. Nick Clark – Trust your instincts and learn the business side We wish we’d known just how important it is to trust your instincts and back your vision, even when it feels risky. In the early days, it’s easy to get caught up in trying to please everyone or second-guess your creative direction. But we’ve learned that staying true to our values and design philosophy is what sets us apart. Also, the business side of design is just as crucial as the creative. Understanding things like contracts, and client management makes a huge difference. Building a design business isn’t just about making beautiful things – it’s about creating something that lasts. Nick Clark is founder and managing director of Sheffield-based 93ft. Claire Wadham – Imposter syndrome can be a healthy thing I’d say that it’s quite healthy to have an element of imposter syndrome! While it doesn’t ever go away, for me it spiked hugely when taking over the business, as I’d worked in one very specific role for so long. Running an agency, even with the support of co-owners like I do, brings a lot of learning and uncertainty, and I think if you approach those with an unwavering belief in your own ability, you’re more likely to fail. For me, it’s healthy to have a bit of doubt in what you do – it keeps you on your toes! Claire Wadham is co-owner and client services director at Glasgow-based Imaginary Friends. Kevin McCaul and Emma Hetherington – Embrace the help you’re offered We wish we’d known that success in our industry isn’t a single player game. The support we’ve received in building and opening our studio has been overwhelming. We’ve been astonished at the number of people who are willing to give up their time and expertise to help and guide us. People like Jen and Amy at Hoodzpah, Nils at Uncommon, Cat at How&How and Simon at DixonBaxi have been instrumental in helping us avoid the slippery slope of self-doubt, making sure we kept momentum going as we built towards launch. This support has enabled us to start our studio in a strong position, working with clients across the world. We’re hugely grateful to everyone who has helped us. Kevin McCaul and Emma Hetherington are co-founders of Allies Creative Studio, based in Belfast. Jo Barnard – Delegate and don’t forget to eat Remember the power of delegation. At the start, I would be the last to leave, micromanaging projects, constantly re-working designs. Now I realise that delegation gives team members the responsibility to succeed and is vital for their development and satisfaction, as well as my own wellbeing. I also wish I’d looked beyond our immediate bubble sooner. For years our agency worked hard without really paying attention to the wider world. We built a really strong sense of our company identity but it took too long to build a network. Now, it’s our network that has been vital for new business, collaborations, and measuring our own success. And finally, don’t forget to eat. I used to prioritise work above everything else – even breakfast! It sounds small, but it’s not. In the words of RuPaul, “If you don’t look after yourself, how the hell are you going to look after anyone else?” Jo Barnard is founder of London-based design studio Morrama. Pippa Nissen – It’s ok to be firm I wish someone had said to me really early on in my career – “It is ok to have an opinion and to be quite firm.” I think I spent years trying to please the client, but finally the penny dropped after about 10 years of running my own practice – they have employed me to be the expert in the room, as they don’t have this very specific expertise. So, they want me to be firm and strong with my advice. What this meant subsequently was that fewer options are needed, and more sentences starting, “In my experience I would recommend…” or, “This is my area of expertise and although I hear the points around the room, I would recommend this.” We pride ourselves on being collaborative, listening and speaking as part of a team. But there comes a point when it’s better to forge ahead with an idea than procrastinate with another 10 options. Pippa Nissen is director of London-based Nissen Richards Studio. Ady Bibby – You’ve got to be rock solid I started True North in 2001 with two partners – it felt like there was space for another agency in Manchester. What no one tells you… it’s one hell of an emotional ride. The wins feel huge, the game feels easy. The losses feel personal, hit hard, and doubt creeps in. You’ve got to be rock solid on the inside. I wish someone had told me to trust my instincts and the good people around me. Ady Bibby is managing director of True North, based in Manchester. Emily Jeffrey-Barrett – There’s no such thing as being ready There was so much I didn’t know when I started – like how to incorporate a business, invoice, or pay tax(!) But honestly, I’m glad I didn’t. I learned as I went, instead of getting stuck planning things that would have felt both daunting and tedious. The one thing I DO wish I’d known? All it takes is commitment and energy. That’s the only difference between someone who runs a business and someone who doesn’t – going for it. Of course, keeping a business going takes hard work, and a lot of luck. But I spent too long wanting to have my own thing instead of just doing it. If I’d realised there’s no special formula, that you don’t need to be “ready” I’d have done it years earlier. Emily Jeffrey-Barrett is founder of London-based creative agency Among Equals. What to read next

