WELCOME TO THE CHRISTMAS ISSUE OF POST,
SPICE & CO. DESIGN'S EMAIL COMMUNIQUÉ.

Coming into Dataflex's 20th year the company's owner and founder, Brian Evans, worked to define the company's future direction and create a rebranding brief. Spice & Co. Design was selected to realise the brief.

The Design Brief:

Dataflex wanted its new brand to reflect the technology it delivers for its clients and express its emphasis on transparency and streamlined communications. We were energised by the potential of this project – knowing Dataflex was committed to creating a unique experience for its clients and staff – and wanted the brand's design to capture the energy and optimism that defines the company.

The Result:

The new Dataflex logo is timeless and understated, and is paired with a deliberately restrained brand treatment that combines colours, shapes and space to deliver a future-proofed aesthetic with an air of efficiency. A limited palette of metallic and transparent blues, greys and silvers are applied in the form of abstracted shapes that are inspired by the evolution of the microchip. Transparent shapes overlap and interconnect between each brand element, evoking a metaphor for transparent, seamless communication and technology.

This new brand style has been carried across all print and online material (see: spiceandcodesign.com/portfolio/dataflex ).

One of the highlights of this project was the realisation of the brand in the company's new, purpose built offices in Barton's Realm building. In close collaboration with Jackson Architecture we integrated the brand into the office environment, through a printed treatment of wallpaper and vinyl-on-glass graphics. These brand colours carry through the offices, and hi-tech materials were deliberately chosen to reinforce the company's vision. Reception detailing creates an immediate impression on arrival. Wall graphics reinforce the idea of transparency and flow as surfaces move from white on glass to bold interconnecting coloured shapes, linking rooms and expanding the feeling of space.

One of our favourite projects to date, the Dataflex rebranding utilised our capacity as a full service creative agency.

Dataflex website >>

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We know the people at Blue. They are lovely, helpful, energetic, and everything you would want from a Property Manager. This experience is the message we wanted to get across to the market, but the challenge was cutting through all the other real estate ads that saturate the page with promo that is all slick and no stick.

So we chose the path less travelled and came up with a series of ads that focussed on the client. Each ad profiles a different character getting on with their passion in life, carefree, with the knowledge that their home is looked after by the Blue Property team.

With a personalised feel, the ads emphasise the concept that with the support of the professional team at Blue, all kinds of people (not just property experts) can be in the property market. Blue clients don't have to worry about the hassle of the day-to-day management of a property portfolio and can get on with what they really want to do.

The press campaign has been backed up with a booklet that demystifies the process of property management for a new client, and we are now working with blue to follow up the print campaign with a new website optimised to extend a press campaign into the web realm, enhancing the web's marketing potential. (see: spiceandcodesign.com/portfolio/blue ).

Blue Property website

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This road sign is one of many littered around the country, but its unexpected wording grabs your attention as you drive by. The style of writing personalises the type of public message that is usually highly impersonal. Driving by you do a double-take, surprised by the message's tone, crafted in txt spk, usually a way of communicating with a friend or someone you know personally. The sign's message seems directed to you alone. It gets you in. It cuts through the other noise around you – the key to all successful communication. It's not grand, it's not showy, we doubt it's expensive; it's just good solid communication based on a solid idea. Bravo!

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The process of offset printing has not changed dramatically since its invention in the early 1900s, however there have been some notable changes. Presses have become bigger, louder and more efficient over time, and a big difference has been seen in their movement from black and white to full colour. Nowadays you can utilise every colour under the sun in a publication, with tight controls over colour variation and ink coverage.

An offset printer is also able to work with all sorts of paper stocks specified by a designer, and is able to employ options such as ultraviolet varnishing (a high gloss almost plastic finish that can be run like a colour on top of selected areas of a page), embossing, metallic inks and a huge range of binding and finishing styles.

Offset presses require operators to manually check ink levels, colour consistency and registration (how well things line up), and modern presses are supported by cutting-edge technology that continually feeds information on the progress of the job back to the operator. These controls enable a designer and printer to work together throughout the process to achieve high quality results.

Digital printing's greatest asset is speed. The atomisation and automation of digital printing means you can get a job done quickly (often within 24-hours) and production runs of around 500 or less, can be produced cheaply.

However, fewer controls are available to an operator of a digital press, so the process affords far less control on colour levels, ink coverage and finish quality. The streamlining of the process means the availability of stocks and finishes is also limited.

So, in short, offset and digital printing each have advantages, however the quality of offset printing is almost always better than results achieved from digital processes, and the number of controls means that you are able to be more confident the production quality of your job will be high.

Having said all this, every year as investment is made in the technology that underpins the digital process, so the gap in quality is closing. Designers are always across the latest industry developments, and your designer can help you weigh up the pros and cons of using offset or digital printing on a job-by-job basis.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE TEAM AT SPICE & CO. DESIGN

Wishing all of our clients, associates and their families a happy and safe Christmas break. We look forward to working with you in the New Year!

Christmas Office Hours:

The office closes on Tuesday 23 December 2007 at 5pm.

We will reopen on Monday 12 January 2008 at 9am.

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