Thursday, 4 December 2014

G.A wins big at EHDA and International Property Awards 2014

Great news from our parent company G.A Design in our core interior and architectural design field with two fantastic awards to end the year. The first is the European Hotel Design Awards, where we picked up best interior in the cafe bar/all day dining segment for The Rosebery at Mandarin Oriental London. You can see more on the submission here




The second, just confirmed last night, was that we won best global hotel interior design at the International Property Awards for St. Regis Osaka. This is especially satisfying as we came through the regional (Asia-Pacific) qualifying rounds before being shortlisted for the global award.





5 Principles of Good Design (via Shillington)



This is taken from the Shillington school of Design Theory, in New York, and we couldn't agree more. Great graphic design doesn't happen by accident. It needs architecture, structure, rigour, discipline. Then you must add a dash of creativity.
You can read more about Shillington and their courses here.

Wednesday, 26 November 2014

The Malaysia Design Archive

1920's luggage lable for E&O Hotel Penang
The British marketed Malaya as an exotic getaway, using the romance of the Far East with its colours, smells and beauty as an antidote to an increasingly urban and industrialized UK


The Malaysia Design Archive is a website that tracks the history of design in Malaysia, from Colonial times through Japanese Occupation, Independence and beyond. 
We fully support and encourage this site, it's great to see a small and passionate group of people who are devoted to the study and support of Malaysia's own design ethos. 
It's also a fascinating record of the diversity and change that Malaysia has undergone in the last 120 years, capturing visually and graphically the explosive growth and demographic changes in the country.
The below is just a small selection of the historic designs that are available on the site, to give you a feel for the breadth of social and cultural history that the site covers.




Ten dollar ‘Banana Money’ currency
Issued by the Japanese during their occupation of Malaya between 1942 and 1944. The front of this rare note features a tree bearing fruit, with the obverse featuring a depiction of a ship on the horizon.
Banana money is an informal term given to a type of currency issued by Imperial Japan during the Japanese occupation of Singapore, Malaya, North Borneo and Sarawak and Brunei, and was named as such because of the motifs of banana trees on 10 dollar banknotes.

Japanese War Leaflet, 1944
The leaflet above was dropped by the Japanese in both the Malay and Chinese languages. It addresses the Malayans as “brethren” and asks that they inform on the British and Americans, It offers rewards for worthwhile intelligence. Some of the text in Malaya and Japanese is:
The Japanese Army is your friend unlike the foreign British and Americans. We are all of a common ancestry and are Asian brethren. As such, we have a common enemy in the British and Americans.
If you see any British or Americans, please capture or report them to the Japanese Army and do not let them escape. If you can transport them to the Japanese Army then do so.
The Japanese Army will not harm you and you will be paid a reward.
Signed: Japanese Army Commander.
As a Brit in Malaysia, obviously this is spooky, imagining what this must have felt like for the British forces that were in Malaya at the time. 


Straits Times Annual, 1957
Featuring Datuk Maria Menado, apparently the most beautiful woman in Malaya at the time

http://www.malaysiadesignarchive.org/magazine-the-straits-times-annual-1957/


The Station Hotel, luggage tag 1950's
The Majestic Hotel KL, just opposite the station shown here, re-opened under YTL in 2013 after years of neglect, showing a trend for nostalgia and historic experiences that offer more than the modernised tower-block, cookie-cutter hotel.
Note the use of the oversized 'O' in the header to give the font a distinctive feel.
http://www.malaysiadesignarchive.org/emergency/



Malaysia-Singapore Airlines ad, 1969 promising the 'finest food aloft'
Proof that airlines always have been - and always will be - key media spenders. An interesting angle for a product or aircraft shot, not seen often these days. The rear 3/4 view, rather than showing a side-on or in-flight shot. Suggestive of immediate departure or travel. There is plenty still to learn from the ad-men of the past (this written having worked for 2 years on Malaysia Airlines here in KL).
http://www.malaysiadesignarchive.org/advertisement-the-707/

All images here courtesy of http://www.malaysiadesignarchive.org/
Please share this site widely and donate. Thanks to Ezrena Hussain for making us aware of this great resource.


