From concept to completion, this case study outlines Complete’s end-to-end web, digital and asset and content creation for luxury retailer, William & Son.

Complete manage all retouching and post-production of online lookbooks and content imagery for esteemed fashion brand, Ghost.

Launched four decades ago by founder Tanya Sarne, this iconic British brand, developed over the years a unique and instantly recognisable style.

Each collection maintains a contemporary vintage feel with feminine & modern silhouettes in signature garment dyed pieces.

Our latest Post-Production work for digital and till screen assets, shown in-stores at TK Maxx across the UK and Ireland.

Complete are delighted to share our recent work for luxury, worldwide hotel and resort group, AMAN.

To luxury advent calendars, where traditional chocolate treats are replaced with indulgent beauty products is now an annual, greatly anticipated moment, when launched in-store and online.

Our recent photo shoot production and post production services for Aman included their exclusive and limited edition Advent Calendar and Christmas gifting collections.

Unlike many other popular calendars, the very generous 25 gifts are only available in selected Aman Resorts and online, therefore making this one stand out in a very crowded, crowd.

The calendar box is designed to replicate, Aman’s latest hotel opening in New York City. In addition, the calendar also features a rare crystal, excavated from the grounds below the NYC site.

Read more about the calendar by clicking here and more about Complete’s work for Aman here.

After our successful collaboration on a previous exhibition “I Still Believe in Our City” Complete were again approached by the V&A, London to recreate the artwork of rare posters planned for public display in the OSPAAAL exhibition.

OSPAAAL, is the acronym for the Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Based in Cuba, the organisation platformed anti-imperialist and revolutionary movements in the Global South through display of posters.

The Exhibition 3D Design was devised by London based architects and 2022 RIBA Journal Rising Stars, McCloy & Muchemwa to sit in the V&A’s atrium gallery.

Seen here in the image adjacent is work in progress with proofs and originals being compared to closely recreate authentic looking posters using modern methods.

The fragility of this rare collection of posters means that mounting methods and exposure to light would cause irreparable damage to the original artworks. Complete were tasked to recreate one of each of the selected posters to be showcased for the exhibition chosen from the V&A’s extensive OSPAAAL archive. The majority of the collection were printed in the 1960s and 70s, at the height of the movement using traditional printing presses. Our brief was to match the colours, paper stock and raw print style sympathetically, and in some cases slightly off-set so that when printed digitally and to the untrained eye, the posters mimicked their archive originals. For details of the exhibition on until March 31st 2023, click here

It was just over a decade ago that Complete collaborated with Tyrone Le Bon on his 2012 campaign for Swatch’s New Gent Lacquered collection. South London photographer, Tyrone Lebon headed off to New York’s East Village to shoot a clutch of cool artists for V Magazine

Fast forward to 2023, we applaud Tyrone Le Bon for his recent work for Daniel Lee, photographing the Burberry campaign following a recent re-brand of the heritage label that included re-instating the Knight motif and Burberry Prorsum logo. (Prorsum being the latin for ‘Forwards’)

Click here to see and read more about the Burberry campaign shot by Tyrone Le Bon

Now in it’s fourth issue, Seed magazine, is a biannual magazine produced and edited by Carole Bamford.

Carole is the founder of Daylesford Organics and the Bamford brand, which encompasses health spas, and well being and beauty products. The key word for both of Carole’s brands are sustainability. Seed Magazine brings the ethos of these brands into one magazine of lifestyle related written content and beautiful, considered photography

Complete, is widely regarded for its attention to detail in print and post production has recently been assigned to colour manage the print production for this issue. The images in the magazine are shot by a selection of some of the most talented and creative photographers, such as Martin Morrell, Lizzie Mayson and Laziz Hamani. Our work on this edition ensures that from cover to cover, every image is consistent and a true representation of its colour.

In the fourth issue of Seed magazine the content looks at wild swimming groups bracing icy temperatures to experience the health benefits and improved mental wellbeing . Articles on The Felix Project which looks at how lives were touched by the volunteers who give up their time to prevent vulnerable communities going without food and the interest in engaging with nature: with tips on how best to grow your own tomatoes. Also celebrating the importance of being conscious of where our food comes from, the magazine shares simple, seasonal recipes with a focus around reducing food waste and the effects of the choices we make daily.

