Duncan/Channon. Award-winning branding. Advertising. Design. Digital. Social media. Mobile. Broadcast. Print. Outdoor. Identity. Packaging. Media planning and buying. Account planning. Production. Not to mention the Tip. All in one action-packed agency in downtown San Francisco.
First: Creative Review, the prestigious British journal of “Advertising, design and visual culture,” selected D/C’s identity and packaging for Farrier for the magazine’s 2011 annual. Farrier is a division of Jackson Family Wines, the ultra-premium division of Kendall-Jackson.
Next: Farrier took Best of Show at the 2011 SF Addys.
Now: Last night, in the 2011 One Show, D/C (alone among SF agencies, if we may be so crass) grabbed a Bronze Pencil for Design for the mighty Farrier. Ups (again) to Patrick Nistler and the whole D/C wine team.
Though the work just launched, the SF Egotist has already said they’re some of the prettiest print ads since Gutenberg. And the banners pick up the same rich, allusive design and gorgeous photography. And every element of this multi-million-dollar campaign incorporates a refreshed brand identity and rests on a completely renovated brand platform — all authored by Duncan/Channon, in collaboration with agency-of-record client Blurb.
For those not among the 1.5 million who have already created a volume of their own photography, memoirs, wedding pictures or the like, Blurb is the leader in helping people make beautiful printed books via the web. Their service includes pro-level, yet easy-to-use, design tools and a fail-safe production process delivering budget-defying quality.
Duncan/Channon revisits the winners’ circle at the 2011 REBRAND 100 Global Awards, picking up a Merit for the rebranding of Esurance. The prize is given for concept, design and strategy. As explained in the entry package, the revamped identity system and type-only Esurance logo was designed to deliver a singular message: that the company that pretty much invented online car insurance continues to innovate on behalf of busy consumers, always working to make the process of buying or using its products more intuitive, more convenient, more transparent and more friendly. It’s about smartness in the service of simplicity. The Merit award means D/C’s work ranks among the world’s most successful rebrands in 2010, alongside rebrands of Audi, Sprint Nextel and Subaru Australia. D/C won for the Hard Rock rebrand in 2007.
You might expect to see the venerable lion logo of the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Beverly Hills or Malibu. You don’t expect to see it in downtown LA near neighborhoods realtors politely refer to as “transitional.” The agency needed to paint a vivid picture for Ritz’s well-heeled customer of what it would be like to live in an area that only a few years ago they wouldn’t even visit. So rather than show the residences, which people are rightly inclined to believe are luxurious, the campaign — which includes banners, collateral and a new website, in addition to newspaper and magazine ads — puts the focus on the amazing sports, entertainment and dining options just outside their stylish front door.
Created for Jackson Family Wines (of Kendall-Jackson fame), Farrier is a brand that D/C helped build from the ground up. The client came with a plot of land in Sonoma’s Alexander Valley and a challenge — create a wine brand that embodies the heritage of that singular place.
The overall concept taps into the sense of community that has historically played such an important role in rural life. Jackson Family Wines has always been guided by a strong appreciation for the land. And, as a family business, it is deeply rooted in the community. It seemed natural for Farrier to pay tribute to these things.
The design tells the story of a blacksmith shop that had been on the property in the 1800s. It was a place where the local farrier (or horseshoe fitter, for those of you not familiar with equine parlance) plied his trade and the townsfolk gathered to socialize. Reinforcing the handcrafted quality of the wine, the packaging mirrors the look of an old newspaper and the language adopts an endearingly olde-school colloquial tone. The red wine uses a more traditional wrap label, while the whites are adorned with a die-cut “F.”
More images after the jump; click for full-size images on Flickr. Continue reading
The critically acclaimed Sonoma County winery, Murphy-Goode, now a division of Jackson Family Wines (the Kendall Jackson folks), has begun rolling out its brand new brand image, developed with assistance from — you guessed it — Duncan/Channon.
Like all the best brand overhauls, this one is less a re-make than a reveal, finding the essence of what was already a lively, well-regarded brand and bringing its key elements to the fore. In the case of Murphy-Goode, that meant turning a spotlight on the winery’s culture of collegiality, sociability and great, goode humor, as suggested by, among other things, the names of some of its wines — including its famous Zinfandel, Liar’s Dice — and the jocular personality of winemaker (and ex-rocker) Dave Ready, Jr.
D/C worked with Marketing Director Ciara Meaney from the initial brand research all the way through implementation of murphygoode.com. The wine- and fun-loving (indeed) D/C team developed the brand’s strategic platform (basically, that MG peeps take their wine seriously, but not themselves) and then codified its look and feel through a comprehensive set of brand guidelines. The assignment also included the development of an extensive library of photography, an innovative (and totally entertaining) POS campaign (featuring an interactive menu generator), a series of tasting videos starring the winemaker, as well as murals and graphics for their new tasting room.
While it may be too early to measure the sure-to-be-salutary effect on sales, the mood around MG HQ in the wake of the re-vamp has been exceedingly positive, especially toward the agency. One senior marketing person called D/C — in what we take to be a compliment — her “magic fairy dust.” (Although a male creative, it must be told, initially remembered the compliment as being a tad more macho, proudly reporting that the client had called us her “silver bullet.”)
To signify dorkishness, the 2001 movie Ghost World, set among contemporary twenty-somethings, clothed a character in a Hard Rock t-shirt. One measure (you surely have your own) of how far this 30-year-old brand had fallen. So D/C’s work, in close collaboration with Hard Rock’s new management team, started by clarifying and then communicating a new brand strategy to a confused rank-and-file. It continued on through revising the menus (graphically and otherwise), reviving merchandise sales and, through advertising, promotions and events, re-connecting the brand to contemporary culture and contemporary customers. Along the way, the agency completed a comprehensive, top-to-bottom design overhaul, which has now been awarded top honors from the prestigious REBRAND 100 competition, a worldwide contest that recognizes excellence involving both design and strategy.
“You should have been there when we presented this one,” says creative director Mike Lemme. The proposed new mark, taking off from the company’s name, is a type treatment of that name upside-down and/or backwards.
It’s not just a stunt. The meaning of the company’s name, of course, is the first thing that motivates this mark. But the audacity of the logo speaks loudly and clearly to the audacity of the company, which is known for solving the knottiest software development problems. There’s also the affinity of the company’s primary technical audience (not to mention its secondary audience, Vertigo’s internal staff) for visual conundrums, for a clever little challenge that demands the application of their own cleverness.
The branding work didn’t, of course, stop at the logo. It also encompassed a comprehensive brand book, graphic standards, a re-design of the website, a portfolio of graphic templates, and more.
The fun, puzzling nature of the mark and the obsessive precision of the system has energized the client’s organization and impressed customers and friends alike. It has earned D/C a gold statue in the San Francisco ADDYs and an entry into the national ADDYs. And, perhaps best of all, Vertigo has just closed books on their best year ever.
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