Tuesday, 25 November 2014

Rebranding Millennium Hotels & Resorts



We are delighted to see our rebranding programme for Millennium Hotels and Resorts coming to life. The above is a print campaign running in Singapore, written, art-directed and produced in-house at G.A Brand Design (the typography of the line "More than Meets the Eye" is unique and hand-crafted here). This is just the tip of the iceberg as we roll-out our new Millennium brand across all touch-points in the coming months...

This project was complex. Millennium & Copthorne are listed on the London FTSE250 and have 140 hotels globally, spread across 12 brands varying from heritage properties like The Bailey's Hotel in London to designer hotels such as Studio M Singapore and global chains such as Copthorne. 

As a hospitality company, their range of brands is variegated and unique, with each hotel offering an individual experience. Rather than seeing this a weakness (say versus the 'giants' like Hilton or Accor who are more regimented in their approach) we embraced this individuality as a core brand strength. This approach resonated with our research on the guest - who desired a more personal and less 'cookie cutter' hotel stay. Furthermore, when we interviewed key Millennium staff, they told us they had more freedom and flexibility to express themselves versus other hotel chains. They were less scripted and therefore better able to accommodate the guests' requirements in their own personal manner, rather than working from an impersonal 'manual'.

With validation of our approach internally and from the management, we proceeded to streamline the brand architecture around 3 key 'collections' (more on that soon) to simplify the navigation process. This included negotiating several legal and trademarking issues, to ensure that all the brands would exist in an IP framework which the client could protect. We also had to rebrand certain hotels in the portfolio - such as The Bailey's Hotel and The Chelsea Harbour Hotel - to fit into the new framework.

Next we articulated visually and verbally our 'challenger' brand positioning, with the brand tag-line "More than Meets the Eye" - an invitation to existing customers to reappraise the company, whilst hinting at the personalised (and non-cookie-cutter) approach that is true to the founder's vision of Millennium.

Finally we implemented the new brand across a comprehensive brand manual, covering all the sub-brands globally, along with support and guidance for the roll-out including creation of communication such as the print work above. Throughout the process, we interfaced with our G.A Design colleagues in London, on certain brands where we are developing the interior design space concept along with the brand positioning.

We will keep posting with more updates as the work goes live, but a huge thank you to all both on the client and agency team for the support and hard work in bringing this brand project to life.

Thursday, 20 November 2014

More on what3words...


I had blogged previously about what3words before here - and great to see their new video, which explains very well what they're about and how they work. Love the concept. Scared by how complex it must have been to setup, but such a great simple idea. Here is a company that makes the world a better, easier place to be. Truly useful technology, that gives back - unlike so many apps and .coms out there...



Wednesday, 19 November 2014

An unusual business card...


Here are the bespoke business cards we designed as part of our brand development for roKKi (AirAsia's in-flight wifi & connectivity service) - and how cool are these? The stencilled 'rock on' hand icon is die-cut to grab the attention. It works really well when you hold it up to sunlight, as per the picture. Just the beginning of some great stuff from a brand that we helped conceptualize & name from scratch. More to come about roKKi on this blog soon, in the meantime, if you're interested to find out more about roKKi's services, have a look here
Keep up the good work Benoit & Sami!

Thursday, 6 November 2014

Steve Jobs the Adman


This video is taken from an Apple internal meeting in 1997 (thanks Harinder Singh). Steve Jobs had only just returned to the company after his period of 'exile' at NeXT. It shows - in a most candid way - his instinctive grasp for branding and the central role he gives it in the turnaround plan for Apple. Jobs understood that despite all their technical ability, if Apple couldn't communicate simply and clearly their values, they would not be successful. It also shows, through his eloquent and powerful presentation, his ability as an adman himself - I doubt there are many in the industry today that could present this work as well. Clearly he was heavily invested in the production and success of the campaign. What a fascinating insight into one of the most famous campaigns of all time. And most astonishing....that all this was completed in 2 months' time. The result of this hard work? By 1998 Apple was back in profitability after almost going bankrupt.

