Archives "November 2011"

As we know, a brand logo is a symbolic or graphical representation of a company, product or service. Typically, it includes the company name and other visual elements. Together with other brand components, it represents the aspirations and expectations associated with that company, product or service.

From the beginning of the oil boom in the late 1960s, companies sought to establish their brand identities within the region. As demand for bilingual materials emerged, specifically in Arabic and English, Lebanon was amongst the first to develop this style of branding, as at the time, it was the bridge between the Western and Arab worlds. But after war broke out in Lebanon in 1975, most multinational companies moved away, and the United Arab Emirates, especially Dubai, with a government policy requiring international brands to appear in English and Arabic, replaced Beirut as the commercial and creative centre of the Middle East. Most media and advertising agencies now have their head offices in Dubai as seen mostly in Dubai Media City.

For those of us living and working in Dubai, it’s apparent that Arabic typography has become a key element in graphic design in this region, and its integration and cross-hybridisation with Latin (English) typography has been more crucial than ever. Just driving down Sheikh Zayed Road, it’s not hard to miss seeing a variation of styles across billboards, signage, and brand identities across the Emirates. Having said that, bilingual and/or multicultural thinking has to be taken into strong consideration right from the start and at the conceptualisation phase of every design project.

The challenges brought about when developing bilingual identities is that the Arab world itself, despite sharing some strong cultural heritage, is still geographically very large, with different sub-cultures, different graphic taste, and very different contemporary design approaches. What may work in Dubai for instance may not be culturally accepted in Saudi Arabia. Even simply trying to define the ‘Arabic’ portion in the design really depends on the target group.

A client might request a style that is considered ‘Traditional’ or ‘Classic’ and more evidently in the 21st century, more ‘Modern’. With this added modernity, new Arabic typefaces have been emerging and enjoying an up-to-date look with high technical quality and without forfeiting a strong link to traditional culture. As designers from all over the world are now working with both Latin and Arabic typography, there is a rising demand for letterforms that have an inherent visual harmony.

Taking a closer look at some of these typographic styles, it’s interesting to see how the use of English and Arabic can work together to yield a successful result. The Burj Al Arab identity, for instance, holds true to the use of traditional Arabic calligraphy, intricately designed to mimic the sail-shaped icon, and complemented with a lightweight serif English typeface. This fusion of tradition and modern helps solidify the symbolic statement for Dubai’s urban transformation, and has become one of the most recognised luxury hotels in the world. Other similar identities that follow suit are the likes of Dubai Bank, and real-estate giants Nakheel and Tameer, who have recently undergone a face lift to yield a fresher-looking identity. On the other end of the typographic spectrum, if you’ve ever wondered what international brands and packaging look like in the Arab world, particularly in the FMCG market, then take a look at some of these fascinating identities that demonstrate a harmonious approach to English typography and its Arabic counterparts. The ones that are really faithful interpretations, highlighting what it is about the logo and packaging that identifies the brand are the likes of Fanta, Marks & Spencer, Subway and Pizza Hut.

But by far, the 7up, Tide, and Mountain Dew packaging have been one of the most admired in the FMCG market, as the Arabic lettering is executed so closely to the original that at a glance you could miss the fact that it’s in Arabic.

Also, Fedex is so cleverly done that the Arabic version has managed to retain the iconic arrow within the letter shapes and still manages to be easily legible and instantly recognised. Identifying a world-famous franchised shopping centre, the logo for Spinney’s is one of the earliest known English-to-Arabic logotype conversions in the UAE. Without a pre-existing visual reference to build upon, the design was considered a pioneering.

Shopping, food, family visitors, traveling, office parties and fruitcake? Yep, it’s that time of year. The holidays. With all the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving and Christmas it’s hard to stay focused on the work piling up at your office.

Although the holidays are fun, they are typically the most stressful time of year for getting work done. Client deadlines and goals need to be completed, year-end reports filled out and planning periods for the next year need to developed.

