The Future Factory is a business development consultancy that specialises in lead-generation – that means finding new work for other companies, mostly creative agencies. Before being able to help others however, the company needed an attention-grabbing new identity that would land it new business, and make it clear exactly what the Future Factory does.

“From the outset, the client was really bold and wanted something that would stand them apart and also appeal to people working within the creative industry,” explains Jacob Vanderkar, creative director at DutchScot, which created the consultancy’s new branding. “It’s primarily an animated identity, using typography running along graphic ‘conveyor belts’ with varying behaviours.”

Playing on the word ‘factory’ in the company’s name, DutchScot used simple yet effective motion design to animate bits of copy that detail the services the Future Factory offers. These move through large letterforms and more abstract pathways in a fashion reminiscent of factory conveyor belts and machines and work particularly well for the website – which was the main focus of the rebrand.

The effect is understated yet eye-catching, encouraging viewers to follow the text as it shoots and spins across the screen, offering transient bits of information on the company.

“We liked the idea that each of the animations felt like a different stage of the production process taking place on different parts of one big conveyor,” says Vanderkar. “We spent a lot of time on YouTube looking at obscure videos of different models of conveyor belts and this very much informed the final behaviour of the brand.

“We’re now experts on the merits of ‘belt’ vs ‘precision belt’ conveyor systems. Some of the videos are surprisingly hypnotic. It was quite simple to animate the typography to feel like objects on a conveyor but then it took more time and trial and error to give the typography a more ‘physical’ behaviour with more subtlety.”

Headline copy is set in Rois, by New Letters, which is similar to the signage found in the historic wharf building the consultancy is headquartered in, and offers a ‘square footprint’ when used at uppercase, also reminiscent of boxes on a conveyor. Body copy is set in Heldane by Klim Type Foundry.

DutchScot’s hard work already seems to be paying off, with the studio reporting that the Future Factory’s average website visits soared by 1,900% in the two weeks after launch. “Given that the branding is for a new business-generating company, we found that stat satisfying,” says Vanderkar.

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