Creating a Highly Recognisable Feature

As part of TILT’s retainer for creative works for NTUC Club, U Sports, our works revolve mainly around their U Games collaterals. From designing the master creative to their below-the-line collaterals, we constantly seek to value-add to our client. In the very first month of our work with them, we had proposed to them that since the U Games has been around for a period of time, there is a need to create a highly recognisable feature which can be here to stay.

With that, we proposed to them to create a series of sports pictograms, each to depict the individual competition that falls under the umbrella of U Games. Each sport pictograms have a distinctive, contemporary graphic style that is intended to make them a highly recognisable feature from this year on.

The series of pictograms.

The pictograms were definitely well-received and have since been turned into iconic give-aways (eg. A4 clear folders) such that awareness is raised.

Below is the design of the folder.

Dig in and Research

TILT has been involved in the pharmaceutical industry for a while now. We recall the days where we had went to Mount Elizabeth to conduct photoshoots. The days where we came up with the collaterals for Parkway College seemed just like yesterday as well. Healthway Medical and her subsideries followed suit subsequently. This paved the way for us to design a series of branding advertisements for Rottapharm | Madaus this year.

Below is a testimonial from our client as well as the artwork which has been created.

“Great job! I really like it that TILT digs into research & open up points as part of your design process.”

Tracy Ho
Marketing Executive
ROTTAPHARM | MADAUS

Where U Truly Matter

It seems just like yesterday when we started working with Education Services Union (ESU) on their re-branding exercise. In the early days of 2008, we were recommended by one of ESU’s contacts and ESU decided then to hear us out and listen to what we have to say about their rebranding exercise.

The tagline which we subsequently proposed “Where U Truly Matter”, successfully encapsulated what all union members can experience when they join ESU. What followed then was a series of re-branding work which includes the following

Design of Corporate Stationary

Design of Corporate Brochure & Folder

Production of Corporate Identity Guide

Building of Stock Photography Library

Design of Launch Video (in Flash)

This relationship continues till this day and with the recent conclusion of the production of their corporate video, we look back and we are truly happy that both parties have truly benefitted from this relationship.

We are Five! Our history and more…

In a twinkle of the eye, 5 years flew past us. From the early days in 2004 where we initially worked from home in a bid to keep overheads low, we have certainly come a long way. During this 5 years, a lot of things have certainly changed.

From a home office to a shop house office at cozy Keong Saik road is a story by itself. We tried initially to work from home but unfortunately, it just wasn’t conducive enough and definitely not the correct business direction. In 2005, when we finally managed to secure enough projects and profits to rent an office, our old office at Keong Saik road was not even our first choice! We actually wanted to rent another shop house opposite Singapore General Hospital (SGH). There was a nice cozy roof garden where we can actually invite our clients there for a jug of beer after work. Parking was convenient and ample. Location was perfect as it was just outside CBD area. In fact, we were so keen on that location that we placed the security deposit. History has it that someone else offered a higher price and the landlord chose to offer it to another company instead. In our search, our dismay turned to joy when we found the office at 30A, Keong Siak road and we soon settled into that office.

Graphic design (print matters) was what TILT first begun with in our early days. In this course of 5 years, we had included photography, web design, web applications, copywriting / copy-editting and events management to our scope of work. The increase in our scope of work coincided with our increase in headcount as well. As much as we like 30A, Keong Siak road, the cozy shophouse was simply too small to squeeze all of us. In fact, everyone in our office loved that office! They love the convenience of having a 7-11 just at our doorstep. The coffee and tea from the coffeeship downstairs is as aromatic as it goes. The food is simply heavenly! The list can just continue but changes in life is what makes life exciting!

In 2009 alone, TILT managed to have not 1 but 2 sessions of team-building. The birthday celebrations which we have had for all of us have come in all shapes and sizes. From the karaoke sessions, we understand that English MTVs have a high percentage of becoming a National Geographic video where you are introduced to a country by some bikini girl. From the BBQ which we had, we found out who knows how to marinate and who knows how to start a fire. From the partying times, we realised who can hold their liquor and how some react when they lose it all. In the midst of all these fun which we had, there is also an increasing list of clients who are recurrent and our projects are of a larger scale as well as higher visibility. All these could not have happened without everyone at TILT. These are the people who knew how to work hard and play hard.

For the years ahead, we are sure that changes will continue to surface. No matter how things may change in the future, there is one thing which we are sure. That is our promise to our clients that DESIGN MATTERS!

Be the Change!

‘The only constant in the world is change.’