Here are a few tips on how to help your co-workers and employees stay focused on their work:

Have a game plan for the end of the year: Before the holiday craziness begins, develop and set goals for the months of November and December. This will help establish a clear path to what should be accomplished before the end of the year, and help employees stay on track.

Allow for flexible working hours: Weekends and evenings are a nightmare at the mall and grocery store. Help your employee out by giving them an alternative to the mall headaches. Allow your employees to come in earlier than normal working hours or to work from home in order for them to accomplish the to-dos on their personal list. This will also help drive down online shopping during work hours.

Don’t add more stress by throwing elaborate office parties: Throwing an elaborate office party can actually increase stress, as it adds to employees task list. Suggest going out for lunch at a nice restaurant and keep any gifts given very simple and inexpensive. And remember, the intern has a different budget than the CEO.

Provide Incentives: Around the holidays a little motivation goes a long way. Provide an extra vacation day or a gift certificate to those who successfully accomplish their year-end goals. This will make your employees feel appreciated around a challenging time of year.

My first BBN Academy, and what an incredible experience! In his closing remarks Rob Morrice claimed it was “the best BBN event ever”, which I totally believe but I am also sure that Richard Brelet and Polly Draganova will have accepted this as a challenge to create something bigger and better next year.

The true essence of BBN’s international network was highlighted as members from the US, Canada, UK, Finland, Sweden, Germany, France, Dubai and Hong Kong gathered at the fabulous La Finca El Bosque in Madrid. In the beautiful surroundings of the Spanish countryside, our hosts made sure that we got a cultural experience to savour, from the fantastic food and wine to the excellent tapas and flamenco evening that brought the Academy to a close.

There was a lot of eating, and perhaps on occasion a slight over-indulgence in wine, which fuelled two intense days of learning about the BBN toolkit – BAM, TECS and the Big Long Idea – delivered by some of the best minds in the network. World leading processes that undoubtedly position BBN and its member companies as global leaders in B2B marketing communications, we were also lucky enough to have Rick Stoner from Bader Rutter share some extremely interesting insight into social media strategy, a taster of Gordon Brown’s Brain Juice creativity training, a demonstration of a really neat digital sales app developed by Dennis Elfstrom of A plus M and a master class in pitching to win from Ian Ord.

While all this was going on, we also found some time to get to work on the development of BBN’s PR offering…so watch this space!

I was sad to leave La Finca El Bosque, but I have come home completely inspired and truly motivated. I’ve made some fantastic friends and even learned a little bit of flamenco for myself! It was an absolute privilege to be part of it all – here’s to BBN Academy 2012!

I was right… I was not disappointed… The first day of the Academy has been brilliant! The venue, the content and the presenters have all been superb. The only downside is not really having enough time on each session. Split into groups of about 10, we all spent a whirlwind 2 hours in each strategy process, Digital contact strategies, Brand Asset Management and Creative (The Big Long Idea).

Having completed the 3 sessions, we then went hill walking for an hour to clear the head before another 2 hour session on Social Media. Dennis from A + M also presented a rather clever digital presentation App for tablets they had taken over a year developing – we gotta get us one of those!

We finished the day with a glass of wine in the library and dinner in true Chateauform style – lots of it! A little on the venue… The concept is brilliant… It’s a home from home, you can wander anywhere you like with an open door policy, even the kitchen. They have a huge wine cellar that you can go into and just help yourself to any wine you like. There is food literally everywhere you turn and there are 5 meals served every day… You can never go hungry! The chef serves you lunch almost directly from the cooking point in his own kitchen and if there’ s something you don’t like, no problem, he’ll cook you something else… Okay well I think I’ve spoken more about the venue and food than the Academy, so I better stop there!

Now looking forward to another day where we get to use what we’ve learnt by taking part in a mock brief for a real client and putting everything into practice. Ian Ord and Gordan Brown will also present Pitch to Win and Brain Juice before we get started.

