Creativity Connects

We are Human After All, a creative agency based in London. This is a place for us to openly share insights on our craft. See what we can do for you at www.humanafterall.co.uk.

[creativityconnects]

We’ve moved!

Hi!  Our Creativity Connects blog is now part of our new website.

Check out the blog section of the site here!

Thanks!

Human After All x

[creativityconnects]

The Creatives’ Christmas Gift List: 2015 edition!

What do you own that helps you be more creative? We asked everyone at Human After All. They answered. And it makes a pretty cool Christmas list. (Especially if you like pens.)

Rhiannon (Junior Producer): Secret Garden colouring book

“I love colouring while I’m on the sofa at home watching TV. This book has some beautiful designs.”

Andy (Senior Producer): Spotify subscription

“Spotify allows me to literally create a soundtrack to my life, punctuating every moment from the mundane (getting ready for work, jogging) to the important (parties, special occasions).”

Victoria (Deputy Creative Director): Knitting kit

AddiClick needles: “These will set you up for all sorts of projects and bamboo is a lovely texture to hold and knit with.”

Plump DK wool: “Mrs Moon's Plump DK is 100% natural fibre, so is incredibly soft and toasty, and comes in a beautiful, contemporary range of colours.”

Learn to Knit, Love to Knit book: “I got back into knitting with the help of this book. Clear photos, easy instructions, simple contemporary patterns.”

Guy (Creative): Paper Mate nylon pen

“My absolute favourite pen. Very soft to write and sketch loosely with. It’s also on a site called 'Cult Pens'. Gotta be a good sign...”

Mei (Junior Creative): Iwako Puzzle erasers

“Anything that's colourful tends to help me be creative. I bought these Japanese puzzle erasers at Comic Con. It's surprisingly hard to find them anywhere other than eBay.”

Angus (Senior Creative): Headspace

“I subscribe to this. I usually find switching off from a problem and then coming back to it is the best way around it.”

Hannah (Production Manager): The Artist’s Way

“This is an amazing book about unlocking your inner creativity. I think everyone and anyone should read it.”

Jonathan (Editorial Director): Areca palm plant

“A beautiful, flawlessly designed, auto-updating bio-technology that quietly keep us alive. I have two on my desk. Here’s a TED Talk about how this one works its magic.”

Ailsa (Managing Director): Noisli

“Don't be fooled by the name, this app is the best way of finding your happy quiet place with soundscapes from the wild.”

James (Creative): Gig Posters: Rock Show Art of the 21st Century

“One of my favourite books. Full of screen-printed gig posters, great for inspiration, full of incredible work. And each page pulls out so you can frame it!”

Rob (Creative Director): Daler Rowney hardback wired A4 sketchbook + Uni-Ball rollerball pen.

“What a sketchbook... so stable, so strong, so flexible. And what a pen... so fluid, so streamline, so sumptuous. I could not operate without them.”

Vinnie (Studio Assistant): Hario hand-grinder

“If I’m at home settling down to do something, I like going through the ritual of grinding beans and making a good cup of coffee first.”

Danny (CEO): Uni-Ball pen

“I have to agree with Rob... The Uni-Ball: so good. My favourite pen.”

Alex (Junior Copywriter): 100 Artists’ Manifestos

“I have this book of artists' manifestos that I dip into when I'm looking for a bit of inspiration.”

Paul (Creative Director): Pomodoro Timer

“I'm creative for a focused 25 minutes, then I have a five-minute break, rinse and repeat. Keeps the blade sharp.”

Lucia (Senior Producer): Post-It notes

“They just help me connect the dots. When comes to turning a medley of information into something that really makes sense, there’s still nothing better than Post-Its.”

Meredydd (Financial Director): Dilbert desk calendar

“I love Dilbert because he just... gets it. It’s not just funny, it’s true. Every single time.”

Happy Christmas from everyone at Human After All! x

[creativityconnects]

Searching for the voice of Reason

Our creative director Paul Willoughby discusses the team’s process for creating a bespoke typeface for our magazine project Weapons of Reason...

What is the voice of reason? What is the tone and timbre of this voice? What does reason even look like? These were some of the questions we asked ourselves as we embarked upon the creation of a bespoke typeface for second issue for Weapons of Reason, our magazine project which uses creativity as a force for good.

Our first consideration: if the magazine were to talk, who would it sound like? We searched for figures with iconic vocal tones, a voice that embodied the characteristics we needed. Our choice was (quite literally) a natural one: Attenborough.

One of the most recognisable, soothing voices in sonically recorded history, Sir David Attenborough’s is absolutely authoritative, yet friendly and articulate, well-rounded through maturity and understanding of the human condition. Perfect, then, for the pages of a magazine designed to connect people with the complexities of the biggest challenges facing our planet.

As a typeface, this how our voice of Reason needs to speak:

It’s clear and can be heard easily

It’s not sharp, excitable or undulating

It talks straight

It doesn’t wrestle with your emotions

It doesn’t shout (we never use all caps, we value the shape of the word)

It simply presents to you, reasoning on matters of global importance

We needed letterforms that could present a firm structure yet reflect a warm humanity. The starting point for these letterforms was the golden section - this divine proportion is woven throughout the structure of the universe, so we imbued our typeface with it. But there are some strange characters and idiosyncrasies in there, too. After all, we humans have our quirks, our imperfections, and perfection is a flaw.

