KING OF SHAVES DESIGN BLOG

Hello, my name's Simon Watson and I'm the Head of Design here at KMI.

I graduated from Middlesex Polytechnic (now a 'University') in 1986 and spent six years learning my 'stuff' at a top independent corporate design consultancy in London. I then moved to a small design and advertising agency in Maidenhead where I was Creative Director. We were first approached by KMI back in 1997 to design a leaflet for them. KMI was a small company then, three men and two dogs in a small office above a supermarket with one brand, King of Shaves.

By the time I was persuaded to join KMI in 2001 they employed 13 people in the UK, two in the USA, King of Shaves was well on the way to becoming the number two shaving brand in the UK, they had exclusive licence for Ted Baker Fine Fragrances and they had just signed an agreement with Fish for a range of hair and styling products.

Six years on I now run the internal design team and oversee the design and artwork for all KMI's requirements for all of our growing brand portfolio including all products, packaging, web, literature, product launches, presentations etc etc!

KMI has doubled in size and probably tripled in turnover since I joined (and there appears to be no signs of the company slowing down!) and so presents an ever increasing challenge in terms of design and artwork. In this blog I will attempt to give an insight into what the design team actually does at KMI, reveal some of the tasks / issues we face, how we overcome them and to answer any comments or feedback as honestly as I can.

I have experienced many 'firsts' whilst working for KMI, blogging is yet another new thing for me (I have read but never written) and I'm looking forward to sharing my thoughts with you.

When I started out in graphics, the consultancy I worked for was one of the first to produce all of their work digitally. Back then in 1991 it was very unusual to give a printer a CD (well then it was a SyQuest Cartridge or three) and for all the artwork to be on it. At the very least the repro house would usually still be dropping in scanned images for you. Anyways...

Artwork was still output to film and with it you would be given a set of Cromalin proofs made from the actual film. This allowed you (and your client) to check the artwork for mistakes and immediately see if the colour was correct. Changes could (and would) be made at this stage (though new film and Cromalins would be required).

Once you were happy, the filmwork and the Cromalins would be passed to your printer who would usually be instructed to "match the Cromalins for colour". The printer would then make plates from the films provided, and then give you a 'wet proof' - they would use the actual plates they had made and print a set of full colour proofs on a printing press using 'real' inks on the actual stock you had specified.

We would then show the wet proofs to the client for final sign off and we would diligently mark-up the proofs instructing the printer to remove unwanted marks, correct miss-registration etc. Of course it was not unknown for clients to make changes at this stage resulting in new film, Cromalins and plates. Oh, and a larger invoice at the end!

Although very expensive (yet it was a 'normal' expense at the time), it did mean that there were no surprises and the end result was usually just as everyone wanted it to be.

Of course today, by-and-large, all of the above is history. Artwork is supplied formatted and ready to go (often just requiring imposition into printer's spreads) and is output digitally direct to plate. If you do see any proofs from the printer they are normally digital proofs and all they can reliably tell you is if the printer has managed to print out your artwork OK. You can't tell what the colour of the job is really going to be like, how the ink will interact with your chosen stock or substrate etc.

So at KMI we usually do a print pass the first time a job is printed. This involves travelling to the printer and, once the press has been set-up correctly, checking each different sheet of a job for colour, registration etc. We will ask for tweaks to be made to colours etc until we are 100% happy with the job (we have pulled jobs to make amendments to artwork if we cannot achieve a top-quality result on-press). Once approved the printer has a series of agreed settings they can refer to if a job is re-printed.

All of this can take up a considerable amount of time - especially if you're approving jobs being printed abroad! But delivering top-quality packaging and literature into store is a 'must' for everyone at KMI so, until hell freezes over, you'll find members of the Design and Production teams at KMI out and about, hunched over printer's presses and light boxes, checking, checking, checking!