Adobe is offering design studios $20,000 (about £15,000) to hire apprentices to boost opportunities for the next generation of creatives. The scheme was announced by Adobe’s SVP of Design, Eric Snowden, at Adobe MAX in London yesterday. It’s part of a wider programme to provide “real-world job, mentorship, and networking opportunities” which also includes paid-for Adobe commissions, which will be offered via Behance. Creatives who complete these jobs will be put forward for apprenticeships at studios and agencies that Adobe selects as partners. The apprenticeships can last between three and six months and be full- or part-time, although apprentices should work 480 hours across the placement. Adobe expects most of the grant to be used to pay the apprentice, although businesses can also use a portion of the money for software, equipment or relocation. Initially the scheme will run in the US, the UK and Canada. A poster for Adobe’s Creative Apprenticeship programme “I think especially in times of economic turmoil, entry-level jobs get compressed the most,” Snowden told Design Week. “And in general, creative jobs can feel like a bit of a mystery. So as a creative company, I think we have an interesting role to play.” He explained that Adobe had spent a lot of time listening to creative leaders, many of whom would like to do more to support young designers but struggle with the time, money and space to help. “There are so many people who want to give back to the industry, but there’s not really a system in place to do so,” Snowden says. “We are trying to create that framework for people.” The new scheme has been designed to help both businesses and young designers. “You have to see this as a long-term investment in the future of this person,” he explains. “If you don’t recognise that, then it can be really challenging. “Both sides have to be in it for the same reasons, and so we believe that we’re making the connections on both sides with this,” Snowden says. Adobe is also building a mentor network to offer advice and portfolio reviews for young creatives. For Snowden, it’s a scheme that resonates personally with him. On stage, he shared the story of leafing through the phone book and ringing any company with design in its name when he was first trying to break into the industry. And he explained that he still benefits from mentorship and advice, even in his very senior position. “Even now, there are people within Adobe who I go to when I need advice. I don’t think that ever stops – it’s a forever thing. I think young designers imagine that you get to a phase in your career when you don’t need that support, but there are lots of people I still bounce ideas off, ask questions and grapple with the future of design.” And he thinks that established designers can learn a lot from the different perspectives young creatives bring. “Look at it through that lens – what can I learn from this person? What are they doing differently, what mediums are they using, how do they use social media? “I think all good mentor-mentee relationships are a two-way street,” he adds. Most of the product updates shared at Adobe MAX focused on AI, with a beefed-up Firefly model and a new Boards tool to help concepting and ideation. But Snowden doesn’t see Adobe’s commitment to AI as a threat to professional designers. “The creative person is making very deliberate choices,” he says. “That has always been true about our tools, and it continues to be true. “Doing something that’s very deliberate and controlled is not the same as typing in a prompt, hitting a button, and seeing what happens,” he says. “A lot of AI is good at making something generically beautiful, but I think we’re trying to make something that allows you to take what’s in your head and get it exactly the way you want it on the screen. I think that nuance gets lost sometimes.” Snowden references the recent trend for people to create action figures of themselves with AI image generation tools as proof that designers won’t be replaced. “As a designer, when I saw that, it made my job feel very safe,” he says. “Everybody in the world was given an infinite generation machine and they all made the same thing. You have to have an idea. Designers have ideas. Creative people have ideas.” Design studios can learn more about the apprentice scheme and apply to be part of it here. Industries in this article Brands in this article Recent Jobs

