Make Complex Simple

We are a creative graphic design and website agency based in Manchester, England. We particularly enjoy working with businesses that need to make complex information and propositions simple and easy to understand. So if you want to present your business...

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Cory Environmental is one of the UK’s leading resource management, recycling and energy recovery companies. The London based business was restructured to allow it to focus on its key market of energy from waste. This created the need for a fresh, future-focused brand identity to build upon the company’s strong existing reputation and we were asked to pitch for the work.

Happily for us we won and have been working closely with the board to roll out the new brand identity.

Our project responsibilities included the following.

• Company naming • Identity design • Brand guidelines • Literature design • Website design, build and SEO • Advertising • Icon design • Photography • Workwear • Exhibition design • Signage and way finding

The brief for the new brand identity required the solution to reflect innovation, the company’s particular use of the River Thames, and the importance of generating energy from waste.

We think it does all that and a bit more besides. What do you think?

See more on the Cory Riverside Energy website at www.coryenergy.com

You can read how we approached the rebrand here.

www.makecomplexsimple.co.uk

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Best Brand Agency nomination | Creative graphic & website design agency | Make Complex Simple

We are proud to announce that we have been nominated in the Best Brand Agency category at the Talk of Manchester Business Awards 2016 – please vote for us!

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We recently created the advertising campaign for EEF’s launch of their extended training facility in Birmingham. The Technology Hub delivers world class technical and leadership skills and is dedicated to keeping the UK skills base at the heart of new manufacturing and engineering technologies.

http://bit.ly/2dF2XCC

www.makecomplexsimple.co.uk

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As a corporate membership body, EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, is the voice for UK manufacturing and provides a range of essential business services including training.

We were asked to develop an advertising campaign to tease the launch of their extended training facility in Birmingham. Opening in September following a +£1m extension, The Technology Hub will deliver world class technical and leadership skills and is dedicated to keeping the UK skills base at the heart of new manufacturing and engineering technologies.

Placed in trade and regional press, the ad was aimed at employers, people seeking an apprenticeship and education influencers such as careers advisers.

http://www.makecomplexsimple.co.uk/projects/advertising/

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Are you #HR happy? Check out our latest DM campaign for EEF's HR services 

http://bit.ly/1tybH4z

#HR   #directmail   #design   #HRHappy   #HRhero   #printing   #litho  #graphicdesign  

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Brochure design and print

For the second year running, we have produced Connect Plus Services’ annual Business Plan.

The Plan details CPS’ values, goals and targets for the coming year, and also contains yearly reports from the services departments.

This year a change in the page layout was required, along with new photography and coloured sections. The brochure was turned around quickly and efficiently, and printed and delivered on time, resulting in a thoroughly delighted client.

http://www.makecomplexsimple.co.uk/projects/brochure-design-and-print/

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Internal communications

Sibelco is a leading provider of industrial minerals, bringing value to customers in a wide range of industries. When the global organisation was restructured we designed a suite of internal communications to communicate these changes to employees across the world.

Vision 2020 and Update help senior board members to share the new vision and structure of the company with their colleagues throughout the business.

We also produced the 2015 Annual Report featuring stories from across the business, commissioned photography and a simple, clean design. The final report is made up of two documents – an Activity Report and the Financial Report, both of which are housed in an outer sleeve.

http://www.makecomplexsimple.co.uk/projects/internal-communications/

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Corporate literature design

As the voice of UK manufacturing and engineering and a leading provider of business support, EEF briefed us to create a high quality piece of corporate literature that sold the benefits of membership through case studies, success stories and compelling photography.

The only problem was that we had just 20 working days in which to do it. And then deliver it to multiple locations in time for EEF’s National Manufacturing Conference. But since solving our clients’ business challenges is what we’re all about, we rolled up our sleeves and got stuck in.