Everyone loves a party, and to celebrate Fish Hairdressing's 20th Anniversary, the 'guvnor' of Fish, Paul Burfoot, and his long-serving manager, Vicky, organised a party on the 1st August at The Club Bar & Dining in Warwick Street, London. So what has that got to do with the Design Team at KMI...?

It started six weeks ago when along the Resonate, the PR company we have employed to work on the Fish brand, we spent a couple of hours at the venue measuring it up for branding opportunities. The Design Team then designed a series of temporary vinyl graphics that would be used to brand the club as a 'Fish' venue. We sourced gilt picture frames that would be placed around the club then designed and output images to go in the frames. We scanned in 200+ images covering all the years of Fish and produced a 35 minute looping movie on DVD which was played on a plasma screen in the club. We also designed and had printed a 12 page Fish 'History' booklet to go in goodie bags and to be handed out to the press. We also sourced and installed coloured uplighters to help further theme the club.

On the day we drove into central London with all the graphics, negotiated parking (by text - no ticket machine anymore) and spent five hours putting up the graphics, placing frames and helping the PR company fill around 500 goodie bags with products, booklets and so forth, finishing up with helping clear the venue and even roll-out the red carpet!

Then we just had to wait for the party to finish (it went from 7pm to 1am) - of course we did have the odd drink but when it all ended, and we had finished handing out goodie bags, we then had to take down all the graphics we had just hours ago painstakingly put up, disconnect lights, tidy the venue and so on. To cut a long story short, I made it to bed at 3.30am.

Was it worth it? Well "yes", it's not every day any business can celebrate 20 years and everyone seemed to have a great time. And the reality is that the staff at the club, the DJs, the sound and visual team all had to work very very hard as well, and arguably our job was the easiest - though at 3.30am it didn't feel like it.

Click on the images above to see them larger.

It's all hands to the pump at the moment. We have so much new 'stuff' going on, plus I have half and eye on a well earned camping break with my daughter in a few days time... So I'm trying to tie up all the loose ends whilst ensuring my team and some external resources are fully briefed so I can go away with a clean conscience!

We are really close to launching some exciting new products and I am (almost) literally itching to show them to you but I can't, not yet, you'll have to be patient but I am so looking forward to talking about designs for KOS.PRO, Angelfish, Bodywear and our Christmas Gift Set offerings from Ted Baker Fine Fragrances, King of Shaves and Fish - to name but a few of the ongoing projects here at KMI...

We've uploaded some pictures of the Fish 20th Anniversary Party to our flickr account. Click here to view them.

The design team here at KMI were first asked to come up with concepts for a women's Fish range, called Angel Fish, over two years ago. At the time these were very rough'n'ready ideas to show senior buyers at Boots and the senior managers here including Will King and Andy Hill what products could look like.

I had designed the original Fish Unisexy range that was first sold in Boots in 2001, I was also responsible for the refresh when the range re-foccussed on the men's market plus other 'tweaks' so when Boots said "yes please" to Angel Fish we felt the time had come for a some outside inspiration...

When you run an internal design team, it sometimes feels like failure to use an outside agency. However an agency is not held back by what 'I know we can't do', has no preconceptions only (hopefully) great ideas and new angles i.e. fresh thinking! Plus when you're really busy producing essential artworks it feels very empowering to just give a project to someone else and wait to be shown some excellent 'stuff' – though obviously it is never quite as simple as that. You have to select the right agency, you have to give them a clear and concise brief, you must be available to answer questions and queries as they arise from the agency and you must be able to give good feedback so that the right ideas can be developed. And you must be prepared to pay a realistic sum of money for their services!

We had worked with Bulletproof (based in Covent Garden, London) previously on a couple of projects. Their free-thinking had impressed us previously so we met with Melissa and Nick, had a laugh and a nice cup of tea, briefed them, and then waited. We were not disappointed. There were some great concepts and ideas but we settled on one and this was refined and worked-up into a finished Angel Fish logo (one of which can be seen below) plus a secondary 'fallen Angel' logo (also shown below). They also came up with some packaging layouts, 'benefit' icons for each product and even had some thoughts on the product names.