28 April, 2025 How does it feel when your work is redesigned by others? Clare Dowdy flips the script on the design world’s focus on the new. Whenever a redesign gets a lot of attention, the focus of the design industry and the media is understandably on the new look – whether it’s loved or hated. But what about the design that’s been dumped? Often that work was also unveiled with much fanfare, and heralded as the way forward, a new beginning for the company. The last six months has seen a flurry of this sort of thing. Wolff Olins’ 2021 abrdn mark was rolled back as the brand brought back those much-mocked missing “e”s. Made Thought’s identity for GF Smith was axed, in favour of Templo’s smile. With the coming together of the Royal Ballet & Opera, Someone’s Royal Opera logo was consigned to storage, and DesignStudio’s solution stepped into the limelight. And most famously, Jaguar’s boxy capitals were ditched for a lower-case wordmark by its in-house team. And that’s just logo land. Designs for retail, hospitality, workplace, packaging, websites and airline interiors all suffer the same fate. How do designers of the old work feel? And how do they manage the experience for their staff and other clients? “It stings when our work is redesigned; it’s deeply personal,” Made Thought’s cofounder Ben Parker admits. Anna Burles, co-founder of branding and interiors agency Run for the Hills, describes it as “so disheartening.” One interior designer, who wishes to remain anonymous, is staggeringly magnanimous. “Internally, we approach it with curiosity and openness – design is never static, and the way people live and interact with their environments changes over time,” she says. “It stings when our work is redesigned; it’s deeply personal.” SomeOne’s cofounder Simon Manchipp is pragmatic– up to a point. “Frankly, without change we are all out of a job. So if a project we’ve worked on gets worked on by another firm, that’s to be expected – it’s part of the natural landscape. “That’s not to say we do not hear groans of disapproval from our design teams when a carefully crafted project gets needlessly butchered in the name of the latest trend, or the whims of the new marketing director.” Parker and his team try to be philosophical about it and look at the context. “For us, branding is about unearthing a business’s core truth – its unique worldview – and crafting a belief system around it. So, when another agency rethinks that, we step back to understand why. Has the business evolved? Has the market shifted? What sparked the desire for change?” Likewise Sam Cutler, creative director of drinks branding specialist Thirst, is always keen to drill down to get to the why. And he is willing to explore a wide range of possibilities to explain the change. “Is there a new brand manager shaking things up? Has a new player in the category changed the rule book? Are there personal egos in play? Was the original work a bit ahead of its time? Was it executed badly by the markets? “Or was the work just not up to scratch?” In the beverage sector – and FMCG more widely – clients are juggling a host of issues, any of which can trigger a redesign. “The reality of working with multinationals and challenger brands is the myriad challenges they face while trying to stay relevant,” Cutler says. “We as brand experts and creative problem solvers can influence a lot, but there’s plenty of aspects we can’t control and it’s often these factors which, in my experience, result in the exciting or dreaded call from a client about any potential redesign.” Portfolio pressures So a redesign is often driven by circumstances an agency can’t control – sometimes even which they don’t know about. But even so, what’s the impact on a studio’s portfolio, when work they have previously celebrated gets replaced? Branding and interiors agency Run for the Hills is no stranger to dealing with this type of fall-out. It once worked with a restaurant chain which then took all its brand design in-house. “It became so bad – poorly designed and cheap – that we had to remove the case study from our website just to avoid the association,” says co-founder Chris Trotman. Another restaurant group introduced new interior design, which Trotman and co-founder Anna Burles thought was weak. “It didn’t sit well with the other interior spaces we designed, which harmed our original case study, much like a terrible sequel to a good movie,” she says. Then there was the time they created a restaurant brand that was later acquired by a bigger rival. “The identity we created was completely consumed, meaning one of our hero portfolio case studies simply doesn’t exist anymore,” Trotman adds. “Most creative works best for around five years.” In the identity world, Manchipp believes that very few branding devices are sacred, or designed for eternity – “although woe betide the designer who looks to remove the V&A logo.” That was the work of Pentagram’s Alan Fletcher in 1989 and still appears simultaneously classical yet modern – the ambition of many a corporate identity. “Most creative works best for around five years,” Manchipp believes. “Half a decade later, things have generally moved on, been acquired and need an update. A