July 5th, 2011 by ellisjames21

Today should see the going live of the new Moo Milk web site for Milk Link.

It’s a significant and growing milk brand producing a range of ultra heat treated milk, including Moo One%, Moo Organic and Charlie & Lola Pink Milk.

The site was designed and developed by EllisJames and features horizontal scrolling to make the most of Moo’s latest brand developments which include a ‘handmade’ rolling landscape and cutout trees and birds.

The site provides background information to Moo Milk which is owned by a farmers’ cooperative, product information, recipes FAQs and games. We kept the site concise so browsing is quick and fun, and provided the recipes and product info in useful A4 printable PDFs.

View the site at: http://www.moomilk.co.uk

May 20th, 2011 by ellisjames21

Pleased to get the Annual Report & Accounts for Milk Link off to the printers (Sterling) earlier this week. Only got the wet proofs to check next week and looking forward to that. EllisJames has created the Annual Report and Accounts for Milk Link for the last 8 years and it’s great to look back over previous editions and see how the designs have been able to evolve in line with the company’s growth and stature in the market. In the last three years we’ve been given an increasing degree of creative freedom to really start to bring the information to life and most importantly, make it a more enjoyable read. Bearing in mind the report goes out to a lot of interested parties – the 1300+ farmer Members who own Milk Link for a start – the actual content is far from heavy going. Well, the financials can be a bit dry, I’ll grant you that. But the point is, the design has the power to draw the reader in so they do take the time to actually read the thing. And I think this year’s is the best yet. Really proud of what we’ve done. And that’s saying something, – (he intoned with smug satisfaction and a wry leading smile) – as the 2009 edition won a prestigious business award. Hm. Yes. It did.

December 10th, 2010 by ellisjames21

Never ever evereverever buy a Renault. They’re as you might expect – pompous, vain, suffer massive delusions of grandeur, and are immensely bitter. If you were thus inspired (and believe me, I would imagine many Renault owners are), to drive yours off a cliff, after stopping the car to pop a cork in celebration of its forthcoming messy demise, the Renault would refuse to start. Oh, it knows its time is up but it wants to go on its own terms, smiling wryly around a stinking Gitanes as it watches you popping a hernia trying to push it over, smug in the knowledge that it’s clamped its ‘automatic’ handbrake on. Not wishing to bolster any national stereotypes but you don’t have to own a Renault long to get the impression it is happiest not on the open road swallowing flies at forty, but parked conspicuously looking elegant on a busy street somewhere, preferably at a ‘just-right’ jaunty angle and near some sort of boutique selling harem trousers. If you are still in doubt about the Renault’s shiftiness, consider the copious number of cubbyholes and storage bins. Any car that assumes you have that much to hide is not to be trusted. Fair warning to all.

October 21st, 2010 by ellisjames21

I met James Dyson once. I was a product design student who had entered a product for a Dyson-sponsored award for which it was wholly irrelevant – the idea being to get as much attention as possible for your work by entering as many competitions as possible. Not got a lot to say about our exchange, it was brief, he was very tall, and I wondered how he managed to remain sane with so many people following along in his personal space.

But on the whole I greatly admire Dyson. He put his house on the line and a lot more to pursue something he believed in. And I like inventors, particularly British ones. And I like his products, generally.

The only Dyson I’ve ever owned is a recent purchase – one of the handheld ‘digitally controlled’ microenginged machines – and it’s bloody brilliant. Really love it. And I really like those hand dryers that are so powerful they ripple the skin on the back of your hands.

What I like about nearly all Dyson products is that their engineering reason d’etre is plainly evident. Or rather, their reason d’etre is to do something better by exploiting an engineering advantage. The handheld, like its numerous big brothers, wears its multi-cyclone technology on its sleeve. The handdryers are more powerful, you don’t have to touch them and most of all, they really work. I can even see the ‘engineering reason d’etre’ of his new bladeless desktop fans, although, as with most new Dysons, its price is difficult to swallow.

But recently, and with much TV advertising including the great man himself, Dyson launched the ball vacuum cleaner.

Just in case you didn’t know, Dyson’s history is intrinsically linked to balls: he designed a military vehicle with ball shaped wheels early in his career, and applied the same weight-spreading advantages of a ball shaped wheel to the wheelbarrow, spawning the ‘ball barrow’.

I understand the manufacturing process for the balls involved the use of an extraction system that used cyclones to create the suction, and the bagless vacuum cleaner was born.