At that stage we felt that Bulletproof had given us the logos and mental stimulation to finish the job in-house. I designed and laid-out artworks for each pack and I wrote the text for the front and rears. In conjunction with Andy and the Production Team this text was checked, amended and finalised. Production also worked with the packaging manufacturers providing samples of bottles, plastics, tints etc so we could ensure the entire range worked together. And I have not even talked about the years of work that Production Team and Fish Hairdressing put into getting the formulations just right!

The result is a funky looking range of styling and hair-care products for women that has fantastic formulations and a great on-shelf presence. The Angel Fish range is available at major Boots stores throughout the UK, as well as online from boots.com and shave.com.

It's a little know fact that before she hit the mega-big time, back in the 1990s Kate Moss used to hang around Fish Hairdressing in Soho, London. According to Paul Burfoot – the guv'nor of Fish - she “was a regular face around Fish, skiving off school to smoke fags in our staff room”. Paul styled Kate's hair for one of her first magazine covers and she once modeled as a mermaid for Fish "I had to phone up her school to see if she could get the day off” reminisced Paul...

“She’s an original – a good old south London girl...!”

Working in conjunction with the web design team at Airship today sees the launch of the website for our range of Angel Fish hair styling products. Based on the original fishsoho.com site we produced to support the Fish Hairdressing Salon and men's range, this new site features a detailed overview on the entire range, tips on how to achieve some cutting edge styles and the latest news from Fish.

Introducing KOS.PRO – the next generation in men's grooming! KMI is launching a new professional range of 13 high quality, high integrity styling, cleansing, shave and protect products at Salon International 2007 this weekend. The range is designed for men and has been developed by King of Shaves 'software' experts in conjunction with the owners of the world's leading barbers / salons.

Uniquely the hair care and styling products contain a professional vital hair and scalp complex ingredient which is formulated to restore the hair's natural elasticity, shine and manageability whilst forming the foundations for thicker, healthier hair growth. The range also features a distinctive masculine fragrance in many of the products.

I will blog more about the design in the next few days, until then below are pictures of some of the products. You can also learn more by visiting the KOS.PRO microsite at www.kospro.co.uk (still under construction) or you can read the KOS.PRO blog.

After the success of our calendar screen-saver for Fish (plus a 'print your own' PDF version) we are now searching for lads and ladies who would like to star in the Fish and Angelfish 2008 calendars and screen savers.

This year not only can entrants star in the one of our calendars, the top guy and the top girl will also will win representation for a year with Source, one of the UK's top model agencies!

We have launched a new website www.fish-n-chicks.co.uk (designed by Airship) where people can upload their photos and rate all the entrants.

We have commissioned several very successful online games including King of Defenders (over 28 million plays), King of Skeleton (over 9.9 million plays), King of Power (over 9.7 million plays) and Fish for Girls (over 11 million plays).

Now to bring all these games together we have launched our new micro-site www.kingofgames.co.uk which not only links all these games together, it also incorporates links to all of our online videos plus a set of handy shaving and skin care tips.

Designed by Kempt, the award winning company behind our games, the layout follows on from the funky distinctive graphics that are the hallmark of our games.

Now that the KOS.PRO range has been launched I thought it would be interesting to show you some of the designs that 'got away'. Whenever we design and produce a new range from scratch there is a long process of thinking, experimentation, evaluation and refinement.

There are many factors to consider including what we think is right for the market place we are going to launch a product into, shelf stand-out, the cost of goods (COGs) i.e. is the design economic to produce and (obviously) our personal preferences. There is always a lot of discussion, often heated as we are all very passionate about our work.

The lead designer on this project, Michelle Turner, worked closely with Will King in producing the work you see here. They are some of the designs that didn't make the grade (for one reason or another), and are shown in no particular order:

And the design, just before it underwent the final rationalisation and tweaks, is below (click to see a larger version):

Some photos of the final range can be seen here. And you can visit the www.kospro.co.uk website for more information.

