The brands I love
Hey – my names Mattie, I’m the Design Director here at Orb. With today being Valentines Day I’ve been asked to put a few words together to show the brands that I love. Being able to get a customers brand loyalty is a hard task (Being able to get a brand designers loyalty is probably harder) it takes years of consistent experiences with values that traditionally align with how that customer thinks. I’ve included a few brands below that I love – I’m loyal to each of these brands for different reasons whether it’s the service they provide, their story or they just look top dog.
Channel 4
Channel 4 is awesome – Tink, our strategist at Orb – has said this isn’t a good enough reason to create a whole blog for our site, so I need to elaborate.
The reason I love Channel 4 is because of their brave work. Whether it’s their design or programming, not everyone loves them but it feels appropriate to who they are. Their idents, awesome. Their weird font, awesome. Those Paralympic ads, amazing. No matter what it is – from the smallest jingle to a larger brand campaign – it all feels exciting, brave and Channel 4 also don’t really care if you disagree.
I actually went to see the ex-Creative Director of Channel 4, Alice Tongue, speak at last years Birmingham Design Festival where she spoke about how “It’s more important for a brave idea to miss the mark and fail” rather than it “be boring” – or something to that effect. I think this idea of making a stand and doing something different, rather than falling in line with what is expected is a bang on a summary of why I love Channel 4.
Misc Goods
Misc Goods sells exactly what it says on the tin – they sell a selection of Misc goods. It’s how these products are made and the final, tiniest, tiniest attention to detail they are given that makes me love this brand.
“If a product does good it makes you feel good and if you feel good than you’ll be your best self”
Despite obviously looking amazing each of their products are individually hand-made and ethically produced – which, for me, justifies spending £15 rather than picking up the £2 bottle of Lynx for the local shop. If a product does good it makes you feel good and if you feel good then you’ll be most yourself. Visual design is key when it comes to the Misc Good products, each and every product is littered with their own little marks, custom typography and colours that allow for every touchpoint to feel different and unique. But it’s not just the flat visual work that does it for me – playing into the handcrafted nature of the brand they also take fierce detail in their attention to craft with twine, wax seals and wood engraving on their products which pushes the identity past looking personalised but also feeling personalised.
www.misc-goods-co.com
Mutt Cycles
Full disclosure – I don’t have a motorbike, wish I did but it doesn’t affect the fact that I love the Mutt brand.
Mutt produces some of the tidiest looking motorbikes out there, no idea if it’s a good motorbike or not but it looks bloody nice. As if making slick Jame Bond-y looking bikes isn’t enough, Mutt also produce some top-notch t-shirts with forever evolving brand assets and logos that always feel fresh. This is probably the main reason I love Mutt – they have an established brand identity but aren’t strict in making things consistent, there’s no need – they’re not a corporate brand and they obviously want to show off their adventurous nature. Logos, punchy typography and hand-drawn illustration change at every touchpoint to make your eyes want them.
The Mutt HQ is based in Digbeth so give them a visit for a waterfall of beautiful design work.
