Engaging a Multi-academy Trust in the art of branding
Engaging a Multi-academy Trust in the art of branding
5th September 2023
An interview with Stuart from Connect Academy Trust.
A brave, bold and ambitious MAT in Plymouth with schools around Devon, Connect approached Upshot as a trust with morals and fresh thinking at the forefront of their operations but a lack of discernible brand to help them communicate that difference.
Here you can watch an interview with CEO, Stuart Bellworthy, talking about why they found the branding process more impactful than they first expected, and what difference it’s made to them.
–
Written by Owen
Digital designer needed – we’re hiring!
Digital designer needed – we’re hiring!
28th July 2023
An interview with Stuart from Connect Academy Trust.
It’s an exciting time for Upshot as we begin to scour the land for a new digital designer to help us continue to manage and deliver fabulous websites for current and future clients.
Websites have become a more vital part of our services over the past two years, and we’re looking to find someone with three to five years’ experience to join our adventurous little team – supporting us to lead these digital projects with our creative director, Owen, and being a core part of our growing agency.
To find out what we’re looking for, why the job could be brilliant for you and how to apply, please download the job description here. We can’t wait to hear from you!
–
Written by Owen
Origin Stories: The Accidental Design Agency
Origin Stories: The Accidental Design Agency
Article | Inspiration | News
7th April 2023
An interview with Stuart from Connect Academy Trust.
Origin stories are popular for a reason. Understanding someone’s background and reasoning; why they made particular choices or how they ended up in certain situations intrigues us as humans. Designers, in particular, love to see how other designers reached particular creative milestones and the thought process behind a logo design, for example.
Have you ever looked back on your career and wondered how you got to where you are now? Your own origin story?
I was recently given chance to share mine and it taught me a lot.
As part of Plymouth Design Forum from the very beginning, I’ve been amazed to see how much it’s grown. From six mates around a pub table for a festive pint, to large crowds of people in rooms to hear talks from design heroes, it’s enough to give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. So the chance to speak at the second PDF Local Legends event was an opportunity not to miss, for me.
Over 70 people headed to the Roundabout pub, and were treated to an uplifting story from one of Plymouth’s newest creative powerhouses, Tom Carder.
Tom’s incredible positivity and proactivity (and a worldwide pandemic…) inspired a move from being a mechanic to a drone photographer and film-maker, and if you’ve ever met someone nicer and more deserving of success, I’d love to meet them too.
Smells like teen naivety
My own story ran from the late ‘90s, complete with a self-deprecating reminder of how I looked as a grungy teenager with no idea what was ahead. Here’s an overview.
From the mean streets of Godalming, Surrey to the bright lights of the land of my fathers; Plymouth (mainly the floodlights at Plymouth Argyle’s Home Park stadium), I traipsed.
Somehow, despite the lack of internet, I discovered Plymouth College of Art and Design existed. I stressed that despite how well run the (newly named) Arts University Plymouth is now, my own experience left knowledge gaps the size of small cities in my own understanding of design.
Moving oop North to Taunton to study a top up year for a degree in Graphic Design & Packaging, those knowledge gaps were filled to overflowing, leaving me overwhelmed and out of my depth, but suddenly motivated. I learnt about the design industry and its rich history of hero agencies and designers – Pentagram, The Partners, Minale Tattersfield to Alan Fletcher, Milton Glaser and Saul Bass. I spent time in a real agency and saw how it worked on a daily basis.
But most importantly I learnt about the magic dust that makes design more than just decoration.
Ideas
Work torn from walls in crits. Anxious nights desperately searching for a concept rather than a trendy piece of artwork. Ideas ruled the classroom. I was gripped. Design now carried meaning – it had become a thinking-person’s game to me, and I wanted in.
Books like A Smile in the Mind and How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul shaped my expectations and process, and I began a career from humble beginnings designing small black and white ads in a local publishing company back in Plymouth.
Four years as a creative artworker and many hours browsing design inspo sites online left me with a hunger for more creative opportunities and when I was made redundant six months into my next job, the stars seemed to align and I took a leap of faith, starting my freelance journey.
I networked. I wrote to any south west agency I could find. I covered maternity leave in studios. I learnt. I got stuff done. I grew. I met people. Things happened.
