Koto

0:00 [Applause]

0:04 hello everyone we are Koto, Koto describes itself as optimists who are in the pursuit of brand Excellence again we are all over the world we started in London around 10 years ago but now have Studios yeah in London Berlin LA and Sydney and New York and we're just a team of people who are trying to make the best Works work of our life so whether. That's copywriters and strategist fruit of motion designers illustrators all the rest of it there's two people on stage today.

0:35 But we're taking credit for lots and lots of hard work from over a 100 people around the world we'll show you a bit of work we've been up to recently and then into seasoned ♪

1:43 thank thank you we're not actually going to talk to you about Koto today we're going to talk to you about an initiative we started cooking up a few years ago which was our sort of approach to trying to help creatives and budding creatives get into the brand industry how can we demystify branding and help people sort of explore it as a as a possible career and we wanted to capture the optimism of Koto and do this in a fun and engaging way we're not the only people who are trying to do this we just thought we could help in a way that felt really authentic to us yeah. So right now season is live and you can go and have a look at the website but today we want to talk about how we actually got here so what the process was going from very initial idea to where we are today. And it was June 20th 2023 a few of us at Koto really wanted to try and make something we weren't really sure what it was but it was basically to try and make a bit of a difference in the industry and we put a call out on the slack to ask basically if anyone was interested in making some kind of platform to help people navigate their way into that industry and and luckily loads of people were interested yeah everyone was really Keen so we got a bit of a team together it was basically most of Koto London so about 30 of us.

3:09 And it wasn't just designers it was writers strategists Client Services motion and digital designers too so everyone really was interested in making something for all these people who you know might not have a normal way of getting into the industry yes so we had a team that was really energized and excited to to to start but what we need next is a brief so we asked oursel a really simple question like how can we if we can make getting into the design industry feel a little less scary but also selfishly we wanted to have a little bit of fun whilst doing so so like any self-respecting branding agency we have a team we have a brief we need a slack Channel and you'll see through this presentation we're slightly obsessed with slack and that is sort of like where we where we share lots of our ideas and lot lots of our optimism so yeah we have a team we have a brief we have a slack Channel now we need to work out how to do a process there as Dylan said 30 people on a project is a bit crazy usually there's six or eight of us. And we have a few weeks but the exciting thing. There is we had to try new processes we had to work cross disciplines at all levels but what we had was some pizzas it was 4 P p.m. On a Wednesday we had good energy and we split into three teams to start to explore what this could be and we came up with loads of thoughts ideas sketches references and we just started sort of grouping them into categories we kept asking ourselves like how do we make something that is sort of interesting and engaging but also feels different in the space and we sort of started to land on this idea of a platform to start to educate people.

4:57 And then after a few more sessions so this is sort of after a couple couple more weeks we had two routs that really stood out to us as the strongest we had route one which was kotou this was really sort of inspired by the visual vernacular of teams togetherness and that sort of like classic Americana College aesthetic and this route was all about leaning into education in a really big way.

5:18 And then route two which was basically the opposite of that if we really want to appeal to people who aren't in the industry do we even need to look like education and could we start to take inspiration from alternative groups and movements to make something that feels a little bit more youthful and fresh and we we thought they looked pretty cool like we were quite happy with ourselves but like we were a bit worried that it felt a little bit serious and like especially route two was like nice graphic design but it didn't really feel like much and and maybe it was actually added a barrier maybe cool graphic design there's a lot of it out there maybe that's not what the world needs Maybe there is another way.

6:01 So there was a third route there was something in the background that was starting to get quite excited and it was something unexpected it was deia Smith holding an egg but what's really nice about this sort of visual vernacular of food and cookery is like throughout the ages no matter where you from what age you are cookery and food is a conate for conversation people get around they share tips and tricks and especially cookery books and programs it like takes this amazing finish thing and shows you how to do it step by step really easy no barriers so it's true to culture but it's also true to Koto this is Koto London's kitchen this is an obscenely big blue table which we all get around every day and sort of like judge each of us dishes for for breakfast and lunch but also like all of our meeting rooms are egg themed for some reason and our amazing illustrator NY sort of created these we do bake offs everything sort of comes back to food so felt really true to us as well we also thought from a graphic design point of view there's just so much to pull from we res really resonated with like a few key cooking tropes as well I think like that step-by-step approach of breaking things down and you know making things easy to understand is really compelling from our point of view and then also this like absolute maximalism of food in the 70s and 80s and maybe there's some weird parallel there between people coming coming up with brand new dishes and us coming up with brand new ideas to try and fill a brief and lastly those sayings and phrases that are so prevalent in kitchens and cookery just felt like they were so aligned with our world of design and branding and then we started making some stuff so we were experimenting with topography imagery messaging to come up with an interesting take on this sort of cooking come branding mashup and everyone was really excited it started leading to sort of new ways of working we were working in ways where it was a little bit more touch and go and you could kind of in your downtime maybe you'd make a few things and people were making weird stuff that they might not necessarily make for a client yeah.

8:16 So we pride ourselves on not having much of a hierarchy but this was self-initiated from London.

8:21 So we did have to go to Joey the CCO and be like we've made some stuff what do you think give us some money and he absolutely l it he loved the third route he got really excited and we ended up with the perfect brief was make it weirder so down the ecd of London obviously couldn't sleep 8:36 in the morning let's get weird like we were all really energized about this direction.

