Emma Wilson, Author at RichardsDee

Cannes Young Lions: Part Two

Posted on 12 July 20177 September 2017 by Emma Wilson

The Work— Part 2, Competition Day

Inevitably, fresh-faced we were not, and at 5am we were up and at it again, ready to tackle the main day of the competition, the minuscule sleep adding some clarity to our thoughts from the previous night.

After raiding the local Starbucks at opening time of all of its coffee and croissants we made our way to the basement of The Palais. There we were shown to our booth and we moved into ‘production mode’.

Surprisingly, the day itself ran relatively smoothly (if we do say so ourselves!). We had devised a schedule and broken down the key targets we needed to hit to meet our 8 o’clock deadline, which proved very beneficial. Through the day we managed to stick to this, using it as a helpful guide if we felt we were spending too much time on any one element of the project.

At one point during the afternoon when the effects of the previous sleep-deprived night were setting in, a representative from Getty Images arrived at our booth with a camera person to ask us a few questions about how the project was developing and how we were feeling, ‘tired’ was our answer. But a few miniature pastries from the lunch table did the trick for a sugar-kick and we managed to push through to the finish line, with time spare to proof read and ensure our printed piece was correct.

Our final design system revolved around the concept of ‘A Unified Force For Good’, speaking to the idea of the collective mobilisation of the diverse people who come together in many ways to form the global population of women, who inspire and strive to create positive, real change for women and girls.

Taking inspiration from and evolving the assets currently in place in the UN Women logo, our new system for ‘Daughter’ sub-brands utilised a flexible system of graphic shapes and typography, created from these existing assets, but transforming them to allow for the development of new forms, and varied meanings.

We did it! We were finished! We handed over the fruits of our labour, a single A3 document, and it was now out of our hands, ready to be presented to an impressive panel of judges from internationally renowned design agencies like Brand Union, Future Brand and Planeta to name but a few.

Time for an Aperol Spritz.

Another Aperol Spritz. Pizza. Sleep.

The Win

As an eternal pessimist (realist, OK?), I (Emma) had no inkling that we would be in with a chance of winning the much coveted Gold Young Lion. Kyle was more confident, hoping that we may place somewhere, possibly a bronze. As we sat in front of the panel of judges, IAPI representatives by our side, we suddenly got a wave of nausea over us as they announced the winners and we felt something we hadn’t admitted to ourselves all the way through the process…we really wanted this. Bronze was announced, not us. Silver, not us again, no chance. An then, to our utter disbelief the word ‘Ireland’ was called out as the winner of the Gold. The feeling that accompanied this disbelief was one of incredible euphoria, and immense pride that we had achieved this win while representing Ireland.

We thanked the judges, shook hands, hugged our teammates and the IAPI team, shed some tears, and most importantly…called our moms (and the RichardsDee Team)! The feeling was incredible.

We were photographed, interviewed and congratulated and then left to our own devices to get ourselves organised for the awards ceremony that evening where we would be awarded, alongside our peers and the judging panel, with two gold medals, on a stage worthy of The Oscars, in a theatre filled with over 1,500 people. No pressure, right? The awards show was fantastic, showcasing the inspiring work of the other Lion winners in the Design category.

Afterglow

As the first Irish Gold winner of Cannes Young Lions in its 23 year lifespan, we were very very proud. Young Lions has been a wonderful opportunity for us to hone our skills and push ourselves to the boundaries of what we’re capable of. It’s also been an unbelievable experience, being immersed in the festival environment and being surrounded by the world’s best creative talent, and with our other teammates form Team Ireland, in the beautiful location of Cannes. We urge anyone considering entering to just go for it.

We want to thank our wider team at RichardsDee without whom, none of this would have been possible, the external mentors we had along the way- Steve Payne and James Beveridge, and the team at IAPI who were an organisational powerhouse, supporting us all in Cannes, no mean feat!

Cannes Young Lions: Part One

Posted on 7 July 201711 September 2017 by Emma Wilson

Preparation For Cannes— The Run Up

After winning the Irish leg of Cannes Young Lions in the Design category in March 2017 with our brand identity for not-for-profit representative organsisation The Wheel, we began preparations for the international competition in June, where we would go head-to-head with 22 Design teams, ranging from a variety of countries worldwide.

The team at RichardsDee had strongly encouraged us to enter the Irish sub-section of the competition and had mentored and supported us through the process. They were now delighted for us to be representing our country, and our agency, as part of Team Ireland in Cannes. Over the coming months we went into intense ‘design training’, testing our time management skills and honing our process with a series of internally devised 24-hour briefs for brands in the not for profit sector, with mentoring and review sessions from external, internationally renowned industry figures. This process was immensely beneficial for us in the lead up to the competition and we would urge anyone thinking of entering to ensure that their studio/agency is on-board and on-hand to support. This prepared us (as much as was possible!) for the whirlwind that was to be Cannes Young Lions.