We see clear, illuminating visual communication as an important vantage point from which to see the future. Expressed in this typeface, the Weapons of Reason voice hopes to be approachable and clear, but deliver an incendiary message. It reminded us very much of Einstein’s famous quip that "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

Yet we also continue to be guided by a sentiment from The Royal Society, London, a fellowship behind some of the most life-changing discoveries in scientific history (and of which our hero, Sir Attenborough, is an honorary fellow). Their motto is 'Nullius in verba’ (see for yourself). In other words? Use your Reason.

Willo x

Weapons of Reason: Issue 2 is due for publication later this year.

Special thanks to Evan Lelliott, our collaborator on the typeface.

[creativityconnects]

Clients and creatives: 10 steps to a great relationship

The c-word. It can be one of the greatest challenges that creative graduates face. We’re talking, of course, about clients...

After three or so years of blissful creative independence during your studies, working to a professional brief can be quite a shock. So, at this year’s D&AD New Blood Festival, we hosted a workshop to share what we’ve learned from over 10 years of client collaboration. 

Better still, we invited three of our world-class clients - BAFTA, Facebook and Ministry of Sound - to share their advice on a great working relationship and get the students to put these top 10 tips into practice.

1. Keep your promises

Over-promising and under-delivering is a surefire way to a dissatisfied client. Don’t just promise what you think your client wants to hear when you’re planning what you can achieve within a certain timeframe. A later delivery date by pre-arrangement is always better than a last-minute push-back.

2. Communicate with clarity...

Remember that your client may not be from a creative background and therefore not accustomed to the design language you’re used to speaking. Re-read your presentations and deliverables and ask whether they clearly convey all the details that you want them to.

3. ...but don’t drown them in details

Don’t forget that clients are busy people! Keep communications concise and to the point. Bullet points and subheadings can really help break down the information, especially in presentation decks and emailed notes.

4. Listen for the clues

Try to meet face-to-face with your client. Why? It gives you the chance to listen. Your client’s choice of words, statements, mantras - even the intonation in their voices - can all be subtle clues that help you truly understand their problem and design the perfect solution.

5. Be ready for questions

Your client will often have in-depth questions on your presented work. It can be helpful to scan through your slides and try to preempt these. You can add these extra clarifications as supplementary notes or keep them in your back pocket for when the need arises.

6. Back it up or back down

You may disagree with some of your client’s priorities. But don’t forget their innate knowledge of their own brand. Remind yourself of the project’s goals – and if pushing back against the client really does make sense, be ready to make a clearly reasoned argument for your approach.

7. The brief is your Bible

It can be easy to lose track of complex goals and parameters. Whenever that happens, go back to the brief. From meeting brand guidelines to covering project objectives, just make sure to that your work is hitting the criteria you agreed at the beginning.

8. One size never fits all

Creatives all like to work differently – and clients are no different. Some prefer formal in-person meetings, others prefer PDF presentations sent over email. Some can respond to rough WIPs, others may need to see a more polished result. Figure out a collaboration that works for you both.

9. Feedback isn’t failure

A ‘no’ from a client shouldn’t be a dead end. Sure, it’s a little galling when a piece of work you believe in is turned down. But use the opportunity to glean as many learnings about your client’s needs as you can - then go back to the drawing board. Visual communication is a highly subjective thing and it often takes a little time to clarify tastes, preferences and thinking on a project.

10. Trust is a must!

Truth be told, all good clients and agencies know there’s only one real secret to a great creative relationship: trust. A good client will put their faith in you to deliver a solution. A good creative will trust the client to give them the direction to do so.

[creativityconnects]

Good work: brand storytelling and the power of belief

Human After All’s Editorial Director, Jonathan Crocker, explores why a positive belief is the secret behind the world’s most successful brands.

“By the way, if anyone here is in marketing or advertising… kill yourself. Thank you.”

Some friendly advice there from the great comedian Bill Hicks. He knew that advertisers persuade us, as economist Tim Jackson memorably put it, “to spend money we don't have on things we don't need to create impressions that won't last on people we don't care about.”

Human After All is a creative agency that makes “communications” for brands. That, really, is just another word for advertising. So how do we live with ourselves?

Well, Human After All’s logo isn’t an umlaut. Those two dots above the “u” represent our mission: using creativity to connect people and brands, making others smile even when they don’t expect to and putting ‘you’ at the centre of our work. 

We spent seven years building our company before rebranding as Human After All. That was a tricky process and certainly not a time when we were in a position to be too choosy about work.

However, one of our first ambitions was to be a ruthlessly independent agency - so we stuck to our mission. We work with people that we feel speak to our desire to use design as a force for good and with brands that we’re comfortable aligning ourselves with.   

