NB: If you are looking for a specific type of agency, then I have written some other articles which include:
Top 50 award winning design agencies
Top 50 award winning advertising and marketing agencies
Top 50 award winning web design agencies
Anthem
www.anthemww.com
I wonder if we will start this list all singing off the same song sheet? Well we certainly can with Anthem, they have won Gold and Silver at the PAC Leadership Awards, recognising their excellence in packaging design, they also won a Pentaward for their Nestlé Noir Packaging. Anthems portfolio examples all seem somewhat American in their design, but they do have a worldwide presence with 2 UK offices amongst their studios. The Coca Cola packaging they did for the Beijing Olympics is outstanding, as is their Nestlé Rolo packaging.
Whether you are a graphic designer looking for some eye candy or a brand marketer looking for their next potential design agency – you are sure to find one here.
Aricot Vert
www.aricotvert.co.uk
Nope, these guys aren't frenchies despite what the name suggests, at the moment they have a bit of an 'in-between' website going on with some very simple pdf case studies, don't let this deceive you, these guys are good with DBA Design Effectiveness Awards and Communication in Business Awards (CiB) under their belt. For now, I have left their old website grab up and will update you with more news as soon as their new website goes live.
Big Fish
www.bigfish.co.uk
This one already opens up the analogy of 'are they a big fish in a small pond?' or a big fish in an ocean, which would make them small (blimey I talk some rubbish sometimes), well Big Fish are indeed a big fish in whichever water they choose to swim in, with a Design Week Award for the amazing stuff they did on Gü desserts, a Pentaward for Clipper Tea and a Gold Design Effectiveness Award for their work on Dorset Cereals proves they can be up there with the best. But are they as big a fish as a Blue Marlin?
Bloom
www.bloom-design.com
I could start saying how blooming marvellous they are, but I guess that is the pun they intended in the name, or at least one of them, Bloom helps a brand grow, blossom and ultimately bloom into it's full glory. Be all that you can be, so they say! This agency is not a fan of entering awards, but that's not to say they haven't won any, they have been in D&AD Awards Books, have a Design Week Award for Best Branded Packaging and been awarded 'Best Design and Agency' from the Diageo Global Marketing Brilliance Awards for their Talisker limited edition gift pack design.
Blue Marlin
www.bluemarlinbd.com
Are we back to that big fish conundrum already! I'm not going to pick any bones here, Blue Marlin are good at what they do, they have 4 DBA Effectiveness Awards and counting, 4 Pentawards (the Pentawards are the only worldwide competition devoted exclusively to packaging design) and a Gramia (which sounds glitzy but is in-fact an award from the Grocer Advertising and Marketing Industry Awards). Amazing work to look out for: Isklar, Balance Water, Tango and .
Brand House
www.brandhouse.co.uk
It's a full house here and what a hand they play, there is an ace intro to the website for starters, or at least the one of the apple exploding is (you might have to refresh the intro a couple of times to get to it), it really makes you jump and hammers home the message of trying to introduce emotional responses to their packaging solutions. The Brand House is not going to have to get bigger premises to fill with awards, but they do have a couple of DBAs and Pentawards for their shelves.
Brand Me
www.brandme.co.uk
Another agency that is refreshing it's website here, must be something of a spring clean going on in the air for packaging and branding agencies. What are they famous for, well they created Sainsbury's supermarket's first premium sub-brand 'Taste the Difference', which has grown from zero to a £840 million brand. They are winners of the highly acclaimed UK Design Effectiveness Awards (Overall Design and a Grand Prix). They have also received a Clio Award, a Design Week Award and a few Pentawards. Most of their greatest work is for clients like Sainsbury's, Simple and Heineken, but the one I really like is their packaging work for Nikon.
Brand on Shelf – BOS (formerly FLB)
www.brandonshelf.com
Formerly called FLB, Brand on Shelf are a respected member of the branding and packaging design community and have been around for over 30 years, building a solid reputation for effective, award-winning design (including DBA Design Effectiveness Awards). So now that they are moving into their next phase and re-branded themselves to look forward, we can expect some bigger and better things in the near future. Past portfolio pieces include: Cow & Gate, Asda, Somerfield and Kenwood.