Wow…how excited am I! On my way to Madrid… First time visiting Spain and more importantly my first BBN Academy. Expectations are high and I’m absolutely certain I won’t be disappointed. Richard and Polly have done us proud with the planning and organising and the venue looks stunning. Having had bits drip fed to me on BAM and BOSS, I’m now really looking forward to getting a more in-depth understanding of these fundamental processes from the very clever folk that created them… 

I consider myself very fortunate to not only have been invited to attend the Academy this year, but to have the opportunity to meet and network with fellow BBNers, putting faces to names can never be underestimated and it really helps strengthen the relationships and collaborations within the network.

So, as I sit back and relax on my Emirates flight EK 141, staring in awe at the cumulus fluffiness, I look forward to two days that promise to be the most memorable of my time at Fifth Ring and vow to be wisdom’s apprentice…

Fifth Ring is looking for a talented and creative public relations administrative assistant with the right blend of skills, passion, enthusiasm and initiative.

In return, this is a brilliant opportunity to learn from and support talented colleagues and clients, experience integrated international communications first hand and to progress quickly within a leading global agency.

Key Responsibilities

• Team administrative support including: media cuttings and evaluation and preparation of meeting materials and contact reports; preparation of forward features planners 
• Deal with clients and the international media on a day-to-day basis 
• Writing media materials such as press releases and other documents such as award briefs 
• Working with team members to generate and implement creative ideas
• Prioritise personal workload, effective time management

Key Skills

• Enthusiastic, proactive, self-motivated 
• Passionate about B2B communications and the energy industry 
• Keen interest in the news agenda 
• Fast, accurate writing and editing skills and a keen eye for detail 
• Fantastic interpersonal and communications skills
• General understanding of the energy industry

Job Specifications:

Contract type: Permanent

Location: Aberdeen

Division: Public relations

Reporting to: Head of PR

Approximate Start date: Jan 2012

Job Ref. No: FR-PR-A-07-11-11

In the first instance please contact:

Cal Jackson, Group HR Manager
 01625 578524
cal@fifthring.com

When your company wins an award, you want to shout it from the rooftops! But how can you do this without coming across as bragging?

Fifth Ring Houston was recently ranked the 10^th largest PR firm in the Houston metro area by the Houston Business Journal.

We did everything you would expect us to do…We sent an internal email to staff. We wrote a post about it on this very blog. We tweeted it.

One thing we’ve learned is none of this “bragging” does any good for business, if we can’t leverage the win with the audience that potentially matters the most—sales targets.

So, Fifth Ring has gathered tips on how to leverage business success without bragging and focusing on the appropriate audience to share the good news.

• Bragging should be subtle: It should work its way into social and business interactions so seamlessly that the people you are bragging to won’t know you’re bragging.
• Profile a person involved: Sometimes talking about your accomplishments directly comes across as “look at me,” however if you profile the people who worked on the product/project of your award then it adds a third party value.
• Create a list related to your accomplishment: There is something about brevity in a bullet point that people just love. Examples: Ten Things We Learned on the Way to the Top, Ten Mistakes We Made Before We Hit It Big and Ten Things We Do Every Day to Keep Growing.
• Know your audience: Is the audience you’re targeting really the audience that will understand your accomplishment? Depending on your audience you may want to tailor your messaging to be more general or specific.
• Consider culture: Different cultures have different perceptions on bragging. Be sensitive to the culture of the people you are interacting. For example, Americans are brought up to be individualistic and to talk openly of their accomplishments. People in other countries are brought up to be very modest and think it is tacky to talk about their accomplishments publicly.
• Show you are happy! You can still share your great news and show your excitement. However, we caution you to avoid too many “!!!!” and “BOLD LETTERS,” you still want to look credible and professional.

Tactics for environmental responsibility in printing practices.

