The shortlist for the 2015 DBA Design Effectiveness Awards has just been released. We are absolutely delighted to have been shortlisted for another three awards this year.

Although as usual we now have to wait until the awards ceremony in February to find out whether we have won Gold, Silver or Bronze, we are extremely happy to know we will definitely have to expand our awards cabinet.

The work from WPA Pinfold which has made the coveted shortlist includes: our packaging range for Daniel Thwaites’ Crafty Dan bottled beer range; the brand identity for Fairtrader (a fair trading cooperative); and our communications work on RWE npower’s internal recognition scheme.

View the 2015 Design Effectiveness Shortlist here.

We are delighted to announce that one of our packaging designs has been recognised by Mobius, and awarded a certificate for outstanding creativity.

The Mobius Awards were first established in 1971 and have been celebrating excellent designs from around the globe ever since. The awards recognise the effectiveness and creativity of work by professionals in the advertising and marketing field. It’s fantastic that our designs are being recognised on an international scale and we are very happy to be adding another Mobius Award to our ever-growing collection. We’ve won over 24 design awards in the last 12 months and hope to add to our awards throughout 2016.

Take a look at some of our latest work here.

Rebecca Scott specialises in classic, handcrafted English furniture, with a contemporary twist. We have recently rebranded Rebecca Scott to redefine their positioning, and appeal to the world’s leading architects and designers.

The new Rebecca Scott identity conveys its unique style and personality, and reflects who they are and what makes them distinctive: classic English craftsmanship with a twist.

The refreshed brand was launched at the prestigious Decorex International Show which is synonymous with luxury products. The feedback so far has been fantastic.

Take a look at the full case study here.

We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded another three Design Effectiveness Awards, including a GOLD, a silver and a bronze, continuing our winning streak with five gold awards over five years!

At the ceremony held at London’s Tobacco Dock on February 11th, we added to our expanding collection of awards with a Gold for The Beer Studio, a Silver for The Yorkshire Post (part of Johnston Press), and a Bronze for The Fitness Studio, bringing our grand total to 14 Design Effectiveness Awards.

GOLD: We created a brand identity for The Beer Studio, a specialist brewing arm of Hydes Brewery. The innovative and edgy portfolio of beers is in marked contrast to Hydes’ more traditional ale, positioning the beers for a younger, more urban market, and resulting in a 24% year on year increase in sales.

SILVER: We rebranded and repositioned The Yorkshire Post to widen its market appeal and combat a change in consumer habits. Following the rebrand, The Yorkshire Post saw online visits increase by 44%.

BRONZE: Our brand identity for Fitness Garage has received outstanding feedback since launch and has given Fitness Garage the lift they required as a small new business. Fitness Garage reported a 163% increase in membership and won “Newcomer of the Year” at the National Fitness Awards.

Continuing our success from last year, we are delighted to announce that we have been awarded with two more Good Design Awards from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, celebrating the most innovative and cutting-edge designs from around the world.

We have been recognised for our unique brochure design for National Grid’s Chairman’s Awards and for the redesign of the Green’s gluten free beer range — redefining their position in the Free From and speciality beer category.

Our winning work will be featured in the Good Design Annual and added to the museum’s permanent design collection in Chicago, joining our winning designs from last year.

With great emphasis on quality design of the highest form, we take great pleasure in adding to our collection of Good Design Awards.

We are proud to announce our latest work for T&R Theakston; the rebranding of the legendary Theakston Old Peculier. We have worked with the North Yorkshire brewery since 2004 and have helped reposition its brand and ensure it is fit for market. The redesign has built on the equity and values of Old Peculier with the aim of premiumising the brand and increasing it’s on shelf visibility. This is an iconic beer that deserves a unique positioning.

The design draws inspiration from the official seal of the Peculiar of Masham, who oversaw the diocese on behalf of the church, back in the middle ages. The label uses conventional label printing processes to achieve the dimensional gold effect and required exceptional artwork and repro input.

“The re-designed label underpins the status of our most important asset, Old Peculier, as one of the country’s most popular and instantly recognised premium bottled ales.”
Executive Director, T&R Theakston

Our packaging designs for Green’s gluten free beers have been awarded a HOW International award.

