Supple Studio’s ExpeRimental branding for the Royal Institution

Jamie Ellul, Supple Studio founder, says he was brought in to work on the project in April this year following a recommendation from a former client.

ExpeRimental takes the form of a series of videos aimed at children aged between four and nine years old, and Ellul says the look and feel of the video content informed the branding for the other ExpeRimental touch points.

‘The key thing was they wanted it to be accessible so it’s got a bit of a Blue Peter vibe – there’s a home-made feel’, he explains.

‘The branding for the videos came first – that’s the hero throughout the project, so it was important to create a brand that could move and that was very much an online brand’.

The look and feel for ExpeRimental draws on the Royal Institution’s periodic table-influenced branding, which was evolved to create the house-shaped branding for the programme, aiming to form an identity that appeals to both parents and children.

The Royal Institution logo and typeface are carried through into the ExpeRimental logotype, which emphasises the middle ‘R’ and ‘I’ to reference its parent organisation.

Illustrator Peter Grundy was brought in to create the images, which show household items such as hairdryers, mugs and bottles that can be used in the experiments.

Ellul says, ‘Grundy seemed like a natural choice for this project. His work has that child-like, friendly quality but also another level of sophistication with the infographics. It just sits with both camps.

‘It’s a really simple way of showing that you can do [the experiments] at home with simple household objects’.

An animated sting was created by Supple Studio and Peter Grundy in collaboration with motion studio Mr Kaplin.

Supple Studio has also designed brand guidelines and templates for the RI to create its own communications materials and branded video content in future.

The project launches to day with three free short films – the first in a series of ten, with the remaining seven released one per week until early September.