Brandopus
www.brandopus.co.uk
Brandopus has (in just 4 years of business) grown to become the youngest agency in Design Week’s most prestigious top 100, they have raced up the ladder to become the number 10 packaging design agency in the UK and is also in 12th position across both branding and packaging disciplines in 2010. Quite an achievement for a company with such a silly name* :-)
Other Accolades include winning 6 DBA Design Effectiveness Awards, 6 Gramia Awards - one of which is a Diamond Gramia, and an International Mobius Award for their Northern Foods brand re-design. Ohh, and before I forget, Brandopus are also The Grocer's Agency of the Year in 2010 & 2011, and The Drum's Design Agency of the Year in 2012 – beat that for a 4 year old. Let's keep an eye on them to see how far their 8 limbs* can take them...
*yes I know I'm being a Neanderthal, an opus or Magnum Opus is 'the greatest work', so there we have it – the greatest branding.
Brand Union
www.thebrandunion.com
A world class global branding agency, they are in union with the WPP group, but don't let that commercial aspect put you off, Brand Union were named design agency of year in 2009 by the Marketing Magazine in the UK and certainly have a few superb examples of international branding in their portfolio to look out for, one that I particularly like are the brand guidelines for the Burj Khalifa, the worlds tallest building. Also in the portfolio is branding for the Alfa Romeo Mito, Credit Suisse, J&K and Peroni. Lets hope this Union carries on going longer than Heather Mills and Paul McCartney :-)
Bulletproof
www.wearebulletproof.com
"it ain't what you do it's the way that you do it!", then we may be off to a shaky start, but then who says bananas aren't slippy enough to be bulletproof? Next we find they are the fastest growing design agency in the UK according to Design Week, looking better... What really begins to define them as a bulletproof business is when you look at their 3 inter-linked disciplines, using the latest 'buzzword' skills in the industry, they use 'shopper marketing' skills combined with an immense design ability in branding and packaging to lead this firm to excel, gaining clients such as: GSK, Coca-Cola, Schweppes, Heineken, Sainsbury's and Cadbury. With clients like these, you'd sure to think that they are bulletproof.
Burgopak
www.burgopak.com
This agency is a structural packaging design company that has some unusual patented packaging products that attract some big blue chip names, the main attraction is their patent for a cardboard engineered sliding mechanism which is amazing in use and really sets off any packaging design. Amongst their award honours are 2 iF Communication Design Awards and numerous American Package Design Awards. Oh and before my memory slides away, they were also named 'Design Company Of The Year' at the prestigious UK Packaging Awards in 2009.
CBA
www.cba-design.com
Bit of an International number here, with awards coming from the Superdesign Awards and Pentawards to name but a few, their recently re-designed website has stopped harping on about awards as much as their last one, which went into a bit of an overkill, so now they just concentrate on their work with mini case studies. Much of the best work comes in from the Paris office, so head over to their project archive and view their portfolio by office. Notable International clients include Nestlé, Unilever, and HP. Darn, I forgot to chuck a pun in here!
Coley Porter Bell
www.cpb.co.uk
These guys actually hold TWO of their own awards (how cool is that?), so content in the fact that they have won so many awards (DBA Design Effectiveness, International Mobius Advertising Awards, FAB Awards, Benchmark Awards, Red Dot Awards, IPA Effectiveness Awards, Chip Shop Awards, and D&AD's to name but a few...) that they encourage further creativity by dishing out their Shine Award in a competition to encourage students and their own BlueSky Awards to encourage their staff as well.
Coley Porter Bell can make your brand beautiful, make it stand out from a crowd and attract attention by carefully thinking about how the different consumer facing elements of your brand will fit together.
Keep an eye out for the work for Innocent, Nescafé, Inishturkbeg, Tetrapak, Cadburys Buttons, Tesco, Lemsip, Hellmann's, John West, Schwartz, Schweppes, and the Museum of London.
DDW
www.ddw.com
I have thrown an American company in here to mix things up a little and to show some projects from over the pond. With DDW's website you get the impression that a picture speaks a thousand words, well in their case, I think they have used it to save writing a thousand, you will find very little to read here so just sit back and relax and watch as the delights of their packaging pass you by in a slideshow. They say that sometimes it is best to say little, but come on guys, a few words won't go a miss too. They do achieve 9 awards from the American Graphic Design and Advertising Awards, and some awards from the Packaging Design Magazine too.