Arrival in Cannes— Taking it all in

Once we were settled in to our hotel, we instantly immersed ourselves in the festivities at The Palais. An impressive schedule of talks from industry superstars, celebrities, and homegrown talent (g’wan Rothco and AIB!), stretched out in front of us and we began to plan our daily dose of inspiration. Bravery was at the core of the festival theme this year, as were topics of creativity for change, gender equality and our responsibility as advertisers and designers to represent a diverse viewpoint and challenge stereotypes.

Along the seafront were various elaborate brand hubs from all the usual players in the tech world (Youtube, Facebook, Spotify etc…). The brand hubs were where we relaxed in the sun after the talks and got to know our fellow team mates from Team Ireland, and let’s not forget happy hour (4 hours). We can confirm that tech companies make a mean rosé slushie. Another ‘social’ point of note includes the infamous Gutter Bar, where it seemed every single delegate from Cannes Lions would congregate at the end of the day (€17 G&T’s, avoid!).

Briefing—Dream Client

Before we knew it, the day of the briefing was upon us. Excitedly, we opened our blue folders to reveal the client, UN Women. Needless to say, we were delighted, we couldn’t have dreamed of a more fantastic organisation to work with. As a team with a long-held interest in women’s issues and as active participants in the Irish, and global feminist movement, we had a wealth of insights and learnings to draw from that would prove beneficial to us throughout the project process.

Background on UN Women from their briefing document:

“UN Women is the global champion for women and girls. Created in 2011 by UN Member States and backed by the global women’s movement, UN Women acts on the fundamental premise that all women and girls have the right to live free of discrimination, violence and poverty, and that gender equality is central to achieving development.”

Since its inception, UN Women has developed multiple campaigns and sub-brands attached to the mothership brand. Lacking a visual identity system to unify these and create a link between the sub-brands and the over arching UN Women brand, the association was being lost and their brand was becoming increasingly fragmented and confusing for their respective audiences. Our challenge was to solve this problem and create a flexible system for future UN Women sub-brands and campaigns that would create a strong, recognisable link to the mothership brand, and also be sufficiently fluid so as to retain interest and relevance across a range of different (and currently unknown) topics, initiatives, and subject matter.

With only 24 hours to execute this challenging, complex task, we set out to work.

The Work— Minimal Sleep, Post-its, and Face Masks

Over a quick refuel, we discussed our initial thoughts and began to dissect the brief. With food out of the way we headed for home to work in the (much adored) cool breeze of the air conditioning with a stack of post-its, markers, and a manic energy that only comes with a tighter than average deadline and a client and judging panel we desperately wanted to impress.

Over the course of the evening and into the small hours of the morning we brainstormed, researched, formulated our core concepts and devised our plan for execution for the following day, where we would have access to a computer and our own booth space (complete with Irish flag) from 8:30am to 8:00pm.

We utilised what we could, in a ‘cosy’ hotel room with (tastefully…) stippled walls, we found that the bathroom door was our only option for pinning up our thoughts and project structure. Here we broke down the brief and analysed the assets at our disposal in the existing UN Women brand identity. We outlined the core themes we needed to address, the appropriate tone of voice, the insights we had relating to the topic of women’s issues, and we chose a focused approach of tackling one key audience group out of the five provided (an insight that had arisen from our previous practice brief sessions at RichardsDee) of the future of the feminist movement, young future femisist leaders.

From this point we sketched, rationalised, conferred, and ultimately devised the route in which we would go down the following day (with a few back up ideas in the pot, were we to run into difficulty with our core idea).

Somewhere in between ‘post-it-a-geddon’ we took a (very important) break for R&R and skincare with some facemasks obtained from the local Monoprix. When working on two hours sleep how else is one to appear glamorous, together, and fresh-faced in Cannes? (Our Cosmo think-piece will be out next week…)

To be continued…

Reinventing The Wheel

Posted on 4 July 201723 August 2017 by Emma Wilson

We recently had the pleasure of attending the launch of the new brand identity for The Wheel at their Annual Lecture & Dinner, at Croke Park’s Conference Centre. The new brand identity- designed by our Young Lions Emma and Kyle- coincides with The Wheel’s new strategy document, “Stronger Charities. Stronger Communities.” which outlines their plan for action towards 2020. The evening was inspiring, with lectures from the inimitable Professor Tom Collins and members of The Wheel, beautiful music from the High Hopes Choir and education around the challenges facing the sector disguised as a fun table quiz!

The new brand hinges itself on the active citizenship that The Wheel encourages and strives to create in society, with the concepts of people power, diversity, inclusivity and progression at its core.

Cannes Young Lions: Designing a Revolution

Posted on 11 April 201723 August 2017 by Emma Wilson

It’s the first year that IAPI’s Young Lions Ireland has run a new-fangled category solely for design, so naturally, we thought; “we’ll give that a go!”. After much (read: little) persuasion from the team, we young-gun, under 30s of the RichardsDee clan were on our way to the briefing session where we were introduced to our client and a unique challenge, a full-scale rebrand of not-for-profit representative body, The Wheel.