A children’s charity, the world’s two biggest tech giants, a global NGO, an accountancy firm, a house-music label, music and entertainment brands, famous London attractions, a prestige watchmaker… We work with clients of all shapes and sizes, but every one of them has the power to help people and to make the world a little bit better. When we help them reach their audience, we make sure that’s the message they’re sending.

Don’t think that this is lofty moral stance. We’re in the business of helping our clients succeed like never before.

It’s best codified by Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle: “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” The world’s greatest brands sell a positive belief that’s impossible not to share. Harley Davidson, for example, doesn’t sell motorbikes. It sells ‘Freedom’, which is why Harley riders feel like modern cowboys. Nike doesn’t sell sportswear. It sells a belief that’s powerful enough to make anyone feel they can ‘just do it’:

Maya Angelou famously quipped that people will forget what you said, what you did, but never how you made them feel. She was right. The emotional part of the brain, the limbic system, is what makes decisions for us. Like which accountant you use, which coffee you buy or which charity you donate to.

So with every client project, we always start at this level. What does the brand stand for? What’s its purpose? What does the client believe it’s doing when it’s selling a product or providing a service?

We work hard to burrow into the positive beliefs at the brand’s heart, because these are what hold the secret to creating an honest, inspiring emotional connection with its audience. The communications we create - whether it’s a logo, an above-the-line campaign or a booklet - are consciously designed as a compelling expression of this core mission.

When BAFTA needed an awards campaign that worked above the line and on the night, for example, we designed every piece of collateral to express its heartfelt belief in the transporting magic of cinema and television.

Whether we’re rebranding a hands-on London accountancy firm, an iconic music-label or a life-changing charity, the process remains the same: find the unique purpose and passion at the brand’s heart, find an irresistible way to express it.

Much is made of “storytelling”. But really, a brand’s story is just its beliefs made real. By bringing to life a brand’s true belief and purpose, we hope to create communications that make a positive difference to people.

That goes for each of us, too. The story of our lives will be how we brought our values into the world. What values are you honouring when you come to work? Good values are what motivate us to do good things. They’re what make us human, after all.

Otherwise, it’s kinda hard to argue with Bill...

JCx

[creativityconnects]

Isn’t it iconic, don’t you think?

Every week, our Junior Creative Mei Støyva translates a bundle of assorted ideas into a set of beautiful icons for our weekly email newsletter delve. How does she do it?

As someone who’s actively trying to go to the cinema more often, working on delve is very convenient! Our free email newsletter tells you the one film you can’t afford to miss at the cinema each week.

But one of my favourite things about delve is that it also gives you four links that are thematically linked to the Film of the Week. Not only are they incredibly good reads, but it's my job to illustrate these links each week in form of icons - and it's my job to do it with style.

Designing icons probably sounds (and looks) pretty easy. But while some icons are (literally) a piece of cake to draw out, some links require icons that are a little brainier than that. 

How do you compress “100 years of Persian beauty” into just one icon, for instance? How do you depict sex without being rude? And how do you convey abstract concepts such as artificial intelligence in an instantly comprehensible way, twice, without repeating yourself?

Well, sit back and relax, because you're about to find out(-ish) in this step-by-step guide.  

Step 1: Remember the rules (and the research)

There are two rules that I keep in mind when designing icons for delve. The icons must be...

1. Instantly understandable

2. Quick and easy to make

Copy is usually ready by Thursday and the newsletter is sent out on Friday morning, which means we have Thursday afternoon to design and build all the bits and pieces.

As soon as I get the copy, I read through it carefully, as the main clues to what I'm going to draw are usually found in the description of the links. I also make sure to visit the links themselves to get a better idea of how to best represent them.

Here’s an example: for the A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night newsletter, we ran a link with the description "Of course, Iran's always had style. Watch 100 years of Persian beauty in just over a minute."

Obviously, the icon would have to convey the concept of beauty somehow, but I knew very little about Persian style. However, after seeing the video, I instantly knew what I had to draw:

Step 2: Dubious Google searches (and the importance of feedback)

Having gone through the links and gathered some ideas, I'll now quickly jot down a few sketches to make sure what I'm visualising in my head will actually translate into a two-colour icon.

Icons can't afford the luxury of being incredibly detailed, so they need to get the message across within a very simple range. If I can't sketch it out easily on a piece of paper, it probably won't work well as an icon.

Another thing I’ll often do is look at how other artists have envisioned the same thing by making a quick Google search. It doesn't always yield the best results ("sex icon", anyone?) but it does usually give me a pretty good idea of the kind of associations people have around a particular concept.

After redrawing the icons properly in Illustrator, I send them to the rest of the delve team for feedback.

Sometimes the feedback is pretty straightforward ("Make the cake look more awesome" or “Can we see more of the robot mecha suit combat armour’s torso?"). 

And sometimes you're halfway through drawing out the molecular structure of oxytocin when someone asks you if you can draw a tomato instead. But the feedback is always helpful and we get there in the end! 

Step 3: There's no "I" in "team" (but there is one in "icon")

At this point - or usually a bit before - if there’s a link I haven't had any good ideas for, I throw it to the team to see what they come back with. It's a huge relief to know I have a great team who’ve always got my back and can help me out when I'm stuck. Five heads are better than one!