Design Board
www.designboard.com
Will we be bored of their design or will it be stuff that gets praise from the boardroom? Yep, back to the puns again! Bit of a European one here, have you ever been bombarded with spam emails from cheap design agencies in Bulgaria? Well I do, always to be consigned to the trash can. But these guys, based in Bulgaria (and Brussels) really shine, with clients such as Coca-Cola, Laurent-Perrier, P&G, Danone, Unilever, Tchibo, Kraft and AkzoNobel (ICI) you can see that they really can design too, really unexpected from a new Euro Zone country. Really like the Swiss water bottle they did, with a structural twist as a hand grip, that one should win some awards to back up the odd Pentaward that they already have!
Design Bridge
www.designbridge.co.uk
Well, if you are into your branding and packaging, you will already know that Design Bridge are the 'daddy' on the international circuit and a benchmark for other agencies to try and at least aim for, if not to try and surpass! Named as Agency of the Year in 2010 by the highest rated packaging awards - the Pentawards. How do they keep doing so well after 25 years in the game? Well they have their own internal awards system to keep themselves on the tips of their toes, the award originally started way back in the 90s as a bit of fun and was originally called ' The Dogs Bollocks Awards'.
As the Group grew, they created a judging system that allows the truly great ideas to be recognised, regardless of market, discipline or brand owner. They used a clear set of criteria to judge the entrants, the shortlisted projects then go forward to an end-of-year contest, where the highest scorer takes the ultimate prize. Design Bridge also track the progress of the previous year’s finalists to award their own version of DBAs Design Effectiveness trophies. The spirit of the original 'Dogs' awards still lives on with them, with bone trophies and dog-tags presented to all the winners. How good is that. Keep a look out for portfolio work for brands such as: Kapiti, Tiger Beer, Glow, Nescafé, Merula, UEFA Champions League and Maison Blanc, all of which are exemplary.
Dragon Rouge
www.dragonrouge.com
Are they on LSD? Never seen a red dragon in my life, or a green one for that matter :-) With offices spread all over the world, you can select the website(s) which is most appropriate to your geographic location (they have plenty). Awards aside (as they have many), are the projects on their websites ,on the global one look out for Tropicana, Lafarge and Vittel, and on the UK website, the projects of note are the STA Travel and London Stock Exchange branding, and the Douwe Egberts, Kingsmill Bread and Greenall’s London Dry Gin packaging designs.
Echo
www.echobranddesign.co.uk
Echo are in my top branding and packaging agencies because they are definitely one to watch, formed as a breakaway from the award winning packaging giants Blue Marlin, they have already sneaked in in the Design Week top 100 survey for purely packaging, these guys should be lot higher if they had other disciplines to their bow as they are pretty good at bringing the multi-disciplined world of graphics, structural packaging, innovation and product design together, to form a great unit. Certainly one to watch. Would you like me to say that again? Oh, sorry you have already heard in an echo... teehee.
Elmwood Design
www.elmwood.co.uk
Where do I start with this one, their new website is fantastic and fully demonstrates their ability in the realm of branding, not surprising when they have won more DBA International Design Effectiveness Awards than any other agency in history! 29 and counting, so why are they so good? Well besides increasing product sales without any advertising, you only have to take a look at their work to find out why... Clients include: ASDA, Durex, Welcome to Yorkshire, Act on CO2, BBC Talent and Comic Relief, be careful though, their website is beautiful and you may get submersed into it :-).
Fig Tree
www.figtreenetwork.com
Fig Tree work with organisations of all shapes and sizes, both commercial and not-for profit across many different sectors. This doesn't include cigarettes, oil or guns (how noble and commendable, how many people do know that work for gun companies). The Fig Tree website displays a fine range of work and is not really shouting about award wins, but then as they are asked to judge on award panels, they must already be a cut above the rest 'to judge and not be judged'. Love the work they have done for Penguin, Blackberry, Orange and the not-so-fruit-based HTC.
Futurebrand
www.futurebrand.com
It's nice to have an agency that does exactly what it says on the tin. As their name suggests, they continuously look to establish brands that think ahead. FB build powerful brands with an exacting blend of skills and disciplines from their 25 global offices and their awards include those from the New York Festivals, Red Dot Communication Design Awards, IF Communication Design Award, Pentawards in 2009, 2008 and 2007, and Design Week's Benchmark Awards in 2008 and 2006. On their website is a really informative free download – a Country Brand Index. Global brand work includes some beautiful examples for Microsoft, GSK, Intel, BA, Mastercard and even branding a whole country - Australia, I wonder who is bigger, Microsoft or Australia?