rare few last longer. But these are the exceptions, not the rules.” Made Thought’s GF Smith mark had had a good innings – it launched in 2014. And Someone’s Royal Opera identity launched in 2010. Across the pond, brands like Coca-Cola, FedEx, IBM and Nike have stayed the same for decades. But overall, the industry is driven by change. If a design agency is lucky enough to stay in business for a few decades, it will inevitably witness the demise of its own work. “While many of our designs continue to endure past the ten-year mark, brands like Eurostar, The Prince’s Trust, the Royal Opera House, WorldPay, Cancer Research UK, Thameslink, Aston Villa and many others have successfully moved on,” Manchipp says. “If your involvement enabled a brand to achieve what it wanted, in the expected time frame, and on budget, then you’ve done a great job,” he adds. “In most cases branding work is not expected to last forever – it’s expected to deliver on strategic business promises.” Made Thought sees things slightly differently. “We aim for long ideas and timeless design, minimising the need for fleeting trends,” says Parker. “Because a strong brand, like enduring architecture, reveals its true value over time. If a redesign abandons that core truth, we question its lasting power – it can risk becoming mere hype.” Explaining to the team One key route to helping the team through their loss is to try and get to the bottom of the decision to change. Cutler suggests agencies should ask former clients to help them understand, beyond the glossy PR story that surrounds a redesign. “Ask questions, be honest about how you and the team are feeling, and hopefully you’ll get the same back,” he says. “This information is key to then explaining to your own teams, to help them understand why decisions have been made.” Whatever the reasons for the change, designers agree that it’s important to try and move on as quickly as possible. “Plough this energy into the next challenge and don’t waste it on things that are out of your control,” Cutler advises. As Manchipp points out, redesigns are also the work of designers. And most of the time, everyone’s pretty sensitive about it. Although Cutler does recall one occasion where his team was briefed on a new project on a video call in front of the agency they were replacing… Industries in this article Brands in this article What to read next Features Working overseas – how to make it work 31 Oct, 2024

28 April, 2025 As the club celebrates its record-equalling 20th title, Bulletproof's David Beare talks to Rob Alderson about history, typography, and why words unlocked the whole project. As Liverpool’s players, fans and staff celebrated winning the title in the sunshine at Anfield yesterday, Bulletproof’s David Beare had two reasons to raise a glass. Beare, a Liverpool fan, was delighted to see his club win their 20th league title. But he also led the team who recently refreshed Liverpool’s visual identity. From two new fonts to a new shade of red and a more prominent focus on the liver bird across visual assets, the new look started to roll out in February and will continue into next season. Beare, who is executive creative director at Bulletproof, explains that they first started talking with the club three years ago. The London-based studio had completed a rebrand for the Football Association of Wales, and wrote an article off the back of that project about the need for football clubs to move from being badges to becoming brands, which caught the Liverpool marketing team’s eye. Liverpool initially commissioned Bulletproof to audit its digital real estate to see how it could perform better. “I think we really helped them realise that the opportunity was a lot bigger,” Beare explains. One of Bulletproof’s biggest recommendations was the need for more consistency. Over time, the club’s assets had diverged to include, on Beare’s estimation, 30 different shades of red, 50 fonts, and 20 art direction styles. The main task, he explains, was to, “simplify what they had and amplify new assets that really told their unique story.” Bulletproof’s refreshed identity for Liverpool FC The two-and-a-half year project began with 18 months of engagement work – listening to a wide range of groups inside and outside the club, from long-serving staff to fan groups and commercial partners. That led to a new brand promise – inspiring belief – and new brand principles, graft, faith and togetherness. “Liverpool as a city, and Liverpool as a club, have always had this intrinsic sense of belief in who they are,” Beare says. “It’s a city that’s faced really difficult times. It’s had these gutting lows, but incredible highs as well. And sitting at the heart of all this was the football club, that tracked those political and socio-economic changes. “That sense of belief was really at the heart of this new promise, and it’s a sense of belief on and off the pitch,” Beare adds. The new principles were designed to feel quintessentially Liverpudlian – graft reflecting the city’s