An idea from one of my co-workers that I absolutely loved was for another of the links in A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night: what it's like to be a woman in Iran. The finished icon combined the star and crescent with the female gender symbol - such a brilliantly simple and effective piece of communication! 

Step 4: S is for subscribe (to delve)

Once the icons are drawn out and approved by the team, I flow them into the newsletter along with the copy. A test email is then sent out and, once everything's in order, the newsletter is scheduled for 9am the following day.

That's my typical Thursday afternoon. After which I go home, kick off my shoes and promptly fall asleep on the sofa at 7.30pm.

But I know what you're thinking: how do you convey abstract concepts such as artificial intelligence in an instantly comprehensible way, twice, without repeating yourself? Well, if you want to figure that one out, you're going to have to subscribe to delve...

Thanks for reading! Here's a dog doing algebra.

And a look at (nearly) all the icons I’ve done so far!

Mei x

[creativityconnects]

The magic of print

Our production manager Hannah El-Boghdady explores how, even in the digital age, an ancient medium keeps offering dazzling new possibilities to us and our clients...

There’s always a mix of nervous anticipation and pure excitement when we’re waiting for a job to come back from the printers. Like unwrapping a present, the team gather round to unveil the new printed creation.

It’s a simple combination of paper and ink that creates this thrill and suspense. It’s that same combination of paper and ink that comes together to make something that connects on so many different levels with the person holding it, offering something more than just a message. It’s an intimate exchange, even if it’s just a sheet of paper and an envelope.

As a forward-thinking design agency, it’s crucial that Human After All continues to experiment with new innovations. This is exactly how we approach print, striving to create printed products that will capture our clients’ imagination as well as our own.

Human After All produces a whole range of printed collateral, from tickets and books to our own in-house magazine Weapons of Reason.

As with many magazines, it’s important to us that Weapons of Reason is printed rather than simply existing in digital form. Being able to design and articulate the message of the magazine through a physical object emphasises its voice and builds a stronger bond between the audience and the brand. Giving our audience a physical publication provides an intimacy that only the right paper, ink and binding will create.

This kind of publishing won’t be thrown away, but cherished and kept. This is what we want to achieve with everything we create and print: something so beautiful it becomes part of someone’s own personal belongings.

BAFTA’s golden tickets

One of our most rewarding projects has been the BAFTA Film and TV Campaign. BAFTA wanted a campaign that captured the timeless glamour and anticipation of its prestigious annual awards, and both the tickets and brochure had to express this.

To begin with, the design team created the layout of the ticket wallets. These were comprised of twin folds, opening to both the left and right, and die-cut pockets to house the ceremony ticket and menu. These pockets may seem like a small detail, but they were key to bringing the whole package together: it literally represented the night unfolding, from parking and canapes, to awards and dinner, to the after-party.

We wanted the tickets to echo the guests’ journey of the evening and contribute to the magic of the event. To do this and ensure the design team’s vision was executed to the highest standard, it was also very important to keep a strong relationship with our printers. This freed us to be experimental. The best piece of advice when printing your own material? Test what you’re doing, whether it’s special ink and paper combinations, finishes or production mock-ups.

Numerous tests were conducted to analyse how our chosen ink would work on the coloured papers we wanted to use - and they proved the importance of testing. Even though we were using gold ink, the coloured paper diluted the colour, making it really murky on the darker paper.

If we hadn’t tested this before the final print run, we’d have been in big trouble - and probably too traumatised to ever go near that ink again! Instead, we had time to experiment further and tweak the ink. The second batch of tests came back and worked perfectly. We were back in the game.

An element that added big impact to the tickets was the foiling. This is a perfect example of how a print finish can complement the design and how design can enrich the effectiveness of the print finish. The mixture of gold foil and contrasting design complemented and balanced each other, elevating the tickets and making them feel extra special.  

Passion for paper

Paper is an extremely important factor for all of our jobs. The paper can have a huge impact on the design and can change the entire feel of a piece, which makes finding the right paper both a top priority and a passion for us.

Many techniques can also be used to take paper to the next level and create a whole range of textures, something we experimented with on the First Shot booklet we created for Jameson. This is one of my favourite projects.

We used a twill embossing and included gatefolds on the cover, giving the book an intricate texture and making it feel very high-end. Most of the time, these small details are what create the greatest effect on a publication, adding a subtle but unmissable sophistication to its look and feel .

Another great printed project that Human After All created was the Facebook wooden phones. Housing a Facebook infographic which unfolded like a concertina, the two covers were made out of wood etched with a smartphone design. I love this job because it demonstrates how different materials can be incorporated and merged to make something new.

Pushing the envelope

We’re currently trying to create the same excitement with the new job I’m working on. The challenge is to push the boundaries a little bit more. We’re experimenting with a range of finishes, such as scratch-and-sniff ink, pop-ups, die-cutting and roll-folds.

We always consider why we’re including these finishes. There’s a danger of going overboard and using a finish just for the sake of it, so it has complement the design and add something to the publication rather than simply being a novelty.

