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All Posts in Identity

September 22, 2023 - No Comments!

Red Bull Gaming Sphere campaign & packaging

It was nice surprise last week to walk into a local neighbourhood food store and see the Red Bull Gaming Sphere logo being used to front Red Bull's latest campaign. I worked on quite a few event and activation identities when I was freelancing but I'd never seen any work grace the iconic packaging!

 

 

 

January 31, 2023 - No Comments!

Oceans Alive: Rebrand

Full case study is on the way but in the mean time here's a little overview of my first project at SEROTONIN.

A new brand proposition, a rebrand, website redesign and total photography overhaul to give Oceans Alive a new purpose to head into 2023 with.

Oceans Alive. Supported by Science.

October 17, 2022 - No Comments!

Red Bull – Gaming Sphere

Love this incredible footage around the Red Bull Gaming Sphere space in London shared recently on instagram.

 

I worked on the branding and identity for the Gaming Spheres several years ago when they were first developing their gaming and e-games concept and strategy. This was following on from a number of the other Red Bull identities I created for them.

The Sphere regularly hosts tournaments, bootcamps and workshops, enabling professionals, amateurs and fans to level up their game.

 

 

March 16, 2022 - No Comments!

NBA All Star Weekend – Reebok VIP Launch Event

The Bok Door - Welcome to the future.

Just before Christmas I received a truly exciting brief from Reebok that really had the whole team busy right up to Christmas and then into the new year.

Our biggest budget activation to date with a whole host of VIP's and exciting ideas flying around - it was all hands on deck to turn our pitch around on time and move super quickly with just 6 weeks to turn mood boards into reality.

Leading the pitch creative team we worked up and presented routes on the last day before the Christmas break. We really wanted to celebrate Reeboks basketball heritage and really hero them coming back into that arena going forwards (now they're under new ownership).

We did this be looking forwards into the brands future by transforming a space into a retro 90's Reebok store and turning the back 'staff room' door into a gateway into 'The Future' of Reebok activation space. No stone was left unturned when finding truly creative ways to make this event stand out and really help Reebok connect with it's consumers, VIP's and stakeholders.

From 90's style jeopardy games shows, to customisation stations with bespoke Reebok fonts, to Shaquille O'Neill's very own Wreck-Reation room complete with blow up couches and retro Shaq-Fu computer games and Dee Brown's famous 'No Look Dunk' slam contest.

The event put Reebok on the map during All Star weekend 2022 with people coming from across Cleveland and the US to blag their way onto the most exclusive guest list for the weekend and get involved in the action.

We were joined by many of Reeboks key directors, account contacts and some legendary VIP's including Big Shaq himself, Allen Iverson aka The Answer, Dee Brown, Myles Garrett and a host of other big names from the NBA All Star Weekend.

The event smashed all targets, by selling out twice and getting more people through the door than promised, the clients were super happy with the outcome with praise coming  from across Reeboks retail, global basketball and procurement teams.

A huge thanks to everybody involved in this iconic event!

You can read a mega review from Sneaker Freaker here

August 1, 2017 - No Comments!

I’m freelance and available for hire!

So after; two enjoyable years at LOVE, two years before that leading the JD Sports digital creative team, three fantastic years at advertising agency TBWA and four years before that working in various small studios, I am now available to hire directly for all your graphic design, art direction, brand and digital design needs.

If you would like to get in touch to discuss a potential project all my contact details can be found here, I would love to hear from you!

May 11, 2017 - No Comments!

D&AD – Pencils


I'm proud to have been involved in the Jacamo re-brand project which last week won 2 pencils at the D&AD awards in London. The 'Real-Man Manual' took away two pencils - a graphite for 'Brand Expression for Print' & wood in 'Branding'.

Congrats to the whole LOVE Jacamo team; Gary, Rory, Laffers, Pat and Myers.

About the project and re-inventing the Jacamo brand.

We knew we needed to raise brand awareness for Jacamo but, at the same time, consider how we could shift opinions of those who had negative, and often unfair, perceptions of what Jacamo was all about. Fundamentally, it’s great-fitting and stylish clothes for men.

