Tag Archive for 'design'

Stock toasts earnings leap

Published on July 9, 2010 in International and Web. 0 Comments Tags: Corporate, Czysta, design, Europe, logo, Stock Spirits, web design, website, Zoladkowa Gorzka.

Long-standing Wild West client, Stock Spirits Group has released a sterling set of figures for calendar 2009, as group revenue rose 17% to €262 million ($323m) and EBITDA jumped 46% to €62.9 million ($78m).

Stock Group, national and international sales websites were designed and programmed by Wild West, sometimes requiring two or three languages.

The group’s performance was led by Polish vodka Czysta de Luxe (launched in 2007), which more than doubled to 5.4 million cases in 2009 in its domestic market.

Stock’s Zoladkowa Gorzka vodka is also prominent in Poland, where the company claims to have now attained the vodka market lead with a 30% share.

Stock says it also maintained a leading position in the Czech Republic’s spirits market with a 36% share, remained the leading spirits importer in Slovakia and opened sales and distribution operations in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia during the year, where new websites were launched.

Great design – It all adds up

Published on June 17, 2010 in Brand and identity, Corporate and Design. 1 Comment Tags: branding, Corporate, design, design inspiration, Hatton Grange, identity, start-up, Stock Spirits, venture-backed, web site, website.

No matter whether you are a start-up operation just beginning to make your mark on the business world, or an established company with a brand to protect and enhance, the way you look is important.

And it’s not so good when your website (for example) looks great, but your corporate stationery looks second class. Or your product literature is great, but you’re let down by an outbound email. High quality is important and consistent quality more important still.

At WildWest Design, we’re proud to provide that consistency of approach. Because we’re not the largest of design companies, we have to be incredibly thorough about detail, (as well as providing the inspiration in terms of the big picture), because getting things right – from a business card or a powerpoint presentation to a corporate display or a product launch – really does matter. It means business for our clients, and it means business for us too.

Our bright and confident logo for Hatton Grange, a company providing specialist services to private equity and venture capital companies

Hatton Grange (see the story directly below) are the latest new company to launch with a new identity, new stationery and new website – all designed by WildWest. They join a growing list of companies working with WildWest, either for specific projects or on the basis of regular and frequent needs. You’ll find that list to the right of this story. Scroll down to the ‘Contacts’ section.

In total contrast to this project was our work for central Europe’s largest manufacturer of branded spirits. Stock Spirits neeed to document and control the use of their brand mark over different territories, and to ensure a consistency of approach in terms of corporate websites wherever their products are sold. WildWest designed and implemented a set of ten websites, many with two and three language versions.

Different companies have different requirements, but our award-winning service can be important whether you have specific design needs, or you are concerned to have a service that will reinforce your product and service quality wherever you are visible.

Brands2Life – 10 Years Old!

Published on May 7, 2010 in Brand and identity and PR. 0 Comments Tags: Brands2Life, design, PR, PR Agency, Technology PR, Telecomms PR, www.brands2life.com.

Gosh, it’s 10 years since we designed the logo for a new PR company called Brands2Life.
Now, they are one of the most successful PR outfits around with a client list that is based in technology and telecomms, but stretches a long way into other areas too.

And they are still a client of Wild West! Over the years, we’ve worked on web, advertising, direct marketing, print design and display projects for the agency directly and for its clients.

We would like to add our congratulations to Giles Fraser and Sarah Scales, who have made Brands2Life such a success over 10 years.

Indicus Advisors – New Look, New Outlook

Published on March 11, 2010 in Brand and identity and Web. 0 Comments Tags: client, design, finance, Indicus, Indicus Advisors, investment, Peace Dividend, Resolute Asset Management, website.

Our finance and investment clients have been busy this month. Indicus Advisors have just implemented their ‘refreshed’ new logo and should be going live with their new website design very shortly. Meanwhile, Resolute Asset Management and Peace Dividend (a company investing in Yemen) are the latest companies in this sector to add to the WildWest client list.

Indicus, whose business is in the white hot territory of the finance markets, think they may just be over the leap they have had to make from the old assumptions to the new. So maybe the recovery actually is on the way.

More on all of these developments very soon.

Do-it-yourself identities? Oh no…

Published on February 24, 2010 in Design. 0 Comments Tags: Advertising, branding, business services, Corporate, design, direct mail, Display, identity, Indicus Advisors, investment, literature, logo, Marketing, PR, sales literature, Satya Capital, Secerno, Sonaptic, start-up, Tribold, Vintage Wine Gifts, Web, web site, website.

Our identity for Vintage Wine Gifts, at the time, a new business

DIY has a lot to answer for, notably the stunted growth or premature demise of many promising start-up companies.

Good design isn’t always expensive. (It does though get more expensive the less you are prepared to think through your brief, and more expensive still with your unwillingness to put your requirements in writing).

It is however, an investment, just like the computers and the desks you buy. And just as you wouldn’t think of building your own furniture or electronic equipment, please don’t think of designing your own logo, website, sales literature or advertising. These are quite simply, jobs for professionals.

Most professionals will treat early-stage companies with consideration. They will make it as easy as possible to buy their professional skills, and create the resources that all businesses need in order to grow. They may even postpone some or all of their charges until a company finds it can afford them.

Improvements to the Sonaptic logo included a strapline to show core skills

Because professionals like us like to think that we can build a basis of trust between us. That, as your needs grow, you’ll stay with us, and we’ll grow with you.

