Broadcasting our design talents

Freshwater was approached by Communicorp UK to provide maternity cover for its in-house graphic designer. Communicorp UK is home to some of the most exciting UK radio brands including Capital networks in Scotland and South Wales, Heart networks in Yorkshire and North Wales, Smooth Radio networks in the North East, North West and East Midlands as well as XS Manchester.

Our remit covered all graphic and digital design including advertisements, promotional materials, branding, social media assets, presentations and livery.

Freshwater’s brief was to provide graphic design services to all stations under the Communicorp UK brand. All work was funnelled through one internal point-of-contact, who was responsible for briefing Freshwater’s teams. This was the first time that all graphic design work was undertaken solely by an external agency. Our remit included all marketing collateral for the station brands, as well as supporting the account management teams with new business presentations.

The design briefs we received were varied in both scale and speed of turnaround. We created bold graphic and digital designs for multiple consumer-facing channels. Smaller, one-off projects included image resizing and artwork updates, with larger briefs encompassing brand development work and entire building wraps.

Key highlights included:

• Advertising collateral to showcase new presenters
• Collateral to promote sponsorships and promotions
• Social media assets, including Snapchat filters
• Livery, such as bus backs and vehicle wraps
• Experiential marketing
• Large format design
• PowerPoint presentations
• Infographics
• Digital screens
• Station branding and logo design

During the year-long maternity cover period, almost 500 creative briefs were received. The turnaround time for all non-urgent work was set at five days – Freshwater completed all work ahead of this through stringent workflow planning within the design team.

Because of the relationship built with the client and the quality of the work delivered, Freshwater continues to provide support to the in-house graphic designer during busy periods and to cover sickness and annual leave.