The Loft

It’s incredible to believe that the Serious and Organised Crime Exchange (SOCEX) is now in its fourth year. A forum helping to connect the law-enforcement community against a backdrop of ever-greater challenges both nationally and internationally. Having been there at the start, we are delighted to continue our support of this great event. The creation of the publication ‘An Evidence-Based Approach’ was our seventh in the series and definitely one of our finest. Huge thank yous to everybody who worked around the clock to create this fantastic document, and in particular, Ellen McLean and Parit Sharma who were responsible for this beautiful headline graphic. Have a wonderful bank-holiday weekend folks... #SOCEX

There is never a dull moment when you get a load of ambitious, creative and purpose-driven entrepreneurs into a room together and Tuesday night was no exception. ‘Meet The Global Scots’ was an incredibly inspiring evening put together by the good folks at Global Scot, Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Edge. Rather fittingly held at Scotland House in London, it was a truly lovely feeling to see our brand beside some illustrious names - both established & up-and-coming. Already excited for the next one! #Growth #Change #Entrepreneurship #ScotlandIsNow

A shout-out to the successful ones!
‘Partnership’ is something we take seriously at the loft - taking responsibility for the success of projects whether a task falls within our remit or not. It can be harder, at times, much harder, but in the end, it is also so much more rewarding and mutually beneficial.
https://theloft.co/2019/05/13/shout-succe ssful-ones/

Finaaaaallly getting my head buried into the beautiful 2018 SmartSTEMs report (some would say an improvement) which we designed with the wonderful Olivia and Karen. Great read, impressive growth and the design’s not too bad either, even if I do say so myself... Brilliant work by the old team, especially Ellen. #SmartSTEMs #Collabiskey

Happy birthday the loft!! If somebody had told me 7 years ago what the future would hold, I would have thought they were absolutely mad! Despite the madness, these are the 7 best things about the journey so far...
https://theloft.co/2019/04/27/7-years-hap py-birthday-loft/

Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen, Hamilton, Paisley with London and Amsterdam to follow, 8000 Kids, 12 events-a-year, an average of 1-a-month! We were fortunate enough to work with SmartSTEMs right at the beginning of their journey back in 2014 and we are delighted to have picked back up with them last year for the design of their annual report. Amazing growth is no coincidence, and its down to the fantastic efforts of Karen, Stuart, Olivia and countless others who have helped to encourage a new generation of youngsters into Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics. Having heard their plans for the future, we know this is just the start. Check out the wee-infographic we created with them to showcase their growth and more importantly check them out #SmartSTEMs #Collabiskey #SustainScotland

Hello everybody! We are incredibly excited to say that we are looking for a creative designer to come and join our team. Check out the ad below..
https://theloft.co/designer/

Supporting Young Glasgow Talent! 2 days, 2 Talent Tasters, 7 young people, countless laughs and a wonderful time had by all. Check out the brilliant self-branding projects carried out by William, Mohammed, Emily, Chloe, Jodie, Niamh and Bryan. Huge thanks to the loft’s superstar designers for their amazing skills and MCR Pathways for inviting these wonderful young people into our studio. The future of graphic design is looking bright...

'THANK YOU'
Two simple little words.
Last week we got a brilliant reminder from one of our clients about the importance of saying thank you. After 6 and a half years in business, we’re delighted to have worked with so many wonderful people on so many wonderful things.
... So for all those people that have entrusted us with their creative work, I just thought I would take a moment to say those two magnificent words.
Thank you…
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We've got the lovely Ellen in the studio this week, find out more about her in our latest blog post: https://buff.ly/2zIAY1w
#designwithsoul

'We have been doing a lot of brainstorming in-house recently — from developing exciting new brands from scratch to shaping the future for existing companies — all of which requires idea generation.
'[In our latest blog post] you will find our tried and tested route that we find works best. There are of course many external factors at play during a project, but this process keeps us grounded and allows ideas to flourish — always crucial at the initial stages of any project.'
...The method to our madness, if you will.
Find out more here:
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'Social media platforms definitely like to keep us all on our toes. The constant changing of image sizes and algorithms make it hard to keep up. So to make sure you stay on top of your social media game we have put together a handy Social Media Cheat Sheet (yours to download and keep — and don’t worry it’s printer friendly) that contains all the latest sizes, best times to post, and a little top tip thrown in there for good measure.'
Get your hands on our social media cheat sheet here: https://buff.ly/2MwvI8r

'The most powerful cultures are created when everybody’s had a say in shaping it. So if you can… ask the team about the company vision, get everybody’s thoughts on the values and find out what makes your company special compared to all the others?'
On the blog we are sharing our guide on creating a culture for your brand, find out the other ideas we included over in our latest blog post:

We were absolutely delighted to work with Scottish Leather Group on their Annual Sustainability Report for the third year running. Here's Reiss showing the 2018 report off in all it's glory, a design that was brought to life by the man himself! A perfect blend of minimalism and visual interest — we even managed to include a bull in the report #designwithsoul

'Want to accelerate, strengthen and enrich the creative process? Go back a step and go for a quick sketch.'
We explain the power and importance of 'a quick sketch' over on the blog:

'At the loft we love a challenge, so when the Violence Reduction Unit Scotland came to us and needed a unique, bespoke tradeshow banner in 48 hours we rolled up our sleeves and got to work.'
Find out more about the process behind this project in our latest blog post: