Australian agency Ink Project has been in business for almost 15 years now – something by which all three heads of the studio are taken aback – as it seems like only yesterday that two of them came up with the idea in the front room of their home.

In 2001, Creative Director Ken Lambert and General Manager Samantha Bleuel started the branding and design company to fill a void they saw in the Australian creative industry. According to Lambert, he saw the need to provide a balance of design and strategy to brand identities, whether it’s a commercial brand in China or a U.S. network.

Lambert and Bleuel brought on David Taylor early on in order to achieve this balance. With Bleuel at the helm of print, online and digital branding, Lambert working as creative and commercial director, and Taylor strategically driving projects, Ink Project became a go-to agency for strategy and design.

“The three of us can present creative and how it works, but also why it works” said Lambert, Ink Project’s founder and creative director. “Our guiding principle has always been creativity and quality always have to be there – those two things are the real idea.”

Just four years later, Ink Project took home a total of nine PromaxBDA World Gold Awards (now called Global Excellence Awards) which is not counting the several PromaxBDA ANZ Awards the company has taken home throughout the years.

In fact, Ink Project was the creative partner for the PromaxBDA conferences in Asia, India, Australia and New Zealand in 2014, creating branding around the idea of “Evolution.”

Since its beginning in 2001, Ink Project has been prolific in all of these regions, working with brand giants such as Foxtel in Australia to clients in the U.S. and throughout China and India.

Ink Project’s lists of brands and partners is now approaching 90 brands in 10 countries across four continents. Taylor, Ink Project’s managing director, says the sheer size of its success is due to the agency’s willingness to go where the project takes it.

“We do whatever it takes,” said Taylor. “We’re a small agency, but we work as a whole. If the creative requires 3D, then that’s what it gets. If it requires live action, that’s what it gets. If it requires people coloring in VW cars with Sharpie pens, that’s what it gets.”

(Speaking of the 2012 Studio Rebrand):

“No one ever comes to us and says we want to you to build this defined box,” said Lambert. “They ask for a brand that reaches their bottom line. They set the goals, and that’s where we get excited and get to work.”

Among the studio’s first projects was a rebrand for TV New Zealand (Australia’s version of the BBC) who needed to redesign its channel in three short weeks. The scale of projects after that only got bigger, as word of mouth drove Ink Project’s business for years to come.

The agency built up a steady client list, including Australia’s biggest broadcaster, Foxtel, working with the company on channel rebrands, even for the London Olympic Games.

One of the most recent projects is another brand of Foxtel’s called BoxSets, an Australian channel devoted to the binge watcher in all of us.

BoxSets serves as both a linear channel and an on-demand service, airing an entire season of Game of Thrones before it airs the entire series of The Newsroom or The Wire.

“On our part was a premium brand creation for the channel,” said Taylor, “and on their part, it’s just a genius idea.”

Foxtel bills the channel as an “easy way to watch box sets of the world’s best drama when you want.” With a library of current and past TV drama, BoxSets launched at the end of 2014 and Ink Project worked to create a clean, premium design for the channel.

“We always talk at PromaxBDA events about how the industry is changing,” said Lambert, “and it’s great to be a part of an idea that tackles that head on.”

Ink Project also got the opportunity recently to work with blockbuster star Chris Hemsworth for Foxtel’s Movies package.

Foxtel had the Thor star on retainer for marketing purposes, and wanted to incorporate him into its messaging without referencing his Marvel character – or any of the work he’s done for that matter.

Ink Project took on the creative challenge, creating a high-end drama spot for Foxtel Movies, juxtaposing Hemsworth against the larger-than-life dramas that the channel can offer. Characters such as Indiana Jones, Princess Elsa, Katniss Everdeen and Spider-Man appear in giant screens as Hemsworth explains the elegance and magic that goes into movies on Foxtel.

The agency has at least two more channel projects for Foxtel coming out this year, including a drama branding as well as a project for Arts.

Outside of Australia, Ink Project has found a second home with clients in India and China. After working with Sony Entertainment Television (SET)’s sports channel, they took on the rebrand for its flagship entertainment channel as well.

Using dynamic color backgrounds and showing SET’s stars in action, the rebrand portrays India’s TV stars interacting with bold splashes of color.

SET, which reaches more than 90 million households, marks Ink Project’s sixth channel in India so far, helping to make it the region’s number-one channel.

And, keep in mind, a majority of these projects in the last decade or more were won by word of mouth and reputation: Ink Project does not free pitch.

They make it very clear that this is a decision that works for them, but they don’t preach it to everybody. “I think as a company, you need to decide where you stand,” said Lambert. “We put so much of ourselves in the work and the relationship; I don’t want to sully that relationship. When they make you free pitch, clients are choosing creative in the same way they’re choosing wallpaper.”

And in the past 15 years, Ink Project feels they have gone past that wallpaper onto something bigger and better.

Most recently (as in just this week), Ink Project has presented the look for Foxtel’s newest channel, Arts, launching March 28.

The channel will feature opera, ballet, music, theater, dance and all kinds of modern performance a swell as documentaries about cinema, literature and artists from around the world.

Tags:


  Save as PDF