From concept to completion and alongside a talented team of creatives, Complete Ltd are delighted to share a selection of images and details of the 2022 campaign created for Harley-Davidson Footwear.

The location and studio shoot took place in London earlier this year to capture a mixture of outdoor campaign lifestyle shots as well as assets for ecomm and printed style guides.

The campaign was art directed by Marcus Agerman-Ross and shot by photographer Lee Strickland. The styling concept was a nod to the trend for Gorpcore and outdoor pursuits, although still retaining the essence of motorcycling dress codes to appeal to the Harley-Davidson customer. Outdoor escapism as a way to survive during and in the post-pandemic era, such as a ride out on a motorbike is considered into the overall look of the shoot.

These looks shown here, for the male and female models were devised by stylist Sarah Ann Murray and were created by mixing vintage with pieces loaned from Uniqlo, Mr Porter and traditional work wear brands such as Dickies.

Styles shown here, clockwise from the top are Grace in Lornel, Lucas wearing Hagerman in black. Lucas and Grace together, he wears Randy and Grace is in Balsa, and the next image is a close up of the Balsa style.

Photograph of Amy Winehouse by Dean Chalkley.

Amy: Beyond The Stage is a collection of personal diaries, notebooks, photographs, clippings, clothing and her accessories that bring you closer to see how this petite girl from Southgate, North London who with her beehive and big ambitions became an international music artist.

It is striking throughout the exhibition, that, at heart, she was an ordinary girl whose extraordinary talent, attitude and style made her a modern day icon. The image here, which features in the exhibition is by photographer Dean Chalkley, and this is how he reflects on the image and remembers Amy on the day of the shoot.

“Amy Winehouse captivated us all, her soulful heartfelt lyrics reflected her tempestuous and fragile life. Through her music she enchanted us and the way she looked was beyond compare. This dynamo of a girl from North London was unique, she had her own thing going but around it the savage winds of chaos and drama blew.

When I look at this picture I made of Amy time for me stands still, I remember exactly how Amy was, her energy and humour. I often stand there transfixed gazing at this print feeling like it’s pulling me closer.

When Amy so sadly passed away the NME put this picture on the cover, no other copy-lines, the photograph seemed to say it all and mark respect.”

Can you?

Whilst the exhibition “I Still Believe in Our City” was on show at the V&A in London, one visitor took it upon themselves to give the subject in the image, on the top right a kiss on the cheek!

Leaving a lipstick mark on the poster, as endearing as it was that someone visiting the V&A would feel the love for the art, Complete reprinted a new poster to see the end of exhibitions tenure. At Complete, we loved this story so much, we just felt compelled to share. You can read more about this exhibition that started in New York and travelled to London last year by clicking this link.

Very Peri, described by colour company Pantone as “a periwinkle shade of blue,” has been named colour of the year for 2022. The purple hue was informed by the rise of the metaverse, as well as the impact of coronavirus lockdowns.

Pantone, the company that sets one of the most widely recognised colour standards, says that the colour marries the “constancy” of traditional blue with the “energy and excitement” of red.

“As we move into a world of unprecedented change, the selection of Pantone 17-3938 Very Peri brings a novel perspective and vision of the trusted and beloved blue color family,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of Pantone’s Color Institute. “Encompassing the qualities of the blues, yet at the same time possessing a violet-red undertone, Pantone 17-3938 Very Peri displays a spritely, joyous attitude and dynamic presence that encourages courageous creativity and imaginative expression.”

Recent retouching work by Complete, for clients Furniture Village, Jigsaw and Tesco F&F, in the hue now described as Very Peri, can be seen in this image

We were approached by the V&A museum in London to project manage the production of the graphics for the exhibition “I Still Believe in Our City”.

The artworks have previously been on display in New York around the city, on the subway stations in 2020 and were created by artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya.  

One of two 2020-21 artists-in-residence with the NYC Commission on Human Rights, the daughter of Thai and Indonesian immigrants, Phingbodhipakkiya’s practice centres around making the invisible, visible. Her multidisciplinary work has appeared in museums, galleries, conferences, classrooms, speakeasies, rallies, digital screens, and on buildings all over the world.

The works featured in “I Still Believe in Our City” couple striking visuals with statistics about discrimination API New Yorkers have faced amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The panels include words and phrases that have been uttered in hate, juxtaposed with bright colours, symbolic imagery, and portraits of defiant and proud API New Yorkers standing their ground.