Our new range of environmentally friendly skincare cleansing products has just been announced to the media. Patently Obvious is featured in the latest issue of Marketing Week.

More details will be announced soon, until then you'll have to make do with this tantalising image (click for a bigger version).

...there's a lot going on. It's a busy couple of weeks ahead with the photography for the new Fish and Angelfish calendars going on next week. And the casting from the hundreds of entries starts is this Friday. But before then I have to travel to the Czech Republic to approve the print of a new design of a body spray on a can at Moravia Cans. I have blogged about passing stuff on press before, and although it is a bind to spend 48 hours away from home (and the office at this busy time) it is essential that our print jobs are always 100% correct.

I've just spent two days on location at The Roost in East London working on the Fish 2008 calendar. This involved five models, three hairdressers (and two assistants), one make-up artist, one photographer (and his assistant), one stylist, one owner of Fish Hairdressing, four PR people plus two of us from KMI (and plenty of tea)!

The results will be available from fishsoho.com and angelfishsoho.com in the new year. But until then you can have a sneaky behind the scenes look by clicking on the images below:

Friday 7th December was spent at Earlsfield Amateur Boxing Club shooting five men. Again we had Jacqui and her team from Fish Hairdressing styling the guys' hair and Simon Lipman was taking the photos.

The results will soon be available from fishsoho.com and angelfishsoho.com in the new year. But until then you can have a look behind the scenes look by clicking on the images below:

The new Fish Soho Screensaver Calendar 2008 for men is now available for download from www.fishsoho.com. The screensaver was put together by Airship and features 13 fantastic images of the winners of our Fish-n-Chicks model search who we photographed just a couple of weeks ago.

The Angelfish Soho calendar for the ladies is being worked on now and we'll let you know as soon as it is ready.

Some of the shots from the Fish Soho calendar can be seen below. But if you want to see them all you will have to download it!

You can now download a PDF version of our sexy new Fish 2008 Calendar so you can print your own personal copy for home, work, shed - where ever!

The new Angelfish Soho Screensaver Calendar 2008 for ladies is now available for download from www.angelfishsoho.com. The screensaver was put together by Airship and features 13 fantastic images of the winners of our Fish-n-Chicks model search who we photographed just a few of weeks ago including Big Brother house mate and King of Shaves YoungBlade Anthony Ogogo.

Some of the shots from the Angelfish Soho calendar can be seen below. But if you want to see them all you will have to download it!

The value of passing packaging and print on press cannot be overstated especially when it is for a brand new product. Which is why I found myself in November 2007 travelling to Moravia in the Czech Republic to pass our new HedKandi Body Spray cans. It was important to do this to ensure that the strong metallic look we envisaged was actually printed correctly and the colours were correct. Moravia are normally pretty good at this (their production lines and facilities are very impressive, and their staff are always friendly and helpful) but it was worth the trip as there were a few adjustments to be made. Having seen the end results we are very happy with them and they are now on-shelf at Superdrug (and due in at Boots shortly).

Some of the production line (click for bigger images):

The finished can (minus its coloured actuator), has to be signed off:

Of course it's not all 'glamour' - my hotel room was serviceable but basic (and no, it was not a midget bed, it just had the largest pillow I've ever seen):

Though the biscuits were nice:

However I think there is always something cool about being in another country; the people, different architecture, roads, signs - even the weather - always make it a bit exciting, even when you're there on business:

You can now download a PDF version of our hunky new Angel Fish 2008 Calendar so you can print your own personal copy for home, work, gym - where ever!

Working in conjunction with Ministry of Sound's funky HedKandi brand, KMI have created a range of gorgeous club influenced body sprays. Brand director Malcolm Blackburn helped create the fragrances whilst the Ministry of Sound's and KMI's internal design teams worked on the packaging which takes it's influence from the strong graphical nature of HedKandi's CDs and club nights. Although the cans were printed back in November of last year (see here for brief details of the press pass), due to lead times it is only now the range has reached Superdrug.

