Alexis Design is a London-based design agency producing effective and engaging brand identities, campaigns and communications materials for the media, broadcasting and technology sectors.

From our Hoxton studio we offer a comprehensive visual communication design service ranging from brand identities to ad campaigns. Our clients include All3Media, BBC Worldwide, Channel 4, Digital UK and Freeview. 

Design is at the heart of what we do and the discipline we use daily to solve problems, create connections and communicate your message.

Our creative executions offer brands unrivalled stand-out and deliver excellent return on investment for our clients.

Please contact us if you would like to discuss working together.

Home

Background
Freeview Play brings live TV, catch up and on demand to Freeview's 19m UK homes.

Context
Alexis Design have worked extensively with Freeview since their 2015 rebrand, including helping to communicate the benefits of Freeview Play, which enables viewers with smart TVs to watch catch up and on demand services.

Consumer benefit icons
We have been helped reposition the brand as a richer, more premium proposition with additional brand assets like the suite of consumer benefit icons featured here and prominent use of the 'hero' F icon.

Press ads
A series of national press ads designed to tie in with sponsorship of the daily weather forecast in Metro, featuring characters from the Freeview Play launch campaign created by Leo Burnett.

Retailer education pages
We created customer education pages for the websites of major home entertainment retailers such as John Lewis, Currys and Argos explaining the advantages of Freeview and how to sign up. 

Related
Freeview Play point of sale
Digital UK identity | Social media

Background
UK Tribes is an ongoing in-depth research project to help better understand and cater for Britain’s young audiences (16-34).

Context
Channel 4’s Research and Insight team wanted a short primer video aimed at advertisers and media buyers to introduce Tribes. It needed to demonstrate their extensive proactive support to advertisers, which is especially strong in respect to youth audiences.

Solution
With the help of our partners, the motion graphics pros Beautiful Creative, we brought UK Tribes to life through an off-beat introductory video using humour, bold type, found imagery and the words of the project’s many young contributors, with voice over by Channel 4’s Gary Terzza.

Related
Channel 4 Sales | Channel 4 Upmarkets 
Research & Insight | Foursight

Background
The UK’s biggest public sector broadcasters needed a new umbrella brand for their previously separate free-to-air services: Freeview and Freesat.

Context
With 20 million users between them, these services remain the backbone of UK home entertainment, but in post-Netflix, multi-player world, competition is fierce and nothing stands still. Combining the two services under one brand would allow for better regulatory and sector communication to protect the interests of viewers who rely on free, high-quality television.

Approach
We wanted Everyone TV to be contemporary and exciting, but also friendly and approachable. It had to feel like a natural companion to these two well-known and much-loved services. We carried out a very wide exploration of visual devices and type styles over a number of months, gradually refined through discussions with stakeholders.

Solution
The final identity gains its character from a letterforms based on a highly distinctive and informal font, tied with an expressive speech bubble icon that carries the letters TV. The icon transforms into an expressive holding device for messaging that interacts with talent imagery.

Related

Digital UK Identity | Switched On

Background
Not-for-profit Digital UK was formed by the terrestrial broadcasters in 2005 to assist consumers with the digital switchover.

Context
Increasingly the organisation’s role has evolved to support Freeview, its viewers and its channels. Digital UK sought a refresh to improve the perception of the organisation in the new digital era, and express it’s close relationship to Freeview. 

Approach
We wanted Digital UK to be rightly perceived as an integral and exciting part of the UK’s digital future.

Solution
A careful extension of the typographic language used in Freeview’s new identity was tailored to the letterforms of Digital UK. The original magenta highlight was retained to leverage existing brand equity, whilst the harsh black was tempered to a grey, helping distance it from a conventional print execution. 

Related
Digital UK Update 2016 | Switched On

Background
Snapgrade is a new assessment and analysis tool to help primary school teachers record pupils’ progress through Key stage 1 and 2 in key subjects. It saves teachers valuable hours that can be returned to classroom teaching. 

Context
Alexis Design was asked to design a school-friendly education technology brand that projected trust and ease of use.

Solution
We wanted to tap into the modern culture of emoji which seemed a natural extension of the age-old school habit of doodling 'smilies' over exercise book covers. We noticed that many teachers include hand-drawn or stamped smiley faces in their marking by way of encouragement.