The impact of this topical and timely art project was picked up by the V&A in London and instead of the artworks being presented across city locations, Complete worked closely with curator, Corinna Gardener to reproduce the graphics as they were originally shown but in the paper form medium. This project required our innate knowledge and expertise of working with recreating artworks to a standard and very importantly colour reproduction, of which we are renowned.

Whilst the Complete team have been quietly working behind the scenes over the last nine months and keeping the creative industry wheels turning as we all navigate our way through the Covid crisis, the powers that be at The CMA shortlisted our Harley-Davidson Footwear campaign for their prestigious Best Use of Imagery award.

Complete has worked with many of the Wolverine brands for almost 20 years and they include Caterpillar, Sebago and Hush Puppies to name just a few. The Harley-Davidson shoot was the first time an advertising campaign had been commissioned by their EMEA team, so Complete were delighted to have been chosen to create and produce their first main campaign.

The campaign which was shot in December 2019 with the stunning backdrop of Dungeness in Kent, was to promote the Harley-Davidson footwear brand. The shoot was produced by Complete working with our close creative collaborators. Marcus Agerman-Ross, founder of Jocks&Nerds magazine, lead the project’s creative direction and assigned a team of well respected professionals to execute the shoot.

Photographer, Lee Strickland shot stills and under his supervision a video was shot to enhance the campaign to cross the board of print and digital media. Alongside him, stylist Mark Anthony Bradley brought his skills and many years of knowledge to give the shoot an authentic, Americana look which perfectly complements the heritage and styling of the Harley-Davidson brand. The campaign was fronted by models Jade McSorely and Corbin Kretzmann from Established Models.

This is second year running that Complete has had one of their campaigns shortlisted in this category. In 2019, Complete’s advertising campaign for William & Son’s luxury sector was entered into the awards, with key members of the team attending the event at Troxy. Although it goes without saying that this year, the event will be virtual.

The results will be announced in a live, virtual ceremony on Thursday 3rd November 2020. Wish us luck, and should you want to login and watch the ceremony live click here to sign up to the event.

On 26 February, Disegno Book Club, a group dedicated to discussing the books shaping debates around design, architecture, technology, craft and more will be reading journalist Mark O’Connell’s To Be A Machine (2017) which investigates transhumanism, a largely Silicon Valley-based movement that is bent on using technology to edit, alter and prolong lives.

Join them for a discussion and book your free ticket here.

Not had time to read the book? Check out these articles below for a brief taster of some of the topics on discussion.

Date
Wednesday 26 February

Time
6.30pm doors open, 7pm start

Venue
Rose Lipman Building, 43 De Beauvoir Road, London N1 5SQ

Complete Ltd is delighted to announce that Marcus Agerman Ross has joined the agency as consultant creative director. 

Founder and editor-in-chief of revered, culture and lifestyle magazine Jocks&Nerds, Agerman Ross began his career in the 1990s where he worked at i-D magazine for five years rising to the position of fashion editor. He also worked at Vice magazine in the 2000s, as part of the team that helped develop the publishing and media company into a global business.  

In a career spanning over two decades, as well as his extensive creative direction portfolio, Agerman Ross has worked as a photographer, stylist, writer, brand consultant, editor and lecturer. It is this broad experience, alongside his vast cultural and historical knowledge, that gives him his unique perspective. The numerous clients he has consulted for include Nike, Tudor Watches, Absolut Vodka, C.P. Company, Baracuta, Barbour International and Fred Perry, to name just a few. 

Having collaborated with Agerman Ross in various ways over many years, Complete Ltd is proud to welcome him as the newest member of the team, in this formal role.

“I’ve known Gerry and his team at Complete for over 20 years, since my first job at i-D when they worked closely with the founder Terry Jones, on i-D’s publication, campaigns and worldwide events. The care, attention to detail and talent throughout the company is second-to-none, they set the bar for production standards. I’ve spent so much time either in their London studio or on location with the team, seeing first hand how the agency is continuously evolving under Gerry’s leadership, Complete are a team in every sense of the word and I’m really proud and honoured to become a member of this great company”

Utilising unrivalled skills and knowledge, Complete’s portfolio over the years has provided fully integrated creative services for Adidas Y3, Levi’s, Dior are able to manage all aspects of a campaign, from conception through to delivery.