hard-work, often against the odds, and faith, captured in the players touching the famous “This is Anfield” sign on their way out of the tunnel before games. Rebranding football clubs is fraught with pressures. Perhaps most famously, Liverpool’s fierce local rivals Everton had to ditch its new crest in 2013 after a furious fan backlash. And with Liverpool’s 200 million followers across social media, there were a lot of people who would have an opinion on the new look. “I think a saving grace for us was that the club didn’t want to change the badge or the liver bird on the crest,” Beare says. “They are very wedded to those emblems, and so we weren’t being asked to introduce arbitrary new design assets that don’t feel like they belong to the club, or the city. It wasn’t about change for the sake of change.” “Our creative challenges as an agency are about solving business challenges, and it’s no different when you look at a football club.” The liver bird – which Beare describes as “so unique and so characterful” plays a central part in various visual formats, appearing on its own or in different lock-ups. He says there was “a tiny bit of refinement” to aid its digital appearance. And the symbol also informed other design decisions in more subtle ways. “The custom font LFC Serif is born out of the beautiful shapes and curves in the liver bird,” Beare explains. Bulletproof worked with Alistair McCready’s Monolith type foundry on the new typeface. “He spent four months crafting this font, and I don’t want to underestimate the time, effort and energy that went into developing it. “It feels like it’s going to stand the test of time rather than something that might have been AI generated and might last for a few months and then disappear.” That pairs with LFC Sans, a more functional typeface that compliments the serif. The combination had enough “variability and tonality” for different audiences, he says. Bulletproof’s refreshed identity and new typeface for Liverpool FC The club’s storied history also influenced the new, unified shade of red. The Bulletproof team went into the archives to recreate the classic hue associated with one of the team’s most famous players. “When you think about Kenny Dalglish wearing his red shirt, that’s the Liverpool red. It was one red back then, so it was about stripping away these new versions that don’t feel like they come from that history. In many ways, looking back has given us the answer to move forwards with.” With a lot of focus on motion, the team developed a dynamic animated format known as “the wing expression.” This again echoes the liver bird, but its forms are powered by the sounds of the fans, which were recorded at home games. “It is animated by the noise of the crowd and the atmosphere of Anfield,” Beare explains, from the roar of a goal celebration to the anticipatory silence before a penalty is taken. “We’re taking the chants, and the energy, and the sounds, and using those to power the behaviour of our typography in the wing expression,” he says. “It’s almost like code to input and affect the way in which it moves. “There are almost infinite ways that can come to life,” he adds. https://d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/04/07.mp4 This new motion design bridges fan experiences in different parts of the world. So it shows up on the scoreboards around Anfield when a goal goes in, but also on digital goal alerts for international fans (Liverpool says 70% of its website traffic comes from overseas). This speaks to one of the biggest challenges, which is uniting the refreshed identity to work for matchday and overseas fans, who engage with the club in different ways, but also commercial sponsors like Google, Peloton and Adidas. “Partnerships are really important from a commercial perspective because that’s the revenue driver now,” Beare says. Bulletproof needed to make the identity more cohesive so it “could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with a brand like Google,” Beare explains. The wing expression is a big part of that, because it can be dialled up and down, and even tailored to different corporate settings. Bulletproof’s new visual identity for Liverpool FC As a fan himself, Beare says it was both “a huge honour and a huge responsibility” to work on the refresh. But he says the team, which included two other Liverpool fans, didn’t struggle with objectivity. “Our creative challenges as an agency are about solving business challenges and it’s no different when you look at a football club. “So you can be quite objective in that sense, and say, this brand’s got to perform for corporate hospitality. It’s got to perform for the men’s team, the women’s team, the kids. It’s got to perform for the community. “It’s got to perform globally for fans who might be in Tokyo or in the US. So that’s no different for any other global brand we might work on in terms of how do you have something that feels cohesive, but has that flexibility to work with all those different audiences?” An additional