The most important factor, always, is that the needs of the client are met. It’s our job to make sure that whatever we print gives off the right personality and impression. It’s equally as important that the printed product shows off our designs to look the best they can on the printed page.

Even as technology evolves in the 21st century, print continues to offer unique possibilities to affect us and achieve wonders that are hard to match digitally. It’s for this reason that we champion print - and always will.

Hannah

x

[creativityconnects]

House style: refreshing Hed Kandi’s typography

How do you refresh one of the music world’s most iconic brands? HAA creative Angus McPherson reveals how we created a new typeface for legendary house label Hed Kandi.

No question about it, Hed Kandi is a massively iconic piece of early Noughties pop-culture. Yet as times changed, the Brit brand seemed to have been left partying like it’s 1999.

It was hugely exciting, then, when we were approached by Ministry of Sound to refresh the brand with a new logo, a new graphic mark and a new typeface that could bring it back to relevance for the 21st century.

In this blog, I’m going to focus on the latter: how we developed a new Hed Kandi typography, our process for creating this typeface and some very useful resources that I used along the way.

Inspiration: a trip to Kandi-land

Before we even started thinking about typography, this project - like every project - began with an in-depth understanding of exactly what we wanted to express.

We held a brand workshop with the Hed Kandi team to explore the big questions that would drive everything we did. What is the Hed Kandi promise? Who is Hed Kandi for? What kind of feelings do we want to capture?

Another challenge: like many of the client projects we work on here at Human After All, Hed Kandi involved delivering ideas to a big organisation with many stakeholders and many points of view.

Many early pieces of reference we picked were often discarded in favour of new ideas chosen by the client. Throughout this collaborative process, we focused on crucial balance act: retaining the DNA of what we were trying to create while allowing it to be enriched with their ideas.

As you can see from this early reference, it was split between the Very Experimental and the Very Safe. We were keen to create something memorable and unique, but understandably, the Hed Kandi team was anxious not to move too far away from their longstanding and recognisable identity.

So what was the solution? We hit upon the idea of creating a geometric typeface with an experimental underlying structure. This way, we could have the best of both worlds: a legible, neutral version of the typeface which spoke of Hed Kandi’s previous brand identity and a decorative, experimental version that could take their brand in exciting new directions.

Process: feeling the beat

Hed Kandi is a house music label - and that’s exactly what provided us with inspiration for its typeface’s creative energy. House music has a 4x4 beat, so we used this basic concept as the foundation of our design: 4 parallel lines that create all of the characters.

I drew the typeface in Adobe Illustrator and then took the vectors into Fontographer to make a live .otf version. (At the end of this post, you’ll find some excellent articles and videos that go into the technicalities of creating a typeface.)

As we worked through iterations of the typeface, details came and went. The diamond dots on the ’i’ were dropped in favour of something more neutral and, sadly, the display version of the typeface (see below) never made it to the final stages of development.

Over the course of the project, we tested and discarded countless creative routes. Whatever we did, it was really important to work closely with the client and stay focused on creating something that fulfilled their needs and created the right tone for their brand.

Finally, I hope we struck just the right note between renewal and consistency, creating a typeface that was imbued with Hed Kandi’s DNA while also being a clear step forward.

We called it ‘Kandopia’: the gateway to Hed Kandi’s uplifting, exciting world of escapism and pleasure...

Angus

Resources: typeface toolkit

1. Making Geometric Type work

 This is a brilliant resource for anyone taking their first tentative steps into type design. It outlines potential pitfalls in creating a geometric typeface and some of the less intuitive things one should do to make their typeface really work.

2. Sawdust Typography Vol 1

Buried in this video diary by the prolific Sawdust Design Studio are some great tips for making a geometric typeface and using Fontographer in conjunction with Adobe Illustrator. The final three videos in the series are the most informative and useful. I'd steer clear of the first few unless you're having a very quiet day.

3. Kern King

This absolutely indispensable hack for anyone creating a live typeface for the first time means you have all possible character combinations set up for you. Just copy and paste it into your type design software and get kerning!

4. Special Characters and Punctuation Cheat sheet

If you’re creating typefaces for a client or for use by people other than yourself, you’ll want to consider making a European character set and extensive punctuation. It can be daunting looking at the mind-numbingly large character sets that established type studios put out. With that in mind, I created a stripped-back character set that will cover you in 99 percent of situations.

ÁÂÄÀÅÃÇÉÊËÈÍÎÏÌÑÓÔÖÒÕŠÚÛÜÙÝŸŽ

áâäàåãçéêëèíîïìñóôöòõšúûüùýÿž

£$€¢¥#%&®©@

/\()[]{}|-–—_•· ()

.:;’‘'”“"!¡?¿+=÷*<>

[creativityconnects]

Creating a winning office culture

Human After All’s senior producer - and social secretary - Andy “Tweds” Tweddle explores how HAA’s unique company culture might be its secret to success.

Last year, I left Human After All to join a much larger advertising agency. Much of what this agency was doing was good. They created good work. They did it for good clients. But something big was missing.