The problem I have is that other than being grey and orange, and involving both a cyclone and a ball, I don’t see the ball vacuum as a Dyson product. It may have a Dyson logo on it, but it’s Dyson marketing rather than Dyson engineering.

Why? Because the only advantage I understand the ball vac to offer is in its handling. Its handling? As good as a Dyson’s suction may be, does anyone trust a vac to do a comprehensive cleaning job on just one pass? That’s where the old step-forward-step-back dance around the lounge came from. It would be a great idea if everyone’s house was racing circuit-shaped, but for all us boring conformists with generally rectangular floor spaces, a neat up and down action is what works.

This bothers me. I know we’ve all got to make our money, but Dyson has always marketed on the back of good sound engineering principles – that of analysing a common problem and finding an improved solution through engineering expertise. This is the first product of his that has broken that rule. This product follows a traditional marketing principle – identify an opportunity and exploit it by selling it as a solution to a problem that we create.

I wonder how they can include a ball in the desk top fan…?

October 11th, 2010 by ellisjames21

I am pleased to announce that the new EllisJames web site is now live for all to enjoy.

The new site offers a much wider range of work samples for you to flick through, which will hopefully persuade you of our creative expertise and flexibility. However, that’s not the whole story is it, because the way in which we deliver that creativity is all important. That’s why the new site now holds a number of testimonials from our treasured clients. We’re flattered that they would take the time to write a testimonial for us, but totally bowled over by their terrific feedback. 

We’re certainly not ones to rest on our laurels – we never take anything for granted that’s for sure – but I think what comes across from the comments of our clients most is the quality of the work and the committed level of service – I hope you agree. It’s very encouraging to see that our clients are enjoying both experience and outcome of working with us.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our clients for your continued support.

October 6th, 2010 by ellisjames21

Holding a mirror up to my younger self when I was at college many (make that many, many) years ago, I always come over a bit wobbly at the recognition that I was a pompous self righteous unproven twit. Whether I’m ‘proven’ now, I’m not sure. More experienced yes, but definitely less self righteous for it. But one of my beliefs I liked to express regarding the role of designers in society back then was simply that our ability to affect the lives of others can be so powerful -something not always appreciated by either designer or consumer – that we have an underlying moral aspect to any work we do. I was studying product design back then, and sure enough products have a more physically direct effect on our lives so I know where I was coming from back then, but we swim in seas of graphic languages at every point in our lives. The point is, I believe part of the definition of what design is has to include that it must enrich, embellish, assist or augment the message. In short, design must add in some way to life. It should help refresh our lives, not contribute to stagnation. Taking that statement and applying it to, say, an event flyer – a small job that doesn’t touch that many lives – the claim seems a little high-falutin’. But design comes at us from all directions, the benefit and interest it can add to our lives is cumulative.

October 6th, 2010 by ellisjames21

We get involved in a lot of branding and rebranding work for our clients. For those clients seeking to rebrand, it’s common they’ve got a nagging doubt on their mind – “Is it the right time to change…?” Of course, they ask this because they’re used to their existing branding and any process of change always comes with doubt. But I usually respond by pointing out they have more doubt about the viability of sticking with their existing branding. In short, if they have asked the question, “Should we rebrand…?” they’ve pretty much already decided to rebrand. Branding of any kind provides strong visual and notional cues as to the nature of the brand. As much as designers like EllisJames juggle the balance of these cues, I can’t always nail down exactly why one route works and another doesn’t, even when the differences are marginal. In a similar way, for those examining their own branding from within, they can’t always pinpoint what it is that’s even led them to examine it in the first place, let alone what they might find wrong with what they see. It just doesn’t feel right. And so to the metaphor – for SMEs particularly, branding is like an exoskeleton. A business can grow into its branding and continue to grow out of it when it no longer appropriately reflects the business, requiring a new, more tailored replacement. Like a t-shirt that no longer quite fits the way it used to, a car that you now clean as a matter of chore rather than pride, or a rock star failing to stay relevant to a teenager now part of a nuclear 2.4, the transition is usually subtle until that one day when you look at things and say, “Is it the right time to change…?”

October 6th, 2010 by ellisjames21

Hi to visitors to the new EllisJames blog. You’re very welcome.The intention with this blog is to provide occasional updates on interesting projects, details of work we’re especially proud of and bits and bobs of opinion – and as much as the temptation may be to stray, we’ll do our best to keep it strictly design oriented.It’s likely that you’ve arrived here from our web site: www.ellis-james.co.uk If so, I hope you enjoyed browsing our various portfolio pages. Of course, do let us know if you’ve got any questions about our work.