“Having worked with Marcus over the years, we have witnessed first-hand that he is experienced in this industry and is the perfect fit for this agency. We are looking forward to merging his talents with our renowned in-house production and post-production skills. Exciting times ahead” – Gerry McKeown, Complete Ltd CEO

In the world of digital agencies nearly 20 years ago, it was very common for web designers to complain that non-digital designers (which made up 95% of designers at that time) just did not understand how to design for the web, as all they knew was print.  

Now, two decades later, it feels like the media world has gone full circle. We would assume the majority of all designers these days are digital specialists as the world of advertising/marketing has moved away from offline to online. This issue of designing for different sized screens is not the problem it once was. However it seems the industry has lost some skills and experience in terms of creating the best print designs.  

And this lost craft is not just in print design, it’s also in the expertise of print reproduction. London used to be awash with repro houses, as they were known, working with publishers, agencies and printers on all forms of print media production. Now most of these companies have gone or move more towards more digital work, so high quality reproduction is now a rare commodity. Hence there seems to be more mistakes in the area of print, even with luxury brands in good, quality publications.  Soon, we will publish an article about the most common “F**k Ups” in print production, so watch this space… 

However, we like to think at Complete, with our long heritage in the luxury print space, along with our long-serving (and long-suffering some might say!) repro experts we are keeping the art of high quality repro work alive as the print revival makes it come back as a popular content and advertising medium. 

For one night only, an exhibition of work by photographer Jermaine Francis in support of Shelter was held in Shoreditch’s Protein Studios. Originally for i-D‘s The Post Truth Truth Issue, The Invisibles is a powerful series of photographs documenting the tents which act as temporary homeless shelters across British cities.

Highlighting the UK’s homelessness epidemic, Jermaine explains the concept of the exhibition “This project isn’t just about homelessness itself. It’s about how we think about society and the most vulnerable people in it. Things need to change, both in terms of the system and of ourselves.”⁣⁣⁣⁣

In addition to the photos themselves, there will also be an auction of prints donated by various photographers, with all sales in aid @sheltercharity.⁣ Although only at the moment a one event pop-up, Jermaine has plans to exhibit the images again in the future for a longer period of time.
⁣

We are delighted to announce that Complete Ltd has been nominated by the International Content Marketing Awards in the category of Best Use of Imagery for the William & Son 2019 Luxury campaign. The entries for this years awards were at an incredibly high standard, with huge competition in the categories.

Catherine Maskell, Managing Director of the CMA said ‘It has been another incredible year for branded content, with our Awards demonstrating above all others that branded content continues to be at the heart of all notable marketing strategies across the world; with entries flooding in from 23 countries, and from nearly 150 individual agencies. 

The accolade of a being awarded a Nomination should not go unnoticed, so congratulations to the nominees and their achievements.‘

The awards take place in London on the 28th November 2019 and Complete Ltd are thrilled to part of this year’s event.

The luxury watch has long been a sign of status, a signal that you made something of yourself in the world.  It’s a fiercely competitive space with a small number of large competitors and lots of niche, small players. The way that luxury watches market themselves has probably gone through more changes in the last 5 years than in the previous 50 years.  

Luxury items were slower than traditional mainstream products in moving to ecommerce sales.  This is definitely true of luxury watches with its centre in conservative Switzerland. For example, Rolex only joined social media in 2013. However now there has been a significant shift from the traditional retail market to a much bigger ecommerce share of the market, mainly driven by younger buyers who expect to buy everything and anything online.  

The good news is that even small, niche luxury watches can sell to customers all round the world, especially if they market themselves properly.  The growing economies of countries like China and India mean that there are more and more people who can now afford the finer things in life.

The other new development is the power of social influencers. People like Justin Hast, who featured recently in our Complete Creative series, help consumers navigate the options and provide independent reviews. Although, not all of these reviewers have a sincere and expert opinion like Justin. The problem arises when these reviews are presented as independent but in fact have been paid for by the brand itself. There is growing discussion that some paid influencer marketing is creating consumer resentment.

According to Deloitte, 60 percent of consumers now use digital to research prices and information when purchasing watches. Therefore it is key to ensure that the imagery used to promote the product on a website, online advert or social media is of the highest quality.  This not just about great photography but also high quality reproduction to ensure that the colour is pixel perfect. This is where Complete’s 20 years experience in this field comes to the fore.  

