The Pixel8 Design, Branding and Marketing Agency is very pleased to announce that based on the evaluation of the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP) judges, Pixel8 has won four awards in the Hermes Creative Awards 2011 competition.

The international competition is open to creative professionals involved in the concept, writing and design of traditional and emerging media. Judges are industry professionals who look for companies and individuals whose talents exceed a high standard of excellence, and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry. There were approximately 4,400 entries from the United States and other countries.

Hermes’ prestigious Platinum Awards are presented for entries that are judged to be among the most outstanding in the competition. Platinum Winners are recognized for their excellence in terms of quality, creativity and resourcefulness.

For our brand design refresh work on Hotel Indigo, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) boutique hotel chain, Pixel8 was awarded the Platinum Award for the Hotel Indigo Brand Refresh Journey animation in the ‘Video/Internal Communication’ category.

Pixel8 won another Platinum Award for its Hotel Indigo Facebook and Twitter Campaigns in the ‘Social Media’ category. It’s the first ever Social Media Award for the Hotel Indigo brand.

Ed Thorne, Director of Global Brand Management for Hotel Indigo and Crowne Plaza at IHG spoke of the awards in relation to Pixel8’s brand refresh, “We’ve had great feedback from customers and our hotel colleagues alike, winning these awards not only confirms this feedback but it’s also a great boost for the team.”

Pixel8’s haul continued with another Platinum Award for the Pixel8 ‘Powered by Smart Pixels’ animation in the ‘Video/Corporate Image’ category.

Last, but not least was a Gold Award for our design of the Accident Compensation Website for Forbes Solicitors in the ‘Design/Illustration/Graphic Design’ category.

In response to the success in the Hermes Creative Awards, Jamie Watson, Pixel8’s Joint Managing Director said, “These awards are testament to the way that the clients trusted us to deliver creative and effective marketing communications that reflect their overarching values and vision for the future.”

Hermes Creative Awards recognizes outstanding work in the industry while promoting the philanthropic nature of marketing and communication professionals. Judges are industry professionals who look for companies and individuals whose talents exceeds a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry. To see all Gold and Platinum Winners in 2011 please visit Hermes Creative Awards.

For more information about Pixel8 please visit www.Pixel8ltd.com or call us direct. From the USA dial 011 44 161 228 6489, in the UK call 0845 230 1336 or contact us by e-mail

Last week at Pixel8, we continued our global brand design consistency program for Hotel Indigo, the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) boutique brand. We created a range of new graphic designs and completed all the artwork for new food and drink menus for 13 hotels.

Food and drink menus express the personality of an organization. They’re an open invitation to examine brand imagery and are often the branding collateral that customers spend the most time looking at.

At the Pixel8 Design and Branding Agency, we knew that the Hotel Indigo menus had to be constant in their appeal to customers worldwide. We also had to encourage customer appreciation of the boutique hotels’ feel, whilst providing the consistency expected from a global brand.

So, Pixel8 created a portfolio of on brand imagery for 13 different hotels across the Americas and in the UK. We developed a range of creative images that reflect Hotel Indigos’ values, reiterating the local, neighborhood story and inspired service that lie at the core of the Hotel Indigo brand design refresh.

For more information watch our animated video of our Hotel Indigo brand development journal or contact Pixel8 today. From the USA dial 011 44 161 228 6489, in the UK call 0845 230 1336 or contact us by e-mail.

Also see our ‘Powered by Smart Pixels’ animation at www.Pixel8ltd.com

The world’s largest hotel group has once again selected the Pixel8 Design Agency in Manchester to provide corporate branding and design services.

In 2010, Pixel8 refreshed the Hotel Indigo brand for InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), beating a pitch list which included three US branding giants.

Pixel8 is now carrying out a brand refresh for Crowne Plaza, the world’s fourth largest upscale hotel brand. The contract win has led to Pixel8 taking on five new members of staff at its northern quarter offices.

Pixel8 will once again report to Ed Thorne, Director Global Brand Management, Upscale Brands based at IHG in Atlanta. On selecting Pixel8 for a second time, Ed said, “Pixel8 did a fantastic job and really helped to define and create consistency across the Hotel Indigo brand. Having proved they can really push the boundaries, they were the obvious choice for our next major refresh.”

