A One Off...

The photos above are of all the lovely, and very talented people who work at The One Off a multidisciplinary agency in Islington, London. I spent a fantastic two weeks at the agency, assisting on one major project, that by the end of the first week seemed to have taken over the majority of the studio, and most of our lives.

Sadly, I signed a confidentiality agreement which means I can't tell you all about the project... But the basics were brand identity, mark/logo and name, the look and feel for brochures, advertising, in store point of sale, customer journey and store layout/defined areas. The customer journey and in store design were not something I had thought I would be working on, but having been thrown into the project part way through I had to get into it pretty quickly. I really enjoyed working on an aspect that I had never had the opportunity to consider before, and it has made me think more broadly about the way graphics can be implemented, and the effects that they will have on the consumer.

The brand identity aspect was much more in the vein of the work I did at The Gild, but it wasn't the same thing, as working with different people, and in a different way made it feel like a completely new experience. I feel that I have really improved my communication skills when it comes to discussions over designs, and how the brand will be viewed if various designs were to be used.

We had some difficulty with the company, as we spent the entire two weeks without an actual name for the business, which meant a lot of guess work, and multiple options were required for every design idea. This really tested my skills, as it was really hard to visualise a company that had no name, only a list of emotional words and ideas that they want their brand to portray. We spent a lot of time considering the feel of the brand, getting into the essence of what was required, and moving pieces of paper about on our huge chart that dictated the areas of design. Though some parts of this process were a little slow, I think that it really helped to fully understand, and experience the brand values, before ploughing into designing for something we didn't really comprehend.

Overall the two weeks were very informative, and a really great (and I think accurate) experience of work in a real studio, dealing with a proper client, and working as part of a small, but very experienced team of professionals. I can not thank the team at The One Off enough for all of the help they gave me, and the time they took to improve my skills and make me feel that I was contributing to an important account.