The Art of Internal Comms

Why should internal comms be any less creative than other forms of advertising? Well the answer is, they shouldn't. I'm a big believer in creativity and in doing things differently, neither of which start with an illustrator file or a layered PSD. So, for me internal comms should be as well thought out as any other form of communication, they deserve the same level of creativity.

A few years ago we were approached to produce an 'infographic' for Co-op in order to display their customer data for over 800 stores across the UK. Each store of course had different results and so to create something that could be adapted easily meant that an infographic would almost certainly become a headache from a design and production perspective.

Our initial response was to create a scene out of the already established Co-op illustration style. This would allow us to put information within 'place holders' which in turn would help us swap data easily without digging ourselves into a pixel pushing nightmare. We didn't however want to just use the illustrations, we wanted to actually build a scene and shoot it.

In order to demonstrate that the scene could be constructed with enough place holders for the numerous data points we created a digital mock-up with the raw illustration files.

"Why bother with model making and a photoshoot, when this looks fine?"

There are two things wrong with the above statement, 1) it does not look fine, it looks ordinary, and 2) by bothering to make it the best it can be we can create something memorable, rather than forgettable.

The perception that doing everything digitally is 'easier' or 'better' simply isn't correct. Creative Suite is a set of tools that allow a designer to pull things together, to polish his/her ideas, but it's not the creative catalyst and will always fall short if the idea or content isn't strong enough. This is why I felt it was important to create something 'real' for this project, to give it stand out and a point of difference from all of the other internal comms that the staff at Co-op were likely to see throughout the year.

Once the overall layout for the poster was agreed we commissioned the models to be built. Even just seeing the initial care and attention to detail on these models was enough to justify our decision to 'bring this to life' and not just let it be "photoshop'd".

The photoshoot was a delight, it had been a long time since I'd last stacked shelves but this was actually great fun, even if it was in miniature. Creating a scene that brought these illustrations to life and seeing it come together through the camera lens was very rewarding.

During the half day shoot we managed to capture the main hero shot as well as a series of alternative 'character' shots that could be used should the need arise over the coming months.

After capturing everything we needed, Photoshop got it's turn, tidying up any loose ends and adjusting colours accordingly. The differences between the digital mock-up and final version are night and day and this shows why it's important to push that little bit extra for creativity. If the end result had been the digital mock-up that would have more than likely gone un noticed, but thanks to the client and their belief in our approach, what could have been ordinary illustration, now has a life of its own.

Just doing the bare minimum is not my way and it certainly isn't how we do things at Yolk Creative London. That bit of extra care, attention and creative thinking goes a long way and helps us deliver for clients in our own unique way.

"More very positive feedback yesterday from the Area Managers, they are all very excited about it"

In a time where everything is going digital it's amazing what you can achieve when you don't rely on the technology to do everything. Keep things crafted and creative, and of course use the digital tools that are available to you as tools, not as the be all and end all of a project.

I'm proud of the team who helped bring this idea to life, thanks to Funky Lemon Design for the wonderful model build, to our gifted photographer Joel Devlin and of course Insider, the insight activation specialists, whose incredible work is the only reason this project even saw the light of day.