With the growth of wearable tech, the new explosion of new digital channels, the conservative nature of the luxury watch industry is definitely changing.  Exciting times

Despite many predicting the demise of TV advertising over the last 20 years, the medium has actually has become more accessible to lots of smaller brands.  The digital revolution has driven a fragmentation of channels, and also the audience, meaning that, these days you don’t need huge budgets to get your brand on TV. Here are some key tips to ensure the make the most of the opportunity:

Target Audience

Make sure you target the right audience and using all the tools available to be as precise and focused as possible. Targeting technology has really become more much sophisicated in recent years, a good example is Sky’s AdSmart. This technology allows you to pick and choose from a range of household attributes. There are thousands of ways you can mix the attributes .

Joined Up Marketing

To make your budget go further its vital to ensure that your have a “joined-up” approach to all your marketing channels.  For example, with paid search you have schedule your campaign to coincide exactly with your TV campaign, to take advantage of the “second screen” phenomenon. 

Understand the TV Ad Production Process

The key to any TV ad campaign is planning. From pre-production, production, post and Clearcast everything should be signed off according to the plan as it will risk ads not making it to air.  Linear TV ads require the Clearcast approved ads a min of 2 days prior ad is aired. If late they could also incur a hefty fine. Be aware of Tech specs for the channels you are supplying in the PRE production stage as this could also affect how your ad will reproduce or broadcast.

Work with experts who understand the process in-depth will ensure that you don’t miss your ad slots!  At Complete, we work with Adstream, who we have found to be brilliant partners in this space. 

To summarise, the key to keeping your campaign on track is to understand the entire end-to-end process and be advised and work side by side with the experts.  

Recently we posed the question is Print The New Vinyl? In an era of the digital revolution, print publishing has taken a bit of a beating. One such heavyweight tome, The Face was one of the print titles that got knocked to the floor by it’s digital opponent.  The Face is arguably the most culturally influential magazine of 1980’s and 1990’s.
The publication closed in 2004 after 24 years of being the authority on British popular culture, music, fashion and style. While online challenges print, it does have it’s disadvantages. For a start less sensory and tactile, digital is then challenged by print who offers the reader kindred cultural loyalty and well researched, informative long form journalism on emerging trends and cultures. 
Original readers of The Face recall the time when they discovered in their local newsagents a magazine that opened up a whole new world of speaking and engaging with to them, garnering a loyal audience who is made to feel like a part of the gang. 
Now returning in print this month after the digital version launched this April 2019. Richard Benson who edited the magazine in the nineties says that “Like anything, it depends how it’s done – it had several different incarnations anyway, so there’s no reason it can’t have another. You have to remember, social media or not, there’ll always be 19-year-olds in the suburbs and arse-end-of-nowhere market towns wanting to know what’s going on, and those kids can never know enough – and it is never boring to them.”
The owner of The Face, Jerry Perkins, CEO of Wasted Talent has been trying to buy the brand for the last 15 years.  Perkins told the New York Times,  “The really interesting new stuff always grows between the gaps that no one really expected,” he said. “With digital media now, there isn’t anything that can identify new stuff and say, ‘Yes, this is interesting and important,’ and talk about why it’s important.”

We agree 100%, so let’s embrace the return of The Face in print this September. 

Demi-fine jewellery has been evolving for the past few years and into everyday fashion parlance but what exactly is it actually and who is buying it?

Blurring the lines between fine and costume, demi-fine jewellery is a more considered purchase compared to a one-season-wonder costume piece as it is crafted from precious metals and stones and offered at an affordable price point.  

We asked Paris based, gemmologist, Clemence Devaux of NYF Jewellery, who offers an entire collection online of demi fine jewellery, how it is possible to offer fine jewels at these prices? Buying 14ct gold in bulk quantities and substituting H Si quality diamonds which are a little less expensive for 18ct gold and higher grade diamonds along with minimal overheads is how NYF pass the saving on directly to the customer.  

The demi-fine buyer is mostly made up of women who like to reward themselves the finer things in life and embrace the whole idea of luxury self-gifting or as a delightful present to their nearest and dearest.

Featured here in our montage are Anissa Kermiche, Astley Clarke, Zoe & Morgan and NYF Jewellery.

Colour expert Pantone has chosen a peachy orange shade named Living Coral, or Pantone 16-1546, as its colour of the year for 2019.

