notonthehighstreet.com
Shaping a modern gifting marketplace
Role: Creative Direction · Art Direction · Concept Development · Brand Development · Experience Design · Photography Direction
notonthehighstreet.com has always been full of personality.
Thousands of independent makers, all creating things you probably wouldn't find anywhere else. Working with the brand meant having that same freedom creatively.
Over several years, I worked across campaigns, photography, events and the brand itself. Sometimes that meant creating something for millions of customers. Other times it meant designing for the independent makers who made NOTHS what it was.
There was never really one type of NOTHS project. Which was half the fun.
Deliverables:
Brand Identity · Integrated Campaigns · Photography · Partner Events · Awards & Ceremonies · Environmental Graphics · Digital & Social · Print
Proposed Brand Refresh
Familiar, Just a Little Simpler
The gift tag had become unmistakably notonthehighstreet. We didn't want to lose that.
The proposed refresh stripped back the core mark, giving it a cleaner shape that could work more easily across packaging, campaigns and digital.
But the more interesting bit was what happened when we gave it to the makers.
Made by NOTHS
Partners were invited to recreate the tag themselves, using the materials and techniques they knew best.
Woodworkers made it from wood. Textile artists used wool and fabric. Jewellers worked in metal. The logo stopped being one fixed piece of artwork and became something the people behind the marketplace could actually make.
Awards & Ceremonies
Some of the most important NOTHS events were created for the people behind the products.
Across partner events and the annual Make Awards, the focus shifted from customers to the independent businesses that made up the marketplace.
Make, Do & Meet
Bringing the Makers Together
Most of the time, NOTHS partners were busy making things in studios, workshops and kitchen tables across the country.
Make, Do & Meet gave everyone a reason to be in the same room.
The annual event brought partners together with the NOTHS team for talks, upcoming trends and practical help with growing their businesses. There were also suppliers on hand and plenty of time for people to meet other makers doing the same slightly mad thing they were.
The Make Awards
Celebrating the People Behind the Products
The Make Awards were our annual chance to celebrate the makers themselves.
Awards included Partner of the Year, Rising Star and Product of the Year, with the creative changing each year to reflect what was happening in craft and design at the time.
Campaign Art Direction
A Different World for Every Shoot
One of the things I loved about working with NOTHS was just how different one brief could be from the next.
A summer campaign could be bright, graphic and inspired by Rio. Christmas could involve commissioning an illustrator to cover everything in tiny elves.
The products changed constantly, so the photography could too.
Rio: A Summer in Brazil
With the World Cup heading to Brazil, we borrowed from the colour and energy of Rio for the summer shoot.
Bright backgrounds and tropical references gave the products a completely different setting, without everything suddenly needing a football next to it.
Christmas Magic: A Little Help From the Elves
Christmas gave us an excuse to have a bit more fun.
We worked with a bespoke illustrator to create a cast of tiny elves that lived amongst the products. They climbed over them, hid behind them and generally got involved wherever they probably shouldn't.
The photography and illustration were designed together, so the elves felt part of the world rather than something added afterwards.
Make Awards: Made Like the Things We Were Celebrating
For the Make Awards shoot, the starting point was craft itself.
Copper had become a huge material trend that year, so we built the creative around it, using it through the photography and wider awards identity.
It gave the awards their own look for the year, but one that still felt connected to the makers being celebrated.
