The brief was to create a new brand identity that would help establish this geographic location as an identifiable tourist location. It was also important to stress the key qualities of Pennine Yorkshire, which were; the landscape, the people and the unique market towns found in the locality.

We are particularly proud of the results.

Unfortunately, on this rare occasion we weren’t successful. Judge the winning concept for yourself on the Pennine Yorkshire website.

Rckt’s first task was the get to the heart of the matter, discover the story and reveal what mattered. This investigation led us to the theme of being inside. The project’s strength was that graduates would learn from insiders, get to speak to insiders and even get heir CV”s in front of the people that matter. The whole concept revolved around inside knowledge. It was this  discovery that led us to the moniker: Get Me Inside.

The design challenge now ahead of us was to communicate this clear concept in a bold manner that would be able to gain a strong share of mind in the crowded media and graduate markets. The results hit the mark perfectly, delivering a strong image mark that tells a story and conveys the key concept instantly.

How many brands do we come into contact within in the course of a normal day? Tanner Woodford of Arizona State University think it’s just over one thousand. Tanner spent 24 hours trying to record as many brands they were either aware of or directly interacted with. Being a designer Tanner then laid out the brands in a visually arresting logo clock, mapping the brands across the 24 hrs in the day.

The result is not only visually appealing it also contains a massive amount of information. We can deduce what kind of person Tanner is through the brands they interact with. Tanner seems like a bit of a computer nerd, loves to be organised (judging by the regularity they interact with either their Moleskine notebook or Blackberry.) We even know what variety of condoms they prefer. On that subject, the mind boogles when you see that Tanner interacted with Trojan, Staples and Moleskine all at 9pm!

Read more at Tanner’s blog here

Image by: mynameispaul

There are not many times where we get to indulge both our passions at once; designing beautiful things and damn good food. This project was one of those special occasions where the designers were all falling over each other to lead the project. Coleman’s is a bit on an institution when it comes to great food and drink. Well known and well loved in it’s native Peak District the deli wanted a fresh new brand that would help tell the world what Coleman’s stands for.

The Rocket design team wanted to focus the new brand on some of Coleman’s core values; quality, natural and delicious. This approach led us to a visual identity that simply has a wonderfully natural feel, and really reflects the quality of the place. As part of the first phase of the relaunch Rocket have so far produced a range of marketing collateral, signage and a neat little website.

The Superbrands Council have announced the results of their annual survey into the UK’s top brands and it contains a few surprises and makes us ask how they conducted the survey. With much fanfare and with the noise of trumpets in the background here is the 2008 top ten:

1. Google
2. Microsoft
3. Mercedes-Benz
4. BBC
5. British Airways
6. Royal Doulton
7. BMW
8. Bosch
9. Nike
10. Sony

Now there are some of the ‘usual suspects’ in the list. Brands like; BBC, Nike and Sony are all big, high value household names that deserve their place in the list through years of careful, and often innovative work. Can you remember another occasion when a simple advert for an LCD TV became a significant cultural event, as in the case with the recent Bravia campaign.

But the brand top ten does contain a few unusual entries. Royal Doulton, British Airways and Microsoft are the first that seem to jar a little and even the number one spot is taken by a brand that raises quite a few questions here at Rocket HQ.

When was the last time you went out with the express intention to buy Royal Doulton products, I’m not even sure where or how I’d buy Royal Doulton? Does anyone even know what the logo looks like? It’s been many years since the media ever reported anything positive in connection with British Airways, and despite some of the worst PR in living memory they still take a top five place.

Google and Microsoft are also slightly strange choices. Whilst undeniably big brands and both household names. They don’t at first appear to be brands that the great British Public would take to their hearts. Do most people run Microsoft software on their home PC’s because of a love of the brand, or because that’s what the laptop came with and they have no idea a choice was available? Similarly, do most people use Google because it’s the most well known or because they have made a conscious choice to do so?

UHI Millennium Institute has launched its dedicated CPD service, through a new website designed and developed by Rocket. UHI is an innovative higher education institution offering vocational courses, undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and research opportunities throughout the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

Their brand new project sees them offering a range of courses under what is known as continuing professional development, or CPD for short. CPD are learning programmes designed specifically for people in employment, from small-scale businesses to larger corporations.

Behind the deliberate simplicity of the design an awful lot of work has gone into creating a website that is all about usability and giving people access to information about courses as easily as possible.

Take a look for yourself; you never know you might find yourself doing an e-learning course in Leadership Development!

Rocket have recently been approached by hordes of Photographers and Artists (well, 5 actually!) all requiring great websites to showcase their work.

Though there are many online solutions at the moment, none of them ticked all the necessary boxes when it came to website design or functionality. So, not wanting to let the good people in the photography and artistry industries down, we are now underway developing a killer website package that will offer an economical solution to their needs.

Amongst the many features it will include custom branding, gallery ‘multi view’ options, content management system, hosting, clients areas and e-commerce.

The package is nearing completion so we’ll be sure to post up some demo picies shortly, until then feel free to drop us a line to find out more.

Apologies for the pun about forging ahead, but we couldn’t help it!

Sheffield Forgemasters International are a global leader in steel products and specialist engineering services to some of the world’s biggest industries. They have come to Rocket not only for a completely fresh website, but are so impressed with Rocket’s skills in design and marketing that our relationship will cover a much greater range of strategic help and advice in the future. Rocket will be getting involved in really exciting projects using design to enhance the way Forgemasters presents itself to the world.

We hope this will be the start of the beautiful realtionship between two of Sheffield’s leading companies. Forgemasters International are a direct link to Sheffield’s proud steel making past and have transformed themselves into a modern technological business that leads the world. Rocket is a leading figure within Sheffield’s creative economy, our experts in design and marketing. This new venture is a perfect blend of Sheffield in the 21st Century.