Local (UK & Ireland)
Kaizen Brand Evolution
Kaizen is a creative design agency which is based in Belfast. The agency specialises in digital design for brands and animations. They have helped many local businesses develop their brand identities such as Ulster GAA, Boojum and Horse Racing Ireland. Although after studying their work, one of their projects with creating a brand identity for Boojum stood out to me. Boojum is a fast-food Mexican burrito chain restaurant that offers an exotic taste yet modern experience to the streets of Belfast. Originally established in 2007 as a small outlet on Botanic Avenue, it quickly picked up popularity with now up to 17 restaurants all over Ireland.
Other than their delicious burritos, Boojum’s brand has caught my eye ever since the day I saw it. The outmost mix of vibrant whites, pinks, blues and yellows creates a distinct modern brand. They have managed to capture a perfect psychological force that registers the brand as modern, exciting and young.
I find the Kaizen Brand Evolution wholeheartedly inspiring as they have managed to capture perfect branding through colour and a single wordmark which is significant to their customer’s success.
Dark Red Design
Established in 2019, Dark Red Design is a full-service engineering and product design consultancy that bases itself in Belfast. They are involved in many different social sectors such as medical, automotive, aerospace, industrial and consumer sectors. As a company, they have a long history in product design with over two decades of diverse experience.
While Dark Red Design is more of a physical agency focusing on real-world products, instead of digital engineering. It wasn’t just their finished products that caught my eye, instead, it was the process they took to achieve such products such as their initial idea, exhaustive contextual research into their projects, user-led design consultancies with the customers demands being at the forefront, routing the most cost-efficient and effective path for their products and more. Dark Red Design is a prime example of a design company that creates a mutual understanding between customer and company retaining a sense of relations while creating subliminal content.
Studio Market Gill
Studio Market Gill is a highly recognized yet small (5 UK-based staff) design agency that has been designing since 2007. Starting in Brighton, England, the company promotes environmental and social ethics which is intertwined with the core value of their company, “To design without a planet or people in mind is to create problems rather than solutions. Through design, we have the potential to inspire positive change and contribute to a more sustainable future.”
What stood out for me is their designs, look and image combined. They constantly state that they achieve “pure simplicity” especially in the chaos of the constantly changing world. They state that “Making things simple is not simple, it’s a process of discovery, experimenting and navigating complex messages. We learn what is vital and then distill everything to a simple clarity – a clarity that speaks the truth about your brand.”
One of the many projects they worked on is their case study on Nike’s partnership with Chelsea FC. They take the user through the process of their innovative display system and graphic intervention which marks Nike’s partnership with Chelsea FC and the rich history of the club.
They then implement this system inside their store in many innovative and diverse ways such as the LED back wall lights and even turning it into a typeface. These design choices create a distinct consistent identity while retaining a sense of simplicity and conciseness.
International
Clay
Clay is a digital product and UX agency based in San Francisco, USA. They are a flexible award-winning company that has left a trail everywhere whether that be on Slack, Google or Facebook just to name a few. Their company helps team up with marketing companies to deliver precise and cutting-edge premium websites and designs.
Looking at their work I am amazed at the digital products they produce. Especially for their partnered slack scrolling site, they manage to capture the companies brand perfectly through visual means whilst maintaining a sleek and sharp website.
Red Antler
Red Antler is a world-renowned design company started in 2007 based in Brooklyn, NYC. The company has helped create a visual identity (both digitally and physically) and reinvent the overall persona of a variety of brands in a unique and modern way. Red Antler defines, develops and creates identity using innovative ideas and ways. They exclusively focus on researching, the strategy, naming, identity, experience, engineering, advertising, creative production, industrial design and retail; showing the many of ways Red Antler looks at to create a design.
Looking at the project they worked on with Judy. They managed to perfectly and coercively revamp their brand identity. The company is a collection of pre-set kits in case of a natural disaster. What I loved about it is the unique tangy orange they deployed over the whole brand creating their own personality and a sense of importance.
They also experimented with the wordmark warping an arrow into the letter ‘J’ this creates attention and direction and tells the viewer what to focus on. I found this design choice excellent and relevant for the overall brand.
Fantasy.co
Fantasy.co is a global UI/UX design agency with an office in New York, Miami, San Francisco and London. Originally founded by David Martin in 1999 the company found success through its consistently beautiful yet elegant UI designs. Currently, Fantasy has 50 employees. They have designed many digital products used by “billions” globally such as Twitter, Spotify, Netflix, Google, Facebook (to name a few) this shows their current position in popularity and fame. Their companies values are vital to their success as they lead the world stage in UX/UI design. Fantasy manages to dedicate their works to their client at a personal and business level offering the perfect product. They’re skilled in generating incredible, new momentum within organizations of all sizes and they believe that if you can imagine it, you can create it. Their constant look at the future and state-of-the-art material is why this company appeals so much to me.
What caught my eye while browsing Fantasy.co website was the constant bombardment of the interactive website as it was constantly filled with videos, animations showing both their product and process in a beautiful and prestigious manner.
Interactivness MAIN PART
Crisp, clear, consise, black and white
Breaking the linear nav