Green’s is one of the world’s leading producers of gluten free beers and the coeliac market is currently one of the fastest growing sectors. In order to capitalise on this market growth and also to future proof the Green’s brand, we completely redesigned the brand and its packaged range of beers. The rebrand creates a unique positioning for Green’s, making Green’s a beer of choice, not a beer of necessity, for both coeliacs and mainstream beer drinkers.

We’ve won seven HOW awards to date, and take great pleasure in our designs being recognised internationally.

The new Green’s designs will feature in the next HOW annual, showcasing outstanding design from all over the globe.

November 26th marks the day that Ex Libris was first opened as Holbeck Library back in 1903.

Our studio is a classic example of the late Victorian Art Nouveau style with gothic elements — a Burmantofts terracotta masterpiece designed by William Bakewell. This classic, grade II listed building is the perfect setting for our contemporary post modern studio with its raw materials and open plan format.

Sadly, the public library was closed well before we arrived and the building had been converted to a pub before we took it on – the owner had disappeared one mysterious night…

We have transformed the once public library into a modern studio space, equipped with a fully fitted kitchen, break out areas and a refectory, giving our team of over 25 designers and strategists the perfect environment to serve our global clients.

The care sharing app we designed and developed for Cura, has won an award at the 2015 Fresh Awards.

When we were first approached by Cura, it was really nothing more than an idea, the concept of an online community hub for a group of people who have one thing in common: they all look after the same person, whether a family member or friend, or because they are involved in a volunteering scheme. The hub was intended to act as a way of communicating between the group to make it easier for them all to work together.

The Fresh Creative Awards are based around great ideas, fresh thinking and a platform to showcase only truly innovative ideas, which is exactly what our app for Cura encompasses!

Find out more about Cura here.

We’re very happy to announce a fantastic award win for our client, Arriva, who have won in two categories with ‘The Village’ at the 2015 Engagement Excellence Awards.

The Village is a rewards online hub for Arriva employees. It’s a one stop shop for all their available benefits, which vary from savings on the weekly shop to childcare vouchers.

We created the identity for The Village and the visual theme of a high street to give a retail style feel to the site. Each benefit was given its own place on the street, for example: the village nursery, the bike shop (cycle to work scheme) etc.

This virtual community has created a close-knit atmosphere, and has welcomed all of Arriva’s employees from the various operating companies. The Village has gone from strength to strength – in its first eight months, engagement is now up to 26%, based on 3,600 members. Together Arriva employees have saved over £100,000 since launch.

The Village triumphed as a winner in two categories: Most Creative Communications for Larger Organisations and Best Branding.

Our Creative Director, Richard Hurst says “Winning awards such as these are a real celebration of using creativity to drive engagement. We couldn’t be happier for Arriva; here’s to the next award.” 

Both our design and our digital expertise have been recognised by the Fresh Awards, as we have shortlisted in two categories this year.

In the digital category, our work for Cura has been shortlisted under the public sector sub-category. Developed from the ground up, the primary function of the Cura app is task assignment and delegation between members of a care community as well as a private messaging service. In addition to the app we also developed a web platform and the two platforms work in tandem with data synced across both.

The Chairman’s Awards Brochure we designed for National Grid has been selected as a finalist in the Design category. Pop-up and die-cut pages, UV spot varnish and a unique 6-page die-cut wrap around cover make this brochure unique – and this brochure has gone on to win a whole host of awards; here’s hoping for a Fresh award to add to the list.

The award ceremony is being help on October 9th where we’ll find out what we’ve won. We’ll keep you posted…

On Wednesday’s award ceremony, we proudly came away with another award to add to our plentiful collection of silverware!

At the Brand Impact Awards, organised by the renowned Computer Arts, Crafty Dan was the overall winner in the Wine, Beer and Spirits category – competing against the likes of Bacardi and Aspall.

This is the 6th award Crafty Dan has won; each one we receive further reinforcing our overarching ethos of effective design.

If you haven’t yet read about our Crafty Dan brand design, take a look at the full case study here. 

