It’s been an exciting and busy start to 2012. With so much going on at DesignStudio, it’s nice to have a moment to reflect on the finer things.
Back in October, we created this short film for the launch of the Nokia Lumia 800 at Nokia World.
It’s a fast-moving industry we work in and with a growing number of corporate projects and boutique commissions, we need even more dexterous hands on deck…
This short film documents Helsinki-based photographer Vilhelm Sjöström and his team travelling to the heart of the Finnish countryside to create a spectacular 360-degree panorama using the Nokia N9 and its 8MP Carl Zeiss lens.
A couple of months ago, we produced a pop-up exhibition to showcase Nokia’s new brand photography recently shot by Jane Stockdale.
Yesterday, DesignStudio were host to 13 international students from the ‘Designers London’ course, part of Central Saint Martin’s summer programme. The aim of the course is to give creative practitioners a taste of the design vibrancy of London and encourage them to develop careers within the industry.
We’ve been fortunate enough to collaborate with some great illustrators on projects recently, and our recent work on Nokia’s Tone of Voice guidelines has been no exception. Kate Moross, Supermundane, Adam Hayes and Deanne Cheuk have all been involved with bringing to life some of the ’10½ beliefs and techniques for writing for Nokia’.
Back in March we produced an exhibition for the launch of Nokia’s new typeface Nokia Pure, at the Tramshed, Shoreditch. Since then we have installed condensed versions of it at Nokia’s Soho office and at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Here, we take a look at the hard work that went into them all.
We’re in the process of shooting some of our work, so we thought we’d give you a quick preview, starting with one of our projects from the archives…
Back in June 2009 we designed the fourth issue of fashion and photography magazine Centrefold, working alongside photographers from Webber Represents, photographer and editor Andrew G. Hobbs and guest editor Georgina Hodson. The work of the 7 selected photographers — including Alexandra Catiere, Alan Clarke, Esther Teichmann, Thomas Brown and Tim Simmons — was combined with design by us, print production by G&B Printers and paper supplied by GF Smith.
DesignStudio were recently asked to produce Nokia’s Sustainability Report for 2010, where we commissioned Spanish illustrators Hey Studio to bring the document to life. In keeping with Nokia’s approach to sustainability, the entire document was produced for viewing online.
We were briefed by Richard Crabb, Head of Art Direction at Nokia, to produce a photographic workshop he could use as a creative forum for agency creative directors to discuss and evolve brand identity with Nokia.
It’s an exciting time this week for all things Nokia as they launch their new smartphone, the N9.
There’s already been a wave of positive feedback on blogs and social networking sites, some people touting it as the first real rival to the iPhone from the Finnish giants. It seems the design of the user interface (UI) has won a lot of praise. Featuring no physical buttons on the face of the device, the screen truly takes over, allowing users to be completely immersed in the new Nokia interface.
We worked with renowned typographers Dalton Maag in the run-up to the release of Nokia’s new typeface, Nokia Pure. Taking inspiration from their sketches and working files, we created this film, which was first screened at the Nokia Pure Exhibition in March this year.
We are really excited to announce that our £2 coin design for The Royal Mint has been nominated for a D&AD Yellow Pencil. The awards show is tonight, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed — we’ll let you know what happens…
Late last year we had the pleasure of visiting The Royal Mint in Llantrisant, Wales, to see the coin we designed in production. Our tour of the site gave real insight into the craft and precision of a process which has been refined over hundreds of years.
Full movie coming soon…
Nokia is going through a huge transformation in order to reclaim its position as a leadership brand once again. The most visable touchpoint for the brand is its typography so Nokia commissioned typography experts DaltonMaag to create a new typeface to portray a strong minimal identity referencing the brands’ Finnish design led heritage.
As brand guardians, DesignStudio were challenged with the task of launching the new font Nokia Pure to a creative audience. Our challenge was to create a ‘wow’ factor event that had credibility, as it was an event for our peers within the design community.
A film documenting the launch of the typeface Nokia Pure.
We decided we wanted to keep you more up to date with all the latest news about our projects and what’s going on in our studio. We’ve uploaded a few recent bits of work to get you started, and will be regularly updating the blog with new stuff, so keep your eyes peeled.