“Is this your homework Larry? Is this your homework?”
Things are not where you need them to be.
This is what Jamhot is all about. Where some see change as a scary or threatening thing we sense the excitement and see the opportunity. Whether you’re starting something new or re-energising an existing brand. This is our chance to put all of the pieces together, creating interesting things as we go. Are you with us?
Feral Strategy. Book.
We’ve been enjoying having a read of Feral Strategy, the new book ay Richard Huntington the head of strategy at famed agency Saatchi & Saatchi. The book is by far the closest distillation & explanation of how we approach brand strategy at Jamhot.
Island Life. Distilled.
One of our favourite projects in the studio over recent years has been our brand work for our friends at North Uist Distillery. Before we partnered with them, we had never worked for a spirits brand. Never branded a distillery. Never designed a custom bottle. Never worked with a Hebridean island client. Far from putting everyone off, this turned out to be a transformative experience for both studio & client. They put their trust in us and together we produces some amazing work, a timely reminder of something we’ve always believed…
Enthusiasm often beats experience.
Never Ever Ordinary.
When we met our friends at Igneous Distillery, we knew they were no ordinary entrepreneurs. Starting a distillery in the UK’s most westerly point within the crater of an extinct volcano, on the site of their father’s old antiques business – their dream started with having to drill down through many many metres of volcanic Igneous rock to access a pure filtered water source. This was no easy task. There was every reason not to start a distillery (or any business) on this site. But they did it anyway. Never Ever Ordinary. We designed them a beautiful custom ceramic bottle to reflect this bold positioning, resembling the unique rock formations found on this iconic location. Sadly, when it was time to get the bottle made disaster struck. During a global energy crisis, the manufacturer called in the liquidators just as the initial bottles were during to be delivered. The deposit was gone, as were the bottles. Never to be seen again. Not to be deterred, they listed themselves down and lived up to their brand mantra by leaning how to make them themselves. They commissioned a mould, went on courses and converted the double garage at their home into a ceramics studio. Never even would they place their future in someone else’s hands.
Never Ever Ordinary. That’s for sure.
Simple. Not easy.
When looking to establish the foundations of any brand or creative project, we’re always seeking simplicity. A clarity of thought that gives us a determined direction that we can follow through on. Often this is all about deciding what not to do. What not to say. What not to include. So that the uniting idea shines through loud and clear. This, we have found, is not an easy thing to achieve.
Simple. Not Easy.
For Glasgow. For Life.
We had the honour of partnering with Glasgow Life, the charity that acts as custodians for some of Glasgow’s finest treasures with over 30 landmark destinations including the renowned Tramway arts complex, the world famous Burrell Collection, The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and every Glaswegian’s favourite Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum. As well as this they also operate all of the city’s libraries and spots centres, while organising world class events for residents and visitors to enjoy throughout the year. That’s a lot of things. With so much complexity within one organisation, we partnered with their leadership team to clarify & simplify their reason for being. With everyone super passionate about what the organisation did – their old streapline ‘everyone deserves a great Glasgow Life’ sounded good, but on scrutiny lacked any depth of meaning. We realised that things were perhaps simpler than that. So we created a unified rallying cry that speaks to the passion we found in each and every one of the many team members we met, knowing that at the heart this was what it was all about.
For Glasgow. For Life.
Do some good.
Throughout the course of running the studio we’ve had a very loose rule that roughly half our time should be spent working with charities, arts organisations and other good causes that add to the world. As creative folk all we have is the work we create and the change we make, that’s why we value the opportunity to partner with folk like Worldwide Cancer Research, British Red Cross, Stop Climate Chaos, Young Scot, NHS, European Youth Card, Women’s Aid, the Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations and many more besides to create work that looks good, sounds good and does good.
Creative Partners.
One of the things we’re proudest of, is the great relationships that we get to build with our clients. Perhaps the best example of that is our work with Glasgow’s legendary Tron Theatre. A client we have worked with for 17 years. It’s a creative relationship that we value a lot. Getting to work on different productions, art directing shoots, designing brochures & websites as well as working on the overall brand itself. All while meeting many interesting creative folk along the way.
We value relationships. They build partnerships.
Collaboration for the nation.
