Digests

The annual report of international finance group Abbey National Treasury Services, published last week, was designed by OPX. Seeking to convey financial strength, scale, maturity and growth on the cover, the report depicts three mighty Californian Redwood trees dwarfing a man. ‘The key message is the idea that in a fairly rocky financial year [elsewhere] they had that stability,’ says OPX partner Bill Bickerstaff. Different varieties of trees throughout the report allude to the company’s various international operations.

‘It’s pretty horny, I think,’ says Spencer Landor creative partner John Spencer of the consultancy brochure for Stephens Innocent. The small, but high profile law firm considers itself wild and wacky and has a reputation as a trouble shooter. The brochure is the first manifestation of its new logo and stationery, also by Spencer Landor. It has little text and comprises 12 pages of images which conjure up extremes of emotion such as dispute, crime, accident and misunderstanding, says Spencer. These are accompanied by provocative phrases such as ‘revenge or justice’ and ‘kill or cure’. ‘They wanted to be subtle and sophisticated but not too tasteful,’ he adds.