OSS recently asked South˚ to work on creating a set of icons that would denote their business areas and fit in with the style previous icons already in place and compliment the brand.

What do they denote?

These icons try to encompass these complex areas of the business without being too specific. In order the icons represent:

• oil sales
• oil collection
• hazardous waste collection
• parts washers
• industrial services
• fragmentation
• environmental.

How will they be used?

They are to be used throughout merchandising, sales collateral and other avenues of communication including their website as a quick visual key to specific areas of the business. Working in conjunction with a more specific red icon set in a similar style which will denote, for instance, specific model parts washers or the schedule of waste collections.

I need to know this, why?

Well, we just wanted you to know that South˚ and  our team have created, worked within and developed brands of all levels. We work right the way down from the heady heights of brand values, right the way down to grass roots level.

So if you think South˚ is too big for your bedroom business or too small or your multi-national…

…think again, we work with both.

Well. We say a three way pitch, as the creative work was to be decided on the basis of a first round of visuals pitched by all three chosen agencies. It was later decided this wouldn’t be necessary once they had seen the materials from South˚. You can imagine that we were particularly happy to win a client such as ‘greytogreen’ without a protracted pitching process, this is happening more and more to South˚ – in the recent economic climate with prospective clients facing tight time-scales and even tighter budgets, a great creative team at the right price is becoming essential.

In fact what excited us the most was that we would be working with people who know exactly what they want, and act upon it swiftly and decisively.

Work started immediately and just 48 hours from the word “Go” we delivered the ‘napkin sketches’ and in a little over week from this post we’ll be delivering a polished identity with corporate guidelines to follow and all while developing the look and feel for their workshop materials.

Check back soon to see how we’re getting on with the finished product…

South˚ has its fair share of motorsport enthusiasts and so it came as a pleasant surprise to those of us watching the Formula One this weekend, to find BBC’s Jake Humphrey race around Silverstone GP in a car that only a few months ago existed as a visual on our Macs.
Looking after the design and advertising for the Elise Trophy, Lotus on Track, Lotus Central, Ben Elliott Racing, Forza West and half a dozen other motorsport brands, we’re lucky enough to see our work on TV fairly frequently. Fast forward 35 minutes into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and there’s the car we painstakingly airbrushed in Photoshop, surrounded by the support teams faithfully wearing the promotional clothing we supplied, embroidered with the logos we created on a race track adorned with the names of brands we’ve been fortunate enough to work with over many years. A moment to savour perhaps?

Fast forward another 2 minutes and that same car is now in lots of little pieces being towed / swept away.

They say that all publicity’s good publicity and we can’t argue with that. We will have to insist next time however, that our motorsport design and advertising exposure receives the full 15 minutes’ worth of fame!

We have started on the new identity this week and as ever, we’re kicking off with our favourite bit: the brainstorms and pencil sketches. Next week will be delivering a choice of directions for the team to choose from and just a few weeks from now, should you meet the team from Strategic Technologies, you’ll find the logo on their business cards is one that will have started its life on the pages of a South˚ sketchbook.