We’re a small studio. It’s how we like it, keeping us close to the work at all stages of the project. Despite our size, we’ve always had big ambitions for the work we produce. That’s why we’ve always been committed to collaborating with other creative folk. It’s one of the most satisfying aspects of what we do. Partnering with animators, illustrators, photographers, directors, videographers, editors, sound designers and developers to being ideas to life. As we value these relationships we always pay our collaborators on the day they invoice us regardless of when we might get paid by our clients. It’s something we’re proud to have done since day one, and we’ll always try our very best to keep that up.
Snask it up.
Our friend Freddie from Swedish design studio SNASK kindly came over to Glasgow to speak at one of our Gab events. We found a message on our white board in the studio the next day that said ‘SNASK IT UP’ so we did – we painted the kitchen area of our new studio pink (the Snask colour) and put Freddie’s framed message pride of place.
Ideas can come from anywhere.
Always learning.
When we started the studio we made a commitment to be continuously leaning and improving what we do. One of the ways we do this is through our valued relationships with local colleges & universities mentoring students and giving talks & workshops. It’s part of our practice that we all cherish, keeping our minds open and our thinking fresh. So we would like to thank you to our friends at Glasgow Caledonian University, City of Glasgow College, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh College of Art, Grey’s School of Art and The University of Strathclyde for making us a part of what you do.
Starting new cancer cures.
Working with Worldwide Cancer Research is a privilege, allowing us to play a very small part in the work they do to start new cancer cures. When we were looking to unload ideas to bring the Curestarters brand platform to life we realised that backing new ideas is inherently risky. Most fail. But the ones that succeed, they can change people’s lives. So the people that bravely back them and a special breed. From this insight a simple idea was born.
Anyone can be a curerstarter. Not everyone will be.
Encouraging young people to vote.
We partnered with the European Parliament and European Youth Card Association to create a campaign to encourage young people to vote. With the campaign to be launched across 16 countries it was an exciting task. But a difficult ask. Turns out young people didn’t really like voting in European Elections. And they also didn’t like being told what to do. With several of the initial concepts being knocked back, our client was frustrated and exclaimed – ‘for fuck sake more young people swear than vote’ – this we thought is a good insight, and also an idea. So we turned the campaign over to Europe’s young people, asking what issues they cared about. Then quite simple saying – if you give a shit, give a vote.
> See campaign here
Foundations before creations.
When we partner with clients on brand projects, before we start any creative or design work we work in close partnership with them on our foundations programme. This typically includes such activities as creating joint briefs, primary research, brand strategy & key messaging development. It’s how we work out who we are and what we want to say, creating clarity before anything else gets in the way.
From Glasgow to Pekham.
Our main studio is in the amazing Scottish city of Glasgow, a place we are proud to call home. But over the last year we’ve been doing a lot more work down in London so we’ve bagged a desk in Peckham in a cool creative space – our pal Pete’s editing studio, Search Party. They do amazing work for big clients all over the world, so it’s a great base for the Jamhot crew to work from when we’re down that way.
Next stop. The Moon.
Synthesis & Synchronicity.
Something we’re pretty good at, is making sense of complex and messy situations. Bringing the pieces together to achieve the clarity of thought it takes to create a new way forward. We’re also big believers that creative work required a little alchemy from time to time, and many of our best ideas are found as we go along on this journey together. It’s two parts of the job we love, and will ever get tired of.
Tastefully done.
While strategy is vitally important to us, so is taste. In fact, in an incredibly complex & busy world, where Ai is about to flood us with more and more content it could be that taste trumps strategy for our most important brand cornerstone. It’s about defining a deliberate direction, knowing what you stand for and making sure the work you put out into the world communicates this with absolute clarity & consistency. It’s never been more interesting. It’s never been more important.
This feels right.
This is what we’re always aiming for.
Trust the process. Always.
Sometimes ideas come quickly, sometimes they take a little longer. Sometimes everything runs smoothly, sometimes there are unexpected twists & turns along the way. Sometimes people (and their opinions) knock things off track, sometimes life does a good job of that too. We don’t always know how things will go. What we are certain of, is if we work together with openness & optimism, trust the process and believe in each other – that’s when very good things can happen.