Crowdsourcing – yay or nay?
by James, February 14th 2013Crowdsourcing is becoming increasingly popular nowadays, as fewer companies want to pay big money for good design. By crowdsourcing a design, a company can cut out trying to find a design team to suit their needs and offer a project to the masses with them competing with one another to complete the project. Once completed the company can then choose their favorite design and reward the designer.
While it might seem a much more fruitful option, in many ways this can create problems for the client and for designers.
While many of the best options created could be from someone who has studied and trained to be a designer, the project is also open to those who haven’t. This might seem like a fair option but in the end it takes away valuable work from those who have worked hard to get into the field and who have experience. And most of the work submitted will be rejected, meaning a lot of time wasted for many people.
From a company perspective, if they are unhappy with the designs submitted, revisions can be much harder to make due to the wide scope of individuals involved, whereas working with a small company, the solution can be made bespoke for their needs.
Creating a closer relationship with the client, means that you know more about their needs and what they like whereas issuing the brief to a diverse audience means that it can be misinterpreted and the project cannot evolve in the way it would one-to-one.
The lack of a client-designer relationship can be a great loss, as it denies the client the opportunity to work with some great designers that could give them a reputation for taking care and consideration with the image and values of their brand.
Curiosity, discovery, delight and wonder!
by Madelyn, February 12th 2013A recent experiment with my kids at the weekend reminded me what is at the heart of our creative work: curiosity, discovery, delight and wonder! This came from a book on water experiments: put a vial full of warm water mixed with food colouring at the bottom of a large glass or plastic bowl full of cold water. The warm water with food colouring rises out of the vial to the water surface (over-billed as a ‘volcano’!). Then as it cools down it starts to make these beautiful drips. What better way to spend a Saturday morning?
Peter Jones Foundation: “A year for growth and opportunity”
by Madelyn, February 12th 2013Alice Barnard, Chief Executive of the Peter Jones Foundation, has announced that 2013 should be “the year for growth and the year for opportunity” in her Huffington Post article. We are proud to have created some of that momentum by working with the Peter Jones Foundation and Peter Jones Enterprise Academy on the naming and branding of their new Level 3 and Level 5 apprenticeship: Ignite.
Community bank Spring Bank on NBC television
by Christoph, February 8th 2013For the official launch of Spring Bank’s new branch in Harlem, NBC New York came along for the grand opening and did an interview with the Vice President Brian Blake and the Business Relations Manager Jason Ohene. Not only did they talk about Spring Bank’s amazing approach to banking they also showed off the logo and website Grain has created for them.
How to get grants and R&D tax credits
by Madelyn, January 22nd 2013Fantastic video from our friends at GrantTree: the kids’ view on how to get grants and R&D tax credits. GrantTree work with start-ups, tech, green tech, and the new Patent Box. Watch it to see the forty-thousand-pound boogie!
Oliver Jeffers: creative inspiration and fun
by Madelyn, January 18th 2013Check out this short video on children’s author and illustrator Oliver Jeffers to add a little bit of loveliness to your day!
Oliver Jeffers Author Film 2013 from Oliver Jeffers on Vimeo.
Nipper the dog: HMV’s enduring brand asset
by Madelyn, January 17th 2013The UK high street chains HMV, Jessops and Blockbuster have not had a very rosy start to 2013: they have all gone into administration. Interesting that the decline of all three businesses is due to the takeover of digital, from imagery to music and video downloading and streaming. A stark reminder to all of us that even if we are not innovating daily, we do need to at least keep up with the times.
This interesting article from Bloomberg says that HMV’s Nipper the Dog trademark is its most valuable asset. When all the CD and DVD cellophane wrappers have stopped rustling, what is left is the brand. Nipper is still listening out for “His Master’s Voice” – and my bet is that he will survive. The takeaway? Invest in your brand!
A website for a dynamic growth company – re-inventing financial services
by Christoph, January 15th 2013
Anthemis advise, transform and invest in businesses that are building better ways to design, produce, consume and distribute financial services in the Information Economy. Anthemis is a dynamic growth company focused on re-inventing financial services through technology for the 21st century. Grain teamed up with the film production company Motherlode and designed the Anthemis website to openly communicate the uniqueness of the organisation. An interconnected menu illustrates the openness of the organisation by showing each team member’s involvement with their different projects.
At a time when all sorts of financial service companies are struggling to be seen in a positive light, Anthemis is catalysing and accelerating positive, disruptive change across the financial industry – from start-ups and venture capital firms to corporates, established financial institutions and private equity firms. Like the client themselves, the website not only looks good but also performs wonderfully by drawing in visitors quickly.
Qualcomm keynote speech at CES
by Madelyn, January 11th 2013CES is the massive Consumer Electronic Show held in Las Vegas every year. Past CES debuts include the VCR, camcorder, CD player, plasma TV, Blu-Ray DVD…you get the gist. For the past 12 years, Microsoft has been delivering the keynote. This year was different: it was the CEO of Qualcomm, Paul Jacobs, who took the stage to talk about ‘Gen M’: the mobile generation.
You can find Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor in smartphones, tablets and even smart TVs.
Why are we so excited about Qualcomm? Because we are doing a few fun and as-yet top-secret projects for them! We shall keep you posted.
Grain Creative – 2012 Design Highlights
by Madelyn, January 4th 2013Amidst the excitement of hitting the ground running in 2013, we are taking a quick look back at our highlights of 2012. Just click on the image below to download a PDF showing some of our naming, luxury branding, packaging, identity and digital projects.
Recently we have been talking about what makes us different and why our clients like working with us. Here are our thoughts in three short lines:
Every client is a big fish for us.
We believe that the last 10% really counts.
We go beyond pretty pictures.
Let us know what you think!
Design for a changing urban environment
by Christoph, December 21st 2012
Maybe I am not up-to-date with urban developments but this is a first for me. I have seen many multi-storey car parks and one looks just as sad as the next one. But this is positive urban sprawl. London has so many cyclists nowadays that they need – multi-storey bike parks. I love it. I am proud of us cycling Londoners. If you want to start a pilgrimage to this feat of urban street furniture then go to the south end of Euston station just by the main bus stop area.
A new bank has arrived in New York
by Christoph, December 18th 2012
Together with our friends at Spring Bank community bank we have developed the identity for the newly named bank. We developed their website, the stationery, the branch interior and the branch signage. Above you see the branch in the Bronx, New York with its new cloths being fitted. The all new Harlem branch is following swiftly.
Most banks have a long way to go to instigate change from the olden days. Spring Bank is different from the start. It is Grain’s pleasure to contribute to making sure that everybody knows about this bank being different. Both the branches and the website reflect the uniqueness of Spring Bank with visually stunning concepts that are simple and welcoming, at the same time functional and convincing.