“For Thwaites to go back to its original brewing recipe roots, and then add some American flavour, was the right decision - making a brave move, by stepping out of its design comfort zone and investing in branding that defines a new future for the brewery, is paying dividends. It’s nice to be taking the Americans on at their own game and reclaiming our brewing heritage.”  Myles Pinfold, Founder and Director of Strategy and Planning, WPA Pinfold

We have won another HOW Promotion Design award (recognising outstanding creative work), this time for our Paperflake campaign which ran over Christmas 2014. We designed and developed an online snowflake generator, which enabled users to create intricate and distinctive snowflakes in a matter of seconds. All created ‘paperflakes’ were then displayed in an online snowstorm – you can still have a go here.

A hard copy mailer was also designed and produced, showcasing the compendium of snowflakes crafted by WPA employees.

Following the online campaign, selected snowflakes were printed onto acetate giving an authentic icy and Christmassy feel to our studio, and those who had created snowflakes were sent acetate prints of their design.

Our Paperflake is one of 84 winners, selected from over 1,000 entries judged by the HOW panel and will appear in the autumn issue of HOW magazine – or you can take a look at the full list of winners here. 

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, our brand packaging design for Thwaites’ Crafty Dan has been shortlisted for yet another award! This time for a Computer Arts Brand Impact Award, proving that effective branding makes all the difference.

Following the launch of Crafty Dan, Thwaites saw a 590% increase in average sales per beer, a 33% increase in off-trade profit and a 15% increase in keg profit.

Our Crafty Dan packaging has shortlisted in the Wine, Beer and Spirits category, with winners being announced on September 16th at the award ceremony, taking place at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London.

The Brand Impact Awards celebrate creative excellence and consistency across brand and design, and we’re very excited to be considered for an award.

We are thrilled to have been selected as a finalist for ‘Best Digital Employee Communication’ in the Digital Impact awards for our work with Hitachi.

Our project with Hitachi involved creating an interactive web app for Hitachi’s 330,000+ employees. Our goal was to enable and engage these employees to acknowledge and understand the Hitachi Group identity and vision, and for them to understand Hitachi’s Mid-Term Management Plan.

The take up of the new Hitachi Vision Book hub has been exceptional, resulting in a +1,733% increase in visitors in the first month of launch.

We are very much looking forward to the award ceremony in October, where we will find out if we have won Gold, Silver, Bronze, or Highly Commended.

View the full Hitachi case study here.

Every year National Grid produces a key external publication called Future Energy Scenarios (FES), which gives an insight into what the country’s energy future might look like out to 2050, based on four different scenarios. The scenarios are designed to help National Grid, government, consumers and other stakeholders make informed decisions about energy policy and infrastructure investment. The publication’s launch and promotion is supported by a comprehensive communications campaign.

We worked with National Grid to develop the identity and look and feel for FES 2015, creating a cohesive visual language to the overarching campaign. Event collateral, speaker presentation packs and branded merchandise promoted the 200-page reference document which was launched at the Institute of Civil Engineers in London earlier this year. We also designed and developed a microsite to accompany the event and brochure launch.

The document itself carries huge importance throughout the energy industry and is used by stakeholders (including the energy supply chain), politicians and journalists who refer to the information over the course of the year.

Take a look at the FES microsite here.

Green’s award winning gluten free beer has recently been relaunched with a total brand overhaul. Our repositioning takes the brand from a clinical and worthy look and feel to one that communicates quality, contemporary – and gluten free too.  Green’s is one of the world’s leading producers of gluten free beers, and the coeliac market is currently one of the fastest growing sectors. In order to capitalise on this market growth and also to future proof the Green’s brand, we have completely redesigned and premiumised the packaged range to help it compete in the highly competitive speciality beer market, and ensure it is fit for market.

There are eight different varieties in the range, and the beers are sold across Europe and the USA. The rebrand has created a unique positioning for Green’s, giving it fantastic standout, whilst also positioning it as a credible beer brand — making Green’s a beer of choice, not a beer of necessity, for both coeliacs and mainstream beer drinkers alike.

Left: Green’s Golden Ale before and after 

This week, Greg and Joe from our digital team attended the summer 2015 BBC Online briefing in Media City, Salford. This is the second BBC Online briefing we’ve been to, since being on their Digital Services Framework. As expected, it was a hugely insightful and beneficial day spent among other industry experts learning about the future of digital at the BBC.

