Having developed a new brand identity with the Ashmolean Museum Oxford last year, it was great to be invited to produce this year’s Annual Review. Giving us the opportunity to express the new identity in print, we brought the brand’s timeline concept to life with an opening spread presenting the Ashmolean’s eventful ‘year to view’. The line then runs through the Review with the ‘A’ logo highlighting each chapter heading.

Investing in local communities, sustainable management of precious natural resources, promoting female empowerment and investing in education. Not what you’d normally associate with diamond production – but this is ‘the other side of the diamond industry’. The side the newly named and re-branded Natural Diamond Council (NDC) want the world to know about. Their members – the world’s top diamond producers – have signed up to a series of pledges, aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, to create a better future for its people and the planet.

We like to think it was our new brand identity that resulted in a 32% rise in activities during UK Parliament Week last year – with over 1.2 million people taking part. But we have to concede that Brexit may have had a little something to do with it. But who would have thought something would come along this year to make Brexit look like a squabble over the fence between neighbours! So to reflect the increased focus on Parliament we’ve ramped up the visual identity another notch for this years festival which takes place across the UK this week.

UGG want us to ‘Feel Good’ about buying their boots, shoes, trainers – and even their slippers. They also want us to feel good about the way they treat their people and the planet. Working with sustainability specialists Eco-Age and the UGG team in California, we helped launch their strategy to the world by creating a dedicated website which went live on ‘World Values Day’. Focused around three key pillars, Environment, Community and Innovation, the new site gives context to the brand’s ambitious long-term sustainability goals, projects and global partnerships.

This year Milan fashion week has gone virtual, and so too one of its highlights – the Green Carpet Fashion Awards. Created by Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, as a platform to showcase, celebrate and champion sustainable fashion, celebrities designers and fashionista from across the globe gather on the Green Carpet at the opera house in Milan. But not this year. In 2020 the Awards night will be a revolutionary show, combining cinematic footage with a fusion of augmented reality and visual FX created using real-time game engines, with the world’s leading talent and opinion formers appearing as holograms – and it will be screened on a digital platform designed by Blast.

Thinkbox is the UK’s marketing body for commercial television. We’ve worked together to refine their brand identity and communications, helping to clearly inform stakeholders and audiences of the potential power of TV advertising. We’ve produced a number of on-screen presentations and printed publications, including the last eight years’ annual reviews. Having introduced more contemporary infographics and an editorial layout style, the Review has developed into an informative and authoritative document, that remains friendly, colourful and engaging.

It’s our 24th Birthday today – whoop, whoop! Yes, on the 1st April 1996 Blast was born to the world. At the time our accountant took one look at us and said he’s give us 6 months in business – I wonder what he’s doing now! This seems an appropriate time to put a big shout out to all our amazing friends, clients and collaborators who have made the past 24 years, well, a Blast really. Cheers!