Monday, 27 October 2014

Big in China?

Illustration by Daniel Mitchell http://www.daniel-mitchell.co.uk/

Sometimes you just have to say ‘yes’ and worry about the consequences later…an email arrives saying we, G.A, have been invited by one of our biggest clients to speak at the Asia-Pacific Hotel Design Association’s 4th annual conference in Dalian, and am I free to do this?

The first thought is: what would I say? The second thought is: I have so much going on. The third thought is: where on earth is Dalian? The third thought, after a quick bit of Google mapping, tipped the decision in favour of a ‘yes’.

Dalian is pretty close to North Korea, a “2nd tier” city (‘only’ 6 million inhabitants – about the size of greater Kuala Lumpur - and everyone in Dalian refers to how ‘small’ the city is). It has an interesting history, having been founded by Russians, invaded and taken over by the Japanese, Russian again after WW2 then ‘gifted’ back to China as a sign of friendship between the two Communist countries.



I had never been to a “2nd tier” Chinese city before, and was interested to see a new part of this giant country. The conference, coming hot on the heels of our G.A rebranding and the opening of our Shanghai office would also be great exposure for the company. So it was a ‘yes’ then and let’s worry about the rest when it happens – necessity is the mother of invention, after all.

It was later I discovered there were no direct flights to Dalian from KL. This meant flying China Southern airlines from KL to Guangzhou (4 hours), then transferring on a domestic flight across from Guangzhou to Dalian (3 hours)*. 


'View' of Guangzhou coming into land. I have been there twice. Whenever I have been there it was covered in this soul-destroying pollution. For more thoughts on that, see Why we should be thankful for the haze

After a near-miss at customs in Guangzhou, I arrived at Dalian at night. I was greeted with a full bouquet of flowers and whisked off to Starwood’s 300-key Castle Hotel, part of its Luxury Collection, designed by HBA and only opened 1 month ago – the venue for the APHDA conference. The hotel was a reinterpretation of a French chateau, replete with marble flooring, chandeliers, grand staircases and reproduction furniture – a style very popular in China to denote ‘luxury’ and ‘success’, but distinctly odd and a bit Disney-esque to my British eyes. I can understand, however, why this kind of design is so popular in a country that has laboured under grim public/civic-minded architecture for so many years.


The Castle Hotel, Dalian

I was immediately impressed by the scale of the event, about 1,300 delegates were in the audience – and the way it had been set-up to include the biggest names in the industry, from across China, Hong Kong, Singapore. Previous guest speakers had included Tony Chi, Peter Remedios and Jean-Michel Gathy – so no pressure then.  And I was one of only a handful of Westerners in the room.




View from Dalian's main square (the biggest in Asia). The world's biggest and flattest half-pipe skatepark. And a giant unfinished bridge mid-construction in the background. Smog wasn't as bad here, but still noticeable.

The theme of the event was “Future Hotels”.  I am a fan of future-gazing, like most people, so this theme attracted me and I wrote a speech focused on what the hotel design of the future would be like. I won’t go into it here, but if you are interested I will post a separate link to the video of my speech when I have it.

The speech went down well, mainly because of G.A’s reputation in the region thanks to our great work on projects like W Taipei. For that I can only say again what great (and hard) work our team is doing around the world.

It also went down well because of the student-based audience – I suspect that not many event speeches in China encourage the audience to think and participate in a dialogue. I was nervous about doing this, given my experience in Asia in general is that people are very reticent about asking questions in a public forum. However, on the advice of Susan, my brilliant translator, we decided to go ahead and open up the discussion.

