To establish one logo that could be used consistently on all types of packaging and across all media, one that was particularly legible on tartan, I combined several of Walkers key selling elements into the identity – the name ‘Walkers’, of course, in white with a strong gold outline; introduced ‘Product of Scotland’ and ‘Established 1898’; and specified the exact relationship between these elements and the ribbon containing the painting. This arrangement also ensured the consistent positioning of the branding at the top left of all Walkers packaging.

In the 15 years of working with Walkers, over 100 different packs and tins were designed to these guidelines, as well as all their corporate brochures, sales material, livery, worldwide airport signage and magazine advertising.

The idea for a Walkers centenary ‘logo’ lay in my top drawer for about six years before I could use it! Their three best selling shortbreads – finger, highlander and round – combined to spell 100. Tasty!

The brief stated that the new identity had to be 1) modern, dynamic, innovative, forward looking; 2) professional, businesslike, efficient but sympathetic and caring; 3) closely identified with the Highlands and Islands; 4) in touch with centres of activity and influence in Scotland, UK and internationally; and 5) ozone friendly, environmentally sensitive ie. takes a balanced view of development and conservation. Well, that should be easy then!

Both Scottish Enterprise and its sister organisation in the Highlands and Islands were to launch in 1991. To cut a long story short, we won the pitch with a strong presentation to the board in Inverness, but not before the logo was put out to research to confirm its wider acceptance. It passed with flying colours.

Having had the main HIE logo accepted, we had then to meet with all nine Local Enterprise Companies in the Highlands and Islands to discuss and agree briefs for each of their own individual identities, while keeping them within a ‘unified branding structure’.

So with cases (and golf bags) packed, Richard Gourlay and I ventured northwards to meet with all the local boards. Thankfully, all of them liked our HIE identity and were happy to adopt the ‘family look’. Several months later, and nine presentations later, we rolled out the full identity programme.

For the next few years, Baillie Marshall was responsible for all the design and advertising for HIE, across industrial development, product marketing, training and tourism.

Directly below is the original HIDB logo, our starting point, and for those of you who may be interested in reading the actual brief and understanding my handwritten design rationale and logo development, I also attach these below, along with a small selection of logos presented by other design agencies (but, for obvious reasons, I have omitted their names). These are followed by the independent research results that provided overwhelming public support for our newly created HIE identity.

So what did the other design agencies come up with?

And our solution:

And the positive research:

Today, the HIE logo survives, having only recently been minimally altered after the centralisation of the agency’s activities. You can see this at http://www.avian.co.uk/Marketing/Brand/HIE, but please note that Avian’s text (below) is obviously misleading as “the original brand structure and suite of identities” were all done in 1989/90 (as clearly shown on the brief above) and it was developed by Baillie Marshall (not Avian), nor did the design of the identity involve any creative member currently at Avian. Maybe they should reconsider that particular paragraph.

The identity features a gold C, inspired by the highlight cast on a spherical glass paperweight, a product made famous by Caithness Glass. The dots on the packs represent the bubbles created within the glass during its production.

For the pitch, I remember having to add every single gold dot to every individual pack, tissue paper, wrapping paper, carrier bag, brochure and point-of-sale material using a gold felt pen (or two). However, the result was well worth it when it blew their socks off at the presentation. Virtually everything suggested that day was implemented within the following months for a major re-launch to the gift industry.

Over the next few years, the identity was further developed, including additional packaging, advertising, annual brochures and newsletters.

As a direct result, they sought identity proposals from design companies. I clearly remember being briefed one Wednesday afternoon, going home that night and designing the new logo. Within the week, we had presented it and had it accepted.

This new identity was launched at a Murrayfield press conference on 22 November 1990, when SRU also announced that a £1M sponsorship deal had been agreed with Umbro. On 19 January 1991, the Scotland team took to the Parc des Princes against France wearing the new logo on their shirts – one of the proudest days of my life! Pity the French printer got it the wrong way round!

The proven success of the logo and SRU marketing material earned the project a national design effectiveness award in 1992.

The new identity and its colour scheme formed the basis for everything from the Murrayfield seating colours to the SRU tartan and the extensive range of SRU branded merchandising and souvenirs.

Then we developed the biscuits packaging style – black diagonal stripes on relevant colour backgrounds.

The logo and stripes then appeared on everything! We produced leaflets, brochures, point-of-sale material, promotional items, press and TV advertising, everything. Even Simmers’ lorries were entirely striped. For trade shows and events, they even had a replica van (below) produced in their livery.

