Overview

Cockpit Arts is launching 'Maker Difference' a new campaign to raise awareness of, and encourage support for talented designer-makers. Exceptional designs are made every day by small independent businesses in the UK. With credit crunch concerns and a growing landfill of throwaway purchases - buying beautifully made work by talented designer-makers is a fresh and exciting 'feel-good' shopping experience that can 'Maker Difference'.

The campaign comes to life on 12-14 June 2009 and 19-21 June 2009 when Cockpit Arts opens the doors to its renowned London studios, inviting the public inside. At these free summer 'Open Studios' events you can meet designers and see new trends in the making. Invest in fabulous fashion buys, cool home collectables and more from £5-£l5,000.

Brief

The campaign microsite was commissioned to support the “Maker Difference” series of events and open studios at both their Grays Inn and Deptford sites. The website needed to communicate the very distinct personality of Maker Difference while still promoting Cockpit Arts as being the UK's only creative business incubator for designer-makers.

The main objectives of the site was to provide a space for the continued engagement with the audience as well as promoting e-mail sign ups.

Approach

We worked closely with the team at cockpit arts to understand the best way to present information and to define the objectives of the site. It was clear that their manifesto for the creative industries they represent was engaging and unique. We also worked with New Future Graphics who were responsible for the creative direction of the maker difference campaign to make sure synergy existed between the site and all other printed material.

Solution

The final solution for the site was to clearly present the creative manifesto and bring it to life with video and case study content. Maker profiles help to communicate the craft behind the work undertaken by Cockpit arts. Visually the site mixes the strong typography, bold colouring and dynamic imagery to complement the overall campaign direction.

The site makes use of HTML 5 and incorporates elements of advanced JavaScript usage for visual engagement.

Results

Over 1,000 new sign ups to the e-mail newsletter in first 6 weeks since launch.

"I-D Media were fantastic to work with. The Maker Difference website they created for us really brought the campaign to life. It has helped enormously to spread the word about supporting UK designer-makers to people far and wide and has resulted in a huge increase in e-subscribers and visitors to our Open Studios events, despite the credit crunch. We couldn't be more delighted."

Vanessa Swann
Chief Executive
Cockpit Arts