Frito-Lay launches new ‘better for you’ brand

Frito-Lay today launched TrueNorth – its second new brand in over 20 years. A line of innovative, nutritionally positive nut snacks, TrueNorth provides proof of PepsiCo’s move to offer consumers greater ‘better for you’ choices. Wolff Olins partnered with Frito-Lay over the past two years to create and develop the brand. More at www.truenorthnuts.com

10 February 2008

In store

Wolff Olins tonight launched ’Brand next: the store for tomorrow’ at its London office. The show highlights ten brands of the future – brands like Streetcar, Zopa and Macmillan Cancer Support where people take part, rather than just partaking, and where the more people who join in, the better it is for everyone. The event, which runs till 22 February, invites visitors to commit to actions – everyone who gives gets. See the making of the store, and its outcomes, at www.brandnext.co.uk

6 February 2008

Big award for The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist has won the South Bank Show Award for literature in London. Mohsin is managing director of Wolff Olins in London. Other winners of South Bank Show awards this year include J K Rowling and the Arctic Monkeys. See more at www.itv.com

29 January 2008

Creative Review profiles Wolff Olins

In Creative Review’s February edition, chairman Brian Boylan and creative director Patrick Cox sit down with design critic Adrian Shaughnessy, and offer their perspective on the happenings of the past year. Highlighting 2012, NYC, (RED), Macmillan and New Museum, the article is a behind-the-scenes look at the approach and people of Wolff Olins. Read the full article at www.creativereview.co.uk

28 January 2008

Not the car, the Scottish design director

Malcolm Buick brings his boyish good looks to New York as newly minted design director. Previously at JDK Design, he may have helped create the brand identities for Burton and X-Box 360, or may have snowboarded and played video games all day. Before his life in branding, Malcolm designed record sleeves in London’s music industry. (Boy bands included.) He comes from the famed home of smoked haddock, Arbroath, Scotland, and graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design.

21 January 2008

She’s Mary, she’s Ellen. Don’t mess with the spellin’

The latest, greatest addition to our New York team, strategy director Mary Ellen Muckerman, joins today – and does not need a dash between her names. Mary Ellen’s business and consumer insight helped to launch Conde Nast’s Portfolio magazine and shaped in-store and external marketing and merchandising for Target for over ten years. Her client-side perspective adds a valuable new facet to our already diverse group of strategists.

2 January 2008

New Museum opens

Artists, critics, architects, designers, drag queens, models, celebrities, Upper Eastsiders, Lower Eastsiders, Wolff Olins and Lance Armstrong all joined together to celebrate the grand re-opening of the New Museum in New York City. See more of the brand Wolff Olins helped to create at www.nytimes.com and www.flickr.com

1 December 2007

Southbank Centre wins Special Jury Prize

Southbank Centre tonight wins a Special Jury prize at the International Museum Communication Awards 2008. The award was specifically created in recognition of the outstanding scale, vision and ambition of the job. The jury commended the work, calling it ‘arresting, playful, provocative and distinctly urban’. For more, go to www.imca-awards.com

Photograph courtesy of Johnny Ladd.

30 November 2007

Richard Rogers Retrospective

Wolff Olins creative director Marina Willer has showed her latest film at the Richard Rogers retrospective, Centre Pompidou, Paris. The piece acts as an introduction to the exhibition. It shows images of objects sliced in half, celebrating the beauty of mechanics and legibility, a recurrent theme in the architect’s work. That imagery is juxtaposed with Rogers’s voice talking about the vision behind his work. The show is on until 3 March 2008. View the film here.

21 November 2007

All eyes on Ilori

Italian eyewear specialists Luxottica, today launched its new luxury retail brand, Ilori. The company, which owns Sunglass Hut, aims to create a unique brand for sunglasses, through an environment, service level and product range that delivers a modern take on opulence and indulgence. The flagship store on Spring Street, New York is over 4,500 feet and offers mainstream fashion lines, limited editions and new design talent. Wolff Olins worked with the Luxottica team to define its brand strategy, name and customer experience and create a brand that celebrates luxury, craftsmanship and a sense of discovery.

12 November 2007

Paul Smith talks at Wolff Olins

Sir Paul Smith today became the latest ‘Because’ speaker at Wolff Olins London office. The fashion designer shared where he found inspiration and talked through how his collections have changed, his advertising has become more experimental and his stores more eclectic. Because is a series of talks about inspiration, ideas and how they come to life.

12 November 2007

Macmillan wins gold

Wolff Olins is today celebrating success at the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards. The Macmillan Cancer Support brand identity work won gold for what judges called a ‘brave and refreshing redesign ’. Judge Ted Mager, Head of Global Retail Development at Adidas-Salmon said the work was ‘very strong ’ and had really helped Macmillan ‘stand out in a cluttered market ’. For more, visit www.dba.org.uk

30 October 2007