The colour is researched and selected based on what is taking place in our global culture at the time. Pantone recognises that Living Coral is already being spotted on catwalks in fashion shows, as well as on social media. This year’s vibrant shade of golden orange according to the brand, is meant to reflect the “innate need for optimism and joyful pursuits” as a response to social media and digital technology. “It’s an animating and life affirming coral hue with a golden undertone that energises and enlivens with a softer edge” In response to this we compiled a mood to reflect living with Living Coral.

Restaurant du jour, Gloria, opened early 2019 and is possibly the hottest table in Shoreditch right now. The maximalist exterior and quirky interior design is new and pioneering in an area synonymous for its stark, ultra modern, rows of copycat facades and interiors. Breaking away from the crowd, Gloria’s below street level dining room makes good use of the colour on dining chairs, as a base colour for the swirly patterned carpet as well as curtains and the velvet lined walls in the dining booths.

“The engaging nature of Pantone 16-1546 Living Coral welcomes and encourages lighthearted activity,” Cooking with Le Crueset’s classic Volcanic coloured cast iron certainly satisfies the need for joyful pursuits. Ligne Roset’s iconic Toga sofa, available in a vibrant shade of coral is summed up Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute statement “It’s an animating and life affirming coral hue with a golden undertone that energises and enlivens with a softer edge”

“Colour is an equalising lens through which we experience our natural and digital realities and this is particularly true for Living Coral,” And if it’s fitting enough for the Tenenebaums 4th floor Ballroom, then we concur that 2019 is the year of living with Living Coral.

The Disegno Book Club is a new group dedicated to discussing the books shaping the debate around design, architecture, technology, craft and more.

The book club is open to all, you don’t need to have read the book to attend, just go with an open mind and an interest in design.

You can receive a 15 per cent discount on Invisible Women prior to the event from Burley Fisher books on 400 Kingsland Road with the promo code: DISEGNO15. Visit burleyfisherbooks.com for more.

The Disegno Book Club is a collaboration between Disegno , the Quarterly Journal of Design and Zetteler.

Book your free ticket here

Date: 25th July 2019

Time: 6.30 doors open, 7pm start

Venue: De Beauvoir Block, 92 -96 De Beauvoir Rd, London, N1

When a brand really starts to take social media marketing seriously, it’s like having a new puppy. You have to feed it every day. All the social media channels are designed and built to help the brands and people that are highly active, as they constantly crave content.  Obviously this creates a lot of new work but also a need for content, and with the growth of channels like Instagram, that content is becoming increasingly visually focused.  
So now many brands are drowning in content which becomes an internal nightmare to manage.  Many in-house designers who would rather be using their key creative skills are instead trying to manage a mountain of unidentified and hard to find content. And everyday this mountain of content gets bigger and harder to manage.  
The result is it creates lots of internal inefficiencies within the business, for example:

• Wasted time trying to find the right content
• Great content that is expensive to create is not used as nearly as much as it should be
• Poor quality control
• Little or no documentation
• Lots of variants of the same image
• Unnecessary increase in online storage costs

However there is a way around this problem – a specifically designed Asset Management System that manages all internal content (moving image, stills for ecomm, lifestyle, copy and content) that serves the needs of all internal stakeholders (designers, sales teams, PR and marketing) At Complete Ltd we solved this issue with a client who had over 100,000 creative assets that was growing out of control. We created a bespoke Asset Management System that has revolutionised the way they deal with their imagery and reduced the inefficiencies within the business. Do you know your Assets from elbow?

Recently we wrote about the statistics of internet returns and what it is costing online retailers. And it is not just the loss of revenue that is causing concerns but also the amount of admin and man hours required to process the refunds. While it is fair to say that our focus on colour discrepancies isn’t one of the biggest reasons clothing and accessories are returned, although we do feel that it is a small step to cutting the amount of returns if consistency in ecomm post-production processes were put in place. As an example, whilst recently browsing online at the new Birkenstock collaboration with Hotel Il Pellicano, it was obvious that the colour of the still product shot and the accompanying moving image were starkly different shades of blue. And on further investigation the difference in colour tones weren’t just on this one item. We clicked on a Max Mara copper toned mac that sat on the burnt orange end of the spectrum on the fit model images, yet the moving image presented the same trench coat in a deep copper brown hue. This then leads to further confusion to what is the true colour of these products since one moving image is showing the colour more vibrant than the still and in another moving image in a much duller shade. Which questions, if there are inconsistencies in the moving image versus the product images then which image is truest to its actual colour?