What I could no longer feel was a creative energy - that electricity generated by a team with shared beliefs, shared passion and a set of clear creative goals. It manifests itself in all sorts of ways, great and small. At Human After All, I had immediately been handed the affectionate moniker “Tweds”. At this new workplace, I was “Andy”. At Human After All, I was a collaborator. In this new space, I was a cog.

I’m now back at Human After All - working on projects I love, in the way that I love, with people I love - and the value of a great office culture has never been more evident. So what does that mean?

Love, as the lyrics go, is a doing word. Great office culture inspires powerful values that in turn create powerful actions and drive powerful results. There’s a strong argument that Human After All’s success has emerged from its key foundations: respect and collaboration, sharing knowledge and lifelong learning, and a passion for creating amazing work.

During our adult lives, we will spend more time with our work colleagues than with our families

None of these are hung on the walls in motivational banners or preached at company meetings. They’re ingrained on a deeper level: felt, understood and acted out every day by everyone here. (Worth saying, some very successful companies do like to show off their mantras. When we visit Facebook’s offices, we see company values like “Move fast and break things” proudly displayed throughout the building.)

During our adult lives, we will spend more time with our work colleagues than we will with our families and more time in offices than we will at home. Increasingly, companies of all shapes and sizes are getting wise to why this matters: if employees spend most of their waking lives in the office, the culture in that office will define the success of those employees, the work they produce and the company itself.

The tactic of creating a dynamic office space as a means of boosting morale was heralded by original startups like Google, DreamWorks and Apple. Ten years ago, rumours began bubbling of slides linking one floor to another, in-office bowling alleys and free food for all. Yet these quirky physical treats weren’t always just indulgent gimmicks.

“Our offices are designed to encourage interactions between Googlers within and across teams,” says Google’s official about page. “To spark conversation about work as well as play.”

A great office culture isn't a ping pong table in the corner. It's the air that every employee breathes, the creative oxygen that circulates through bloodstream of the company. This unique atmosphere is what sets the tone for the work the agency does.

People talk about their work. It’s noisy. There’s clutter... You feel something in the air: energy

“When people talk about ‘agency culture’, they seem to leave out the very thing that defines it most: the work,” says Wade Devers, Executive Creative Director for ad agency Arnold. “In an agency with a great creative culture, people talk about their work. The office has energy. It’s noisy. There is clutter...You feel something in the air: creative energy.”

At the heart of our creative agency - and, I’d guess, every successful company - are positive shared values. When an office culture is an honest expression of these values, it inspires great work. It can’t be faked. It can only be felt. It's a special alchemy that, if you get it right and keep it right, just might be the defining secret behind your company's success.

I’m not a CEO who’s spent years nurturing the cultures of Fortune 500 companies, but here are four things that Human After All has learned about fostering a winning office culture:

1. Communicate and collaborate

We believe that a good culture is an open culture: a place where everyone is encouraged to talk, share, listen and learn. Communication is how you ensure every single person on the team feels like a meaningful part of the mission. We give our best when we feel like we matter. It’s why working at Human After All often feels like being part of a family. (You’ll know you’re doing it right when people start saying “we” instead of “I”.)

2. Create the joy

“Your work still gets me excited. And work isn't work when it's fun!” That testimonial, from our client at BAFTA, is one of our favourites. It’s not always easy, but finding the joy in your daily working life - with both clients and colleagues - is infectious and inspiring. Since people are most creative in those moments between ‘work’ (it’s why you have your best ideas in the shower), we also dedicate time and budget to having fun together. For our company’s 2nd birthday, for example, we let ourselves in for a Crystal Maze-style experience called HintHunt. Creative thinking, problem-solving, teamwork and embarrassing amounts of fun. (Followed by cocktails, naturally.)

3. Respect and recognise

Especially in a creative agency, it’s all too easy to label those who don’t work in a “creative” role (yours truly included) as “not creative”. The truth is that everyone is a vital contributor to the creative process, from directors to the producers. Recognise that and celebrate each other regularly. At HAA, we end every Friday with a snack-fuelled show-and-tell of the work we’ve created that week and a round of applause for the people who helped make it happen.

4. Share the same beliefs

A culture is a group of people who believe that same thing. Human After All believes in design as a force for good. It’s not written on the walls anywhere, but it’s something that everyone feels. It’s both a reason to come to work and a compass that guides us: we hire people (and work with clients) who are infused with the same values as us and instinctively dodge those who aren’t.

I believe that our office culture is what keeps us producing work that makes us and our clients happy. There’s a reason why our logo looks like smile.

Tweds x

[creativityconnects]

The art of commissioning (and vice versa)

Artful commissioning is often the secret behind great art. Lead creative Victoria Talbot reveals how she commissions top illustrators to create delve’s beautiful weekly movie artworks.

In January, we launched a new weekly newsletter called delve. Its mission? To show people how movies can enrich your life, inspiring you to go to the cinema and then discover the world.

So when we decided to commission a weekly artwork to celebrate each of delve’s film recommendations, we knew we had to delve deeper than an alternative poster rework or straight-up character portrait.