Holmes and Merchant
www.holmesandmarchant.com
An award winning packaging design agency, with roots going as far back as 1967 (surprised it's not 1966), Holmes & Marchant remain one of the most established design agencies, they also continue to strive for new ideas that match the level of their first great idea; to sell advertising space on milk bottles! Sounds bonkers now but was revolutionary and visionary back then. Lovely portfolio pieces include Vimto, Diageo, Unilever and Nestlé.
HRG
www.hrg.co.uk
I've thrown this one in to add value to the packaging agencies that are in this list. HRG are ranked by Marketing Week as the No.1 retail marketing agency, HRG produce amazing in-store theatres, POP and Sales Promotion. Of course they more than dabble in brand development too. HRG have won 14 Point of Purchase Advertising International (POPAI) Awards since 2008, which is more than any other company in the POP industry. Their portfolio shows us some shining examples for Nokia, Cow & Gate, Kellogs, Blackberry and their work for HMV is exceptionally superb.
Identica
www.identica.co.uk
Ulrika-ka-ka-ka from Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, do you think that's where they got their name from, no, didn't think so either :-) Identica-ca-ca-ca rocks. They have also been around for an age, they designed the branding for Universal Studios and did a brand refresh for Vodafone, now you can't get much more global or different than these two. Their branding genius is in their mass appeal and the trick of designing a brand for one person whilst engaging a whole 'wider' audience. Their iconic brands do things their way, they do not borrow or copy from their competitors. They are fiercely independent and proud of what they are. They create beautifully simple identities which radiate from the heart.
Interbrand
www.interbrand.com
Another oldie here, Interbrand started branding when the world still thought of brands as just another word for logo, it was Interbrand that changed the world’s view of branding and brand management by creating and managing brands as valuable business assets. Yes, I know they are massive (40+ offices) but they are not interested in just being the world's biggest brand consultancy, they want to be the most valued. So, what have the won or done? Well, you know McDonalds, that's them, HSBC? them too, Bing, Samsung, 3M, Barclays, HP, Mercedez, AT&T? Also them, so you see what I mean, you remember the brands, Interbrand have certainly done their job.
Awards include: loads of REBRAND Awards, Super Design Awards, Communication Arts Awards, AGDA Awards, Creativity International Awards, Transform Awards, Inova Awards, Agency of the Year by Marketing Magazine, RETA Award, Red Dot Award, ARC, LACP, Topcom, Cropak, Gute Gestaltung (whatever that is?), RGD, DDI and Benchmark Awards... Tell you what, my fingers are getting tired, hope you got the gist of how good they are :-)
Oh, and check out the client list, it's longer than all of our arms put together (and maybe our legs too).
Jones Knowles Ritchie
www.jkr.co.uk
In packaging or branding, getting seen is half the battle, JKR also believe that great branding must convey a brand's unique character at a glance, it's just not enough to express a brand engagingly and originally. To be truly charismatic, the art is making it look effortless...
I personally love their work for the Birdseye range, Heinz, Guinness, Ambrosia, Youngs and so on, go check them out, they make brands project the 'things' that make them different, rather than reflect the comfortable conventions of their parent FMCG categories.
For the the awards statistics fans out there, they have won three DBA Effectiveness Awards for their packaging and a D&AD. JKR consistently tops the top 10 in DW's Top 100 overall and averages the top No.1 or No.2 spot for packaging!
Kinneir Dufort
www.kinneirdufort.com
Kinneir Dufort are a unique agency in that they bridge the divide between packaging, product design and manufacturing, so if you are after a cutting edge structural product designed, with graphics applied and help with manufacturing or tooling, then these are the guys for you. They have won numerous awards from around the globe including: Design Council Awards, 9 DBA Design Effectiveness Awards, Design Week Awards, Red Dot Awards and even a Good Design Award from Japan. A perfect integration between brand and product design with some really interesting case studies on the website.
Lambie-Nairn
www.lambie-nairn.com
Branding but not as we know it Captain, we'll not exactly - everything that they have done - we know! Lambie-Nairn are every day brand experts that have done some fantastic executions in creating O2, Channel 4, Expedia, the BBC and FIFA. L-N also have a spectacular lean towards creating TV idents, which when combined with their branding ability, makes for superb results. Award wise they have DBA Design Effectiveness Awards and are winners of the Design Week Benchmark Awards. Lambie-Nairn are so good that they have featured in an exhibition at the Design Museum, celebrating the crème de la crème of London's free thinking in a super contemporary showcase.