consideration was to make sure the identity could adapt and evolve over time. Beare says they built a close relationship with the club’s design team and worked hard to make sure the new direction worked for them. “Their design team needs to be excited by the potential of the brand,” Beare explains. “One of the greatest challenges was to give them something that was really easy to work with, but with the potential to feel like there’s creative flexibility.” Now Beare can bask in the title win, which has been in the offing for weeks, and reflect on the success of the project. “There was so much consultation with so many different people,” he says. “But once we unlocked the strategy, it was actually a pretty simple creative process.” The words were hugely important, he says, to get the brand promise right. “It was something everyone could get behind, that respected their past, but felt relevant to what Liverpool is today. It comes down to semantics when you get into this stuff, but it really unlocked everything.” https://d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/04/10.mp4 What to read next BrandOpus creates new brand and packaging for Alpen Brand Identity 25 Feb, 2025

Jonathan Kirk wants to talk about clients. The Up to the Light founder, and author of the What Clients Think Report – based on 680 client interviews and produced alongside the Design Business Association – believes relationships are key. In fact, he argues that the quality of client relationships, rather than the quality of thinking or creative output, is the biggest differentiator between design agencies. But what does a good client relationship really look like. We spoke with Kirk to find out. Clients are under increased pressures. What does that mean for agencies’ approach to client services? Our client interviews give a strong sense that clients are generally time starved, under-resourced and struggling to achieve more with less. This is against a backdrop of economic and political uncertainty, yet coupled with a relentless pace of change when it comes to technology, markets and customer behaviour. Given this environment, there is often an understandable focus on dealing with immediate challenges at the expense of longer-term brand building. So, what does that mean for agencies? Firstly, the concept of efficient but passive account management is outdated. Clients need agencies to drive projects, not just manage them. Clients’ time is now at a premium, and they need agencies to soak up some of that pressure and really take the reins. I think of this as true client service, not traditional account management. Secondly, clients are increasingly relying on agencies to be their eyes and ears. Most clients have a relatively narrow focus. They spend every day with heads down on their particular brands and sectors. They can also be surprisingly inward looking, with 55% of clients stating that their biggest challenges are internal not external. External agencies have the huge advantage of continually experiencing different brands, markets and challenges. Their frame of reference is so much larger, and this is of huge potential benefit to clients. However, 44% of clients would like their agency to share more of the work they do for other clients. They don’t just mean relaying case studies but sharing learning that’s relevant to their particular situation. Many clients acknowledge that their focus can be too narrow and want agencies to help open their horizons. Thirdly, there is an increased demand for proactivity that goes above and beyond the project in-hand. This is often the difference between a good supplier relationship and a true client/agency partnership. What do agencies need to be doing to best serve and engage their clients? Doing the basics well is vital. Things like good and regular communication, concise updates on progress, note-taking at meetings, use of agendas, sticking to timelines and budgets. These are the familiar ingredients of solid account management. The challenge for agencies is that these are now increasingly seen as a given. 45% of clients believe that their agency’s account management is too transactional and are demanding an enhanced level of interaction. They often talk about the need for projects to be “driven”, not just managed, and stress that a more proactive approach would create a stronger sense of partnership. It’s interesting to note that 58% of clients view their agency as a “partner” – a decrease on last year. When asked what damages that perception, the number one factor is “a decline in proactivity.” In these circumstances, clients talk about a slide towards a more functional and delivery-led relationship. Things have become more “command and control” where the agency is taking direction and completing tasks. “Arguably, the biggest difference between agencies is not found in the quality of thinking and creative output, but in the quality of their client relationships.” Proactivity is an important element, whether that’s flagging up issues and concerns or