Keppie
Helping a 160-year-old Glasgow architecture firm, once home to Charles Rennie Mackintosh, move into a new era with a brave and bold new brand.
Established in 1854 by John Honeyman, the Glasgow architects known today as Keppie have a long story of leadership and trend setting, driving innovations throughout the years such as Murdostoun Castle, the first house in Scotland to have electric lighting, the world famous Glasgow School of Art by partner Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and the Vale of Leven Hospital, the first NHS facility built in Scotland.
It’s an extremely rich heritage that comes with a great deal of responsibility, but in 2020, the new team of directors Peter Moran, Richard MacDonald, David Ross and Fraser Low came to us to help deliver a rebrand and launch them into this new era of architectural design.
We started by running workshops with the team, building a brand framework and then developing this into a fresh and flexible new brand identity.
We identified pretty early on that we shouldn’t just rely on Keppie’s history but acknowledge it’s values and approach, amplifying them for the current times and present them as a company looking forward not backwards.
Keppie work in a three dimensional world, one that allows people to live, work and thrive so I developed an identity featuring a wordmark that is projected onto structures, warping from floor to wall and around corners. This was achieved by creating a gobo light in Cinema4D and tilting it in different directions, in the same way the bat signal is achieved, but digitally.
The animated people you see standing around having conversations or jogging past were created using pre-rigged models, allowing us to control their movement and keep looping on website banners and video content.
The rebrand received great praise across the architectural industry, with many of Keppies’ peers and clients congratulating them on this bold approach. Not only did it help Keppie win new business but has sent other architects our way asking for a brand refresh of their own. Proof that there’s great value in being brave and shaking things up.
Results
• 12% increase in social media followers.
• 124% increase in website traffic.
• 356k+ impressions, 12k clicks, 2.2% CTR
Agency: Elastic Creative
Client: Keppie
Creative Direction: Lauren Rennet
Design & Art Direction / Storyboarding / Animation: Arron Tierney
Editing / Animation: Pamela Gray
Photography: Laurence Winram
Web Development: Ian Morgan