Alphabetical rebrands D&AD training with ‘larger-than-life creativity’

D&AD offers workshops for employees in both creative and no-creative sectors. Courses include Survival Skills for personal development; Crafts to hone skills such as writing and art direction and Mastercrafts, where employees learn the skills of crafts not directly related to their role.

Alphabetical has worked with D&AD on other projects including the Creative Notebook, and was brought in for the training project at the end of last year.

Bob Young, Alphabetical co-founder, says, ‘They wanted to push the fact it’s not just training for the creative sector, the market they’re well-recognised for, but that their training can be effective for other people working in an office environment’.

The logo uses a ‘t’ formed into a abstract head shape, which Young says ‘positions them as the thinking part of the mind, and reminds you it’s about creative training’.

The new campaign for the training courses uses photography by Bruno Drummond, who captured a series of images that look to demonstrate how employees can be harbouring untapped creativity.

For instance, we see clever shadow-forming found-object installations created from office clutter such as mugs and calculators; an intricate Blu-Tack Venus de Milo sculpture; a pin board portrait of Einstein  and a detailed line drawing of Big Ben on an office worker’s arm.

These were all created by Alphabetical and a model maker brought in by Drummond, who created the office-style environments for the shoot.

‘A lot of passion went into that’, says Young. ‘It had to feel like larger-than-life creativity that so that people stop and do a double-take’.

The new identity is to be used on training collateral and the D&AD training website, as well as direct mail pieces and an events calendar. The branding will also appear at a dedicated training space near D&AD’s headquarters in east London.