Of particular interest the idea that in the future, the BBC is moving toward an internet-first entity, which isn’t surprising when you think about the 35 million unique browser visits to BBC sites every day. Also, a phenomenal 27.9 million UK mobile users access BBC services, which really hits home on the idea that your content needs to be mobile – this is how people are viewing your content, if it isn’t accessible, they will just find other content to view, digest and interact with…

On top of the motivating and intriguing talks, we were able to try out a virtual reality headset, where we were submerged into a Cirque Du Soleil environment – creepy but astonishing!

When Yorkshire Evening Post approached us to create the identity for their Food and Drink brand, as foodies we jumped at the chance. Our strategy was to visually link this wonderful county to the fantastic produce it grows and supplies: produce which makes up the vital ingredients in all kinds of delicious food and drink consumed all over the country. So much food is grown and harvested in Yorkshire, and really makes Yorkshire what it is today – and this beautiful partnership between locally grown produce and God’s own county is reflected in the new identity for Yorkshire Food & Drink.

The extensive range of icons in the new brand identity represent the diversity of produce from Yorkshire that is consumed both in the home and in pubs, bars and restaurants across the county. Icons represent artisan bakers, craft brewers, farmers and makers, all excellent examples of county-reared and home-grown produce. Together, the icons form the Yorkshire Rose, a fine emblem for this idyllic county.

Yorkshire Food & Drink is Yorkshire’s only dedicated food and drink website, covering everything from pub and restaurant reviews to recipes to food and drink events in the county. This new hub has created a go-to space for the latest news and information about the region’s finest produce.

View the new Yorkshire Food & Drink website here.

After months of reader feedback, and an evident decline in sales, it was clear the Yorkshire Evening Post needed to be revitalised and repositioned to align it with its core readers in Leeds whilst also reaching out to new audiences. The newspaper was lacking a strong engaging image and didn’t accurately reflect the City of Leeds and how it has grown and developed.

In order to reinstate the Yorkshire Evening Post as the voice of authority for Leeds, we completely redesigned the masthead, replacing outdated lettering, whilst ensuring the traditional feel of the paper was maintained, and – most importantly – refreshed the iconic white rose, Yorkshire’s emblem. We worked closely with Johnston Press, consulting with their in-house team, to deliver a strategy which would combat the decline in sales and encourage the people of Yorkshire to be more involved in the region’s news.

The masthead redesign, refreshed tone and layout more accurately mirrors the City of Leeds’ vitality and has given the newspaper a fresh and vibrant visual identity to be proud of, setting a new precedent for this much-loved regional title.

WPA Pinfold are extremely excited to announce that we have metaphorically packed up our beer expertise to take it over the 2015 Craft Brewers Conference (CBC), in Portland, USA.

We have an exhibition stand at the huge craft beer event, showcasing our recent and successful projects, and offering our expertise and knowledge of the UK beer market to US brewers and beer aficionados from across the globe.

Visiting the Craft Brewers Conference gives us the fantastic opportunity to meet interesting brand owners and other industry experts from the craft beer and brewing market. Our beer expertise will be also be on-hand for any American brewers interested in export opportunities in the UK and Europe – we’re also running our Beer Brand Clinic, where brand owners are given a free brand analysis and diagnosis.

We are on stand 858 from April 14th-17th – if you’re attending the 2015 CBC come and see us to talk all things beer and strategic branding.

Last week, between 18th-20th of March, WPA Pinfold set up shop at the 2015 SIBA BeerX exhibition – only this year, our stand was somewhat out of the ordinary.

We were running a Beer Brand Clinic on stand 128 offering brewers the chance to book in for an appointment for a free brand assessment and diagnosis with our very own Myles Pinfold (brand doctor, if you will…).

The event gave us a real opportunity to showcase our recent work and offer our brand expertise to those in the industry who are interested in how we can help them build their brand’s equity and create further success in the dynamic craft beer market.

Bumping into familiar faces whilst becoming acquainted with newcomers in the BeerX scene was all part of the fun – we’re looking forward to working on some exciting new projects in the brewing world.

If you missed us at BeerX you can still go online for a brand assessment and diagnosis here: www.wpa-pinfold.co.uk/brandclinic

We’ve won another two awards, adding to our expanding collection.

This year, we’ve picked up HOW International Awards for our work for long-standing clients, National Grid and Daniel Thwaites.