First job was to do a test pagination of the initially supplied content and it was running to well over 60 pages. This was too long and would also create problems with the print finishing – too many pages for stitching, not enough time to finish a perfect bound brochure. So our initial task was to rewrite the content into a manageable length while also making sense of the five membership levels and finding a way to explain these in an ‘at a glance’ format.

Once this was completed we produced a page plan for client sign off and started work on the design and artwork supported with a set of quality images that we sourced for the project. Because we were on a tight schedule, we decided to keep the print specification relatively simple. Four colour process was used throughout with the addition of two metallics to provide a level of stand out quality which met EEF’s expectations for one of their most important pieces of corporate literature.

Taking feedback from many internal stakeholders throughout, we worked at speed on each draft and handed the project over to print in line with our schedule.

Written, designed and printed within 4 weeks, the 44 page brochures were delivered to our happy client team at ten UK locations just in time for use at EEF’s National Manufacturing Conference at the QE II Conference Centre in London.

http://www.makecomplexsimple.co.uk/projects/corporate-literature-design/

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Bespoke web to print solution

The nature of bidding in the construction sector often requires the generation of bespoke brochures designed to showcase the experience of the company and bid team on similar types of project. Allowing bid teams in a multinational company to generate this work locally can be problematical in terms of cost control, consistent brand presentation, internal resource and timing.

With this in mind Balfour Beatty’s UK construction services division asked us to design and deliver a web to print solution that would allow their bid teams to easily create small runs of bespoke brochures using a mix of background information on Balfour Beatty, its brands, sectors, strategic priorities and case studies. Definitely a case of make complex simple.

We spoke to a number of potential print partners before deciding on Prime Group based in Nottingham. Working closely with their IT team we developed a bespoke web browser UI that takes the user through the process of building their own bespoke brochure. Our simple solution starts with the front cover with an editable title and image, to an editable introduction spread, to a content selector for the pre-defined main spreads, to finally an editable back cover.

The content selector allows the user to choose the spreads required for their brochure. Over 300 unique spreads are now loaded on the portal for users to choose from. Spreads displayed in the selector panel depend on the brand and division chosen from drop-down menus. ‘Drag and drop’ is used to build the brochure. The user can also preview the brochure within the browser as a low resolution pdf at any time.

When the back cover is complete, the brochure can be saved and then it’s ready for ordering. Once placed the order is automatically integrated into Prime’s workflow and the system generates invoices, delivery notes and confirmations. Simple!

http://www.makecomplexsimple.co.uk/projects/from-web-to-print/

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Designing a sales toolkit

We were briefed by EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation to create a sales toolkit designed to promote their corporate training and development courses. A key requirement of the brief was that each element of the toolkit needed to work together and on a standalone basis.

As one of the largest training organisations in the country, EEF offer a huge range of accredited and non-accredited training and consultancy programmes to all levels of business.  

This gave rise to the positioning statement ‘From the shop floor to the boardroom. Expert training for everyone.’

Once this was agreed, we worked closely with the marketing team at EEF to design and write a capability brochure that was available in printed and digital versions. This was followed by the creation of a suite of Word templates designed to accommodate a variety of locally printed case studies. Finally we designed and printed a pack that neatly housed all the elements together when required.

Definitely a case of making complex simple.

http://www.makecomplexsimple.co.uk/projects/designing-a-sales-toolkit/

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Generating new business

Syspro is an ERP solution used by around 15,000 companies in over 60 countries worldwide. In the UK, more than 450 firms benefit from the product through Manchester based firm K3 Syspro, a company that develops and delivers excellent ERP solutions for small and medium-sized manufacturing and distribution companies. It’s a solution with a long sales cycle that requires significant time and capital investment from the customer so it is essential that the new business pipeline is kept topped up.

We were asked to create a new business campaign that would generate new enquiries for the solution while taking advantage of K3 Syspro’s existing prospect data and market insight. Working closely with the sales and marketing team at K3 Syspro, we identified fourteen selling points to build the campaign around and using Norwegian illustrator Oivind Hoyland gave us the opportunity to express these consistently across relevant trade press, direct mail and email.

