SERVICES

We provide a full spectrum of business services including strategy, consultancy, mentoring, automation, brand development and design.

We have produced solutions for fashion houses, film, galleries, tech and sports giants through to tv channels and national museums.

Experience

Over the last 25 years, the founders of Institute, have worked on thousands of projects that includes work for the following brands:

Adidas, Barclays, BBC, Bench, The Body Shop, Boots, The British Museum, The Carphone Warehouse, Cartoon Network, Cath Kidston, Clarins, Conde Naste, Daks, The Design Museum, Diesel, Disney Stores, EMI, Esquire Sport Magazine, Exposure, Fate Face, Fred Perry, Givenchy, Gieves & Hawkes, Godiva, Habitat, Halifax, Haribo, Harrods, House of Fraser, Hedkayse, HMV, The Independent, Kookai, Levis, Marks & Spencer, MGA, National Gallery, Procter and Gamble, Royal Court Theatre, Selfridges, Schuh, Sony, Superdry, TATE Enterprises, Ted Baker, Three Mobile, Tower Records, TKMaxx, UNIQLO, United International Pictures, Virgin, Vodaphone and Zoological Society of London.

We bring this experience of the design and delivery of a diversity of projects to Institute.

Business Development

We provide mentoring in business practice and development. We cover the progression of practice, the nuts and bolts of running a business through to brand strategy and development. We provide consultancy and think-tank style services for creative businesses, organisations and initiatives. We cover strategy, identity frameworks and business development. We are used to thinking outside the box and asking the right questions that result in the right frameworks for success.

Consultancy

We tend to focus on SMEs, as they are the collective powerhouse of the UK Economy and often do not receive the support they require. An external support structure characterised by objective analysis and targeted support is often a key mechanism for the success for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Our business consultancy is run by Steve Barradell. Steve is an approved business mentor for Enterprise Nation on the Help to Grow initiative.

Enterprise Nation exists to shortcut the route to trusted business support. Founded by Emma Jones CBE in 2005, Enterprise Nation has grown to a community of over 120,000 people. They support people to start and grow their own successful businesses and represent their views to the government and media: www.enterprisenation.com.

Steve is also a member of The Association of Business Mentors: www.associationofbusinessmentors.org and a Creative Business Mentor on the EMC2 Create Growth Programme: www.eastmidlandscreategrowth.co.uk

Our recent work includes the running of an incubator Course for Phoenix Arts (the REAL Initiative). We supported 25 Digital Artists and Documentary Film Makers in getting them business ready, providing them with strategic advice, support and mentoring and to create a platform for growth. We are about to start a short series of courses for East Midlands Creative Consortium: Conversations with a Machine

We have extensive experience in Branding , Business Planning , E-commerce, Communication, Freelancing, B2B Marketing, Data & Analysis, Problem solving, Strategy - both business and creative, Sales.

The Benefits of Mentoring

Gaining new perspectives

Since mentors, by definition, have more experience than their mentees, they look at the world with a different perspective. As each decision is considered, the mentor will bring an informed opinion to bear as it is likely that they have seen the pros and cons of this situation before.

Improved leadership abilities

A mentor often performs many leadership duties, such as inspiring their mentees, providing guidance, and even solving taxing problems. They may also give constructive feedback to their mentees. Developing these skills will help you become a better leader in the future.

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurs tend to like ‘going alone’. Business owners will often state that If I had their time again, they would have worked with several mentors to learn valuable lessons from each. From not making certain business decisions to fostering certain partnerships, a mentor can help guide you through your entrepreneurial journey.

Networks and contacts

Your mentor has already acquired a variety of valuable contacts that could be out of reach to you. Your mentor can facilitate access and open doors, giving you the opportunity to develop your business and grow your network. Networking opportunities are often the key to business growth.

Confidence building

Confidence grows through the mentoring process. You will have a guide for the ups and downs of business and develop the ability to succeed.

The Benefits of Consultancy

You need an outside / objective opinion

Sometimes it’s difficult to solve your own problems because you’re just too involved. You might just be so close to the problem that you’re missing an obvious solution. When there are tough decisions to be made, sometimes it’s easier to leave it to an expert who isn’t personally involved or emotionally invested.

Business consultants are experts in their field. They’ve helped numerous other companies to work through similar issues and they know what’s worked in the past. This experience means that they can bring new and innovative ideas that you might not have thought of yourself.

When you hire a business consultant, you’ll get a new perspective on whatever problems you’re facing, from an outsider’s point of view.

You lack time or resources

No matter how important the problem is, sometimes you just don’t have the time to dedicate to solving it. You’ve still got your day-to-day business to focus on and finding the time to resolve your challenges just feels impossible.

You could hire a new employee to give you the time to focus on the issue at hand, but you know it’ll only be temporary and training a new employee can be time-consuming.