Adding the tick as a wink to the simple sans serif letterforms of Adrian Frutiger’s typeface Avenir provided the perfect representation of the product benefits and brand values.

Related
Identity design

Background
TabletTV is an app that brings digital broadcast television to your tablet without the need for an internet connection; and with the Plus app you can add internet services such as Netflix and Youtube.

Context
Motive Television approached Alexis Design to help develop the user interface and create the branding, marketing and e-commerce site.

Approach
Aimed at people on the go through work or leisure and those without TV at home, the branding needed to emphasise the platform’s premium technical features and benefits such as ease of use.

Solution
A colourful wave motif set against a pearlescent blue background was complimented by outdoor imagery featuring filtered sunlight. The tagline ‘TV Unplugged’ completed a brand execution worthy of the instagram generation.

Related
Freeview Play | Motive Television identity

Whether it’s for a start-up or an established name, a new or updated brand identity is the most tangible and fundamental contribution we can make to an organisation. It’s also one of the most challenging and exciting processes for everyone involved.

At Alexis Design, we strive to create identities that are distinctive, truthful and relevant; but won’t succumb to passing fashion. It’s pretty simple – though not necessarily easy.

We believe a thorough, consultative design process holds the key.

Identities in full
All3Media | Bygga
Digital UK | The Monument
Motive Television | Snapgrade

Background
Each year Digital UK draw together their recent activity and key strategic themes in a widely disseminated report.

Context
The recent redesign of the Digital UK identity led to Alexis Design working on several of the not-for-profit’s key communications throughout 2016; and the annual Update was planned as the public launch of the new look. 

Approach
The report had to demonstrate momentum and progress in developing the DTT platform, with the importance of cross-industry partnerships as a running theme.

Solution
Each section was authored by a Director to give a face to each business area. Full-page images of popular programmes were sourced from a range of UK channels to illustrate key messages around viewing trends and the still dominant role of DTT. 

Carefully-crafted charts utilising the new colour palette gave visibility to key stats in the ‘at a glance’ dashboard page. 

Related
Digital UK Identity | Switched On 

Context
Now 15 years old and with a turnover in excess of £500 million, television production company All3Media is acknowledged as the No.1 UK super-indie.

We were asked not just to update a very tired identity, but to re-cast a complex business as a single distinctive home for extraordinary creative individuals.

Approach
At its best, television is a popular medium and a shared experience, so we searched for a forward-thinking inclusive identity.

Solution
Our efforts resulted in a logotype, built of playful but geometric letterforms, which we extended to a comprehensive brand platform for all3media’s businesses, helping to equip the brand for growth in America and online.

Integrated delivery from print through online to broadcast was made possible under one roof by teaming up with motion graphics experts Beautiful Creative.

Related
Identity design

Background
The stunning natural history film Earth was BBC Worldwide’s first cinematic release, in partnership with Greenlight Media.

Context
Recent advances in filming technology and the enormous talent and resources of the BBC meant Earth was going to be a wildlife film the like of which had never been seen before.

The production team were keen to secure a jaw-dropping image for the OOH campaign – something that would hint at the film’s year-long narrative journey from pole to pole – and approached Alexis Design’s Creative Director, Marcus Freeman, to fulfil the brief.  

Result
The final poster used an extraordinary composite image of a Polar Bear plunging through the earth’s firmament as the sun rises over the horizon. 

The film grossed $100m, and we're proud to think we helped it on its way.

Related
Out of home

Background
Wren’s famous monument commemorates the Great Fire of 1666, and is run by the City of London Corporation.

Context
The Corporation approached Alexis Design for a distinctive new identity that offered synergy with their other great tourist attraction, Tower Bridge. It was essential the new identity made it clear visitors could climb The Monument to appreciate it’s impressive views. 

Solution
Capturing the physical appearance of the well-known landmark was mandatory. However, at just over 200ft tall, it’s proportions were a challenge to render as a simple, practical marque.

A careful architectural silhouette was constructed at an exaggerated perspective to create a compact, workable design that clearly showed the spiral staircase inside. 

Related
Identity design

Background
Digital Insight technologies is a highly innovative deep-tech start-up who use artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to provide fast, comprehensive and automated research.

Their disruptive technology locates thousands of fragments of information and fuses them together to build a comprehensive research profile in minutes.