It was only after the speech, that I started to get a sense that ideas like ‘crowd-sourcing’ and group participation, discussion are considered more radical perhaps in China than elsewhere, especially amongst a large group of students (and to the back-drop of the student civil disobedience in Hong Kong).

I sensed there was a formula which they had been expecting – design firm principals turn-up and show their portfolio, talk about the past, how they ‘made it’ and got to their current position etc. Given that I am not a designer, I was reluctant to do that, so focused more on a group session trying to define the future of hotel design, using ideas harvested from the G.A global family and examples of our current work as stimulus.

What I certainly didn’t expect was to be mobbed by students, suppliers and clients alike for the rest of the conference. One man approached me asking us to work on a boutique 60-room hotel project apparently attached to the Great Wall of China (!)

Seemingly everyone wanted pictures, signatures or to exchange business cards. After nearly an hour of this, it was frankly a bit overwhelming. I suppose everyone is due their 15 mins of fame, but it also got me thinking….is there something in Chinese culture where role-models are held in very high esteem, perhaps without the criticism or cynicism you would find in the UK? Or maybe our work was just that inspiring…I hope the latter. Either way, it seems that G.A is now ‘big in China’. For all those in our team that worked on these projects, I wish you could have been there to see it – I am sure it would go some way to make the long hours and effort worthwhile.


*A footnote about China Southern Airlines and an example of the general statistical craziness of China…. I learnt this during my days working with Malaysia Airlines on the launch of their own A380 services from KL to London. China Southern Airlines is, I am told, the only airline in the world to fly profitably Airbus A380s (the huge, double-decker ones). Why? Because China Southern flies their A380s converted almost entirely into economy-class seating, more than 500 people being flown this way in one plane. But here’s the killer – they fly them exclusively domestically. So whilst in the UK we may have invented the concept of the double-decker bus, in China, they created the double-decker plane. Literally bussing Chinese around their country from city to city.

Monday, 20 October 2014

Why we should be thankful for the haze


Pic credit: malaysiabreakingnews.blogspot.com

So we have been suffering from terrible haze in Malaysia this year, caused by forest fires originating in either Indonesia or Malaysia itself, depending on who you believe. The density of the haze on any given day has been less intense than the 'haze season' last year, but the spread of hazy days has been much wider. I can measure this from family coming to visit - in March, June and then October. On each of these occasions their visits were blighted by the haze. Normally the 'season' is most intense in June and then tapers away....not this year. 
Last week we also experienced the smog in Shanghai, which was truly terrible. Choking and accrid, I felt asthmatic. Throat and eyes hurting, very difficult to breathe, the only respite being indoors in air-conditioning.
There are some commonalities to this Malaysian haze and Shanghainese smog - namely both are the side-effects of a populous Asia, with growing economies (Malaysia's GDP growth in Q1 this year was 6.8%). These economies are consuming and manufacturing in ever greater numbers, whilst concurrently there is a less developed sense of the fragility of the natural environment. Chairman Mao said that nature was man's enemy, to be tamed and controlled, bent to man's will. This kind of thinking is still prevalent today in Asia.
The severity with which the haze and smog blight quality of life is extraordinary. Schools shut. Children unable to play outdoors. People restricted from exercising. Life curtailed and limited. Breathing, that very signature of being alive, difficult. It is so bad, that it is increasingly hard to hire expats in Beijing or Shanghai - they simply don't want the pollution in their lives.
But here's the thing - it's a wonderfully democratic blight - effecting the rich and poor equally. It's also something that's impossible to cover-up, a most real, tangible, indicator of the state of our planet and the price we pay for un-shepherded tapping of our natural resources. And for that we must thank the haze and the smog, because without them, no-one would notice. They are un-ignorable. They are undeniable. They are forcing the issue of the environment into the public domain on a continent learning the trade-offs that come with rapid economic growth. Without them, there would be less action and less (no?) debate. And for that, whilst we cough and splutter, we must also be thankful in a way.