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new work – QuidCycle animation and website.

Here’s the cutely animated result of a short script we wrote recently to explain QuidCycle, a new ethical peer-to-peer lending programme. totalcontent was brought in by branding agency Collider to help with launch materials for this new venture — and to write their website too. The aim was to take the fear factor out of money by using reassuringly friendly, accessible language.

new work – Godiva chocolatier email shot.

Strange yet gratifying when something you've written pops into your email inbox unexpectedly. Here's a little something we crafted recently for Godiva, the luxury Belgian chocolatier. Sweet.

new work — Devonshire Square, positioning and website.

Over the past 18 months or so, we’ve been working extensively with branding consultancy Bostock & Pollitt, mainly on (London) property projects. Their particular strength is unearthing something unique about a given development, and then bringing this to life through their branding ideas. We’ve been helping out by expressing B&P’s creative theme in words, naming, straplines, developing an appropriate tone of voice, and then creating copy for digital and printed collateral.

One of these projects was Devonshire Square, an architecturally diverse campus with 630,000 sq ft of office space, shops, homes, restaurants and bars, tucked between the City and Shoreditch.

Read on...

new work — Supple Studio website.

Supple and demand... Jamie Ellul’s clean, copy-focused website

A small-but-satisfying job for the newly formed Supple Studio. This is the latest incarnation of the hugely talented and affable Jamie Ellul, latterly of Magpie. Branching out on his own and making the move to Bath from London, naturally enough, he needed a website to set up stall and tout his wares.

Jamie already had a pretty clear idea of what he wanted to say, but brought us in to refine, edit and add our own thoughts to his rough draft. We tried to keep the overall tone friendly-yet-professional, confident without being arrogant.

We particularly like the simplicity of the Supple website, and how the bold words take centre stage. The Supple logo, based on a section sign glyph in the typeface Bella, is pretty smart too.

Often, writing for designers can be tortuous. I remember a certain ‘About Us’ paragraph taking six months to get approval as it did the rounds of everybody at the agency. Fortunately, this project went beautifully smoothly. We hope Jamie’s exciting new venture does the same.

new work – Reeve wood flooring rebrand.

We’re delighted to have played a part in the recent relaunch of Reeve. They’re wood flooring and fittings specialists based in Norfolk, who work extensively with architects and designers.

That’s how they fell in with the good folks at Felt Branding, who duly persuaded them to undertake a complete brand overhaul that would chime better with their main client base. Felt created a light, contemporary identity system, making it easier for clients to understand the Reeve range and specify accordingly. The rebrand included an ingenious ‘r’ logo that also manages to look like a tree.

It fell to totalcontent to develop Reeve’s tone of voice and write website and sample book copy. We wanted to put over the company’s deep appreciation of wood as a material, as well as their knowledge and experience. All wrapped up in a friendly accessible style, of course. The website was developed by Mesh London, while the sample book was immaculately printed by Generation Press, the go-to printers for the design cognoscenti.

It was great to get a write up and name check on the CreativeReview blog too.

new work – Millington Assocs.

Millington Associates are designer/makers for retail environments. Based in south London, they create spectacular window displays and retail interiors for big brands — everyone from Nike and De Beers to Next and Diesel. Multi-skilled and multi talented, MA’s work is dramatic, ambitious and witty, needing to grab people’s attention as they walk down the street.

We were asked by Thoughtomatic, MA’s branding agency, to write the copy for their rather stylish website. This included coming up with the strapline ‘Imagination made real’, and as many words with MA in them as possible. To take a quick peek at what we came up with, just follow this link.

new work – Viaduct.

It’s certainly not the most complex project we’ve been involved in. Even so, there’s a beautiful simplicity about the new Viaduct website. Which is fitting, as Viaduct supplies elegant, often minimalist, European furniture to a discerning clientele of architects, interior designers and design-savvy punters.

Owner and main man James Mair was adamant that people don’t want to trawl through a lot of copy, before getting to grips with the product. Nevertheless, he wanted the words to set the scene and subtly convey the Viaduct personality.

As usual, James and his colleagues were a pleasure to work with... we’d previously provided the text for a Made Thought-designed brochure, which Viaduct is still using after ten years. A timeless classic, you might say — like a piece of furniture you might find in the Viaduct showroom.

www.viaduct.co.uk

new work – Navyblue.

Branding consultancy navyblue’s new web site really bucks the trend. There are no images, just big, bold, unapologetic words, spelling out the agency’s beliefs and credentials loud and strong. All of which were provided bytotalcontent. Using a direct question-and-answer format, we set up a verbal template in which navyblue’s various strengths and capabilities were conveyed through a series of succinct case studies. It’s good to see writing being used so positively and confidently, and design taking a back seat to content. To read more, visit www.navyblue.co.uk.

new work – Exposure.

Fashion-led communications agency exposure’s new web site is an all-singing, all dancing affair that reflects the vibrancy of the company’s people. Populated by quirky robots and toys, and featuring cartoon-like sound effects and animation, it’s a tour de force in young-at-heart online design. totalcontent provided the necessary balance with accessible, yet business-like summaries of the agency’s vision, credentials and short descriptions of its different departments. Random, lateral quotes from staff, culled from their business cards (a previous totalcontent commission), pop up when you least expect them.

new work – Paul Smith Story.

Talk about a dream brief. To compose a poetic stream-of-consciousness about the urge to write. That’s what Alan Aboud asked Jim to produce for the launch of Story, a new men’s fragrance in a book-shaped bottle by Paul Smith.

The words, painstakingly retyped on one of Paul’s ancient Olivetti machines, were overlayered on to photographs of a bespectacled young man, representing ‘the writer’ and his thoughts. Jim drew on his own personal experiences and referenced the George Orwell essay ‘Why I Write’, adopting an expressionistic, free-flowing style.

The words appear on advertising, POS packaging and carrier bags. You’ll only be able to read snatches of Jim’s work on these items because the words have been artfully laid over each other – unless, that is, you visit www.paulsmithstory.com, where they have been reproduced in full.