Landor
www.landor.com
Landor are the mother of all branding agencies, their founder 'Walter Landor' helped to invent branding and they have been re-inventing it ever since. Landor have more than six decades of experience with the world's most successful brands – a legacy that benefits their clients every day. It's amazing that their design archives are not in a basement but are displayed in the Smithsonian Institute. The historical brands that they have been a major part of include Coca-Cola, Levis, WWF, FedEx and Bank of America. Their massive list of current branding work (305 case studies and counting) includes: Alcatel, Alfa Romeo, Avaya, Blackberry, BP, Citroen, Heinz, HP and Panasonic. You can guess that their awards list is too massive to go into detail here, it would be enough to fill a whole website.
Around the world, Landor clients are upending the standard approach to doing business. It used to be: build products first and build brands later. The Landor strategy is just the opposite: start with your brand promise and lead with it. Turn the brand into the driver of your business not just another way of packaging it. Landor are simply amazing.
Lewis Moberly
www.lewismoberly.com
These days, when every one is ranting on about not using flash for a website due to the lack of it's ability to be found and cached properly by search engines is thrown totally out of the window here, from the 54th floor! But then who needs SEO when you are as good as these guys, people know their name!
Lewis Moberly believe creativeness and commercial viability go hand in hand, this shows as its the only company to hold both the top awards for Design Excellence and the top award for Design Effectiveness, it also has a D&AD Gold and 3 Silvers, the D&AD Presidents award, Design Week Best of Show, DBA Design Effectiveness Grand Prix Award and over 400 international awards. Lovely flash website that shows some of their great brand work for: Waitrose, Moet, Boots, Duchy of Cornwall, The Body Shop, Selfridges, Lindt and Dior.
LFH
www.lfh.co.uk
Not the biggest award winning agency in this list, as far as I'm aware it does have a D&AD Award for it's Dalmore 62 year old whiskey design (which was also shortlisted for a Marketing Design Award) and a couple of DBA Effectiveness Awards for Grant's Whiskey. The main reason it's in here is their innovative production process 'Chapter1™' which allows FMCG companies to save millions, worth any award in my book. Chapter1™ reduces the amount of ink colours it takes to print packaging, reducing it down to six or less without any visible difference in quality, saving up to £7,000 per SKU, so when you consider the huge amount of products that some companies own, it can save them anything up to £130 million. Amazing! So amazing that the 'Chapter1™' process has now won a DBA Design Effectiveness Award for colour harmonisation across the Unilever brand range.
MW
www.luxurypackaging.co.uk
Not really a surprise that MW have won awards for their work, especially when playing with the big budgets of high-end luxury packaging. I'm sure everyone would like to play with those kinds of figures and come up with some exemplary creative too. On that front, MW don't disappoint, it's just a shame that they are redeveloping their website at the moment, all the delights of their previous portfolio isn't on show at the moment. I will update this entry when their new website is l... Can't wait to see some decent new stuff.
NiCE
www.niceltd.com
NiCE, are they? Well I think so, they have a reputation for crafting award winning packaging around the world. They state that they are strategists and dreamers who seek to unleash the power of desire by linking ideas, objects and images in harmony. This they certainly do, but then their clients are mostly top end scent brands which match their ethos perfectly. Look out for some NiCE packaging work for Gilette, Dunhill, G&G, Pantene and Mont Blanc. If you have a smell that needs covering, these are your guys.
Osborne Pike
www.osbornepike.co.uk
OP are definitely ones to watch, they were formed in 2002 by 2 former directors of Design Bridge, they are described by their clients as ‘a big agency in a small package’ – combining excellent strategic thinking and creativity with surprising speed, service and cost-effectiveness.
They make your brand a story, which makes your brand a book and it's packaging a cover. People say that you should “never judge a book by its cover”? Well think again with OP, they can tell your customers the whole story by tempting us, intriguing us, and persuading us enough to pick up and buy the book. Get that big boys, these nimble guys might start running rings around you soon...
Parker Williams
www.parkerwilliams.co.uk
I'm sure Lady Penelope had a butler called Parker, no relation to Parker Williams of course, PW are by no means your subordinate packaging supplier, they are multiple award winners that want to get your brand noticed, they dig deep to understand a brand from consumer's point of view, to drive the brand within the place it lives, either on shelf or in the corporate world.
