The Challenge
A young startup known for creating animated stickers, had developed far loftier ambitions and dreamt of fundamentally changing online conversation. But to be taken seriously, they would need to look like they were about more than twerking Sumos. We were asked to help.
The Approach
Early in our design process we realized that a dotted line created a well understood means of highlighting words or phrases in text messages.
It could also serve as a container, holding words, pictures and more. This simple, flexible graphic device became the conceptual foundation for the entire identity system.
The Outcome
According to founder and CEO, Travis Montaque, the new name (previously it was Emogi) and brand have created immediate value, particularly with investors. Meanwhile the concept of dotted lines has been wholeheartedly embraced by the product team, who are currently integrating it into future user experiences.
The Challenge
Forgotten by a beauty industry fixated on youth, women over 45 are led to believe that aging is a disease to be cured. Could we help rewrite this narrative and create a haircare brand for older women that they’d feel proud to support?
The Approach
Working with founder Sonsoles Gonzales we worked through a series of naming sprints, ultimately landing on Better Not Younger – a knowingly provocative brand name. Then we set about creating a playful yet premium packaging system and a visual language that felt confident, sexy and anything but stuffy.
The Outcome
The brand launched in March 2019 and by the end of that year had already secured an exclusive deal with beauty retailer Sephora, while attracting significant media attention. Not bad for a young brand for oldies.
The Challenge
In a sea of sameness, could we imagine an elegant yet distinctive identity for a real estate development that aspired to be a positive harbinger of things to come in Harlem?
The Approach
We allowed the building’s unique architecture – a cantilevered, inverted L shape – to inspire our design approach. The logo became a graphic embodiment of the iconic building’s silhouette, while touches of bronze foil and metallic ink across printed collateral, spoke to its materiality. The result was a restrained design program with moments of opulence, much like the building itself.
The Outcome
The best possible result for a branding program for a new development is strong sales. Though Eleven Hancock has only been actively on the market for a few short months, current indications are that the building will sell out within the year.
The Challenge
How do you launch a small bakery selling the finest artisanal breads and have it stand out among NYC institutions like Balthazar, Sullivan St and Orwashers?
The Approach
With only a modest budget to work with, we realized that the bakery’s packaging would need to do all the heavy lifting. So we turned to our head baker Simon, and amplified his very British sensibility to weave stories about each type of bread which we had printed onto the various bags. The result is an invitation to take a while with bread that has taken a while to make.
The Outcome
Sadly, the launch of The Shatter’d Crust was postponed and to date, this work has yet to find its way into market. The good news is that Simon and his investors are gearing up for a launch late in 2020. Watch this space!
The Challenge
First created in the 1950s, the Zest brand is a household name made famous through the advertising slogan ‘Zestfully Clean’. Unfortunately, a declining bar soap category and a lack of relevance amongst younger consumers, meant that the once iconic brand was waning.
The Approach
The brand’s innovation team set about creating a new line while we developed packaging and brand language aimed at younger consumers. The idea was to reinvent the bath and shower experience with a range of sensorial products characterized by fresh design and an irreverent, witty tone of voice.
The Outcome
The new line, consisting of seven shower gels and two bar soaps is now available as an exclusive at CVS.
PROJECT:
Spoek Mathambo
Future Sound of Mzansi film poster
2011
CONCEPT:
Musician Spoek Mathambo commissioned me to create a poster for the launch of his documentary on the South African dance and electronic music scene. The brief was to communicate a sense of Afrofuturism as lived by a new generation of young African musicians, DJs and producers.
PROJECT:
Fishwicks
Book of And – promotional brochure
2012
CONCEPT:
Fishwicks printers asked us to develop a lavish brochure showcasing the techniques and technology they offered clients. Aware that such brochures usually turned out to be overblown and over indulgent, we decided to poke fun at and amplify this fact, creating a book titled ‘The book of And’, a piece that revels in the idea that too much is never enough.
PROJECT:
Aidan Cornhill
Music CD Packaging
2007
CONCEPT:
Our brief was to create CD packaging that was low key and conveyed a sense of the ocean, in keeping with the album’s title. The solution was a pared down, rather minimal outer cover that rewarded the viewer with a surprise once opened – the empty panoramic seascape was in fact populated by the artist, deadpan and seemingly unaware of his aquatic surroundings.
PROJECT:
The Standeaven
Craft beer packaging
2012
CONCEPT:
We were asked to come up with a name for a craft brewery and develop a packaging program for their range of beers.
The brewer’s surname is Standeaven which seemed heaven-sent as a name for his brand.
It wasn’t too difficult to coax the client into going with the new brand name. More persuasion was required when we suggested that rather than naming each beer, we use a system of numbers – using only odd numbers, as a subtle foil to the brand name.
PROJECT:
Amnesty International
Them–and–Us
2008
CONCEPT:
Co-curated by Richard and Stockholm based Noel Pretorius, Them–and–Us brought together 20 European and 20 African artists to collaborate on a series of double sided posters exploring the idea of tolerance.
The posters are presented in a box along with a catalogue that profiles each artist collaboration.