That’s good business for us. It gives us a real interest in your future and in the effectiveness of the work we can do for you.

We may not still work with all the companies we’ve helped from an early stage, but we’re certainly still doing business with Alcentra, Brands2Life, Indicus Advisors, Satya Capital and Vintage Wine Gifts among others. We’re proud of our contribution to the success of many more – including Secerno, Tribold and Sonaptic.

All these companies found success by using their own skills to best effect, and also by using ours.

Design isn’t a part-time job. When you need it, talk to professionals like us.

What more do you need from us?

Published on October 20, 2009 in Brand and identity, Corporate and Marketing. 0 Comments Tags: Activation, awards, Barclays, Barclays Premier League, branding, Corporate, credentials, design, electronic marketing, financial, identity, private equity, sponsorship, start-up, Stock Spirits, testimonial, Web, web design, web site.

We’ve implemented a new web site. At the moment, it’s a simple holding site – in line with our bold new look. You can reach it on our old address (www.wildwildwest.co.uk) or on our new one – www.designwildwest.com

The pictures which you view through the WW device are samples of our work – from the ribbons on the Barclays Premier League trophy, through to our web site for Stock Spirits.

It is just a holding page really, but you can check our address, view or download our (very smart!) new credentials document or (of course) link through from the site to this blog (and we’ll be updating our blog header very soon too).

If you would like to see more from us – either on the web site or on this blog – then please let us know. At the moment we’re debating what we feature on the web site – our past award-winning work, case studies on topics as widely different as corporate naming or annual reports, or simply the kind comments we’ve had from our clients over the years. Please do get in touch if you have suggestions or comments!

And if you’ve not dealt with us before, maybe now is the time to think about whether we can help you? As you’ll see – in corporate design, in web and electronic marketing, and in sport sponsorship activation – we have a pretty good track record. Why not go to our web site now and take a look at our brand spanking new credentials document? We hope it will convince you to get in touch.

Please bookmark our address now: www.designwildwest.com

Our New Look

Published on October 16, 2009 in Brand and identity. 0 Comments Tags: Corporate, design, identity, logo.

Our new brand mark

Phew! Stage one of our new look goes live from 18th October. It’s taken us a while to get there, but you can check our holding page (and, if the mood takes you) download a copy of our new credentials document from our site. Use either the old address (www.wildwildwest.co.uk) or our new url (www.designwildwest.com). In between working for all our clients, we’ll be working on the new web site and our new stationery, which will also be going into production very soon. You can see our new mark on this post. Big, bold and confident, our new mark will help us to maintain our position as a respected supplier of corporate design services for print and display, and also for the web and electronic media.

You only do it once a year. The Annual Report

Published on September 18, 2009 in Corporate and Design. 0 Comments Tags: annual, annual report, Charles Taylor, Corporate, design, financial, P&I, report, shipping, Standard Bermuda, Standard London.

Standard Annual Reports

Every year, you have the opportunity to put the case for your company, to analyse its trading position and the measures it is taking to ensure continued profitability and growth. There’s no question that the Annual Report is an important document.

It will be of vital importance to shareholders and other investors too, if you have them, but many other groups will study the document, for reassurance or the reverse. Your staff, your customers, analysts and journalists, members of trade bodies, those who supply you with services and products – these are just some of the possible groups who will be interested in what you have to say and how you make your case.

Wild West has worked on annual reports for two of the largest and most successful organisations in marine insurance for some years now. The Standard Clubs of London and Bermuda provide mutual insurance to a large percentage of the world’s shipping, making sure that international trade can continue to thrive.

We’d like to think that our design and presentation input has helped these organisations – and the company that manages them, Charles Taylor & Co – to grow and thrive.

Premier League News

Published on September 7, 2009 in Marketing and Sport. 0 Comments Tags: Activation, Barclays, design, Marketing, Soccer, sponsorship, Sport.

: Standout photography lifts Barclays magazine

Wild West has just redesigned the covers of the Barclays soccer magazine that carries news and views about the Barclays Premier League, widely acknowledged now to be the most competitive, and certainly the most popular, club soccer championship in the world. Barclays is a long-standing supporter of the Premier League and is an active and effective sponsor, helping to widen its appeal internationally, as well as at home. The Barclays Premier League is a key component of Barclays marketing plans which are designed to cement its position as one of the world’s leading financial institutions.

Helping to Eliminate Pollution

Published on August 24, 2009 in Corporate, Design and Unusual. 0 Comments Tags: Charles Taylor, design, literature, P&I, Pollution response, publication, Standard London.

Guidance on Responding to Pollution for Dutch shipowners

All over the world, shipowners and seamen are being told to eliminate pollution, to such an extent that, in many areas, it is a criminal offence to cause or allow pollution to happen, even accidentally. Much of the burden of this problem – and everyone agrees that pollution must be prevented – falls on those who insure commercial shipping. This is true especially for the many commercial craft who ply their trade on Europe’s waterways. One of the leading insurers is the Standard London organisation, whose managers are longstanding Wild West clients, the city-based Charles Taylor & Co., part of Charles Taylor Consulting. As part of their response to the need for continued vigilance about pollution and the need to handle it effectively, Pollution Response sheets like these are designed and produced by Wild West in a variety of languages – Russian, Dutch, German and English. Just another example of how designers have to deal with multi-lingual issues these days! You can see more our design work for Charles Taylor at www.standard-club.com/knowledgecentre/