2017 saw the 4th instalment of the bi-annual Formica Formations design competition, brought to you by Laminex New Zealand. Our continued role in developing the competition framework spanned from the creation of the design brief through to management and staging of the awards evening. The design brief was a departure from the past, in that it challenged New Zealand’s design community to think outside of the square, as it wasn’t anchored to any specific piece of furniture or known object.
“What defines a home, a design, an aesthetic or a style as modern? We live in a world of change, constantly challenging us to rethink the way we behave, how we engage and react to the people and places around us. In our homes, working environments and shared spaces we live out our relationships with the world in what can seem to be an ever-increasing degree of exposure. We’re all at once connected and separated, unified and fragmented. With that exposure comes responsibility. How can innovative thinking, using Formica laminate, enhance our modern environment and contribute to a better life, a better home and a better world for all.”
Traditionally the winning pieces, as selected by the panel of judges, made up of esteemed design industry leaders, would have been fabricated for the awards evening. In line with the “A Forward Life” theme, this year we bought the winning designs to life through a fully immersive virtual reality experience. The Formica Formations design competition represents a way for Laminex New Zealand to support the NZ design community while driving innovation allowing for its product to be showcased in inventive ways.
Fletcher Steel is New Zealand’s leading importer, distributor and processor of steel representing Fletcher Building’s Easysteel, Fletcher Reinforcing, Fletcher Wire Products, Dimond, Pacific CoilCoaters and Calder Stewart Roofing brands. At the heart of its business are its people. We were tasked with developing the visual brand identity and story for Fletcher Steel, working through discovery sessions to reveal insights into the positioning and overall creative representation of the brand for market.
“Davy & Chapman have a long-standing history of partnerships across several Fletcher Building business units including Fletcher Steel. We engaged with Davy & Chapman to work with us on our brand and marketing communications extending across all areas of the business. This included visual identity development, digital and social media planning, and management, plus specific ‘go to market’ projects. The team at Davy & Chapman bring strategic depth and skill to every project, with attention to detail and a responsive attitude, all executed with great creative. More recently, we worked together on the creation of the Fletcher Steel visual identity. It’s always a pleasure working with the team who allow creative collaboration across all projects and aren’t afraid to challenge our thinking, both strategically and creatively. The new brand has been well received across the business. We continue to discover new opportunities to work with Davy & Chapman as this ultimately influences the success of our business.”
Jake Dromgool is a man with entrepreneurial spirit and a unrivalled passion for Northland. A love for creating Northland as a world-class wine and cuisine destination and making young Northlanders excited about the potential for the region is at the very heart of creating 144 Islands. Wine critic and WineFriend’s Chief Tasting Officer, Yvonne Lorkin had to say; “Northland has a knack for turning out pinot gris with richness and tantalising creamy textures, and this is no exception.”
Davy & Chapman was engaged to create a brand that was fresh and reflected the soul and spirit of the northland region. We began the process of developing a brand story that reflected the essence of Jake’s vision and helped shape our approach to creating an identity that was classic, yet dynamic and had movement, mimicking the relationship from land to sea. Under-pinning the visual identity was the graphic render that we created of the iconic ‘Hole in the Rock’ and Cape Brett, with a north to south perspective, giving the identity instant recognition as being a Northland born brand.
As one of New Zealand’s star young viticulturists, we’re proud to have been involved in creating a brand with charm and sass and bringing a very personal vision to life. www.144islands.co.nz
Tasked with creating a piece to incentivise the sales team to register customers for the new quickchip.co.nz sampling tool, we approached the creative concept with a modern take on good ole’ fish n’ chips.
We wanted to engage the audience through the use of the familiar - but with a twist. The pack, a branded brown paper bag, was a tribute to the modern day takeaway format for gourmet burgers etc. It contained a combination of surprise and delight elements plus vital educational information.
A handful of chocolate fish, wrapped in QuickChip branded newsprint, coupled with real potato chips in a branded chip box, were the tasty treats that accompanied QuickChip related business information. This information was presented in the form of a takeaway menu - outlining the new sampling service, an update on some of the latest product releases and a word from the new Head Chef (Laminex New Zealand’s new General Manager).
For a select group of the sales team, the whole piece was personalised and included a real lemon, with a printed belly band, which outlined details of rewards for them to get their customers signed up - the perfect accompaniment to the meal.
Uptake and engagement were high across the business as over 500 packs were distributed throughout the company to team members, key customers and supply chain stakeholders.
Fun, fresh and informative. - the DM was the key piece in introducing the revitalised quickchip.co.nz brand and service.
What they said “The DM campaign has been a huge success in building not only internal team knowledge and excitement but also awareness in the market, resulting in signups by customers. The QuickChip DM even got rave reviews by our digital and communications team at Formica North America! Another great result from working with the team at Davy & Chapman.”
Kelly Cook | Laminex New Zealand Digital Marketing Manager.
Waitemata Endoscopy is a modern, day stay endoscopy centre offering access to a group of surgeons and gastroenterologists performing diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy – gastroscopy, colonoscopy or flexible sigmoidoscopies and working together at Southern Cross Hospital North Harbour. Waitemata Endoscopy creates an inclusive patient experience, working together to provide the very best care, service and environment. As part of a repositioning strategy, we were engaged to revisit their brand and visual identity and present it in a fresh and modern way, that remains true to their values.