Each european poster is printed is blue and yellow while the recerse (and African poster) is printed in red and green.
The outside of the box features blue and yellow circles above and red and green circles below ablack string that closes the package.
When the string is untied and the package opened, the circles move towards each other and overlap, a visual metaphor for the idea of tolerance and of coming together.
Proceeds of sales went to Amnesty International.
CREDITS:
Concept: Noel Pretorius, RH
Design: Noel Pretorius, RH
Writing: Adrian Shaugnesssy
Poster design/illustration: Various
PROJECT:
I.D. Magazine
Magazine Cover
2008
CONCEPT:
I.D. Magazine requested a portrait of our studio’s partners for a feature on our company, Disturbance. They asked that we convey something of what it is like working in Africa. The result was this combination of photography and illustration.
PROJECT:
Amnesty International
Them–and–Us
2008
CONCEPT:
Co-curated by Richard and Stockholm based Noel Pretorius, Them–and–Us brought together 20 European and 20 African artists to collaborate on a series of double sided posters exploring the idea of tolerance.
My poster for the project was a response to the theme ‘Here–and_There’ and took a full year’s worth of headlines from the Sunday newspapers in Durban and Stockholme, comparing and contrasting the dramas that unfold weekly in places that are so distant from one another.
PROJECT:
Design Indaba
Where It's At Magazine
2011
CONCEPT:
I was commissioned by Design Indaba to curate, edit, design and produce a survey of South African design and creativity to launch the 2012 Design Indaba Conference in Cape Town.
The publication I produced with my studio is a snapshot of creative South Africa at the end of 2011, featuring articles punctuated by pull-out posters by 30 of the country’s leading creatives.
Design Indaba described the project as, ““...a phenomenal, totally innovative publication. It draws on the fabric of South African design – describing it, engaging with it, illustrating it and interrogating it.”
PROJECT:
Design Indaba
Where It's At Magazine Cover
2011
CONCEPT:
I was commissioned by Design Indaba to curate, edit and design a survey of South African design and creativity to launch the 2012 Design Indaba Conference in Cape Town.
The resulting publication features a dust-jacket that unfolds into a large map of Africa with each nation represented by a different pattern.
With the dust-jacket in place, the title reads, HERE. However, once removed the title expands to read WHERE IT’S AT. The word HERE is revealed through die-cut holes in the southern part of the continent, a detail that highlights the region the publication focusses on.
PROJECT:
Bone Denim
Preliminary brand thinking
2011
CONCEPT:
Bone Denim was conceived to be Africa’s first global jeans-wear brand. The premise behind the brand was to harness and channel the wild, fierce, mysterious spirit of the African continent into a denim brand, thus taking denim back to its roots of danger and revolution.
The pocket detail takes advantage of the fact that a lower-case b and d are a mirror image, using this to subtlely present the brand’s initials double stitched.
The logo – a circle with a stylised crossbones – can also be read as a button.
Sadly the project was shelved not long after this early phase.
PROJECT:
Enjin
Magazine cover redesign
2008
CONCEPT:
We were asked to redesign Enjin magazine, a trade publication for the creative industries. The brief called for a new masthead and a visual language that could become an identity for the magazine.
Our solution was to create and shoot each cover entirely in-situ, starting with the introduction of the new masthead, literally being hung from the top right hand corner of the cover.
PROJECT:
Nandos
Takeout packaging (pitch work)
2012
CONCEPT:
Nando’s, a chain of Afro-Portuguese chicken restaurants, asked us to conceptualize a range of takeout packaging centered around the idea of coming together.
Our response was to devise a modular system of appropriately sized boxes that literally came together to form a large illustration showing – you guessed it – people coming together. No matter how the boxes are configured, the picture makes sense... sort of!
PROJECT:
Self initiated book project
SHINE – artist’s book
2013/14
CONCEPT:
SHINE is a journal of the conceptual and aesthetic concerns that inform my current practice as a visual artist. It is at once a document of my process and a record of my progress.
PROJECT:
Varsity College
Midrand Campus
2011
CONCEPT:
We were tasked by long-standing client, Varsity College, to re-imagine their campus environment. The new campus, near Johannesburg, was to be a fit-out of an existing but unfinished building.
Working with architects, DesignWorkshop, we worked from the ground up to create an immersive and stimulating brand experience for students and staff.
The redesign was so well received that Varsity College has now commissioned disturbance to roll out the design across their eight other campuses nationwide.
ROGER & SONYA
Roger Jardine and Sonya Tedeschi
Wedding invite
2008
CONCEPT:
When my business partner Roger Jardine asked me to design and art direct his wedding invitation I was honoured.
Then he told there was only one requirement; it needed to portray him as a bear and Sonya – his bride-to-be – as a bear hunter.
“Naturally”, I replied.
PROJECT:
Cascoland
Along the Way
2008
CONCEPT:
The public art project Cascoland, brought together artists from across South Africa to engage with the public space along a 20km stretch within the greater Durban area.
We decided to create a document profiling ten people living along the route. Their stories were told through interviews and photographs and all ten were compiled into a book which was launched at the closing party of the two week Cascoland event.