The project
They asked us to create contemporary branding for an online service that could seamlessly adapt to a future app-based model. We were further successfully involved in the product and UX design as well as producing materials for VC-orientated presentations and a major tech-sector recruitment programme that together helped give the company a flying start.

Related
Identity design

Background
Freeview Play offers catch up and on demand to Freeview’s 19m UK homes.

Context
Alexis Design have worked extensively with Freeview since their 2015 rebrand, including helping to communicate the benefits of Freeview Play, which enables viewers with smart TVs to watch catch up and on demand services.

Point of Sale
We developed a range of point-of-sale and packaging solutions to boost brand presence and better inform customer choice in the retail environment.

A 16pp A5 channel guide provides detailed information on Freeview's packages and services, while posters, tent cards, TV toppers and towers flag key facts across the shop floor.

Related
Freeview Play | Digital UK identity

We offer creative direction, design and production services to produce stunning integrated advertising campaigns with unrivalled stand-out across the outdoor, print, and digital environment. Our creative, call-to-action or appointment-to-view campaigns can bring real brand value alongside hitting targets.

We pride ourselves on being client-focused and combine strategic thinking with outstanding design. Print, digital or animated campaigns are executed with the utmost technical expertise with the help of motion graphics pro’s Beautiful Creative at our integrated London studio.

Alexis Design can format and deliver outdoor, ambient, national press, or digital campaigns in the UK and provide localised versions for onward distribution internationally.

Related
Social media | Earth

We have a wealth of experience presenting research data for both industry and consumer audiences. By combining an informed approach to data with a graphic sensibility, we are able to extract, amplify and present the stories you want to tell; and help users draw useful insights.

My Transexual Summer
This report into Changing Public Attitudes focused on the impact of this headline-grabbing Channel 4 series following the intimate stories of seven Transexual's.

The report's layout entwined quotes, facts and figures around the stories of the programme’s subjects to create easily digestible summaries of viewing figures, social impact and wider reactions.

Public Value Report
With an industry and regulatory audience in mind, the design of this substantial Channel 4 report needed to present a rich array of data in a clear and accessible way, detailing viewing figures and audience share, together with the compelling stories of the participants.

Related
Foursight | Channel 4 Tribes

Background
A beautiful range of POS items to ensure a strong bar presence for the original premium brand whisky.

Context
Pernod Ricard were keen to introduce engineered materials to their Chivas Regal POS to ensure the whisky featured prominently in fashionable bars, hotels and night clubs that were increasingly themed along urban, post-industrial lines.

Approach
To complete the new range, a simplified brand marque was conceived. This could be engraved, etched or embossed where the intricate detail of the brand’s existing assets reproduced poorly. 

Solution
Promotional items were designed from perspex and steel with amber resin highlights to showcase the rich design of the bottle and label. The new brand badge comprised of a silhouette fused from elements of the whisky’s visual heritage.

Related
Freeview Play

Background
A bi-monthly newsletter tracking emerging trends in media and lifestyle with a particular focus on those aged 16–34.

Context
Aimed at commmisioning editors, advertisers and media planners, it was written and published by Channel 4’s Research and Insight team, and designed by Alexis Design’s Creative Director, Marcus Freeman.

Featured
Illustrated here are editions focussing on the dominance of mobile technology and new research into our innate relationship and responses to sound. 

In the 20s Today edition interviews with this generation highlighted concerns such as trying to get on the property ladder and job security.

In the Future Wellbeing edition a study by Future Laboratory explored our complex relationship with our health and the growing realisation that the 'good life' can't be measured in purely material terms.

Related
Research & Insight | Infographics
Channel 4 Tribes | Channel 4 Upmarkets

Background
Bellingham Regeneration Arts Group (BRAG) is an umbrella group improving arts provision for young people in Bellingham, South London. It highlights, coordinates and amplifies the programmes of its member organisations with the aim of achieving a ‘critical mass’ for arts-driven renewal in the area.

Context
We were asked to conceive a no-frills identity for the organisation that would include the body’s full title whilst enabling it to identify and communicate clearly over social media using the handy acronym BRAG.

Solution
We developed an icon based on a distinctive hexagonal road junction in the centre of Bellingham that is also suggestive of the ‘coming together’ of BRAG’s member organisation .

Brand and icon versions of he identity give the organisation flexibility in how it presents itself to peer institutions in the arts or young people and their families locally over social media.