Pixel8 Director Jamie Watson said, “Once again our corporate branding and graphic design services have been picked ahead of our international competitors. This is great news for Manchester and of course for Pixel8.  Our relationship with IHG continues to go from strength to strength.”

Nigel Daws, Pixel8’s Creative Director added, “Making brands work is at the heart of what we do.  We’ve been able to demonstrate that we can develop an effective and consistent brand and create meaningful marketing collateral that works.”

Originally branded as Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, the first US hotel opened in Rockville, Maryland, in 1983. Today, there are over 400 Crowne Plaza hotels in 52 countries. In July 2009, Crowne Plaza was recognised by US magazine Lodging Hospitality as one of the industry’s top growing brands.

IHG is the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms with over 4,500 hotels, more than 650,000 guest rooms in over 100 countries and territories worldwide. IHG Brands include InterContinental Hotels, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.

IHG also operates the world’s largest hotel loyalty programme, Priority Club Rewards, with over 52 million members worldwide.

For more information about Pixel8 please visit www.Pixel8ltd.com or call us direct. From the USA dial 011 44 161 228 6489, in the UK call 0845 230 1336 or contact us by e-mail

The Pixel8 Design and Branding Agency in Manchester has created two off shoots of The Open University and are currently working on a third.

Shared Solutions is a forum to promote academic partnerships, and Back On Course is a service for people that have withdrawn from higher education before completing their studies, and offers support for returning into education.

Pixel8 provided logo design, web design and content management systems for both projects.

The websites are now live at www.sharedsolutions.ac.uk and www.backoncourse.ac.uk

Jamie Watson, Account Director at Pixel8 said, “It’s great to be working with such a progressive organisation on these exciting projects. We look forward to opening up this relationship further in the future”.

The Social Media Marketing team at Pixel8 in Manchester is pleased to announce that the Hotel Indigo Facebook site, which Pixel8 developed and manages, attracted over 3,600 fans within its first five months; and that Hotel Indigo is generating revenue through both Facebook and twitter.

Hotel Indigo, the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) boutique brand, currently has 38 hotels open in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, UK and China and 56 new hotels are in the pipeline. New Hotel Indigos opening in 2011 include Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Saddle Brook, Vancouver, Liverpool, Glasgow and Taipei; future hotel openings include Madrid and Manchester!

Pixel8’s Social Media Marketing consultants immediately identified a “pet friendly boutique hotel” niche and used twitter to promote the weekly Canine Cocktails party’s held at several hotels in the USA. The response was excellent! Dog owners around the world retweeted Canine Cocktails event dates and hotel locations, many added great comments, others asked if a Hotel Indigo could open in their city so they could bring their dogs to a Canine Cocktails party! The brand quickly won admiration and generated new business from travelling pet lovers.

To further engage twitter followers, Pixel8 developed and managed a series of Free Weekends for Two at Hotel Indigos, giving away free weekends to the first five callers. On each twitter giveaway campaign, the hotels phone lines lit up within a few seconds of the winning tweet. All the giveaways were completed within ten minutes, and the hotels booked new reservations by offering a special “sorry you didn’t win” room rate!

During Pixel8’s development of the Hotel Indigo brand Facebook, which includes a Photo Album, a Notes page, Book Online and links to TripAdvisor reviews for each hotel, the “pet friendly boutique hotel” niche was enhanced with Canine Cocktails photo albums displaying images from the latest events. As Hotel Indigo provides free dogs treats, large water bowls and $3 cocktails like ‘Salty Dogs’ and ‘Greyhounds’, both hotel guests and local residents are more than yappy to attend.

To further engage Hotel Indigos pet friendly Facebook fans, Pixel8 suggested and managed a campaign to donate funds to a US pet charity. The campaign included the opportunity to win a Two Free Nights plus Restaurant, Golf and Spa packages at the Hotel Indigo in Miami Lakes. Facebook fans eagerly supported the cause and spread the word to their friends, family and work colleagues; resulting in a $10,000 donation from Hotel Indigo to Adopt-a-Pet.com

In addition to creating and managing the content for Hotel Indigo social media marketing on Facebook and twitter, Pixel8 also provides search engine and social media reputation management services for the brand. This allows our client to spend more time doing what they do best!

