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Project #1 — Another Country
Another Country is a new, contemporary craft furniture company whose brand values are sustainability, efficiency, utility and function – the furniture being made in a way that: limits waste of both material and time; is versatile and easy to transport; and is built to last both in terms of construction and design. All of the furniture is handmade in a workshop in Dorset from solid wood (oak, ash) and the primary focus for the company is its e-commerce platform.
Bravo Charlie Mike Hotel were commissioned to create Another Country’s identity and collateral, including the design and development of the e-commerce website. The logotype and brand typography uses a monospace font, Prestige Elite, to underline the values of efficiency, utility and function while the ‘ac’ ligature emblem was designed as an expression of craft, appearing to have been carved or hand-tooled.
The print collateral was designed with consideration to efficiency in mind – not just in terms of minimizing waste in production but also in design so that items such as business cards can be of generic use, rubber stamped or written by the company’s employees. All material was printed on 100% recycled board to match Another Country’s sustainability credentials but also to provide an aesthetic and tactile quality inferring the utilitarian aspects of the brand. The website has been built primarily to facilitate e-commerce but also to provide room for some of the story behind Another Country. We are currently working on some added functionality for the site including a really great full-bleed zoom feature to coincide with the launch of the new site with multiple stores.
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Project #2 — Them There
Last year Bravo Charlie Mike Hotel were approached by one of our long-standing clients to create an identity for a collective of small creative companies and freelancers that are based in and around East London. The idea was for the group to be made up of companies that are from different backgrounds or disciplines – graphic designers, architects, industrial designers, interior designers, etc. The group get together once a month to learn about each others’ businesses and benefit from the pooled knowledge and skills in the belief that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts so, by being part of Them There, we feel that makes our individual and collective offerings more interesting to the people we work for.
We came up with the name for the group which we felt had a nice visual quality to it and designed a simple typographic identity. This was then supported with imagery of hand-gestures from Bruno Munari’s ‘Supplement to the Italian Dictionary’ re-enacted by group members. This came about as a result of a nice coincidence when we found that the gesture used to ‘call friends together’ was effectively a ‘T’ and so we used it for the invitation to publicise our first public event held at the Kvadrat showrooms just over a year ago.
We design all of the print and promotional collateral for various shows and events that the group takes part in or initiates, and have developed a simple CMS site that can be administrated by all members of the group in order to update it regularly with each practice’s recent activity and any joint efforts by the group as a whole.
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Project #3 — Brompton
Not the folding bicycles. Brompton is a district situated in west London, stretching from Harrods in Knightsbridge to the cultural centre of South Kensington. Together with institutions such as the V&A and the Royal College of Art, the area has long been known for its contribution to art, design and education. Today this is reflected in the mix of the museum culture, design shops, fashion and food that create a vibrant mix of contemporary and traditional local amenities.
South Kensington Estates took ownership of the Brompton property portfolio and has been working with local stakeholders to develop plans to enhance the area. As part of this renewal or reinvention Bravo Charlie Mike Hotel were commissioned to deliver the brand identity and art-direction for Brompton.
The mark is a reinterpretation of the wreath and tyre reliefs that are a key feature of Brompton’s signature building, Empire House. The logotype and display typography uses a modern sans-serif, Neutraface2, in order to reflect the contemporary outlook of Brompton. This is tempered by the use of a serif font, Publico to reinforce the client’s desire to acknowledge the design and architectural heritage of the area. A simple approach to the way in which the brand typography is styled was developed as a means of creating hierarchy and idiosyncrasy to the brand’s vocabulary.
As this project has only just been completed in November of last year, to date we have delivered all of the brand particulars including marks, pictograms, maps and goad plans of the area and a comprehensive style-guide detailing use of the various design assets. We also provided design direction for the website which was built by a third party (best viewed in Firefox).
We are now beginning to implement the identity across various platforms for which its use was intended. We have completed the marketing materials for 235 Brompton Road, an original Victorian shop unit dating back to 1886 when its ornate frontage and interior cabinets were installed, and are putting the finishing touches to the first window displays and hoardings that will be installed over the coming months.
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Project #3 — RCA Secret
Bravo Charlie Mike Hotel recently completed the campaign identity and marketing for RCA Secret, a unique annual exhibition and sale of around 2,800 original postcard-sized artworks, made and donated by professional artists, designers, illustrators, and RCA students.
Launched at the end of last year, the postcards were displayed anonymously and signed on the reverse, so that the artist remained a secret until after the cards had been purchased and their signature revealed. Over 1,000 artists donated work to RCA Secret 2010, including Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry, Yoko Ono, Jake Chapman, Olafur Eliasson, Yinka Shonibare, Sir Peter Blake, John Baldessari, fashion designers Manolo Blahnik, Mary Quant and Sir Paul Smith, animator Nick Park, photographer David Bailey, film maker Mike Leigh and designers Ron Arad and James Dyson.
Having developed a visual language for RCA Secret over the last 6 years, this year’s campaign continued to explore the theme of masking the individual’s identity in a bold and creative way.
Established by Ben Chatfield and Mark Hopkins straight after graduating from The Royal College of Art in 2004, Bravo Charlie Mike Hotel (or BCMH for short) is a London-based graphic design and branding consultancy whose work employs traditional design principles and craft whilst embracing current and future technologies to realise challenging work in appropriate mediums.
I’ve a been a fan of these gents for a while now (you can see some examples of their old work in the archives here) and after a year of waiting it looks like we’re finally going to see a brand new site complete with an updated portfolio. Whilst the latter is still “coming very soon” at this point, I obviously couldn’t bear the wait and as result I’ve managed to procure an exclusive selection of brand new work (in high-res, naturally) which all comes courtesy of the generous Mr. Chatfield. Enjoy.
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This post is tagged Bravo Charlie Mike Hotel, Collateral, Communications, Identity, Online, Packaging, Print
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