Background
BBC Worldwide’s Indie Unit invests in new content from production companies in exchange for distribution rights. 

Context
The Unit wanted to create a retreat at their Soho offices in Foley Street for their project-based writers and script doctors to practice their craft. Their brief asked for some ‘economical’ ambient graphic input to help frame the space appropriately.

Approach
We were keen to avoid expressions of corporate values, but instead inject some humour into the designs. We wanted a timeless feel to help alleviate the daily pressure of deadlines, trends and ratings.   

Solution
We searched the annals of film and television history for appropriately tongue-in-cheek inspiration; and found some beauties. Wise words from past masters for all those in the creative industries.

Related
BBC Worldwide | All3Media identity

Infographics are an appealing alternative to charts and so, not surprisingly, are one of a designer's favourite tools for bringing facts and figures to life. They are now firmly cemented in the public’s imagination through their popularity on social media.

Sometimes it takes a combination of words and pictures to tell an engaging story; indeed we distinguish infographics from charts (no matter how beautifully drawn) by the inclusion of other pictorial elements.

At Alexis Design we relish responding to clients’ requests for new approaches to their presentations. Here are some of our favourite examples.

Related
Charts and graphs | Social media

Our guidelines lay the all important groundwork for great brands and effective campaigns; and their production is an integral part of our brand identity work.

This does not always start with a blank sheet of paper. If you’re not in the market for a complete rebrand, tired elements can be updated, complimented and sympathetically repositioned.

Alexis Design’s strategic approach will leverage the potential of your brand, elevating it to the same heights as those you most admire; while our templates, assets and ongoing advice will ensure your ambitions are realised.

Related
Identity design | All3Media identity
Motive Television identity | PPL

Improve your next social media campaign with beautifully-designed social media assets created by our designers.

Whether its Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+, eye-catching original content that is true to your brand will help build your online presence.

From Facebook covers to Twitter infographics or beautiful content for Pinterest, we have all of your social media design needs covered.

Related
Freeview Play | Infographics

Context
PPL is the UK-based music rights organisation that collects revenue due to performers and record companies from public performance and broadcasting. Without PPL, thousands of musicians whose work is widely enjoyed would not make a living.

Activity
Alexis Design provide ongoing design and branding expertise to craft PPL’s many communications to the music industry and prospective licensee businesses.

2015 saw us complete an extensive overhaul of PPL's brand guidelines and design strategy; and a new international campaign reflecting their growing revenue collection streams abroad.

Related
Infographics | Branding

Background
Named after the Swedish for ‘build’, Bygga is a UK construction company specialising in transformative home extensions.

Context
Many homeowners would like to enlarge their properties but are intimidated by the design process and the hiring of reliable contractors, so Bygga have developed a highly professional plan and build service that prioritises customer satisfaction.

Approach
Bygga asked Alexis Design to position them as the natural choice for up-market owners looking to extend. Although we loved the Swedish name with it’s connotations of scandinavian-style living, a tagline was needed to make the proposition clear.

Solution
A simple logotype with the directive ‘Add to your home’ was complimented by a circular icon combining the ‘+’ sign with a house symbol. We extended the visual language with an additional circular heart symbol and secondary tag line ‘We made this’, for use across social media and more informal communications. The selection of two contrasting design-conscious colours – coral and navy – completes the brand.

Related
Identity design

Context
Updated Upmarkets is an initiative by Channel 4, with the help of Kantar Media, to modernise the ABC1 segmentation tool, which was conceived in the 1960s.

Channel 4 performs especially well with upmarket audiences, and the Research and Insight team required a film aimed at advertisers and media buyers to act as an introduction to both this initiative and the planning support they offer to advertisers.

Approach
We wanted to explain the motivation and reasoning behind the project and the potential benefits to advertisers, so we structured the script around a ‘march of progress’ from the 1960s to today. 

Solution
With the help of motion graphics pros Beautiful Creative, the project took the form of an off-beat introductory video using bold type, animated graphics and found imagery, with voice over by Amanda Carlton – the voice of More4.

Related
Channel 4 Tribes | Research & Insight

Data is bigger than ever and business is driven by numbers, so we thought we'd put together some of our favourite charts and graphs from a few key projects just to give a flavour of what is possible in representing data and findings to a wider audience.

Related
Infographics | Research & Insight
Channel 4 Sales