IWP Blog

Montgomery first captured the nation’s attention over a century ago, when the company was selected by the British Admiralty to make the first duffle coats.
They made such an impact that by World War ll, they were proudly worn by each of the allied services.
This was the first of six ads styled on Cigarette Cards, popular during the war years. Much imitated, Montgomery was the original duffle – and is still tailor made today in England.

We love the illustrations, by super talented Ian Bossons…

We recently came across this series of Ads in our archives. Still looking good so we thought we’d share… Mr Lam’s fast food used a barcode system to speedily serve freshly cooked Chinese food from their excellent Liverpool takeaway.

We designed the logo accordingly – the illustrations inspired by the marvellously heroic imagery of Mao’s Cultural Revolution of the 60’s and 70’s. “Serve The People!”

When D&D Wines commissioned us to come up with a concept for their McLaren Vale wines we couldn’t resist having a bit of fun with some legendary Aussie humour.

After a bit of research – and a good deal of embroidery – we developed these two beauts. The Bunyip – named after an Aboriginal spirit said to inhabit rivers and swamps, and Lady’s Leap, an outrageous tale of a dramatic riverboat race.

The Bunyip is an Aboriginal spirit which is said to haunt rivers, swamps, creeks and billabongs. Some say it looks like a huge snake with a beard and a mane. Others say it resembles a huge furry half-human beast with a long neck and a head like a bird. These days, most Australians consider the Bunyip to be just a creature of myth. But there are still those who swear they’ve heard the Bunyip’s bloodcurdling cry for themselves…

And why Lady’s Leap? When the daredevil skipper of the paddle steamer Lady Hopetown found himself behind in a race down the Murray River, he made a call which would find him forever enshrined in outback folklore. He cut to the inside, the boat hit the sand at full steam and became airborne. Momentum carried her over the bar and ahead of her rival. From then on, that point in the river became known as Lady’s Leap.

Legend has it IWP are pretty good when an eye catching concept is required. One legend we believe certainly isn’t fiction.

We’ve been working with the lovely people at Gallo, in Robbio – a city and comune in the Italian region Lombardy, 50 km southwest of Milan, for the last 15 years…

Established in 1856, today it is ruled by the 6th generation of the founding family. They send their briefs 1,500km to us in downtown Bollington (pop 8,310), Cheshire – where we designed the above for our market here in the UK.

Alongside Italy, we’ve done pack design for most of the rest of Europe, North and South America, Asia, Russia, Australia – in fact the only place we haven’t designed for is North Korea (yet)…

So. Borders are no barrier. And great ideas are universal. We have translators, foreign language typesetters – and well travelled creatives with ideas that cross boundaries.

Andiamo!

We love food.

Branding it. Advertising it. Shooting it, writing about it, designing the packaging it comes in, even occasionally eating it.

All kinds of food. Frozen food for Royal Greenland. Italian food for Riso Gallo and Sacla. Convenience food for Today’s Foodservice. Chocolate promotions for Thornton’s. Takeaway food for Mr Lam’s, even pet food for Applaws and Encore – and countless branding and rebranding jobs…

And despite looking like a million dollars, you’ll find the bill won’t cause indigestion – because repeat business is genuinely so important to us we price our work realistically – and always quote upfront.

We love the food branding business, and we like to think we’re pretty good at it – but we’re hungry for more… So if anything here whets your appetite we’d love to hear from you. Because there’s always room at the table for one more…

Advertising is awash with visual metaphors. Some work well, cutting through the constant bombardment we consumers are subjected to on a daily – or hourly basis – to not only engage, but to further our understanding of a service or product which in turn prompts us to buy.

Others are so obscure they simply don’t register.

Some are wildly ambitious, complex and overproduced, so losing the message in some creative team’s hugely expensive self indulgent excess. (I know this, slightly guilty face).

Enter the humble illustration.

Because simple is best, as cunningly delivered on The Mobberley Brewhouse’s ‘White Can’ range of experimental beers.

Happy client loved the positive response from customers. Happy agency loved approval from happy client.