The seemingly random stripes of colour on the cover are in fact a visual representation of the length of each of the ten lives. Thus the thin pale green band towards the bottom of the book represents the youngest person and the orange band mid-way down, the oldest. The colours are repeated as the dominant colour in the person’s profile.
PROJECT:
disturbance
The Daily
Ongoing
CONCEPT:
About five years ago our studio started a daily posting on our website simply called The Daily. Its purpose is twofold; firstly to document the existence of our studio and secondly to afford one designer each day a half hour of total creative freedom.
Visit The Daily at
www.disturbance.co.za
CREDITS:
Concept: RH
Design: disturbance design team
PROJECT:
Varsity College
Student Diary
2011
CONCEPT:
We have been producing a
student diary for Varsity College every year since 1998. The 2012 iteration invited students to “Live Life in Full Colour”.
The cover illustrated the concept in a very direct way – a happy, colourful student springing forth from a white box in an all-white environment.
Inside, each month started with a new colour and a new suggestion for living life in full colour.
CREDITS:
Concept: RH, Louis de Villiers, Roger Jardine
Art direction: RH
Design: Various
Photography: Roger Jardine
PROJECT:
Quarterly
disturbance
2011
CONCEPT:
For a while a regular disturbance newsletter was dispatched four times a year, hence the name, The disturbance Quarterly.
The piece itself was a large sheet of paper that folded down to A5 and featured a poster on one side and that quarter’s news on the reverse.
In each instance the poster was a graphic interpretation of that quarter’s number.
Seen here are isssues 1 and 2 from 2011.
CREDITS:
Concept: RH
Design: RH
Art direction: RH
Copywriting: RH
Illustration (Issue 1): RH
Photography (Issue 2): Roger Jardine
PROJECT:
Home
Restaurant
2002
CONCEPT:
Home was the ultimate love project; a restaurant, design store, gallery and live music venue that was created and run by disturbance and friends.
The idea was to create a space that – as the name implied – felt just like being at home. The space became a typographic homage to our best loved books and stories and this made it at once wildly visually stimulating and incredibly cosy.
PROJECT:
Design Indaba
Design Indabar
2011
CONCEPT:
Design Indaba was to host an evening of lectures in Durban with presentations covering Sustainable Design, Sustainable Transport and The Built Environment.
The event was to be held outdoors in their mobile “Indabar”, a converted shipping container.
The poster employed ballpoint doodles and a pair of hands to lend the event an appropriate human touch (excuse the pun).
CREDITS:
Concept: RH
Design: RH
Photography: RH
Illustration: RH
PROJECT:
Durban International Film Festival
Campaign design
2008
CONCEPT:
For the poster and marketing campaign for the Durban International Film Festival and its sister event, the Wavescapes Surf Film Festival, we created a mutant-cyclops-horned-movie-camera-monster that seemed to be invading the city like Godzilla.
We built two stylised sets and shot the monster in each, finishing it all off with a B-movie type treatment.
CREDITS:
Concept: RH
Art direction: RH
Design: RH
Monster fabrication: George Holloway
Set design: disturbance team
Photography: Roger Jardine
PROJECT:
Durban International Film Festival
Campaign design
2010
CONCEPT:
For the poster and marketing campaign for the Durban Film Festival 2010, we designed a mobile neon and timber sign that was shot in various locations around the city of Durban. The ten resulting images were used on posters, programmes, invitations and other promotional material.
CREDITS:
Concept: RH
Art direction: RH
Design: RH
Fabrication: Multimedia Signwriters
Photography: Roger Jardine
PROJECT:
Durban International Film Festival
Campaign design
2011
CONCEPT:
The marketing campaign for the 2010 Durban Film Festival started as a 30 second animated opening sequence for the festival.
The clip showed an excited movie goer checking his watch, leaving his apartment and heading off to the film festival. He is seemingly oblivious of the strange and fascinating world he travels through, a sign that his attention is totally focused on the film he is about to see.
The clip was laid out as a grid of sequential frames to create a poster and accompanying promotional material that clearly referenced the act of film-making.
CREDITS:
Concept: RH
Design: RH
Illustration: RH, Greg Darroll
Animation: Greg Darroll
PROJECT:
The Drawing Show
Exhibition submission
2007
CONCEPT:
This double poster set, for an exhibition in Johannesburg, attepted to visualise the beauty and magic we all have inside us.
CREDITS:
Concept: RH
Art direction: RH
Design: RH
Post production: RH
Photography: Roger Jardine
PROJECT:
Miöja
Packaging for organic skincare product line.
2010
CONCEPT:
Our client Tasha Saha invited us to come up with a name, packaging and brand collateral for a range of organic skincare products she was developing. Miöja was eventually settled on, meaning ‘centre’ in Icelandic. The products were divided into three colour coded ranges with a design language that took its cues from nature and the paintings of Joan Miró.
PROJECT:
disturbance
Studio furniture
2007
CONCEPT:
We designed this pair of bookshelves as part of our renovations to an old Victorian house we purchased for our studio space back in 2006.
CREDITS:
Design: RH
Fabrication: Steven Wilson