Visit www.facebook.com/hotelindigo and http://twitter.com/hotelindigo

For more information about Pixel8’s Social Media Marketing services please call Pixel8 in Manchester on 0161 228 6489 – 0845 230 1336 or contact us by e-mail today.

Hotel Indigo, Facebook, Twitter and TripAdvisor are trademarks of their respective owners.

From Personalise.com, a new website providing officially licensed, personalised calendars and greetings cards to Football4Football.com, a one stop shop for all things football; it’s been a year of new opportunities for several new Pixel8 clients.

From diverse websites such as Online Performance Test Services website Blucap.co.uk, to Personal Injury website Accident-Compensation.co.uk, 2010 has been a springboard for many new propositions.

Pixel8’s new proposition process enables start-ups to work as fast as they desire! From the initial brand scoping, to logo design, web design and development through to print advertising and online marketing to support the launch, and the ongoing development of the business.

Pixel8’s brand development projects in 2010 have not just been new brand propositions for UK companies. International companies also selected Pixel8 to refresh their existing brands.  InterContinental Hotels Group picked Pixel8 to refresh its Hotel Indigo brand, and to provide social media marketing for the boutique hotel chain. US publisher Halcyon Media chose Pixel8 to refresh its Pregnancy & Newborn Magazine brand, then to design and develop a new website.

After a new brand has been developed the marketing begins! Pixel8 provides both online and offline marketing services including Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Social Media Marketing to traditional marketing including brochure designs, print advertising and outdoor media.

For more information about developing new propositions or refreshing an existing brand, call the brand design and development team at Pixel8 in Manchester on 0161 228 6489 – 0845 230 1336 or contact us by e-mail today.

As part of Pixel8’s ongoing calendar design work for Danilo, this year we were asked to design the official Cliff Richard 2011 calendar.

‘The Early Years’ calendar is a celebration of Britain’s best-loved bachelor boys’ early music career, which now spans an incredible seven decades.

With Sir Cliff Richard notching up over 1.5 million sales of his official calendars over the years (we think that deserves our ‘Congratulations!’), we jumped at the chance to be part of it!

The official Cliff Richard 2011 calendar features 12 images of Cliff during the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Pixel8’s Manchester graphic design team retouched many of the images, including colour correcting and removal of any imperfections in the photographs. These were then resized to fit the square calendar format.

This ideal Christmas present for any Cliff Richard fan is now available online and in shops across the UK.

For more information about Pixel8’s graphic design services please call 0161 228 6489 – 0845 230 1336 or contact us by e-mail today.

The graphic design wizzards at Pixel8 in Manchester created the official Merlin 2011 Calendar, which is now available online and in shops everywhere.

The spellbinding BBC TV drama Merlin is now into its third series. It follows the legend of a young Merlin and Arthur and the adventures they encounter in the kingdom of Camelot.

Complying to a strict design style guide, Pixel8 worked its graphic design magic and combined all the brand elements including picture frames, shields and textured backgrounds, with character images and photographs from the third series.

Hey presto, one Merlin 2011 Calendar!

What is branding?

Branding can do several useful things, all of which help to ensure the success of the product or service. In essence, a good brand aims to fulfil the following hallmarks:

Reinforcement of a good reputation

Encourage customer loyalty

Assure quality

Convey a perception of greater worth

Bring about a sense of affirmation

Brand reputations are often synonymous with how they reside in the customers mind.

How do we use visual tools to enhance a brand?

In the successful brand development, we look to a few key areas to determine whether their strategy is easily recognisable and also succinct within their target market. When we look to refresh a brand, we consider the brand positioning, i.e. defining where the brand is most relevant in terms of colour, tone of voice, product/service and age range.

We also look to how we visually tell the story of the brand, whether it’s a complete revamp, or just an evolution of an established brand, making the appropriate design decisions can be the difference between taking the brand forward, adding value and credibility, or not doing the brand justice.

In design terms, we look to incorporate every aspect of research that we undertake so that we can make informed decisions about how to approach the design process.