In the creative execution, we developed ‘WE’ as part of the visual identity, an acronym for Waitemata Endoscopy, but in doing so also gave us the opportunity to use this as a ‘unifying statement’ to be used across all written marketing collateral, setting the tone for how we communicate with the audience.
‘Having had a relationship with Mike and his team since 2008, we engaged Davy & Chapman to revitalise our brand and visual identity. The development and construction of a new facility prompted the decision to also look at our brand and understand how best to reflect the values we’re passionate about at Waitemata Endoscopy. In addition to creating a new logo and visual expression, the team at Davy & Chapman worked with us very closely to understand our strategy and direction and every step of the way have guided us with their insights and professional opinion, ultimately giving us a fantastic result that has meaning and relevance to our audience. We’re excited to be working them to rollout the brand across other collateral and with their attention to detail, willingness and passion for what they do, we know the team will deliver us a great result now and in the years ahead.’
Sarah Watson, Manager & Registered Nurse | Waitemata Endoscopy
Creativity and craftsmanship is the soul of a kitchen and bathroom design project and our opportunity as an agency was to reinvent and reimagine the NKBA awards platform for 2016.
Excellence in Design 2016 is modern, fresh, bold and progressive and we’ve been involved across all touchpoints including marketing, sponsorship collateral, creative design and execution, as well social media and event planning to bring a truly cohesive and successful awards season result for the team at NKBA. Our role as an creative agency is to have NKBA be a recognisable expert in supporting the design and manufacturing community and articulating that in our approach was important to elevate that profile and awareness in the market.
Relationships and connections among our clients, our team, our industry are incredibly important to the success of our businesses and with a passion for creativity will help our businesses thrive. As a design-led and strategically driven agency, we’re proud to be working with NKBA to support the creative community, elevate the positioning and awareness of the NKBA and the Awards brand to ultimately benefit its members.
We know that with the work that designers, craftspeople, and our industry do, that the end result has an undeniable influence on our lives - the kitchen and bathroom are clearly at the heart of our homes, so they influence not only our visual environment, but how we feel, how we live and how we interact with each other and together, we’ve created a platform that is creatively distinctive, special and engaging in todays market.
With this year’s incredible results in the number of entries, greater brand awareness both through traditional and social channels, together, we’ve set a new benchmark in what NKBA can be and achieve for its members and we’re proud to be their creative agency partner. To learn more, visit NKBA.
Featured winning entries below include (from top to bottom):
- Supreme Kitchen Design Winner, proudly sponsored by Fisher & Paykel - Morgan Cronin of Cronin Kitchens
- Supreme Bathroom Design Winner, proudly sponsored by Fisher & Paykel - Detail by Davinia Sutton (Manufacturer - Fineline Joinery)
We were approached by Mike Thompson and his team to begin looking at the process around establishing a new brand to accommodate 3 existing businesses; Teubel, Gael and Signet. We began the process of looking at the existing business, the market it operates in, the products, service expectations and the industry as a whole, always aligning back to the overarching goals of the business of what needed to be achieved. Given the nature of the electrical industry, we paid particular attention and consideration to the name, looking closely at tone, first impression and visually how it sounds in conjunction with the overall value proposition of the business and our vision for the supporting visual identity. We soon settled on ‘Trical - Innovation - That’s Electric’
Given the need to support three existing, iconic and market leading heritage brands, it was important to consider and reflect a customer centric approach for the business and its overarching brand. The identity needed to be personable, approachable, modern, yet be grounded in it’s history, spanning some 60 years and articulate the company vision of being an innovative electrical manufacturer, proud to be NZ made.
As part of building a holistic brand experience, we developed an ‘elevator pitch’ to help communicate to clients and customers the essence of Trical, the brands, their passion for being NZ made and the quality standards set by the Trical team and what they stand for:
‘We’re one of NZ’s leading suppliers of electrical enclosure and switchboard solutions including Gael, Teubel and Signet, servicing the electrical trades across industrial, commercial and residential markets. Proud to be NZ made, we’re fit for purpose; manufacturing ‘best in class’ products you can trust, supported by a passionate team.’
The end result was a modern, progressive brand identity, recognising the intrinsic value in each of the 3 iconic brands.
‘We engaged Mike and the team at Davy & Chapman as our brand agency to create and develop, a new company name, brand identity and fresh new look. We provided our mission statement, values, beliefs and a description of what we did and left them to it. They read the brief perfectly and there is very little we have changed.
Davy & Chapman are now involved in all Marketing aspects from general stationery items, signage, branding guidelines, graphics, advertising, “brand police” and the development of a new website. With an easy to understand strategic approach, they have worked closely with us to understand our business, the challenges of bringing three iconic brands together and the shift of three businesses into a new purpose built administration, engineering and manufacturing facility. It did not matter what we threw at Mike and the team, they took a proactive approach from day one, bringing creativity, fresh thinking, passion, on time, while juggling a number of tasks at once.
I am very thrilled and excited with the outcome and look forward to a continuing partnership as we build the brand further. It is very refreshing to have Mike who is so committed to the brand, the look and to have the attention to detail to make sure everything is absolutely perfect. I very much appreciate the practical advice and experience of an agency partner like Davy & Chapman and they will prove to be an integral part of our ongoing business success.’ Mike Thompson, Managing Director | Trical Limited