Another big break
Then, from nowhere, a good friend suggested I join the design supplier roster at Macmillan Cancer Support where he worked in the head office in London. With nothing to lose, but no expectations, I signed up, travelled to town and showed my work. Within weeks I was working three days a week with their in-house creatives to translate a major rebrand into working assets and brand guidelines.
Over 150 projects and seven years later, when Covid hit, Macmillan were unable to continue hiring external agencies and designers, and that meant an end to our close relationship. But in the meantime I’d gained enough experience and contacts to be able to add other major charities to my portfolio.
Unexpected growth
I’d also added my first employee – Adam, a junior designer with a meticulous eye for detail in layout design. It had become clear that Owen Jones Design needed to rebrand. I needed a business plan of some kind, and to do that I needed to actually define what I did, why, and how. You know, like I do for my clients. And so, following a complicated year (client work plus internal work becomes a tricky balancing act), Upshot was born.
I finished my talk by sharing some work (designers love that, remember…). Initially just some slides with pretty pictures, but also two case studies of recent successes with Connect Academy Trust and Ivybridge Brewing Co (coming soon to an Upshot website near you).
Mmmm, takeaways
Darren Foley, PDF co-founder and bleddy legend, then interviewed me briefly and hosted a short Q&A session, and it was great to see how the talk had come across and what it had revealed. And for me, just being able to reflect on that over the past week has helped me articulate a few important learning points to share.
It’s not just about talent.
I was FAR from the most talented designer in my degree year. If you’re feeling that there are more gifted creatives with more skills than you, don’t fear. For me, the key was learning and hard work. I wanted it, so I made it happen. I’m still not the most talented, but that’s ok – I know what I’m good at, and I work around the other parts.
It’s also not just about where you’ve worked.
I’ve never worked in a big agency in London. I’ve never scaled the hierarchy, taking part in the big brand projects that give many designers what they ultimately end up taking with them into their own businesses. I’ve often felt imposter syndrome because of this, because I realise there are people with more relevant experience than me, or more confidence/skills perhaps. But although there may still be some truth in this, actually my own story is my own, as is my experience and skillset. What I bring to my clients, suppliers and employees is authentically because of my own journey, and they still work with me, so it can’t be all that bad!
Other people.
Following on from the above, if I feel like there’s something I’m not so good at, I would rather collaborate with someone who is in order to create a better end result than I could do on my own. Having my little team at Upshot, as well as a great network of partners, makes us far stronger than just me on my own. No man is an island, and I don’t think many people get very far without a little help from their friends.
You don’t have to see the future.
My career was never on an intentional trajectory. In the sense that I wanted to be a ‘designer’ and ‘design’ was a vocation, I guess it was. But I distinctly remember feeling like running an agency was never going to be part of my story. Looking back, it’s amazing to see how things have changed.
Step by step.
One thing Darren prompted in our Q&A was the idea that each step in my career was critical and set the stage for the next one. I couldn’t have skipped any of the stages to get further ahead more quickly – the foundations I’ve built have been based on a combination of my own determination, random coincidences, the help of other people and seemingly negative situations.
Values are important but they take time and work to understand.
The principles behind Upshot are real, authentic and meaningful. They’ve been there all through my career, but I hadn’t developed or summarised them until I launched the business. I’m writing a BIG article (ebook, perhaps) about this subject, so keep an eye out for that.
Find your own ‘Why’.
I talk about this in branding projects a lot. Simon Sinek’s ‘Start With Why’ book, and the Golden Circle that features in his popular TED talk are fabulous resources, but I think the penny dropped for me during my own talk that my own ‘Why’ – the principle, cause or belief behind why I do what I do – is that design and creative ideas have power to inspire and make a massive difference in situations large and small. All it takes is great ideas, executed beautifully.
Be encouraged – look back.
I shared a piece of work I created in my first design job. In a manic 48hr period, including one all nighter, I designed a whole magazine launch issue from scratch. I’d never done anything like it before. And as cringeworthy as it is to look back at the dreadful design choices and typographic mistakes, I’m proud of myself for getting the job done. And now I can look back at how my skills were then, and be massively encouraged by how they are now!