raising budget problems earlier. A common client complaint is, “The agency should have mentioned it before we did.” Other examples include better planning at the start of bigger projects, a better ability to relate the project to the bigger picture or just being more open and self-critical. It’s a level of proactivity where the agency becomes an invaluable ally, not just a support. “Driving” projects also means being forceful when required. A common accusation is that the agency is “too nice” and should be firmer when the client is slow, or not providing enough information. Similarly, clients appreciate a firmer or bolder viewpoint. It shouldn’t be forgotten that clients view the agency as the expert. Agencies need to take confidence from that and be more prepared to speak up when necessary. How do you make sure proactivity is built in? Proactivity rarely happens consistently unless it’s planned for, so the key to ensuring proactivity is really good client development. I see a lot of client development plans that are too general and not action orientated enough, so it’s important to really commit to 30-/60-/90-day plans and build them into the agency’s culture and way of doing things. Each client development plan should have an owner, but then different members of the team can help deliver it as part of a team effort. Client development shouldn’t all rest with one or two key people. 77% of clients believe that good client development strengthens the client/agency relationship. This isn’t about “selling” or asking the client for more business. Great client development is building trust and generating ideas that add value for both client and agency. One other point to add is that 78% of clients wish their agency would focus their proactivity on improving what already exists, rather than coming up with totally new or off-the-wall ideas. It’s very important, therefore, for the agency to choose their subject matter carefully. For clients, the best and most useful proactivity tends to be closer to home. It’s more a case of “Help us fix what we’ve got” rather than coming up with outlandish ideas. We also hear from clients about badly directed examples of proactivity. Day-to-day client contacts tend to have a different definition of proactivity than more senior client levels, so it’s vital to direct the correct type of proactivity to the correct level. You mentioned earlier the need to be a client’s eyes and ears. What does that mean? Many agencies talk about the importance of curiosity. This is usually related to their creative approach but it’s interesting to think how it should also apply when it comes to being clients’ eyes and ears. Is the agency continually monitoring their client’s top three competitors? Are they bringing interesting analogies with other brands and markets? Are they sharing learning and insights from their case studies? Do they have their finger on the pulse when it comes to technological change or consumer trends, and are they sharing that with clients? Many clients see the agency as a conduit for meeting their peers. Is the agency staging events where clients can meet each other? In our interviews, many clients talk about the need for agencies to “tell us what’s new out there.” It’s no coincidence that the most read sections of agency newsletters tend to be those areas where designers share new and interesting things they’ve come across. Time-short, pressurised clients are leaning on their agencies as never before to show them what’s going on beyond the narrow confines of their particular brand and sector. If all this is done well, what can it mean for the client relationship, and for the design agency? Arguably, the biggest difference between agencies is not found in the quality of thinking and creative output, but in the quality of their client relationships. When a lot of agency focus goes into the next new business win, client retention and development can easily take a back seat and be undervalued. The reality is that holding on to your clients for longer and winning more business from them are powerful drivers of agency fortunes. Great client service and a structured, consistent approach to client development should form the blueprint for agency growth. Industries in this article

If your social media feeds are anything like mine, yesterday you were bombarded with news of Amazon’s “brand transformation” by Koto. It’s a huge piece of work, driven by the company’s struggles “to deliver creative excellence at speed, fragmented across teams, regions, and experiences.” Across the main Amazon brand and more than 50 sub-brands, from Prime to Alexa, Koto describes its new work as “confident, considered and consistent.” https://d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/04/01_Hero.mp4 It is a huge and multi-faceted undertaking from Koto’s New York team, with interconnecting elements that combine to form a cohesive whole. For the first time in 20 years, Amazon has updated its logo, initially designed by Turner Duckworth. Koto shifted the focus