Path
www.path-designs.com
I hope this Path doesn't take me down the wrong direction, but lead the right way? Award winning Path observe the life cycle of packaging and the consumer’s interaction with it, using these insights to combine specialist structural innovation with inspired graphic design to achieve solutions with a difference. Must be on the right Path then :-) No yellow brick road for us!
Pearlfisher
www.pearlfisher.com
This is the second entry for Pearlfisher, for a detailed list on their total award wins please visit them in my top 50 design agencies list, otherwise as a brief overview, PF are passionate about the power of design and the importance it plays in a brand's commercial success, all of their design(s) have reaped commercial rewards for their clients and indeed reaped awards for themselves, in abundance! There is some fantastic work on their site including articles on: Green & Blacks repositioning, Coca-Cola Black (coke with coffee extracts?!?) and you should lookout for Absolut Vodka in their innovation section.
Pearlfisher have a great section on their website showcasing structural packaging by material for some great viewing pleasure too.
Pemberton & Whiteford
www.p-and-w.com
Very cute flash website from an agency that has won over 30 international design awards including: DBA Design Effectiveness Award, a Gramia, an Icograda Pentaward, FAB, Chip Shop Awards and a European Design Award. Their portfolio shows off their best work for Tesco, Starbucks and Ferrero.
R-Design
www.r-email.co.uk
It must be the season of re-designs, I think I'll leave their old website grab up for now. This award winning branding and packaging agency try to capture a brand's essence in a simple, clear and creative solution that attempts to instantly engage the consumer. Well? Isn't that what we all try to do, I thought that was the whole idea of packaging :-) At least they summarised it for us! They do some nice own brand work for Tesco and Selfridges.
Reach
www.reachbrands.co.uk
Reach where? round the back of your head to scratch an itch? Or do they mean – 'reach' out to customers? Reach certainly do the later, as most of their case studies show the massive returns from their re-design of brands, you only have too look into the case studies for Covent Garden Soups which gained a 35% increase in value sales achieved within 2 weeks of launch and even grew the whole fresh soup sector by 7%. Or Lyons Seafoods which attained a 72.5% increase in it's market share, wow!
Reach Design have won multiple DBA Design Effectiveness Awards and Marketing Magazine Awards.
Sabotage
www.sabotagepkg.com
First impressions count. So do second, third and beyond. My first impressions, simply beautiful, elegant packaging. My second impression? The same! Some beautiful inspiring work on this website for clients such as Habitat, Hugo Boss and the Body Shop. In the realm of high end packaging solutions Sabotage understand how packaging enhances a brand and plays a crucial role in the purchase decision process. So let's not sabotage the law of attraction – it pays our bills.
Springetts
www.springetts.co.uk
For those that are interested in sport, Springetts have done a lot of sports branding, including the corporate id for Manchester United, the Barclays Premiership and the Rugby Football Union (or RFU). Packaging wise, they help clients create and grow their brands through strategic thinking and engaging design solutions, notable examples are: Weetabix, Evian, Youngs and Twinings. Even the the man from Del Monte, he said yes to them, so they must be good :-) Good enough to be a Gold DBA Design Effectiveness Award Winner, yes!
Stranger and Stranger
www.strangerandstranger.com
Stranger and Stranger are no stranger to winning awards, they have won a pile of them since they started in 1994 and more importantly, they have helped sell a billion bottles of beer, wine and spirits in one of the world’s most competitive sectors. That gets my vote! Yep you might have guessed that S&S are a specialist entry for alcoholic drinks branding, with a mass of awards from within the sector, Gold medals from Beverage World, International Spirits Challenge Design & Packaging Awards (ISC) and the International Food & Beverage Awards (FAB). I personally love the design for Zarco Tequilla, Solerno Orange Liqueur, Ogio wine for Tesco and of course Kraken Rum, yum yum!
Taxi
www.taxistudio.co.uk
Nice flash website here. I love the Clarks Superlight Shoe POS concept, it's ace! Taxi have over 100 national and international awards to date including the coveted New York International Grand Award (which apparently is just a shiny silver fruit bowl, come on NY, put your hand in your pocket a little more), a D&AD and a Silver Lion at Cannes. Not bad, but I bet you couldn't put a fruit pastel in your mouth without chewing it? (No, Rowntree's is not one of their clients - no idea why I said that).