–
Written by Owen
Event photography by Luke Frost, courtesy of PDF.
The UK’s most transparent water company?
The UK’s most transparent water company?
15th June 2022
An interview with Stuart from Connect Academy Trust.
Every now and then you come across a business so unique that you’re forced to ask, ‘why isn’t everyone doing that?’. Until we met Neil and Fi from Devonia, we’d have naturally assumed that in the spring water industry, recycling glass bottles would be by far the best way to maximise ecologically sound credentials and operate sustainably.
Not so.
In fact, Devonia’s method (not dissimilar to the classic milk float model) involves bottling locally-sourced spring water from our wonderful county of Devon and delivering it by the crate to hospitality clients across the south-west. The glass bottles are then collected, meticulously washed, refilled and the process begins again.
We have seen the addition of 35 new customers since introducing the Infographic and it has been used to explain clearly what it is we do.”
Incredible impact
This process is so effective that it reduces 94% of the CO2 that would be produced by recycling the bottles and uses just 6% of the energy. Their bottle re-use rate is 82% and on average each bottle is washed and reused eight times!
Upshot were approached to find a creative solution that pushed the cyclical operation to the forefront of their communications.
The problem was, nobody really knew. Their brand identity and labels didn’t showcase anything of the process and who knows what opportunities they’d missed by failing to shout about their truly unique credentials? That’s where we were approached (thanks to a referral from the wonderful people at Food Drink Devon and RAW PR – to find a creative campaign or infographic design that pushed the cyclical operation to the forefront of their communications.
When the perfect idea strikes
As always, we started with a bit of brand discovery – always helpful to gauge what’s important to the client and their audience. And as we began sketching simple infographics to show what we thought was a circular piece, the idea of the infinity loop came to the fore – with delivery and collection both taking place at the same time and place in the centre.
…the idea of the infinity loop came to the fore
Working with illustrator Chris Wharton we depicted three key parts of the process and built these into the infographic design, integrating some of Devonia’s amazing statistics and labelling the stages. The final artwork is ready to showcase wherever they need it. On the side of their delivery van, as a wall mural, in a printed brochure or on their website. And in the interest of responsiveness, a simplified version was also drawn up to be used where space is more limited – email signatures, bottle labels etc.
Fiona explained:
“We reached out to Upshot as we were looking for an effective way to communicate our unique distribution method which puts the environment front and centre of what we do. The problem we had was no one, including our customers, had a real grasp on why our operation was so unique.
“We were entering a growth phase at that moment and we needed a way of telling our story without a full rebrand which would be something we wanted to work towards over the next few years. We were therefore looking for the creation of an infographic which would become the centre of a campaign that would start to tell our story as well as becoming a key piece of sales collateral as we expanded our business.
…no one, including our customers, had a real grasp on why our operation was so unique.”
“Upshot’s inclusive and dynamic way of working left us at Devonia feeling enthused and excited about the phase our business was about to enter. After spending a morning with Owen working through various tasks and scenarios, we walked out very excited about the initial concept we had sketched out in front of us. We were both pleasantly surprised at how much fun we had exploring what our business was and where we would like it to be, and have carried a lot of the ideas we discussed that morning forward into other projects.
“The infographic has really allowed us to start communicating who we are in a more effective manner. We have successfully utilised the Infographic in various press releases via RAW PR and Marketing, have vans lined up to have the infographic printed. The Infographic has now become a key part of our sales collateral and we expect the image to become synonymous with our branding as we grow.
…our customers have a great story to tell their end user and the infographic helps the delivery of that story.”
We have seen the addition of 35 new customers since introducing the Infographic and it has been used to explain clearly what it is we do. We have also found that our customers have a great story to tell their end user and the infographic helps the delivery of that story.
“We loved working with Upshot, and with no doubt will be returning customers.“
—
We love working with food and drinks companies that go the extra mile, and creating this for Devonia was a fantastic experience. Keep an eye out for them as their profile continues to rise!
–
Written by Owen
Supercharging E Electrical’s website for the EV revolution
Supercharging E Electrical’s website for the EV revolution
7th June 2022
An interview with Stuart from Connect Academy Trust.
It’s no surprise that with the world turning towards cleaner energy that even the businesses of Plymouth are preparing for a greener world.