Our inspiration came from the rich, beautiful Polish and Czech movie posters that began emerging in the 1940s. These stunning pieces of art captured the essence of a film without resorting to floating heads or film stills.

Of course, we knew it be challenging to deliver a striking piece of art every week - on top of our regular studio workload - so a carefully thought-out commissioning process was essential.

Creative thinking: idea first, artist second

Much like Poland’s bygone poster artists, we’re rarely able to see the film before we commission the art. Instead, we learn as much as we can from the trailer, stills and synopsis.

What are the driving themes of the story? What are the most powerful visual cues? What overarching colours or tones can we see?

We brainstorm these insights, carefully exploring them until we hit on a strongly expressive visual concept. Everything is built on this defining idea - reaching it is a demanding but hugely exciting part of the process.

We keep the following points firmly in the front of our minds:

Does the idea truly capture the film's essence?

Does the idea engage with the film's bigger themes?

Is the idea visually arresting?

Would someone want to have it on their wall?

Where art thou? The artist search

This idea-first approach is vital, both to creating great art and to keeping delve’s commissions running smoothly from week to week. Armed with our concept, we can now consider which artists have a signature style that could capture it successfully.

When I’m looking for illustrators, I go to one or more of the following sources:

HAA’s creative team. Our creatives all have varied backgrounds and interests, and it’s great to be able to draw upon a mine of specific illustration style or film genre knowledge.

Illustration agencies. Looking through the curated artist selections on agencies’ books can be a great eye-opener and time-saver. We have longstanding relationships with many agencies,  and have already collaborated with EW Agency, MP Arts and Handsome Frank for delve.

Pinterest, Behance and blogs. I keep track of any illustration picks with a Pinterest board, sorting my references with visual thumbnails. Behance’s discipline-specific filtering also really helps narrow down the search and I keep up with top illustration blog picks via the illustration/artwork threads on titles like It’s Nice That and grain edit.

Exhibits and applications. Artists regularly get in touch to introduce their work to us – and we do look at them! We often visit shows in person to seek out new talent too. Graduate shows like New Blood can be a fantastic opportunity to hunt out fresh new creatives. I met Charlie Lewis, our artist for Love is Strange, at a New Blood portfolio workshop.

Not only does this help us put forward a selection of artists, but it can also lead us in surprising directions. Take, for example, Harriet Lee-Merrion’s artwork for ominous horror flick It Follows: while horror films are often shrouded in foreboding darkness, her inventive use of shadow against a light backdrop created a spine-chilling image using an entirely different visual language.

Clear communication: the commission

With any commission, clarity is the key. Misunderstandings can be costly, especially when the clock is ticking. When commissioning an artist, we work to the following guidelines:

1. Key information set out in clear subheads and bullet-points:

Detailed notes on our desired creative approach (this is the deliverable)

Double deadline (we like to set two: one for an interim rough and the second for the final artwork)

File spec (dimensions, colour space, file type)

Reference materials (film stills, trailer, synopsis)

2. Artist visuals:

We often include examples of the artist’s work that struck a chord with us, bullet-pointing exactly what we liked and how we might like to see it used in the delve brief.

3. Concept comp:

We might also include a very roughly comped concept visual for the artist to reference, but this varies from brief to brief.

Feedback, revision and finishing touches

After receiving a first draft from the illustrator, we give detailed feedback and usually arrive at a finished version via a couple more revisions. We work hard to navigate the artwork through small subtleties that always make a giant difference, ensuring it’s a piece of work that truly engages with and expresses the themes of film. 

This stage of the commission can be sometimes be tricky, but the end result is always incredibly rewarding.

Once the artwork has been finalised, all that remains is to flow it into delve’s various weekly deliverables - the newsletter and the gallery - and create sharable versions for delve’s social platforms such as Instagram.

See them for yourself by signing up to receive delve’s weekly newsletter at delveweekly.com and explore prints of all of delve’s weekly film artwork so far on the delve gallery.

We’d love to know what you think!

VT x

[creativityconnects]

HAAppy birthday to us! And a special present for you...

To celebrate our 2nd birthday - and our 10th anniversary - we have a very special present for anyone who loves magazines.

Human After All is two years old on 2 March (that's us two years ago ^), which is an exciting chance for us to reflect on our vision as a creative agency. Because although we’re about to celebrate our second birthday, it’s actually the 10th anniversary of our founders beginning work together.

Our team began its journey exactly one decade ago by launching The Church of London (a design agency) and Little White Lies (a movie magazine). The Church of London was founded on 5 January and Little White Lies first hit the shelves on 12 March 2005.

We spent the next eight years of our lives building TCOLondon and LWLies. Then, two years ago, we said goodbye to the company and the magazine to form a new creative agency. We were now Human After All.

It was a great opportunity for us to pause for breath (those eight years had been pretty relentless) and to think about both the kind of creative company we wanted to be and the kind of work we wanted to do.

As a team, we focus on how best to help our clients and this will always be the core of what we do. But from the day we became Human After All, we also knew that a return to publishing and to movies was a certainty. We began planning two self-initiated passion projects: a new magazine called Weapons of Reason and a new weekly film service called delve.