8:42 So yeah we have a direction we have a route so first of all we need a name. So it wasn't always called seasoned we came up with this because we thought it was great for a few reasons obviously it sort of transports us immediately to the world of food but it also like help helps show our role in that relationship so as a season professional you can start to impart some knowledge hopefully maybe but also it it sort of captures the optimism and energy of Koto of the work we try and create and we we sort of loved that idea and how we could start to create a brand and this be the name for it.

9:19 So we have a name next of next like the whole reason we started to do this really was experimentation and play so what's about not having client work and deadlines and and sort of people paying budgets is you can just start to play with new techniques this is 2023 like June July so AI is sort of a little bit ropey as you can see but we got to like experiment with new tools it's very ropy actually in 2023 and there's some like unhappy accidents but along the way we start started to learn and understand this technology and and yeah there's some weird stuff as well but like as the main visual vernacular what we started to create had like it had the energy of that cookery programs hints to the past the maximalism of food but also everything's sort of not as it seems and hopefully it starts to like make you want to unpack it a little bit everything's sort of the wrong texture and a little bit unusual and then we started getting into the details so starting to think about things like how do we you know create a similar feeling within our typographic voice and again like we've wanted to create typography and try new tools Dylan's been making type in his spare time.

10:30 But this is just a great opportunity that we actually made our first type phase at Koto and and now we've made a few for clients so like actually that play and experimentation new ways of working different shaped teams really started to pay off not just for like our creativity and our appetite but also for the work we make and the tipe brief was basically like how do we make a font feel sort of like tasty and nutritious which is quite strange but was really interesting and obviously like came out with season Sands very bouncy and fun round it's kind of weird and like a bit wrong but for us it was like inviting and eye-catching and and bold and that was the sort of most important thing.

11:16 And then we started like putting all these pieces together so using type imagery these graphic elements that we were developing along the way and also copyrighting and motion. And we starting putting putting all of these pieces together start to actually build the season brand yeah. So like that's all great and it looks great but how do we launch it so with the rest of the project we we followed the same sort of process let's all get together let's come up with some ideas and let's be a little bit weird and try and have some fun with it.

11:48 So there was there was a few Rogue ones we we ended up deciding let's just have another Koto Bake Off let's make some food inspired by the sort of visual World we've created and then let's just shoot in the kitchen a little B real film that can be this sharable bit of content that feels like fun energetic but something that we can just share and hopefully people feel like they want to be a part of it.

12:12 And then we also started giving all this work which was absolutely chaotic to the digital motion teams at Koto and they basically just make the work way better they also just make sense of the absolute chaos that we produce as designers um but it's really about making sure that we can bring the joy and the fun from the rest of the brand into all the little moments sort of peppering it throughout the digital experience even things you know such a simple where you're saying you know come back soon and making that something that feels enjoyable and interesting and interactive and then we worked with our friends at good City to bring all of this together into an actual digital experience too yeah and hopefully that culminates in a brand that feels warm and welcoming it has that optimism and fun that we wanted to bake into the process but also hopefully lowers a barrier to entry and the video plays now and and it feels like something you want to interact with and and and learn more about as Dylan said we work with good City incredible Dev partner that that sort of keep kept saying yes and kept wanting to push this as much as we did so now we have this digital Hub which hopefully will be a bit of a cheat sheet for anyone who wants to now how we approach branding there's going to be four books on there that sort of unpack that.

13:32 And then hopefully in the future a little bit more unpacking folios and what should be in there and how do you turn up to an interview and definitely don't wear a blazer and all that stuff and yeah we're also releasing new content soon.

13:46 So we've got two new books that are in the making one on making your ideas a reality and the second is how to deliver a project to a client and we also want as many many people as possible to sort of be engaged with season.

14:01 So we will be using Koto's Instagram to host q&as announce new season content so we'll be doing an ask us anything soon. So if you'd like to submit to that you can and hopefully in the process we're making the design industry a little bit less scary and a little bit more inviting and trying to sort of break down some of those barriers that I think graphic design has had for a very long time yeah this is like the bit where we reflect and like what have we learned and at kotto we work really fast we we do a lot we turn a lot of projects around in a few weeks and months if we're lucky but what we actually learned here is like it's fine for things to take time.

14:42 And sometimes they do and it took ages yeah. So it took from first slack message to it's nice that article was one year seven months and 10 days so quite a long project also I think it's important to like remind ourselves that you get out what you put in like hopefully you can feel the optimism and the fun that was the input and hopefully you can feel that in the output and I think it's important to have fun when you make work and hopefully that is reflected when you sort of press print also plays important like we tested new ways of working and I think it's actually permeated like the culture at Koto and now we we sort of like Get Together much more often we sit together in Project teams and and it makes the team feel much more sort of tight there also playing around with new processes new tools all the rest of it I think we've learned quite a lot along the way yeah and the end really is just the beginning so technically we've finished the season brand but yeah we're going to be doing way more stuff soon.

15:42 So we're going to be doing more talks more portfolio reviews connecting with more people who aren't yet in the industry and hopefully sort of shimmying them in but like I think it's really worth noting that we're not the only ones doing this. And we're definitely not going to solve it on our own there's loads of other amazing initiatives and resources out there if you're interested in branding please check out these guys because they're doing great work and they've been doing it a lot longer than us we're just trying to do our little bit thank you thank you