E Electrical is still an infant in its industry, but is part of the a larger group that’s been serving the South West for over 20 years, the E Service Group.
Their ambitious nature to try something new led to us running a brand workshop with them and develop a website to showcase their offering for Electric Vehicle charging.
Putting the spotlight on their difference
When we started working on the E Electrical website redesign, there were still some mixed messaging from the main group. The group had grown out of necessity – for domestic and commercial clients who needed to offer full compliancy for lifts, fire and electrical services. This rapid growth of services meant that the brand backbone to the E Service Group was almost nonexistent.
This isn’t totally unusual when dealing with larger companies with many offerings. Without an anchor point for all these loose offerings to hang off, it makes it harder for these to co-exist organically – this is what brand can achieve.
As we explored other holding groups’ messaging, we found that some championed their people and some their service offering.
Very rarely the two were combined, and never in the E Service Group’s industry. We were set on a path to highlight how nurtured experts can result in the highest quality of work.
The details of a more energised E Electrical
Although not a branding exercise in the visual sense, the brand sprint had set us up with a reference point for website decisions. This helped us select appropriate typefaces, colours, copy, and even the hierarchy of content.
E Electrical isn’t your usual handyman/electrician. With the support of the larger group, they have a full office team behind them, which makes responding to emergencies all so seamless. With the need to showcase this difference, we introduced variations of the emergency vehicle patterns throughout the website.
It’s exciting for us to send out a revitalised look of an existing brand. It certainly looks far different to any other electrician in the South West. We even dusted off our own photography skills to avoid using an overwhelming amount of stock photos found on competitor websites!
Prepared for the future
Our considerations for the website went far beyond the aesthetics. The website redesign was built around carefully planned strands of dynamic content so it was constantly feeling fresh when people would load up the website.
We developed their bespoke CMS within Webflow from our initial conversations around EV. They needed to prepare for more change, and and they’re now able to do exactly that without needing to worry about layout or design.
Both E Electrical and E Service Group directors were blown away by how much value we were able to add and we look forward to seeing the site start to translate into more traffic and leads. The next step in continuing our relationship with the group is to take the brand workshop into other deliverables such as an EV campaign, other E Service Group websites and who knows, perhaps a rebrand…
Want to see it for yourself? View the live site here.
–
Written by Calum
Episode 3: Kath Simpson, Creative Switch
Episode 3: Kath Simpson, Creative Switch
4th March 2022
An interview with Stuart from Connect Academy Trust.
How important is branding and marketing to charities? What challenges do they face in these areas? What pain points do they encounter, and what lessons have they learnt that could help others benefit? Every charity is different and every person we speak to on this podcast will have a different experience and story to tell.
With extensive experience with a whole range of charities including Macmillan Cancer Support, Shelter and WaterAid amongst others, Kath Simpson has learnt a thing or two about how to help her clients make the most of their budgets. From building brands, launching successful campaigns and strategies, and helping teams to work more effectively, her to approach to innovation has played a key role in her clients’ success.
In this episode, Kath and Owen discuss how writing a great brief can help charities make their budget work harder for them – delivering more effective results and reducing the risk of unnecessary additional costs.
It’s okay to not feel creative. I think it’s [about] understanding [creativity’s] value and allowing the people who are creatives to come up with ideas. Even if it feels uncertain, creativity is about new and novel and innovative things that haven’t necessarily or they haven’t happened in your organisation before.
Kath Simpson
You can listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or watch the full video above or on our Youtube channel.
As the season continues, you’ll hear personal anecdotes, valuable learning points and get a first-hand insight into the world of charities including Dogs Trust and First Give, and how they approach and apply their brands. Don’t forget to check back and listen to James Reekie from Macmillan Cancer Support on episode 1 if you haven’t already.
With a new conversation each month, subscribe on your preferred streaming service to make sure you don’t miss a thing. We want this to be an open conversation – if you have questions or points to add, just get in touch. And if you work in charity comms, design or marketing and fancy being a guest on the show we’d love to hear from you.
And if this interests you, you might like to check out our recent article exploring the concerns and benefits of branding within the charity sector once you’ve finished the podcast.
–
Written by Owen