As much as the abovestatement is true, the below statement is equally true.

‘People are resistent to change.’

So why is the vast majority of people resistent to change? There can be a variety of reasons. It can be due to the individual being in his / her comfort zone and see no need to change. Afterall, why disrupt and change something that is working perfectly well for you?

In recent times, companies tend to embrace change better. Especially with the increase in design knowledge, it can be seen that there is an increase in the number of companies who embrace change. One good example is how there is an increasing number of companies going through re-branding exercise.

With this positive towards change, in one of our recent projects with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Public Service Division (PSD), TILT is assisting PSD, through the conducting of photoshoot that produces photographs of high visual impact and designing of the posters, to promote PS21 officers who had embraced change and ambassadors of change. They lead by example and create the difference to their colleagues, their organisation and in some instances, to Singapore.

They have all played their part. Will you? Be the Change!

Be part of the Royal(ty) Family

“This is not acceptable!” stormed the client.

This had been a situation where TILT had faced several times in our course of work. To explain further, the situation arose due to the possible scenarios listed below.

Purchasing TILT’s Stock Library of Photographs
In our course of work, especially for web projects, we had used our stock library of photographs as part of the design for the client. When the project closed, after a period of time, the client called us back and told us that for consistent corporate branding, they wish to use a certain image for their print publication. When we tell them that it is not possible, voila! That’s when we hear the first sentence.

Why is this not possible? TILT usually purchase royalty-free images as part of our stock library. These images, even though are royalty-free, are licensed for use only on one computer. In addition, they are licensed for use only by the company who bought it and they can only use it in their course of work. We had a particular experience where we had an extremely lengthy discussion with the client explaining to them why this is not possible and after that long period of time, they still do not really understand and demand for the use of the photographs.

It’s ok, you can download the pictures off the web!
We have on several incidents encountered this as well. All photographs from the web actually have copyrights. On several occasions, we had informed the clients that downloading these photographs, even if they are high resolution enough to be used, may result in them being sued, if found out. The client simply do not believe that this may happen and, at times, insist that we do that. We naturally refused.

Why are the folks at TILT so sticky about this? That is simply because we care for the client and we do our best to advise the client. In a recent report, a businessman had asked a freelancer to do up a simple brochure about his consultancy services. The freelancer had used images from Getty Images without authorisation and the businessman now have only 1 week to pay $14,000 for the infringement of rights.

To read more about the report, click on the link below.
Businessman billed S$14k for images on website

This, unfortunately, is a piece of news which is sad for the design industry. Hopefully, clients now can understand why we charge a higher price than freelancers and hopefully, when we next explain to them, we will hear “Yes, I absolutely agree!”

You guys are great!

We recently organised a paintball team-building event for GIC Real Estate on 7 October 2008 at Red Dynasty Paintball Park. As you may know, Red Dynasty Paintball Park is situated inside Bottle Tree Park.

The fact that TILT is the official photographer for Singapore Paintball Novice Series 2008, organised by Paintball Association (Singapore), which is coincidentally held also at Red Dynasty Paintball Park means that we have had a long relationship with the staff there. In addition, with the revamping of the website of Bottle Tree Park, we were treated with a very warm reception. This great service, of course, was passed on to GIC Real Estate. The guys from GIC were sweating it all out, constantly strategising on how to win. The weather held up and the guys simply had a blast of their time. We will like to thank Bottle Tree Park on truly showing us that they are the Venue of Choice, a tagline which we had developed for them.

We were glad that the folks at GIC had throughly enjoyed themselves that day and what pleased us more was a simple short thank you note from GIC throughly warmed our hearts! These small thank you notes really make our day! We thank the guys from GIC too for their kind gesture!

It has been great working with you and your team from TILT!

Greg Baptist
Vice President
Administration and Corporate Affairs
GIC Real Estate Pte Ltd

Great Work!

We received an email from a client ( NTUC – Education Services Union ) who praised us for the great work and quick turn-around which we had provided for their re-branding launch. They have in turn referred us to other unions under NTUC as well as to NTUC. As per our tagline, “Design Matters”, we are truly happy that the efforts which we had undertaken, in treating the project like our baby and nurturing it to a full-grown end product, had been appreciated.

Below is a snippet of the email which he had sent,

“I will like to thank TILT for the great work done for the conceptualising and implementation of the re-branding {en:marketing collateral|collaterals}  and Flash video. Just to share that my bosses were quite impressed by the quality and speed you guys churned out the items.”
Aza (Industrial Relations)
Education Services Union