Calls for the print industry to ‘go green’ first surfaced in the 1980’s and the initial steps were for many paper companies to begin manufacturing and supplying products with recycled content. The industry depends heavily on energy, water and other natural resources, and it was not long before widespread activities, from more basic initiatives such as desk-side recycling through to more complex decisions about manufacturing techniques were being examined.

It is apparent that the industry has commonly accepted its responsibilities, but practices do still differ, indeed how the industry (and wider society) operates here in the Middle East is far different and less regulated that of those in the West.

I’ve often heard people chastise the print medium. ‘Save the forests’ is an often-heard battle cry, and on many occasions (as far back as the 1980’s) have been told that the print industry will cease and that everything will ‘go digital’. Logically this is not going to happen, and yes whilst more people may get their news online or through other mediums there will always be newspapers, books and magazines all of which form only a part of the wider printing industry. The print packaging market sector for example is booming, and as more consumers shop and move online this can only grow.

Just as most of us will still use cars, travel by air and certainly use electricity and water, all of which have environmental impact, we will also utilise print in a commonplace manner during our day-to-day lives.

We may haul old newspapers to local recycling centres and this is great, but conscious efforts to practice environmental responsibility are often about looking wider than just making such choices and a lot of it has to do with how things are actually produced, and for everyone including designers this is likely to mean keeping the environment in mind at all stages when actually planning a project.

For designers looking to make a conscious effort, things should be considered on a wider scale than just good paper choices. And if print is the chosen or required medium, then the following list outlines 7 ‘more green’ ways to incorporate environmental awareness into our work:

1. Preserve and conserve. The Recycled Products Cooperative estimates that over 100 million trees are cut each year to supply fibre for writing and printing papers in the United States alone. This is not only detrimental to forests, but to air quality and water reserves as well.

One way to preserve resources is to purchase recycled paper with high levels of post-consumer content. Using recycled paper saves landfill space and minimizes water and energy consumption. Check recycling symbols to see what percentage of recycled fibre was used during the manufacturing process.

2. Do it digitally. Digital printing can be more viable than traditional offset printing for economic reasons: Digital is ideal for short-run, full color work for business cards, stationery, promotional pieces, and most print work that is less than 1,000 sheets at standard format.

3. Consider alternative papers. A number of alternatives to traditional pulp based papers are now available, and there are a number of “tree-free” varieties, such as Denim Blues (100-percent reclaimed blue jean cotton), papers made from hemp and other materials. Synthetic papers are often ideal because of their environmental attributes and durability.

4. Educate your clients. Many companies today are concerned with environmental impact, particularly within the Energy sector within which we often operate. But not all clients are familiar with “green” design and printing processes. You may find that you need to act as an ecofriendly project advisor.

5. Offset cost with creativity. Some environmentally friendly products may be more expensive. It’s important, however, not to view pricing issues as constraints. Instead, think creatively to help balance benefits with costs.

Combining projects whenever possible is wise; one idea could be for example to print business cards and other literature from the same recycled paper and at the same time.

Conserve ink use by determining whether print projects need to be full color. Could a two-color design suffice instead? Go ‘glueless’. Items can often be designed in a way in which they fold or form to avoid glues.

In the long run your clients may save money, and they’ll also be honoring the environment.

6. Know industry standards. In the public sector there are increasingly mandates, which say they must use uncoated printing and writing papers containing at least 30% recycled content. Coated and commodity papers must contain a minimum of 10%. Consider using these guidelines when selecting paper for your projects, too.

Become familiar with other industry-issued standards. Important stamps of approval include the emblems of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). If you’ve done it, flaunt it, but for these symbols to appear on products, they must meet specific standards determined by the International Standards Organization (ISO).

7. Evaluate projects individually. The first priority in design is to create an appealing, functional piece of work. But we should also consider options that will leave behind less waste.

If a client won’t switch to paper with a higher percentage of post-consumer recycled content, try finding a way to reduce the number of pages used instead. You might also recommend different paper types for different sections. For example, some publications use high-quality coated paper for ads and uncoated paper with higher postconsumer content for editorial sections.