Our design for National Grid’s ‘Chairman’s Awards Brochure’ has recently been produced to accompany an award ceremony which recognises the outstanding efforts and achievements of National Grid employees.

Our Crafty Dan packaging work for Daniel Thwaites has won a string of awards, including an International Beer Award, Graphis, DBA Design Effectiveness, The Chicago Athenaeum Good Design Award and now a HOW International – clear evidence that our design is not just beautiful, but effective as well.

Both entries will appear in the spring 2015 HOW magazine. It’s absolutely wonderful for our design to be recognised internationally and we endeavour to keep adding to our ever-growing list of achievements.

From 25th to 2nd in three years.

We are delighted to announce that at the DBA award ceremony on February 12th – held at London’s Tobacco Dock – we picked up another three Design Effectiveness Awards.

We achieved a complete podium finish, with Gold for Daniel Thwaites, plus a Silver for Fair Trader and a Bronze for RWE npower. This brings our grand total to eleven awards in recent years, and moves us up to second in the UK Design Effectiveness League Table.

GOLD: Our brand packaging design work for Daniel Thwaites’ microbrewery Crafty Dan has received outstanding feedback since launch and has given Crafty Dan a powerful on-shelf and on-bar presence in the highly competitive beer market. Crafty Dan reported a 590% increase in average sales, and opened up nine new export markets.

SILVER: We rebranded Fair Trader to position them as a successful, dependable and ethical retail business, giving them the brand equity they required to become a reputable and profitable fair trading cooperative. Following the rebrand, investor numbers increased by 72%, and overall turnover increased by 25%.

BRONZE: The ‘Applause’ employee recognition scheme we developed for RWE npower was integral in helping unify a company-wide employee reward scheme, increasing employee engagement and facilitating a sense of pride among RWE npower’s employees — with over 81% of employees having received Applause recognition.

WPA Pinfold director Myles Pinfold, says, “This year’s awards continue our winning streak, and pay tribute to the trust of our loyal clients and give us the opportunity to demonstrate how our unique approach to brand planning and creative design can deliver real return on investment. This success proves yet again that a commitment to intelligent brand thinking is vital for success in today’s (and tomorrow’s) brand-savvy markets.”

After a period of over ten years, when we rebranded their mainstream fitness equipment and accessories range, one of the world’s leading fitness brands returned for us to rebrand their new eco range. Taiwanese manufacturer, Hi Mark, has grown exponentially over the last few years and has even built its own multimillion dollar manufacturing complex in Mainland China.

The client has built up an integrated global operation since its inception 25 years ago, which includes design, manufacture, distribution and marketing. However, when it comes to major rebrands and launches to western markets, we are their go-to brand consultancy.

The new branded range is a major development for the market, and the scope of our work encompasses: brand identity, structural packaging design, equipment branding and packaging. The Ecowellness brand has just launched at one of the largest sport and fitness exhibitions, the ISPO in Munich.

“This has been an exciting strategic brand project for WPA Pinfold and perfectly fits our strategy for global growth (we already work for Hitachi in Japan and Lifeplus in the USA). It is great to have clients who have been good friends come back to us for more, even after a space of several years,” says our director of strategy and planning, Myles Pinfold.

View the full case study here.

The pop-up, die-cut brochure we designed for National Grid’s Chairman’s Awards, has received a much-coveted Mobius award for ‘outstanding creativity.’

Our solution took inspiration from the venue of the ceremony, the ‘DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum’, maintaining a sculptural feel throughout. An unusual 6 page die-cut wrap around cover was used, alongside pop-up and die-cut pages with bespoke silhouettes, introducing different categories. Several different finishes were used, including ‘hi-light’ (UV varnish) and embossing.

It’s wonderful for our designs to be recognised internationally and we are extremely happy to be adding a prestigious Mobius award to our growing collection.

One of our latest projects has been for Japanese global giant Hitachi, helping them increase engagement and visibility of their brand values, vision and mission – arguably the most important parts of one’s brand. A test of a great and successful brand: is the vision and mission statement recognisable even when the visual brand assets are absent?

In order to achieve this level of brand awareness we’ve created an interactive web app which works seamlessly across all devices, and can be accessed