eatsleepblog

FASTRACK for Dow Coating Materials

Last month saw a the studio of eatsleepthink design in Sheffield producing a range of materials for Dow Coating Materials for their attendance at the ATSSA Convention and Traffic Expo in Phoenix, Arizona between the 13th-17th February 2011. FASTRACK is the name for Dow Coating Materials' road marking technology and they have recently produced a new resin to go into the FASTRACK technology which reduces the reliance on ingredients such as TiO2 and Latex which are less sustainable resources and this was being showcased at the ATSSA Convention for which we produced the materials for. Therefore we received a brief from Dow Coatings Materials for a splash design similar to Four pillars splashes campaign linked to my article here, however tied in with the usage of the FASTRACK technology which is road markings. Here is the splash design what we came up with which was used throughout most of the materials.

The first image above is the splash itself which was produced initially, after feedback and proofing this was the final design which was signed off. We were now able to implement our Route 66 Splash design into throughout the materials for the show including the above which when printed was a 2ft x 3ft board to promote a survey for customers to complete and that they would have the chance of winning a 16GB Apple i-Pad. For emphasis we used the green colour from the FASTRACK logo on the main details of the board to catch peoples attention that they could win a Apple i-Pad.

Also here is the FASTRACK E-Blast which was emailed to all of Dow's relevant clients and associates and is informing them where to find Dow Coatings Materials at the show, directs them to their website for further information and also introduces the FASTRACK technology to the show and gives a brief explanation to the reader of what benefits the new technology brings to the road markings world. Below this is a web banner which would have been used on a website as a advert and a click through to receive more information on the FASTRACK product.

I hope you like the designs of the materials and also think that the splash design works well.

Matt

Osprey Tour Bus

One of our more unique jobs going through the studio a short while ago was for one of our clients Osprey Packs, who are a backpack production company. The agenda behind the tour bus was for them to push themselves out into other markets in particular mountain bikers, cyclists. In the past Osprey have solely focused around the climbing and mountaineering sector, which has always been a reflection on the quality and robustness of the backpacks that they produce. Therefore eatsleepthink design were set out with a brief for us to produce a graphic design to go on the supplied bus. This should focus around the fact that the tour bus would be touring many cyclist sites across the UK, therefore we produced graphics which focused around the backpack with colour flowing from the backpacks creating the effect of cyclist moving whilst also giving us the opportunity to add some colour into the design. This can been seen throughout the graphics of the Osprey Tour Bus, as displayed below.

I'm sure you will agree that this looks great and that the graphics detail everything needed and meet the brief set out by Osprey without going over the top and filling the bus with too much information or imagery. We were really pleased with the results of this project and really enjoyed the opportunity to produce something at the forefront of our clients new business venture.

We would love to hear what you think of this, and maybe you have seen this driving around or parked up at a cyclist attraction somewhere in the UK.

Matt

European Coatings Show Final Day Video

How time flies it doesn't seem two minutes since we were in the full flow of the European Coatings Show in Germany, but it is actually now six days since the close of the Show and you still haven't had opportunity to see the final video from the Show. As I knew you'd be eagerly anticipating the arrival of the video from the Friday the 1st April (April Fool's of which I am not ashamed to say was one of the victims) I couldn't keep you waiting any longer. If you've not yet seen the videos I uploaded last week please follow this link to the first few videos from the ECS and therefore giving you the full experience of Dow at the European Coatings Show and much of the work which we produced for them. Here is Day 3 from the European Coatings Show 2011.

 

Well that's it, the last video from the European Coatings Show. It feels like quite a momentous occasion for us as by the end of the Show last week and throughout this week we've had nothing but great feedback on the Show as a whole and what an amazing experience it was to take part in. So it feels really quite special to everyone at eatsleepthink to have been involved in creating this event for Dow, it's just a shame that we didn't get a trip to Germany to experience the atmosphere for ourselves but you can't ask for everything, plus who would have been here to update you with the latest videos if we'd have been in Germany.

I hope you have enjoyed watching all of the videos uploaded from the European Coatings Show and welcome any comments you may have for us.

Matt

European Coatings Show Youtube Videos

Over the last month or so the studio of eatsleepthink design agency has been at its top capacity and as we say it was all hands to the pump for us to produce almost everything in a design aspect of the Dow stand at the European Coatings Show which is being currently held at the moment in Nuremburg, Germany. We were asked to produce graphics that showed how all five of the different Dow team's are all linked together, we produced a Flow design which as the name indicates is a graphic which creates a flow effect and is made from different images from the five different Dow teams, to tie them together and show that together Dow advance. Not only did we produce this artwork but also the Mind Map of Dow which features on one main wall, this led to us also producing the designs and layouts of three of the five individual booths with the posters.

 

This video is for Dow Coating Materials and is a video that invites customers to visit Dow Coating Materials whilst at the European Coatings Show, but with a slight twist of creativity in it whereby the Splashes artwork we created a few months ago is made into an animation, bringing the paint splashes to life, to jog your memory here is a link to the Splashes Campaign artwork.