Hiring a business consultant is a great way to outsource your problems to a professional. They’re used to moving around different companies, which means they’ll get to know your business quickly with minimal training required. And most importantly – you can continue with your day-to-day operations so your business doesn’t suffer either.

You have a tactical project you are struggling to complete our to resource or expertise.

Design

We help creatives, brands and organisations to develop their ideas and to design solutions that communicate these ideas to their chosen audiences.

We believe in the maxim, Form follows function. The solutions that we produce should look, feel and essentially, be, the answer to your problem. Each problem requires a unique solution that emerges out of the design process. By going through the discovery stage to define the core problems to solve, we are then free to develop a solution that solves these unique problems and is fit for your purpose. This is a formula for success. It encourages clarity in the way we think about the project objectives. That aids communication with each other. This clarity allows us to get from A to B in an understandable way but allows us the freedom to produce dynamic solutions.

Projects Portfolio

Graffio Arts 9/18/23 Graffio Arts 9/18/23

Here There Be Monsters. An Identity System for Rendah Films

We were asked to create an identity system for the production company, Rendah Films.

Rendah Films wanted an identity system that would express their creativity and work as a street tag while projecting their technical expertise and professionalism. It all kicked off with the creation of ‘Monstah’, a mascot created from the letter R.

Make it stand out

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

We met Emily and Rob from Rendah Films when we were running the REAL incubation programme at Phoenix in Leicester. Rendah went on to produce a documentary focusing on creative practice at Institute. We were delighted to work with them again to develop an identity package.

APPROPRIATE BACKGROUND MUSIC

Rob produces original music for each Rendah project and we thought this this should play a role in the visual design. We developed typography grids from sheet music layouts and templates to produce square promotional materials that follow the visual tropes of music EPs or albums.

EMERGING FROM THE MIDLANDS

Rendah is colloquial version of render, a nod to local pronunciation and digital production techniques. When overlayed and rotated, the R from Rendah forms a shape like a camera aperture. We added an eye and a graphic mascot was born. When the mascot became the obvious way forward, Rob followed the same naming logic and called it ‘Monstah’.

MID CENTURY MONSTERS

As we were researching the history of film promotion including posters, titles, company logos and a wide spread of film marketing collateral it was a reminder that we were in a headspace that was producing work more in-line with Saul Bass in the 1950s/60s than something more contemporary. This work was simple, flat, iconic and unpolished and we were happy with that!

FILM QUOTES

We used a spread of film quotes throughout the identity to highlight certain ways of thinking about the construction of the identity. The way things end up looking is a by product of ideas and goals. We might use typography to convey X but we might use a colour to convey something else. This had to convey Rob and Emily’s lively personalities as well as their professionalism and integrity.

IT’S ALIVE!

We designed a very simple, clean wordmark logo. This would contrast with the motif and bold colours that felt quite tribal. When Rob said that he once had a skateboard with a motif that felt similar, we knew we were in the right place.

CREATIVITY AND DISCIPLINE

The identity system has to work in a variety of ways. It has to support video material at times but also stand on its own as a graphic language when text is the main form of communication. It has to be fun but it also has to do a variety of jobs.

A CATALOGUE OF MONSTERS

To future-proof the identity we created a colour system with a set visual contrast that could be reproduced in colours from around the spectrum. The fact that some colours are lighter and have to remain light to be identified as that colour (yellow for example) was factored in. The system would produce multiple Monstah motifs but the least successful could be discarded while the best would be retained.

MERCHANDISING

Its all about the swag…

PRODUCTION LOGO

We produced an animated sting for the production logo. This is a very short sequence, usually used at the beginning of a film to highlight the production company. We wanted it to be bold but it cannot take away from the film so needs to end quickly. We took a section of the drums from Monster Mash and changed the tempo and distorted them to create something new. The sequence includes the wordmark logo and the motif. Emily came up with the idea that the eye could flash to represent a camera going into record mode.

Now that Rendah have the identity system templates and assets they are coming up with fresh ways to use the graphics and creating their own animated sequences.

THE SEQUENCE

THE VIDEO

THE FUTURE

Working with Rendah Films was fun. We’ve had such a positive experience from the mentoring on the REAL initiative where we could see their business developing in between sessions to the filming of their documentary at institute. It was a pleasure to be able to work with them again to develop their identity.

Rob and Emily- we wish you the very best for the future and we’re around if you need any help. This is also true for other creative businesses that want to get ahead. If you need some advice, then get in touch, we’d be happy to help.

Graffio Arts 3/6/22 Graffio Arts 3/6/22

These Boot Were Made for Walking

A full creative business and brand development solution for shoe designers, Agnes & Elina.

We have been working with Agnes and Elina, two talented shoe designers to develop their brand and business strategy.

Design, Management and business coaching: Graffio Arts.

Make it stand out

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

We are working together on identity, art-direction, working with Hanna Bodsworth on product photography, messaging, e—commerce, production, suppliers and strategies. Things are moving along nicely and we are looking forward to helping them get their products to market.

Make it stand out

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.