Rare Life

From music to fashion, art and design. You can find all the things that inspire us on a daily basis right here!

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Rare Grooves

Tune in on the first Monday of each month to listen to a recommended playlist to help you curb those pesky Monday blues, whether you're sat at your desk, staring out the train window, crammed onto that rush hour bus or tube, Rare Grooves will lift your mood!

Rare Blog

Read about our latest thinking!

Nov 30, 2018
1 min

Bob Dylan's Mondo Scripto: A Rare Safari

Tuesday 27th November was the date for our most recent Safari, a trip to the Halycon Gallery to view Bob Dylan's Mondo Scripto, a collection of the artist and songwriter’s most renowned lyrics, each handwritten by him in pen on paper and accompanied by an original pencil drawing. See below for a section of photos: #Music #Art #Design #BobDylan #HalcyonGallery

Nov 13, 2018
1 min

Nike: A Soft Power Star

Nike are no strangers to controversy, but their most recent campaign has garnered plenty of backlash. They’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of the “Just Do It” slogan with a campaign that features NFL quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, who was lambasted for refusing to stand during the national anthem in 2016 in protest at police racism. We love it. Our philosophy is that brands, products and services should mean something to someone rather than nothing to everyone - and Nike

Oct 9, 2018
1 min

SKYN: A Soft Power Star

SKYN’s approach wasn’t always one of soft power. In the beginning, their marketing was product-focused, detailing the functional benefits of their condom range. Now, though, they’re all about the emotional connection with their customers, choosing language, imagery, and an overall approach - pleasure, rather than protection - that clearly defines them as a lifestyle brand, not a mere manufacturer. Now, they’re showing that tech and soft power can indeed go hand in hand, with

Sep 13, 2018
1 min

UEFA Champions League: A Soft Power Star

The UEFA Champions League revisits its brand identity every three years, and this year has refreshed and added to existing brand assets to meet the concept of “highlighting moments that make the ultimate stage”. While established elements like the anthem, the star ball logo, the trophy and the stadium remain constant, the branding team have added new core palette colours for a fresher look, new assets to support mobile devices, a flexible colour co-branding system for commerc

Aug 15, 2018
1 min

Guinness: A Softer Power Star

While we’ve recently focused on soft power successes from new FMCG brands, it’s important not to forget the established players. For us, Guinness is a prime example. Their overarching ‘Made of more’ banner celebrates their belief that what you get out of life reflects what you put in. Launched in 2012, the campaign has seen Guinness create a variety of market-specific narratives that convey the core message while tapping into local appeal. From spots for four nations ahead of

Jul 16, 2018
1 min

Oatly: A Soft Power Star

Here in the UK, the milk alternatives sector is set to grow by 43% in the next four years. Oat milk brand Oatly has been described by Vice as ‘America’s trendiest plant milk’, and they’ve seen ‘exceptional growth in demand’ in the UK too. Clearly its flavour and nutritional benefits have a part to play, but Oatly’s soft power approach to branding is making them stand out too. Four years ago, they began the shift from a manufacturer to a lifestyle brand: cue packaging with ver

May 16, 2018
6 min

At your service: A blueprint for the next 10 years of service sector design

In March this year, the IHS Markit/CIPS UK Services Purchasing Managers’ Index revealed that growth in the services sector had just hit a four-month high. This was primarily driven by B2B sales, with stretched household budgets slowing consumer demand. But whether it’s times of consumer hardship or brighter financial periods, airlines, hotels, retailers, banks and other businesses in this sector are constantly fighting for recognition in a crowded marketplace. It’s a sector t

Nov 10, 2017
3 min

Millennials as a mindset: Are demographics still relevant to brands?

Love it or hate it, the term ‘millennials’ is here to stay - for a while at least. But how much do you know about millennial marketing - and what’s the best way to approach it? According to the widely accepted definition, there are around 13.8 million millennials across the UK – a significant audience for marketers to target. Born between 1980 and 1994, they’re a generation that is lazy and unproductive, and less religious and more ethically and racially diverse than other ag

Aug 15, 2017
4 min

Cross border branding: How we speak to European audiences through design

When your business operates across national boundaries, some ideas…don’t translate well. Whether it’s the Vauxhall Nova - the name means “won’t go” in Spanish - or the Pepsi slogan that translates as “will bring your ancestors back from the dead” in Chinese, it’s all too easy for a brand’s message to misfire in another language. These confusions are literal translator’s errors, but there’s a more subtle danger lying in wait. Failure to apprehend the nuances of your brand’star

Jul 4, 2017
5 min

FMCG design cliches: Why they suck

Let’s face it – we all know that advertisers make their big bucks by selling a fantasy. The thing is, it always seems to be the same fantasy. No matter what the product, the same clichés get trotted out – tired old tropes that have very little bearing on reality. Consider the holiday brochure. Full of happy, smiling faces – kid’s sat on dad’s shoulders or holding mum’s hand as they skip happily along the beach. Anyone who’s actually taken their kids on holiday will know this

Mar 16, 2017
3 min

Design-led innovation in the service sector

Be honest: when you see the word ‘design’, what do you think? People often think of design as purely aesthetic; in truth, it’s practical too, a matter of form and function. The phrase “form follows function” is attributed to Victorian polymath William Morris, or modernist architect Louis Sullivan, or sometimes to Braun designer Dieter Rams – who insists that he never said it, and that his career has emphasised functionality. Whoever coined it; the idea is that in good design,

Jan 26, 2017
8 min

Making the case for design-centric brand building

Design, innovation, brand: All the work we do at Rare can be traced back to these three fundamental elements. Rare director, Andrew Piper, has worked in branding and design for over 20 years and has seen trends come and go. We sat down to discuss the finer points of how these three pillars fit together, which brands paved the way, and what it all means for the future of brand building and innovation. Rare Design: We’re on a mission to put design at the heart of the brand buil

Jul 6, 2016
3 min

Beauty as a force for disruption

Perhaps a consequence of tight deadlines and even tighter budgets, but it often seems brands sacrifice beautiful design for functionality. While we appreciate the importance of functionality, at Rare we are also self-proclaimed aesthetes. But not for the sake of beauty alone: we believe in elegant, eye-catching design as the key to making your brand stand apart from its competitors, disrupting your sector and winning you success. Insight from a master Influential graphic desi