 

The video above was shot the day before the show started therefore giving a better view of the stand itself compared to when the ECS is in full swing and packed with people wanting to speak with Dow.

The next video is from day 1 of the European Coatings Show where it was already clear that the stand and Dow were making a big impact at ECS. In this video you will see many of the graphics on the walls that we have produced for Dow as I talked about at the top of the page.

 

And finally for the moment we have the video filmed on day two of the Show (Wednesday 30th March). Once again this will allow you to see much of the work that eatsleepthink have produced for the five different teams of Dow to present themselves to their customers.

 

We are now in the final day of the show and all the feedback that has been received has been very positive so therefore we are looking forward to seeing the final day's video. Please check back soon as I shall also be uploading this video in a new blog once it is ready.

We hope that you like the graphics on the stand.

Matt

10th Anniversary for SVW

Who's SVW you may ask. Well its not the nickname of a person if thats what you are wondering, SVW is a strand of Volunteering England after originally being launched in 2001 to encourage students to do good work for and get involved with their local community throughout the Student Volunteering Week. The latest document that eatsleepthink design agency based in our studio in Sheffield is the Student Volunteering Week History Document, which as you may have gathered from the documents name is a document which runs over the details of the important moments in the history of the Student Volunteering Week since it was set up in 2001. Here is the front page design of the document which is based on the usual Volunteering England style and branding also with the main colour of VE orange being used. Here is the front cover design.

 

You will however note that despite as I just said above the VE orange colour being the main colour used there is, also the use of the light blue colour as per the colour of the SVW logo seen above on the front. The use of this light blue is implemented as per the guidelines for the use of the colour throughout any document that refers to the Student Volunteering Week.

Finally here are a couple more pages of the document just for show, as I do recognise that these are pretty similar. Therefore this actually shows how through the production of brand guidelines by a design agency like ourselves can create a document that keeps its identity throughout despite different pages having different amounts of copy and more or less illustrations/images. As I am not a designer I hope I am actually correct in what I am saying here, I am reasonably confident as I do seem to actually be able to pick up small details whilst in the studio.

Well once again I hope you like what we have created for Volunteering England, and if you have any comments they are welcome.

Matt

Is It Mi Book's Website or Yours?

No it's Sheffield Futures' website, it's not eatsleepthink's or mine or indeed yours. Last week we got the go ahead to launch the Mi Book website which is essentially the electronic version of the Mi Book that we produced last year for Sheffield Futures. The Mi Book was launched as a pocket sized document that young people (under 18's) could get there hand's on to help them through any possible problem that they may have in their life (well not every but a large percentage). When we produced the Mi Book itself I did blog about this at the time click on this link to look back at this. Following this it has taken a while but we have now got this up and running online where the site visitor can read the book through an online flipbook or alternatively the whole Mi Book can be downloaded. The design of the website to keep continuity is very similar to the actual printed Mi Book itself, we have grouped together a large number of what we call YOUP's or Mi Book characters, without making it clutted. So that you actually have an idea what I am babbling on about please following this link to http://www.getconnectedsheffield.com/mibook/. Or if you just want a quick look at the site layout etc here is a screen shot of the site which I am proud to say I did myself!

 

So there's a couple a pages of the site, hope you like. If you've actually visited the site you should have hopefully used either the flipbook facility which actually makes it look like you are turning the page over with the curvature of the page, it really is quite cool. If you didn't check this out you really should. Or you may have downloaded it which will enable you to now do whatever you would like with this i.e. print it out yourself.

As always I welcome any comments on our work.

Matt

eatsleepthink Wish You A Very Merry Christmas

The time has come for eatsleepthink design agency in Sheffield to send out its electronic Christmas Card to all clients and associates. This probably relates and reflects in some ways my blog a couple of months ago about what I called the Electronic Take Over in fact more so than that it definitively demonstrates the whole point I was making. A few years ago this would be leaving the design studio as a number of printed cards being picked up by a courier to be delivered to different addresses across the country.

Anyway back to the card. Eatsleepthink have always produced a Christmas card with a association or link to one of our clients. Over recent years this has been with Get Connected, however this year we felt that the direction should change and through Volunteering England being so proactive in promoting the importance of Volunteering this year and a big society. We are happy to be able to produce this 2010 Christmas Card in conjunction with Volunteering England. There is a Christmas Message with the card which talks a little bit about Volunteering and how something which is so simple can make a massive difference to more than just the person you are directly helping. This may not quite make sense at the moment but once you have read through the Christmas Message you will understand.

Here is an image which links through to the Christmas card we have produced, with a little help from two of Mike's sons to draw and design the animated people in the card.

We hope you like our Christmas card design as you will have seen there are two parts to the card firstly there is the flash animation part which has people dancing around who have gifted themselves as presents (Volunteering). Also as I mentioned above there is a separate section to the card which contains a heartfelt message from Mike.

See you all in the new year, thanks to everyone who has been reading my blogs over the last 9 months since I joined eatsleepthink. I hope you are looking forward to what 2011 brings.

