Graphic Design Services - London, UK

In times of doom and gloom - revitalising your services and sales could be vital to survival

In these times of projected economic hardship - the initial instinct of many businesses is to batton down the hatches and try to ride out the storm. At the same time, we know that people become more particular in what they need in terms of services and products, and being able to differentiate yourself from the competition is vital in order to make sure that you survive in the increasingly difficult market conditions, which is why we are going to be seeing many large brands relaunching/ rebranding themselves in the coming months. 

Proof from the Design Council that businesses that utilise design do better than those that do no, based upon the Value of Design Factfinder which shows the positive impact of design on practically every measure of business performance in terms of market share, growth, productivity, share price and competitiveness. Here is a brief list of some of their finding - 

• Two thirds of companies who ignore design have to compete mainly on price. In companies where design is integral, just one third do so.
• More than eight out of ten design-led companies have introduced a new product or service in the last three years, compared to just 40 per cent of UK companies overall. 83% of companies in which design is integral have seen their market share increase, compared to the UK average of 46%.
• Design is integral to 39% of rapidly growing companies but to only 7% of static ones.
• 80 per cent of design-led businesses have opened up new markets in the last three years. Only 42% of UK businesses overall have done so.
• A business that increases its investment in design is more than twice as likely to see its turnover grow as a business that does not do so.
  

The trial rebranding of Pizza Hut - now known sometimes as Pasta Hut, has been underway for little under a month, replacing its pizza-focused menu with a menu consisting mainly of pasta dishes.

As far as rebrands go, this seems to be a subtle change building upon the familiar rather than a new image or focus.The look remains almost identical, with the graphic elements, font type, size and even the overall shape of the brand name remaining the same (you notice that both Pizza and Pasta begin with P, and are 5 letters long, maintaining consistency in image even with the change).

My own guess is that it is a ploy to push the line-up of Pasta they have on offer, and then revert back to the tried and tested (and catchier) Pizza Hut once they have got the news out there and achieved their objective.

 BACKGROUND

The re-branding is part of an £18 million revamp package designed to attract new customers and move it into more upmarket terrain - competing I would imagine with the likes of Pizza Express (though, personally, changing the name is not going to help them much if the product stays the same)

As part of the revamp, the chain has been temporarily re-naming 30 of its branches Pasta Hut.

Pizza Hut (Pasta Hut?) boss Alasdair Murdoch has said that "We're trying to say to people: 'Yes, we're great at pizzas, but we're also great at salads and pasta.' "

Continuing our series demonstrating innovate uses of graphic design services - in this case the infamous exploding billboard. Used by a courier firm in a marketing campaign that supposedly only cost them $20000 NZ dollars, and yet attracted a million viewers to the youtube recording of the event when it eventually took place.

The concept is of course that deadlines matter, and the consequences of missing the appointed time can be drastic. The exploding billboard was used to reinforce the brand promise of the firm Deadline Couriers - "when we give you a time we mean it".

The campaign, run in 2007, has since received several Asia Pacific awards including a Gold at the Spike Awards and Best in Show titles at New Zealand's Axis award

Information design is one of the branches of graphic design, defined as "the art and science of preparing information so that it can be used by human beings with efficiency and effectiveness".

In other words, simply making sure that the information to be displayed is designed in such a way that it is easily accesible and digestable to the intended audience.

Further very practical usage of creative graphic design services

Exhibit 3 - Can you get a more functional business card?