“It fitted the brief, it wasn’t a stupid design, but it was soulless, lacking in personality,” she says.”When we saw what ‘efficient, serious, heavyweight’ actually meant, we saw it wasn’t us,” Ms White says. “They researched perceptions of our company and where our identity should fit in with that.” The research showed that potential clients were ignorant of Framestore’s technical capabilities and that the company was not doing enough to broadcast its presence in the market.The research had accurately identified a problem, and Uffindell and West proceeded to design a new identity. Another was the television graphics firm, Lambie-Nairn and Company, which had employed Framestore to work on its identity for Anglia Television. Framestore’s managing director, Sharon Reed, opted for Uffindell and West. She liked the way the consultancy broke the job down into phases that could be halted at any point – an important consideration for a small company taking the plunge with a new identity.”They helped us through the research stage,” says Ms Reed. “We needed to be seen as more heavyweight and technologically leading-edge, multi- service rather than a specialist provider of effects,” says the client services director, Jane White. The company wanted to appear “efficient and serious but with character and a human touch”.The company talked to a number of design consultants.One was Uffindell and West, a small corporate communications specialist.
Current projects range from the launch advertisement for SmithKline Beecham’s heartburn treatment, Tagamet, to the titles for the new James Bond film, Goldeneye.When Framestore moved to new premises last year, it felt it would be missing a trick if it did not also establish a new identity. The company works with film makers and advertising agencies, manipulating their images and introducing special effects to create a finished product. The plethora of privatised new corporations and the much-publicised logo overhauls of such companies as ICI and BP during the late 1980s all encouraged small enterprises to think big when it came to commissioning an identity.
But the corporate look is not right for all corporations, as Framestore, a Soho-based digital post-production facility, recently found. WHEN IS a corporate identity not a corporate identity? When it’s fun. And, more to the point, when it does not represent the po-face of a large corporation.
They now expect a 3 per cent average drop in prices.Business could grow in the next two months, as buyers rush through deals to beat the deadline of 1 October, after which borrowers taking out new mortgages and remortages will have to wait nine months for income support to start paying their mortgage interest.But any artificial surge in business will be balanced by a likely drop in demand for mortgages after the deadline has passed.. The upturn in house repossessions in the first half of 1995 and the sharp downward revision in house price forecasts from analysts at UBS this week add to the generally gloomy outlook. If it is paid off in full or in part within that time, a fee equal to 6 per cent of the loan will be required.The car’s invoice value could also be liable to capital gains tax if other gains are made during the year. The offers have been criticised by consumer lobbies, increasingly worried at the impact of cashback and discount offers on the mortgage lending business.Most offers now represent between 3 and 6 per cent off the value off a loan and subsidised loans must be averaging at least 10-15 per cent of the value of most lenders’ loan portfolios. Although most mortgage lenders have made good margins on mortgage business in the past, the volume of business is little more than half the peak levels in the late 1980s. The current mortgage rate is 8.39 per cent, but there is a five-year penalty “tail” on the offer.
TMB’s standard variable rate is 8.29 per cent, and it also offers a pounds 250 cashback to help with mortgage fees.
But there is a completion fee of pounds 299 in addition to survey and legal fees, and borrowers will be charged a substantial penalty – four months’ gross interest – if they redeem within four years, and one month’s interest after that.Chase de Vere and National Counties Building Society also claim to have had a good response to their offer of a free Mini, worth pounds 6,381 on the road, for borrowers who remortgage with them for at least pounds 100,000. TMB claims to have received 500 inquiries already in response to its offer of the use of a Renault Clio – taxed, insured and serviced for 12 months – to anyone who takes out a mortgage or remortgage of at least pounds 45,000. THE MORTGAGE BUSINESS, owned by the Bank of Scotland and National Counties Building Society, stirred up the mortgage war last week by offering a new type of gimmick – a car instead of a cashback or interest rate discount. For pensioners who think a Ship could help, the charity Age Concern and independent financial adviser Cecil Hinton have got together to produce a 68-page book, available from Age Concern at 1268 London Road, London SW16, at pounds 4.95.. The debt is a charge on the estate and can reduce any liability to inheritance tax, but borrowers need to be sure beneficiaries of their estate understand what is happening.