Weapons of Reason issue one launched in October 2014 and delve launched on 2 January 2015. Both represent not just a chance for us to engage in projects and cultures that we love, but for us to practise what we preach: to embody the central purpose that keeps us energised to build our creative company.

Our mission

We’ll keep stressing this purpose whenever we can: we believe that creativity connects and our mission is to use creativity to connect people with their passions.

This really means something to us. We learned it, hands-on, during those eight years before becoming Human After All. We launched LWLies simply because we wanted to share and shout our opinions on film. But after eight years, three websites, the launch of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the advent of big data, our goal had changed entirely: we now wanted to help people love film more. We believe that seeing films is an amazing, life-enriching experience and we want to inspire everyone to see more of them.

All our publishing endeavours had led us somewhere: to be useful. It was a revelation that, as we became Human After All, gave us a new sense of purpose. It wasn’t our magazine that had achieved this connection with people, or our social channels or our events or our use of data. It was our creativity. Our ideas. Our understanding of people’s passions and pains and our desire to bring them closer to the things they love. 

So this is where we're at now. Weapons of Reason’s aim is to use our creative skills as a force for good, to connect people with the complexities of the biggest challenges facing our planet. Driven by our goal to help people love film more, delve’s mission is show how great movies enrich your life, inspiring you to go to the cinema and then discover the world.

Our birthday/anniversary present to you

We learned a lot this past decade and often the hard way. We failed a lot. We did some great things and some not-so-great things.

The main point is, we were always learning. We’ve given a lot of talks over the years and have found that taking the time to make a presentation about how you think and how you work is a great way to reflect upon and codify those very things.

So from now on, we’ll try to do more of that here on our site. To celebrate our 2nd birthday and our 10th anniversary, we’re going to start by giving you the Publishing Playbook.

What is the Publishing Playbook?

The Playbook (head here to request access) is a shared resource of documents containing everything we learned during our time working in publishing. It comprises:

A principal 12,000-word document: the Playbook itself

A magazine business plan: all the main financial considerations of publishing in print

A magazine megadoc: everything you need to plan an issue of a magazine

A shared Google Drive folder: helpful documents that we’ve created to make magazines

Each of these files are downloadable, so you can make your own copies and start using them. The Playbook is all we know about publishing, which is a truly all-encompassing communications endeavour. You’ll find chapters in here on everything from interrogating your concept and brand-building, to seeking sponsorship, buying print, getting distributed and managing subscriptions. Our knowledge is now yours.

We believe that magazines are wonderful communication tools and nothing would make us happier than to see more and more of them in the world - connecting people to things they love, sharing and shouting about interesting and important topics, being useful. We hope that the Publishing Playbook will prove useful for anyone with passion and purpose.

Here’s to the next 10 years!

Human After All

x

[creativityconnects]

We're very proud to see the Big Reveal campaign – featuring the exquisite work of Malika Favre – bringing a touch of BAFTA glamour to the London Underground.

Our creative director, Paul Willoughby, describes the campaign:

'The Big Reveal' evokes the glamour and anticipation of the BAFTA experience.

BAFTA night is full of big reveals: stars emerging from limousines, beautiful dresses on display, flashbulbs in the darkness, icons stepping into the spotlight, winners drawn from envelopes… It's also about looking beyond the dazzle to touch the real emotions of the big night.

We're collecting Big Reveal photos for our archives so if you snap a photo on the Tube or on a London bus, please tweet us @humanafterall. 

Read more about the Big Reveal.

Images via Instagram, with special thanks to @remembertosleep, BAFTA and Handsome Frank.

[bafta-film]

Here’s our poster for the EE British Academy Film Awards on the underground! Find out more. 

[creativityconnects]

An elegant round of applause for master illustrator Malika Favre, whose fine work is popping up all over the London Underground. 

[creativityconnects]

[creativityconnects]

Jameson First Shot Competition

We're very proud to have worked with Jameson and Kevin Spacey's Trigger Street Productions on First Shot, a challenge that gives young filmmakers the chance of a lifetime.  

At the end of 2014 we designed, wrote and edited a stunning look-book (seen in its foil-blocked glory, above) that showcased Jameson First Shot as the world’s most extraordinary short-film competition.

First Shot offers filmmakers the chance to direct their own seven-page script, with Spacey mentoring and Oscar-winner Adrien Brody starring in the lead role. 

Filmmakers can enter the competition here or read the full Jameson First Shot case study on our website.

[creativityconnects]

Foxcatcher by Matt Murphy

The super-talented Matt Murphy has turned his attention to Foxcatcher, reimaging Bennett Miller's lauded true crime story for Week 2 of delve. 

delve is our new weekly film service that lands in your inbox every Friday, helping you to discover new ways to love movies. Week 1 launched with Birdman, including an exclusive print (below) by the awesome Aussie team at We Buy Your Kids.

You can collect the original delve prints by heading over to the brand-spanking new delve shop, read more about delve here or sign up at delveweekly.com to be the first to see each week's new illustration.

[creativityconnects]

Gone Girl reimagined for Delve by illustrator annalisedunn. Read more about Delve here.