Matt

How You Can Create A Splash

Following my blog last month about how our advertising campaign has made a splash right across Europe, if you haven't yet read our We've Created a Splash blog post please follow the link to it. It is now time for you to see how in this design agency in Sheffield we were able to create these eye catching paint splash illustrations. The example I will use to show you is the tree which was created for the Growth advert of the Dow Coating Materials advertising campaign. The production of these is a very painstaking process and it is vital to get the initial pencil drawings perfectly detailed and approved before moving into a lot of detail with colouring and shading etc. Here is what at the end of many hours hard work is produced.

Here is the original of the scan in of the initial stage of the illustration when it was simply at a pencil stage. This was actually the second draft of the rough design as there was the first stage where the outline of the illustration needed to be approved before we were able to move onto this stage.

Here is now a breakdown of the gradual progress of colouring in the illustration initially with flat colour before eventually adding the lines and shading to create the effect of the paint flowing and being splashed rather than being static. There were many more phases to the colouring of this however both you and us would have been here all day placing them in for you to view them. We have therefore carefully chosen a selection of the phases to represent the volume of work as accurately as possible.

Once you have an illustration similar to the final stage above you are pretty much ready to have your very own advert. All you would now need to do is supply eatsleepthink with some text to work in tandem with the illustration to get your message across. You now have your very own advert created by eatsleepthink design agency based in Sheffield, England.

As always I welcome your comments on this and hopefully you like what you see and now have a greater understanding of how we were able to achieve these brilliant splash illustrations. If you would like more information about this please contact us on the email address detailed on our website.

Matt

 

NSS Flyer

It has been a while since I posted a publication that we have designed for Volunteering England. Due to this I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to show you the NSS Flyer which is really quite different from what we usually produce for VE. With the main bulk of materials we have designed and produced from this design agency in Sheffield we have had to stick to the brand guidelines produced sometime ago for Volunteering England. The reason why this publication didn't stick so tightly to the guidelines is because both eatsleepthink and VE felt that it would be beneficial to be slightly different due to the even greater importance of the document.

I am sure that just by looking at the first page you can see quite a big difference in the design and layout compared to other VE publications such as Influencing Up Brochure and the October edition of the VE Magazine.

   


Attached above are the two inside pages of the flyer. This flyer was a very important document for Volunteering England as it was used to show its support and show how they are aiming to incorporate the idea of becoming a big society through volunteering. The big society which is one of the coalition governments big ideas for improving quality of life in the country needs to be shown to have the support of such charities. We feel that volunteering is an ideal way to start to incorporate this idea into the wider community. It could be said that in the form of volunteering their has already been a big society in the country for many years. This flyer is therefore inviting people who want to get involved in this idea of the big society to go along to the nearest conference.

 I feel this page is a great way of showing how the idea of the big society can be influenced and grown with the aid of volunteering, the use of pictures of volunteers to make up the shape of the main counties in the country is quite a simple idea but is very effective in getting across VE's message. 

Thanks for reading, any comments are welcome.

Matt

 

 

Exhibition Stands

For major businesses across the world exhibition stands are excellent ways of drumming up business and getting your business noticed in the exact field that your working in. For example of this Dow Chemicals have recently taken part in a paint coatings show called Eurocoat in Genoa, Italy. Therefore they were in need of a eye catching but yet simple exhibition stand that would allow them to attract clients and present themselves in the most professional and innovative way possible. Cue eatsleepthink a little design agency situated on the outskirts of Sheffield, England. Having already created the whole advertising campaign for Dow Coating Materials which I have already blogged about and is linked here, as well as producing work for Dow Angus we were in the perfect position to understand exactly what was needed by Dow Chemicals and how to produce it. Here is the final drawing which was produced by eatsleepthink design before being sent to the people who were producing the stand in Italy, hope you like.

In the space of about 2 weeks we have gone from this digitally produced visual to the final product which was in place on schedule for the Eurocoat show, Genoa, Italy on the 9th November - 11th November. Here is a picture taken of the exhibition stand in its full flow during the show. It is very pleasing to see how busy the stand was, in fact it looks like Dow could have actually done with a few extra metres space for the stand.

The corners of the stand were separated into four different teams of Dow Chemicals, as can be seen there was the Dow Angus corner, Dow Microbial to the right, Dow Coating Materials in the far corner which can't be seen and Dow Construction to the left. The screen on the Angus corner is also featuring a flash movie presentation which we produced for them.

Thinking about it I actually never posted you the picture of the stand design that we produced for Dow Coating Materials when they were at the Paint Istanbul show in Istanbul between the 23rd - 26th September. As the saying goes better late than never. This was different in the sense that this was solely for the Dow Coating Materials team of Dow as opposed to the stand for Eurocoat which was for four different teams of Dow.

 

These are all of the exhibitions stands eatsleepthink have produced for Dow so far however hopefully we will be working on another in the near future.

I hope that you like the stand designs that we have produced and welcome any comments you may have.

Matt