Being able to associate and distinguish brands by visual impact is of key relevance in any brand awareness exercise, ultimately, we familiarise ourselves with brand identity in visual terms more than we do any other way, therefore communicating the right message by the use of subtle colour combinations and form is perhaps the core importance to any successful brand development process.

Why is colour so important in the branding process?

One of the most important and perhaps impacting factors of branding is colour. Colour is a sensation, produced by the brain, by the light which enters the eye; and that while a sensation of a particular colour is usually triggered by our eyes, receiving light of a particular composition, many other psychological and physiological factors also contribute. Understanding the complexities of colour is an essential influencing factor when assigning colour themes to a brand based on their hallmarks and guiding principles.

Taking this into consideration, we have developed a study whereby we are able to utilize the theory of past colour experts, along with brand placement in order to assign colour themes that are appropriate for their requirements and the role they will inevitably undertake within a brand. In acknowledging our perceptions and emotional interactions with colour we are able to influenced by its psychological properties, our own experience is based primarily on how receptive we are to changing colour environments and/or colour schemes, coding, visual and verbal communication.

Case Study – Evolution of Coca Cola brand design

Coca Cola is a great example of how the established elements of the brand have been echoed in their current brand aesthetic. Derived from a solely black typographic logo, the diagram above demonstrates how the Coca Cola brand has gone from minimal tweaks and changes to complete movement away from traditional serif font, almost performing a full circle before arriving at their present day design, which ironically, is more or less identical in form to the logo in use in the 40’s.

Here we are able to see that the introduction of colour enhances the brand, the red has been chosen carefully to depict the appropriate emotional connotations with the brand, also with the font style being revived from 60 years ago, this helps to reinforce the long established successful nature of the Coca Cola brand. It’s easily recognisable down to the fact that it has gone through an evolutionary process as opposed to a revolutionary one. A nod to the past whilst maintaining the core hallmarks of a brand moving towards the future.

Overview

The study of colour is complex, made difficult by its variety of attributes, which include the aesthetic, psychological, physiological, associative and symbolic nature of our own personal interactions with it. When the eyes see’s colour it is immediately stimulated, the spontaneous nature of this reaction instinctively seeks to reproduce another, alongside the original, this infinite process aids us in the comprehension of the whole chromatic scale.

Our practice is supported by the integration of colour theory, based on pioneers of their field, we are able to structure our colour navigation using the processes outlined by Isaac Newton and Goethe, both of whom studied colour extensively and are responsible for outlining the correct use of colour alongside its complementaries.

Johannes Itten, a pioneer of colour strategies, devised 7 simple methodologies for coordinating colours by utilising the hue’s contrasting properties. Using the basic principles outlined by these, we are able to determine the relationships between appropriate colour applications, which will make the process of identifying a new accent colour(s) as accurate as possible.

In many ways, colour drives our decisions within the context of brand development, enabling us to create a brand that resonates with the hallmarks and guiding principles. Having re-organised the priorities of the colours and made distinctions between their application, we are able to develop an informed guide as to how best to implement new/revised colours into the brand process going forward.

By exploring the theoretical implications of colour and combining it with the brand hallmarks we are able to make an informed decision on the appropriation of the revised colour palette. The ability to identify the specific colour groups that will work successfully is perhaps one of the most pivotal elements in defining a brand.

For more information please visit brand design or call the Pixel8 Branding Agency in Manchester on 0161 228 6489 – 0845 230 1336 or contact us by e-mail today.

Warner Estates has 9 major campaigns running throughout the year. Autumn Fashion was one of the campaigns they were running from September to October.

The campaign featured a live catwalk at fashion events in three major shopping centres in the North West of England. To promote the events Pixel8 designed the campaign using images from a fashion shoot supplied by Republic, and went on to design a grungy, rustic brown, chocolate design incorporating different shades of leaves to represent the Autumn season.

The campaign was designed to really stand out and attract all ages, particularly students, and fashion conscious shoppers who love to shop and be stylish.

For more information about Pixel8’s graphic design and branding services, call Pixel8 in Manchester on 0161 228 6489 – 0845 230 1336 or contact us by e-mail