In terms of final results, the campaign is in its early stages so we’ll keep you updated as it progresses but the first email has resulted in 3 meetings. Which has made the sales director extremely happy and bodes well for the rest of the campaign.

http://www.makecomplexsimple.co.uk/projects/generating-new-business/

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Mobile friendly website design

We were briefed by Sibelco to create a new fully optimised and mobile friendly website design for its toll processing business based in Derbyshire.

As one of the UK’s most experienced toll processing companies, their customers rely on them to provide the expertise needed to convert raw materials into finished product in the most efficient way possible.

In addition to design we were tasked with achieving a high rank in organic search. Following a keyword analysis we designed the site around a number of agreed keywords, wrote the content accordingly and also commissioned photographer Matt Swift to capture the plant at work, providing us with a great set of images to optimise and use in the design.

See it here: www.sibelcotollprocessing.co.uk

http://www.makecomplexsimple.co.uk/projects/mobile-friendly-website-design-for-sibelco/

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Exhibition stand design for Sibelco

Metec in Dusseldorf, Germany is the major trade show for metallurgy and foundry technology. With 78,000 visitors from 120 countries attending over 4 days, it allows Sibelco to showcase their range of performance minerals to expert buyers from companies involved in the production of iron and steel. The minerals that Sibelco produce for this sector must perform consistently in extremely high temperatures and we were briefed to communicate this point via the creation of these graphics for an existing exhibition stand design. Using colour gradients helped to give the impression of an active foundry, while the main message was rendered with a ‘molten’ effect.

http://www.makecomplexsimple.co.uk/projects/sizzling-exhibition-stand-design/

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Responsive website design for Connect Plus Services

Connect Plus Services is the business responsible for operating and maintaining the M25 and surrounding A-roads on behalf of Highways England. We were briefed to create a new responsive website to replace their old site and bring their web presence up to date. The first task was to distill the information from the existing site map and redesign it for a better and more consistent user experience. Using the language of roads and motorways as a starting point we designed an icon based system that could be used for navigation and filtering of content. This was complemented by strong imagery, a reader friendly typeface in Interstate, eye catching statistics and HTML5 animations which were all used to bring the client’s story to life in a website that delighted users and client alike.

Even better, it is fully responsive, meaning that users can view the website easily, no matter what device they are using.

See it here: http://www.connectplusservices.co.uk

http://www.makecomplexsimple.co.uk/projects/connect-plus-brand-and-website-design/

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Design for members only

EEF, the manufacturers organisation asked us to design and write a piece of literature aimed at driving enquiries and sales regarding their corporate membership package. This is the highest level of membership that they offer and the audience are very discerning and can be hard to reach. With this in mind our brochure design solution married quality papers and print finishes with a simple illustration style and inclusive tone to argue the case for the benefits of membership.

http://www.makecomplexsimple.co.uk/projects/design-for-members-only/

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Recruiting a new identity and website design

Earlier this year we were tasked to create a brand new identity and website design for new financial recruitment specialist Lucas McLean. Based in Manchester city centre, our client asked for an identity that was a little different but that still respected the financial services sector. Using the notion of searching and following a trail, we designed a simple but effective identity. This was then brought to life through a responsive website which allows clients and candidates to register while on the move. Beyond this we created a visually strong, advertising campaign for use in print and digital. We wish Lucas McLean all the best in building a successful business.

Visit the site at www.lucasmclean.com

http://www.makecomplexsimple.co.uk/projects/lucas-mclean-brand-identity-and-website-design/

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Literature design, French style

If there’s one thing you can’t deny the French, it’s their style. We were approached recently by the French construction company Bouygues to help them write, design and produce a comprehensive set of literature detailing their offer to the UK market.

http://www.makecomplexsimple.co.uk/projects/literature-design-for-bouygues/