Turner Duckworth
www.turnerduckworth.com
Turner Duckworth design consumer brand identities and packaging that generate commercial results and creative awards. They are ranked No.1 in Packaging Design, No.4 in Corporate Branding and No.6 across all disciplines in 2010 by the Design Week Survey, the survey used data from the top international design awards to rank agencies creative performance.
With awards, like the chicken and the egg conundrum, which comes first? Decent clients or awards, where do you start? Well it's rare for a massive brand like Coca Cola to win an award, but that they managed to win a Cannes Festival Grand Prix - a big achievement to do this kind of iconic design for such mainstream brand. Other awards include: multiple Mobius Awards, a Grammy, a D&AD Yellow, an Epica, Best of Show at the International FAB (Food and Beverage) Design Awards and a lot of Dieline Awards.
It's no wonder that Turner Duckworth has been awarded the inaugural “Agency of the Year” award in recognition of the most Pentawards won by any one agency, since the competition started in 2006.
Client work to look out for on their site: Coca Cola, Amazon's brand development, Waitrose packaging, Brains (Welsh Beer, get in!), Virgin Atlantic and Motorola.
Tynan D'Arcy
www.tynan-darcy.com
So who is Tynan and why is he arcy? Especially when they have such lovely work, there is certainly no need to throw any toys out of the pram as far as I can see. Tynan D'Arcy have been producing effective and successful brands since way back in 1991, an agency that keeps iconic brands engaging and one that helps challenger brands find their voice within the marketplace. A beautifully simple website showing effective work for Selotape, Cadbury, Branston, Philips and Sharwoods. Brilliant stuff!
We Are Pure (formerly Pure Equator)
www.wearepure.net
Another new web re-design that doesn't mention much about their past as Pure Equator, the guise under which they won most of their awards. Pure create a real romance on pack that tells the story that really matters for client such as Chatsworth House, Speedo, Blockbuster, Trevor Sorbie and Cadbury. They have a pure honest vision that stunning creative should be made accessible and affordable to every client whoever they are. Pure Genius (to quote a famous brand).
Webb deVlam
www.webbdevlam.com
Stunning packaging design is on show here from WSDV, the Bombay Sapphire bottle is simply mind blowing, especially if you like a tipple of gin :-) There is also some really great work for Procter and Gamble, all from an award winning packaging agency that likes to think before they draw, and draw before they switch on their Macs. Hand me the crayons someone!
Ziggurat
www.zigguratbrands.com
Blimey, I have a Z in my alphabetical list, they must have done badly in the old days of appearing in the yellow pages, bet they are glad of the internet now, not last anymore!!! Well Ziggurat say that all brands have stories to tell and that not all brands know how to tell their story, that's where Ziggurat come in as a storyteller, creating stories that entertain and inform, to form a story that has something to say with a point of view, creating stories that emotionally connect to people in a really extraordinary way so that consumers ultimately buy and connect with the brand and it's story. Lovely work for Bottle Green, Frijj, Higgidy, Pepsi, Red Sky and Walls. Oh, almost forgot, in case you were interested they have over 25 design awards in their cabinet, how's that for a 'Z' lister?
1HQ (formerly Vibrandt, Vibrandt Form and the Distillery)
www.1hq.co.uk
1HQ is one of the top five companies in the packaging sector of the coveted Design Week Awards, 1HQ's accolades include: an IF, a Red Dot, a DBA Design Effectiveness Award, a Starpack, a Millennium Product Award and they were runner up in the DBA Inclusive Design Challenge 2010. Portfolio pieces to look out for include: Rowntree's packaging – shortlisted for the 2009 Marketing Design Awards, Magnum Gold and a really nice 'Poppets' re-design which got a PMAG Bronze.
999 Design
www.999design.com
999 is actually a full service agency but it's branding and packaging arms do pretty well, picking up a Red Dot award for it's Dovetail branding and Gleneagles Mineral Water, a DBA Design Effectiveness Award for the 'Clean Your Hands' Campaign and the same award again for it's brand creation and implementation for the Rennie Mackintosh festival. They even have a 'Best in Design' Award from the RAR (Recommended Agency Register). I particularly like the way they rolled out Freeview and Digital in the UK.
Highly Commended
An other branding and packaging agency of merit is:
Cowan – www.cowandesign.com
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