Jonathan Armstrong

We had a very inspiring guest lecturer recently. Jonathan Armstrong is a Creative Director who has worked with many big brands over the years. The brand that he mainly focused on was an Italian sport brand - Ellesse. He gave us a run through of the background and history of he brand which I found really interesting. The brand was started up by Leonardo Servadio, an Italian Playboy with a passion for skiing. The brand started as colourful and stylish ski wear later evolving into tennis wear as well.

The brand seems fun and fashionable, it is associated with the 'Elite people' as it is a glamorous sports brand over a serious athletic sports brand. This brand essence is evident in their advertisements as well as the garments themselves.

Jonathan explained that the logo is based of the shape of half a tennis ball and the shape of two ski tips, the two sports that the brand is mainly associated with. The brands focus points are attention to detail, modern thinking, sports inspired fashionable colourful pieces.

Jonathan ran through the process of creating an advertisement from being given a brief, brainstorming, finalising ideas, modifying ideas, working within a budget, overcoming problems and producing a final outcome. Of course this whole process would take months but I found it very appealing. I like to plan to things, I like the idea of working in a team and bouncing of each other (as long as everyone is committed). He seemed very enthusiastic yet down to earth about his job which seems to suit him perfectly. He spoke about flying over to Italy for photo shoots and visiting ski
resorts for the winter advertisement.

It was also pointed out that even if you have an idea that you love, you cant always go with it as it is up to the brand giving the brief, however he did seem proud of what was produced, which I would be too, as it was a huge success and from what I could gather suited the brand perfectly.

He spoke about the different type of briefs, this one is particular was to increase brand awareness, not to be product focused but to be simple, stylish, colourful and to focus on the brand truths of - looking good, getting involved and  not necessarily winning but looking good taking part.

They decided to run with the concept of - Italians do it better, through poster art, simply beautiful people in luxury playgrounds. They chose the artist Robert McGinnis, the artist for the Stella Artois and James Bond posters which fits in with their concept perfectly.

Here are some of the final advertisements.