from the arrow to the smile, which it has made “deeper and more empathetic” and they have redrawn the letterforms of the wordmark “to correct typographic inconsistencies and bring greater precision.” Koto also created Amazon Logo Sans, a custom alphabet to unify the way type is used across its logos. A big part of the project seems to have been eliminating inconsistencies across the way the Amazon brand shows up. Jeff Bezos’ company famously moves quickly, and this can lead to design work being done on the hoof to meet pressing deadlines. So with colours, the Amazon orange had become a whole host of similar shades, which Koto has brought into a single hue, Smile Orange. They also gave Prime “a more saturated and digital-first blue.” Koto’s new Ember Modern typeface for Amazon They evolved Amazon’s Ember typeface – originally designed for Kindle screens – into Ember Modern. Again consistency is key – the Koto team found that different Amazon designers were “mixing in other typefaces to compensate” for Ember’s shortcomings. They also worked with Berlin type foundry NaN to tailor the typeface for every market and culture Amazon operates in – which is basically everywhere. Icons – can I shock you – were previously often “created independently across teams, products, and regions, leading to a patchwork of styles and visual languages.” And so again the Koto team introduced a global toolkit to produce “a single, standardised approach.” Koto also had to make sense of more than 50-sub-brands. Some of them are very familiar, many others I’d bet you’ve never heard of (Amazon Catalyst anyone?) They created a new brand architecture, grouping them into cohorts – like entertainment, health and devices – each of which would then have a shared visual approach overlaying their individual identities. Koto’s new work for Amazon For the parent brand, which Koto said had become “a little jaded” they brought in “bold expressive headlines, hero product photography and hallmark UI elements” to elevate and reenergise it. If the work feels quite familiar, then it probably is. After an 18-month project, the work started to roll-out eight months ago, and can already be seen across packaging, delivery vans, staff uniforms and various digital touchpoints. At the moment, neither Koto nor Amazon are giving interviews about the project – they are directing press to the (admittedly great) case study on the Koto website. But there is one fascinating angle to this, shared by Koto’s New York managing director, Alex Monger. “I’ll never forget how we won the project,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “An initial call on a Monday. A pitch by Thursday. And just a few hours after presenting, a phone call to say we’d won it.” This simple sentence is worth considering in full. At the time of writing Amazon is worth $1.99 trillion. It employs somewhere in the region of 1.3 million people. Its brand touches billions of people, all around the world, in myriad ways. This work had to be signed off at the very highest level – Monger says that one of Koto’s New York conference rooms is named after Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, to commemorate the call when they heard he had approved the work. Koto’s new Amazon logo And yet it took just four days from Amazon approaching Koto to commissioning them. That is staggering, even for a company that is notoriously decisive and quick to move. So many designers talk of the challenges created by slow clients, dithering and delays. In closing Thomas Matthews after 28 years, co-founder Sophie Thomas cited this hesitancy as one of the main factors. She called on clients to “remember we are people” on the other end of the phone, and to understand what impact these delays can have on independent businesses. In an uncertain economic climate, where budgets and client confidence seem to be shrinking, pace seems to have slowed across the board, and design studios are suffering. But clients are frustrated too. This Fortune article explains why many top CEOs have become “simplifiers-in-chief” – changing cultures and structures with the aim of “blowing up bureaucracy to move faster” It cites a Bain & Co study which suggests that “excessive complexity” costs firms up to 15% of their annual profits. One of the examples it gives of a company that exemplifies this approach? Amazon. And this project speaks to that. One of the world’s biggest and most complex companies took four days between contacting a design studio for a massive, business-critical project and giving them the job. This should shake everyone out of their torpor. In business, as in dating, a quick no is useful. A quick yes is transformative. Koto’s new work for Amazon https://d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/04/05_Color.mp4 Koto’s new icons for Amazon https://d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/04/08_Typography_Sizzle.mp4 Koto’s new work for Amazon https://d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net/uploads/2025/04/06_Logo_System.mp4