Below are featured three stills from one of our TV adverts for Simmers, showing home settings from the 1900s, 1930s and 1950s, conveying the Simmers’ byline ‘A Century of Excellence’ – similar, in fact, to what Hardy’s wines are doing today! This was one of the few TV adverts that we produced down in London, simply due to easier access to the props we needed. Otherwise, we (or was it I) had an unwritten policy to keep things up in Scotland whenever possible, to keep our own production industry busy (and to save me travelling).

We continued to work on Simmers design and marketing for many years until they were swallowed up by a big Fox.

Nowadays, the logo is still very similar, but has been simplified. Huh, designers!

Our first involvement with Capital Meat Centres was in 1981 when, as the name would suggest, they were perceived as only selling meat! Our first job was to drop ‘Meat Centres’, introduce ‘for fridge and freezer foods’, and create a new identity that would appear on and in all the stores, on packaging, in the press, on TV ads and on their plastic bags. As chance would have it, David Kells, the Managing Director, insisted on strong plastic bags at that time, resulting in them being re-re-re-re-re-used by shoppers for all their other shopping trips and for general usage, with the result that the Capital bag became an effective piece of advertising in itself. It seems to have been so much of a popular sight on the street that it even appears in the painting ‘The Barras’ by Avril Paton (below), that is now in the People’s Palace Museum Collection!

We actually re-branded Capital twice. The first was an offspring of Capital’s previous ‘butchers apron’ diagonals identity. These reworked diagonals were then used in various colour schemes around the store and on packs to differentiate between meat, fish, vegetables, desserts, etc. Then in 1989, basically, the sharp edges were taken off and the colours softened to convey that Capital had changed again. The cold red, white and blue were changed to terracotta red, cream and soft blue.

TV ads were very much price-driven, but we had a lot of fun over the years filming these mini-epics in the Capital stores, with Sean Hardie as producer, and in the studio.

In little more than five years, the 35 strong group of stores grew to 70, increasing turnover from £10m to £35m in 1988. They then boosted this figure to £39m following the second identity programme.

They – and we – must have been doing something right!

Credit for the salad packs above go to Chris Gallacher for design and to Brian Taylor for illustration. I designed the ice lollies packs, while Brian created the final illustrations. I think I also designed the steak packs – I certainly art directed the photography – but please correct me if I’m wrong, Chris!

Actually, I’ve just recovered my original illustration for the ice lolly pack, shown below, that was presented to the client for approval. This was accepted by David on the proviso that the finished pack was “less busy”. Well, comparing my illustration to Brian’s finished article, I don’t know if it’s any less busy, but it went ahead anyway! The carton had to be designed to sit both upright and on its side, so what you see below are the two faces of the orange lollies that fold down the middle.

Also shown here are concepts I developed for the active/sports range – H2Lo and H2Go – but which weren’t adopted as they obviously didn’t sit within our corporate ‘g’uidelines. Maybe someone out there would like to use them, in which case you know where to contact me.

I’d created the Scottish Rugby logo in 1991 and the Scottish Golf logo in 1997. I was going for the treble!

Just how much I wanted it is reflected in the numbers of rough ideas, shown below, that I came up with in the next few days. Usually I’m more comfortable presenting several design solutions to a client, if only to show that I can up with more than one idea! However, after whittling these down to four favourites, I was so positive about my preferred option that only this single logo was taken to final artwork and a marketing campaign developed around it.

In my presentation rationale, I suggested that the X of the saltire had been discounted as it could be seen as a negative symbol or, in football terms, as a draw. Sod’s Law, that’s what they chose. Yes, life’s a pitch and I’ve got the T-shirt!

My P(for Premier)-shaped football player within a thistle-shaped shield was resigned to the bench, but I still think he’s got fresh legs.

The client – the UK’s largest independent supplier of adhesive tapes – loved it, so this new identity was ‘rolled’ out across Ultratape’s packaging, signage and trade exhibitions.

Consequently, for the last ten years or so, I’ve been designing Ultratape’s own label packaging and, more recently, have produced their trade and retail brochures which have been incredibly successful in promoting Ultratape products into a worldwide marketplace.

This won us the advertising account and, over the next few years, we developed all their advertising and marketing material – everything from their new identity and brochures to their press, 48-sheet poster, TV and radio advertising. Our byline – A New Generation – highlighted both the fact that there was new impetus and determination within the town and the fact that, being a 1960s new town, a new generation of Cumbernauld kids was now growing up in the town. Hence our use of kids in place of adults in all media and the creation of the typeface ‘Harper Kids’ for use on headlines.

I created the new logo as an oval window, looking through into different aspects of the new town, like industry, architecture, sport and people. Fellow designer, Tony Brown, designed the brochures in which the children feature. Top left above, for instance, you’ll see graphs represented by differing numbers of children. The top right cover features a still from the TV commercial, with the children running through a field, on the south side of … what’s it called?