V is for Vivid Image and the Vauxhall Collective. We vigilantly viewed the resulting vibrant site for vanity, variety and veracity

When a studio’s name keeps cropping up in association with new, innovative sites, it would be remiss of us not to investigate.
With a string of high-profile campaigns under its belt, including work for the BBC, Dodge, the PFA and the WD Gallery-featured (issue 148) site for Suzie G, Vivid Image (www.wearevi.com) snared the commission to design the Vauxhall Collective site. (www.vauxhallcollective.co.uk)

DK: Damian Kimmleman – director

WD: To get started, could you tell us a little about Vivid Image and the type of creative work you do at the agency?
DK: We’re a digital agency that started a bit more than a year ago. We started off building and designing websites, but have since expanded into a full-service agency, offering print, viral marketing, SEO, motion graphics and branding. As a start-up, we feel humbled by companies that need a little push, and value smaller projects as much as we do the big ones, like Vauxhall. We’re not yet the best agency out there, but we’re striving to get there and treat every project we win as a portfolio piece. We are innovators, not revolutionaries, keen to build on the good work that has come before us and take the best bits from other projects, improving them along the way. We don’t always get it right the first time, but never make the same mistakes twice. There are 22 of us, and we’re growing rapidly, conscious of the impending day when we’ll have to uproot from our Shoreditch pad and scale up. Coming next is an expansion to New York next year.

WD: How did Vivid Image become involved in the Vauxhall Collective project?
DK: VI was hired by PR company Idea Generation to produce the website for the Vauxhall Collective. Idea Generation won the brief to take the Vauxhall Collective to the next level, refreshing the Collective as it stood and building on the press coverage that had already been generated. It was challenged to get people to reassess their concept of Vauxhall and its approach to the arts. As well as being in charge of setting up the website, Idea Generation was hired to recruit and canvas the Style Council, who are the panel of industry experts who choose the future members of the Collective. It was also in charge of setting up the PR office and ongoing press office management.

WD: What was the original brief presented to Vivid Image, and how close did the finished site adhere to this?
DK: Vauxhall wanted to prove itself to be that bit more on the pulse of the arts scene, and the Collective was its chance to demonstrate this. It had to reflect its ethos of ‘Driving Excitement, Style and Design.’ The target audience was car consumers aged between 16 and 35, and the target outcome was to increase awareness of the Vauxhall Collective and create a bit of a buzz. VI was taken on board and challenged to produce something that looked ‘stylish, inspirational, innovative, contemporary and cool.’ The playful theme for this year’s collective was The Great British Road Trip, a classic retelling of the road trip story with a British twist.
The finished project stuck really close to the brief. Idea Generation asked for an image-rich site, with an image/text ratio of 60:40, which really gave the team’s imaginations a bit of a free-for-all. We put together an extensive list of Great British road landmarks, and incorporated as many of them as possible into the giant road in the sky. The end results were described by Contagious magazine as ‘a beautifully designed and animated site, which looks like something attached to Coca-Cola’s Happiness Factory campaign rather than the traditionally middle-of-the-road car manufacturer.’

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