Tag: Design firm

Singapore – Global design consultancy Elmwood has made a number of major hires as it establishes its Singapore offer as one of the region’s leading design shops. They include Lisa Balm as creative director, Rachel Goh as head of insights, Kedar Karippail as client services director.

The new appointments mark a major refresh of the agency following Elmwood’s merger with Holmes & Marchant in the region in November 2021.

Goh will be responsible for using data and strategic thinking to help brands craft compelling stories and produce more culturally relevant work. She was previously a partner at Innate Motion, where she delivered insights and empathy-powered strategies for global and local brands across FMCG, beauty, fashion, technology and e-commerce brands. 

Meanwhile, Balm has worked on brands including Citibank, Singtel, Diageo, LVMH and PepsiCo. In her role at Elmwood, she will work alongside fellow creative director Jason Braddy to lead a creative team of more than 25 designers, visualisers and production specialists. 

Lastly, Karippail has over 20 years international brand and advertising experience working across India, New Zealand, Malaysia, Netherlands and the UK, for DDB, Geometry Global, Ogilvy & Mather and Y&R amongst others. She will work closely with Elmwood Singapore’s managing director Celeste Cheong on developing the agency’s overall growth and client strategy, building and maintaining relationships.

Cheong said, “It’s a hugely pivotal time for Elmwood Singapore and design consultancies in general. So I’m delighted that we’ve found the very best talent to help take Elmwood Singapore to the next stage in our journey. I’m really excited to work alongside Rachel, Lisa, Kedar and the existing leadership team to be an invaluable partner to all our clients.”

Meanwhile, Paul Galesloot, global CEO at Elmwood, commented, “Elmwood was created to design meaningful & memorable brands in the multi-platform age. And to do that, you need a team of experienced, truly global, diverse thinkers with an in-depth understanding of insight, idea and iconicity, as well as a broad business and industry acumen.” 

He added, “I’m delighted we’ve put together such a strong, new-look team for Elmwood Singapore, who collectively offer all the expertise required to produce distinctive, dynamic brand experiences that can succeed now and in the future.”

International marque Rolls-Royce has announced that it has taken measures to further resonate with its younger clients, specifically a revamp of its brand personality.

The company said that since it has introduced its edgier Rolls-Royce car model, Black Badge in 2016, it has attracted a younger demographic of clients, with clients showing to have an average age of 43. 

A different visual aesthetic and language, one that would “encapsulate the brand’s presence and standing as a true house of luxury” are the company’s main goals for the brand, and it has appointed UK-based design firm Pentagram to accomplish the reboot.

Rolls-Royce Chief Executive Torsten Müller-Ötvös said,  “As the marque’s digital presence increases, there has never been a more important time for the visual language of the company to reflect our standing as [a global] luxury brand.”

New brand colors

From textural wooden brown and graphite-colored hues, Rolls-Royce will now be donning a deep, majestic tone of purple. 

According to Pentagram, although the former colors of the brand showed its artisanal origins, the palette confined the identity to the past. 

“The desire was to seek a more expressive, luxurious colour palette, one appealing to both male and female clients, one with a future vision,” said Pentagram. 

The purple color named Purple Spirit will now become Rolls-Royce’s signature color, on which a metallic Rose Gold will be thrown in as a complementary hue. 

The Noir imagery which surrounds Rolls-Royce’s Black Badge range is also said to be punctuated anew by bursts of color, reflecting each model’s launch specification, illustrating the nature of the model as the brand’s edgier version.

Monogram and typeface

The company said that the double ‘R’ monogram will retain its original form but will be replaced on collateral. 

Meanwhile, the wordmark ‘Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ as found presiding above the door of the marque’s establishments, was found to be corporate and unrepresentative of the marque’s standing as a luxury brand.

Pentagram is said to have sifted through typography pegs in the marque’s archives from the 1930s before ultimately using an art-deco style as the basis from which to envisage a new wordmark.

The words ‘Motor Cars’ have now been reduced in size, with the emphasis reverting to Rolls-Royce. Meanwhile, special significance has been paid to the letter ‘R’, to provide additional stability and prominence to this important character in the Rolls-Royce script.

For the brand’s typeface, on the other hand, the design team has chosen Riviera Nights, which stems from the same family of the brand’s previous font Gil Sans Alt, but now with additionally crafted and beveled letters.

The Spirit of Ecstasy

Amid the brand’s revamp, the marque’s emblem, The Spirit of Ecstasy, which has graced the prow of Rolls-Royce motor cars since 1911 has been decided to be given more attention due to its instantly recognizable and modern symbolism of British luxury. 

A wholly new visual treatment of the emblem has been created, called The Spirit of Ecstasy Expression where a visual with “an ethereal yet tech-like feeling” will be depicted. 

Akin to a silken fabric, The Expression will adopt a fluid form and a feel of versatility. An innovative digital tool that uses coding has been developed by Pentagram to enable The Expression to be used on any surface, from projection to embroidery, as well as to printing to engraving.

It will now be in both physical form at the marque’s global establishments and in digital form, and will start becoming a staple element of the marque’s visual language.