In our perennial quest for colour perfection (and not just in this case from the point of view of loss of revenue) we were saddened to see the colours of expensive designer items being misrepresented online. At Complete we pride ourselves on our expertise in colour management so that all assets we deliver are consistent and true to colour for use across all formats, mediums whether print or online.

The first all-electric Mini motor car was unveiled in July 2019, 60 years after the original, iconic Mini rolled out of their Oxford factory. The future is electric and a fully charged Mini could take you from London to Derby with speeds capped to 93mph. Complete’s studio team were privileged to work on perfecting these images for the British based brand, using our renowned retouching and post-production skills.

For many years, print publishing has taken a right battering as digital media has eaten its lunch, in terms of both readers and advertisers. The digital media has also been pretty destructive to vinyl records, but after a sustained period of decline, vinyl sales are making a comeback. Could the same thing now be happening with print?

Last week, we visited specialist magazine shop,  Magazine Heaven in Rushden Lakes Shopping Park, Wellingborough. It’s been open about a year and seems to be thriving with a range of over 2700 magazines from everything from food to fashion. To me, this is a positive sign that print publishing is making a comeback…at long last. This is mainly being driven by the growth of new specialist, niche magazines published by independent companies, rather than the traditional big publishers.  At the same time digital brands like Facebook, Airbnb and Amazon have recently turned to print publishing for the first time to promote themselves.  So why is print making a comeback?

Here are a few reasons why I believe people (and brands) are rediscovering print:We scan-read online but most people prefer to read on print as it’s easy to concentrate.

People prefer to read in print when the content is long or complicated to take in.

There is a “Creative Renaissance” going on at specialist end of publishing

People are starting to re-appreciate the tangible and tactile nature of the print experience.

At Complete, we have always been proud to have worked with a range of creative magazines that have helped start and support this creativepublishing renaissance which includes i-D, Dazed & Confused , Art Review, Disegno, and more recently Jock & Nerds. 

Long live the print revolution!  

Ecommerce has created fantastic opportunities for all types of companies – big and small – all round the world over the last 15 years.  However one of the big challenges of Ecommerce is the issue of returns. Its estimated, that in the US alone, the cost of returns will be $550 billion by 2020, which is an increase of 75% on 2015.  The issue of returns is even worse for “expensive” products as this research below shows.  The average return is an astonishing 50%. Clearly offering returns gives customers the confidence to buy online without the opportunity to actually see and touch in real life.  However the cost of returns is increasing year on year and this can destroy a company’s profits. As well the huge costs it is also a logistical nightmare for companies to deal with and probably an area that causes lots of customer dissatisfaction.  The research in this area, shows that one of the key reasons for returns is products “not being as described”.  Very often this due to product’s being shown on a website as one colour variant but arriving in reality in a slightly different hue.  The slightest difference in colour can be crucial for customers, especially as we have seen in the expensive, luxury end of ecommerce.  So for example, when browsing and buying a new sofa online or from seeing in a printed brochure, it looks the perfect colour to go with the decor of your lounge. Yet, when it arrives its not quite the right shade you expected and doesn’t quite work with your existing decor.

May 2019. After a two year hiatus Jocks & Nerds have relaunched a bi-annual book. Having worked on this independent magazine over the years, we were delighted to be a part of it’s comeback. In a world of endorsed influencers and regurgitated press releases, Jocks & Nerds is a refreshing read undiluted by outside pressures, committed to creating unique content looking at today’s culture and seeking out interesting people.
If you are interested getting your hands on a copy, email [email protected] to place your order.  

Complete has worked on the media campaigns for Furniture Village delivering successful TV and radio advertisements for over three years. From brief to media channels, we work at a fast moving pace to create the four seasonal campaigns which consistently reach a year-on-year uplift in sales.

Working with Creative Director, Daren Ellis we produced a luxury media campaign for our client William & Son. As a retailer of high end luxury goods which span from diamonds, to leather goods and homewares our brief was to devise a shoot to present a variety of products across one cohesive campaign. By creating bespoke still life sets using glass and paint effects it set the product in a meticulous and modern tone.