What was presented to us was the issue of an incredibly important and much-needed organisation that was struggling to express its authority, values, wealth of expertise and experience in the space through its dated and fragmented identity, that had been in use since the late 1990s. The Wheel supports over 1,300 of Ireland’s not-for-profit and voluntary groups through representation, training and advocacy. They play a vital role in ensuring a thriving Irish charity sector, and they wish to grow in the coming years. Their identity, as it stood, didn’t reflect the organisation, or its goals, as it had done when first created. The Wheel had changed and its identity was becoming a hindrance to pushing forward and continuing to strive for positive social change in Ireland.

What a fantastic opportunity for us to create a brand identity system that truly reflects the work that The Wheel does, and the values they stand for. An identity that works to transform how their audience perceives their organisation, and one that can challenge perceptions of the not-for-profit sector as a whole.

With merely a fortnight until our deadline, we set out to work!

We started our adventure with a trip down the rabbit hole. We got intimate with our knowledge of The Wheel, and really got to the core of what makes the organisation tick, what drives it at the heart. We concluded that it is people who drive The Wheel. People, striving towards a more fair and just Ireland, through action.

We conducted a deep dig into the sector, an exploration of our competitors, and identified key benchmarks in and out of category. We thought, why can’t we be more of a progressive thought leader, like MIT Media Lab? Or how could we represent activity and transformation, like Channel 4? Why can’t we benchmark The Wheel against some of the world’s most dynamic and progressive brands, and champion the idea that organisations like The Wheel are central to achieving real change in Irish society through the empowerment of people, collaboration, and action.

Based on our research, we began to develop possible territories for exploration. After a brainstorming session and some scribbling in our notebooks we were equipped with multiple concepts that we could tease out and subsequently decide as to which we felt was strong enough to take forward to creative stage.

After whittling the bunch down to seven core ideas, we progressed with a route each, choosing to explore the spaces of:

‘Change/Support’

Ever-moving the wheel turns, leading the way. A supportive structure that not only moves forward but also supports a larger structure than itself. It’s through this free movement that The Wheel is able to shape change, transforming the industry and supporting its members.

And, because I couldn’t choose just one, what became a combined route of:

‘People Power’

The Wheel as a collective of doers, working together towards a common goal of a more fair and just Ireland. We are stronger together because, to create positive change, we must use all the resources at our disposal, and our people are the strongest resource we have. We utilise their knowledge, passion, and drive for good by lifting each other up and strengthening each organisation through collaboration and community.

‘Impact/Origins’

We can’t imagine a world before the invention of the wheel. The wheel impacted civilisation powerfully and set the world in motion, sparking the development of society as we know it. The Wheel is a catalyst for progression, evolution, and transformation. The Wheel inspires change, it evolves and enriches the organisations it represents and supports.

‘Revolution’

The revolution is active, constantly moving forward, it’s a cycle, a knock-on effect, a chain reaction, an idea sparked and transformed. It is active and it doesn’t stop. The Wheel tirelessly empowers the organisations it represents, inspiring and enabling an industry to create powerful change and challenge the status quo. The Wheel is always progressing towards its goal of a fairer and more just Ireland, enabling others to do the same.

Once we had our concepts clearly outlined, we progressed to creative exploration.

With these core concepts at hand, we started to build outwards and develop our suite of key visual assets in alignment with these ideas, always referring back to the brief and sense checking to ensure that we were on the right path to creating something powerful, and useful, for The Wheel. After various potential executions and visual expressions of concepts we settled on a route that had ‘Revolution’ at its core, though it encompassed the ‘People Power’, ‘Impact/Origins’ and ‘Revolution’ routes, all in one.

Every element of the identity needed to suggest these core themes at its heart. Dynamism was key. This identity could not appear to be static, and it had to speak with authority and conviction.

We wanted to evoke the duality of the term ‘Revolution’; the physical act of revolving, being active; and a societal revolution that is sparked by the actions of people empowered to create change. The final execution we settled on used dynamic typography that would appear to rotate around a curve, interchangeable wheels that would suggest different factions of the organisation (whether it be common goals or people power etc.), and cyclical language devices to express the revolutionary action that The Wheel wished to inspire in Ireland through working with and supporting its clients. We employed an impactful black and white colour palette to suggest The Wheel’s transparency and straight-talking attitude. As an organisation in a landscape of groups that have been marred by scandal in recent years, it is imperative that they communicate their position in a clear, matter-of-fact way.

You can view the project in full here.

We were beyond thrilled to hear that we had been shortlisted in the top 3 in our category by the Young Lions judging panel, and then even more overjoyed to hear that we had actually won! To be recognised by the Young Lions team and to be competing on behalf of our country in Cannes in June at such an internationally renowned and prestigious event is a huge honour.

We look forward to keeping you all posted on the rollercoaster that will be the following few months as we get into training for a whirlwind 24 hour brief against 40 other international teams, and prepare ourselves for a fantastic experience attending one of the most renowned festivals of creativity worldwide.

Exciting times ahead!