From sizes S to 5XL, Jacamo offers clothes for every man. Well, every real man. And real men aren’t that keen on the frills and fuss when it comes to shopping. So we created a brand that offers a shopping experience for men who want to look and feel great without any of the
hassle. Our brand proposition was born – Jacamo. Outfitters For The Real Man.

The Jacamo Real-Man Manual

We created the ‘Jacamo Real-Man Manual’ to lay down in black and white (literally) all those nitty-gritty details of the brand’s reinvention. The manual combines our new, humorous tone of voice with a series of comical illustrations to create a brand book that inspires and entertains in equal measure. Used as both an internal rallying cry and an external opinion changer, the book has served as a catalyst for a year of change at Jacamo.

View the project here, whilst I get round to adding to the work section.

October 12, 2011 - No Comments!

A reason to go to Blackpool?

For me, the most interesting thing about the Comedy Carpet (one of the UK’s biggest ever pieces of public art which opened yesterday), is the typography and its actual production.

Collaborative artist, Gordon Young was inspired and supported in researching the content for the carpet by Blackpool-based comedy expert, Barry Band and historian and writer Graham Mccann, and on the typography and layout by graphic designer Andy Altmann of why not associates.


image: blackpool council

Production
Five years in the making: one of the most complex pieces of public art ever commissioned at first sight, the comedy carpet looks as if the text is painted, but in fact each of the 160,000+ letters has been individually cut from 30mm solid granite or cobalt blue concrete, arranged into over 300 slabs and then cast into high quality, gleaming white concrete panels. The letters range in size from a  few centimetres to over a metre so viewers can enjoy it both close up and from the  glass viewing platform in the blackpool tower eye.

The scale and incredibly complex nature of the work meant that comedy carpet team even had to set up its own bespoke studio to make the artwork. after several months of research with input from chemists and engineers the comedy carpet team devised new techniques and recipes for production including a special mix to produce the hardest and whitest of concrete and the perfect blue that won’t fade. The process of making each of the 320 slabs involved many complex stages from cutting, sorting, fettling, and laying out each of the letters, to a 3-stage casting process, curing, trimming, grinding and polishing. and that’s before it was transported to Blackpool for the installation on the headland.


gordon young selects letters for a part of the comedy carpet
image: blackpool council


image: blackpool council


image: blackpool council


image: blackpool council


section of the 'carpet' being cleaned
image: bbc


image: bbc


image: bbc

Created as part of the major regeneration of the promenade, the comedy carpet was commissioned by blackpool council, with part of a £4m grant from cabe’s seachange programme. catchphrases, jokes and songs from more than a 1000 comedians are now immortalised in concrete and granite artwork which is situated at the foot of  blackpool tower.

Artist Gordon Young has been working in the public realm for over 20 years creating pieces that mine rich seams of social history, engage communities and extend the relationships between art and architecture. at the heart of all gordon’s young’s work is language - words that entice, fascinate and on the comedy carpet, amuse.  titter ye not, just like that, oooo-er matron, nudge, nudge wink, wink, oh betty! suit you sir, yeah but no but, what’s on the stick vic? , in the comedy carpet young has created a giant 'giggle map' immortalising the UK’s favourite comedians and comic writers fromthe hey day of music hall to 21st century stand up.

February 8, 2010 - No Comments!

Ooh… I have only gone and re-designed my website…

Over the past couple of months I’ve been working on re-designing my website.  Whatever I have had up before has either been a bit of a bodge job or rushed up in time for something happening.  The result was a bit of a mess, and a nightmare to update.

So with this new site should hopefully fix all the issues with the old one, and hopefully my work is now portrayed in an easy and accessible way, with a smooth flow around the site and between sections.  And hopefully it looks ok too…  but I suppose that is for everyone else to decide.

A few further site updates will be coming at a later date.

Anyway, I’d love to know what you think.

Ben. x

bentopliss.com

ps. try refreshing the page a couple of times too.