You can read more about the new HedKandi body spray range here.

Patently Obvious is KMI's new range of personal cleaning products combines a natural antibacterial action with a biodegradable formulation that actually works giving performance without compromise. Andy Hill and the NPD (New Product Development) team have been working on this range since 2005. Will King wanted packaging that was distinctive and unique so custom bottles (ironically styled on classic 'chemistry' bottles) were designed in-house and produced by M&H Plastics. The bottles are made here in the UK using 100% post consumer recycled plastics (such as old fizzy drinks bottles).

To complement the modern look of the packaging we commissioned Newl & Potter to look at logo concepts and a range of icons that would help highlight the key benefits of the range. The final design and the icons can be seen below.

KMI's design team then took the approved logo and icons and applied them to the actual packs which were all silkscreened or pad-printed in white for maximum impact.

The design team also produced support materials including swing tags and POS (Point of Sale) tray and header cards. The website for Patently Obvious is currently nearing completion and this will build on strong graphic identity that has been created for this brand.

The range was featured in Design Week on 11 March 2008. Click here to read (we're at the bottom)!

The new sexier King of Shaves Woman range is now starting to appear in-store. It's been a while since we revamped the range (2004 to be precise since I last overhauled the design) and the new more natural formulations deserved fresh packaging. Michelle Turner, of the KMI design team, came up with several concepts, the final version of which can be seen below.

The design retains styling cues from the previous version such as the purple band but the tubes now feature 'softer' rounded tops. Silver foil has been used on the logo and on the 'feature' text running around the base to help give a premium feel to a premium product. The typography has also been looked at, a new font (Din) has replaced Futura giving the packs a modern, fresher feel. And finally illustrations of some of the ingredients help ensure the packs look more feminine.

In-case you'd forgotten, the last design released in 2004 looked like this:

Which in turn replaced this mid-life tweak (or dare I say 'crisis') of the first King of Shaves Woman BLEU / BLUE designs (around 2003):

The first King of Shaves Woman BLEU designs, introduced to coincide with the launch of the new three blade Gillette Venus razor for women (around 2001) - though they were designed in 2000 under direction of Will King when I still worked at a Ambleglow Advertising & Design:

The first press advert (shown below) for the Patently Obvious range will be appearing in the Observer Magazine on the 30th March 2008. The advert was designed and artworked in-house.

The second press advert (shown below) for the Patently Obvious range will be appearing in the Observer Magazine on the 6th April 2008. Like the previous one, this advert was designed and artworked in-house.

Phase one of our new website for the Patently Obvious range is now live. Modern, classy and distinct (like the packaging), the site has been designed, written and built by the team at Anorak Digital (the design 'arm' of top London agency Glue).

Thanks to Gareth, Noelia, Rosie and James (and no doubt a whole load of other people who we've not spoken to). Look forward to phase two which will include an extended look behind the scenes of Patently Obvious, the people who helped make the brand happen as well as regular news and blogs.

Click here to visit www.patentlyobvious.co.uk

We are removing synthetic ingredients such as SLS, SLES and parabens from all of the King of Shaves range so the latest generation of shaving 'software' has been developed using surfactant systems that are derived from natural sources. To help consumers choose the best shaving software for them, the range has now been re-positioned into three distinct platforms each with their own distinct colourway and look:

Alpha
Provides a superbly close, smooth and comfortable shave with our Dual Delivery System (DDS). The design has been refreshed using a lighter blue to help stand-out compared to our competitors.

Ultra
An enhanced offering with no parabens and featuring our improved mDDS (micro Dual Delivery System) with increased moisturising and lubrication technology. The metallic red helps differentiate Ultra from the Alpha range.

Kinexium
Currently our most advanced formulations with v3 of our unique Skin Surface Enhancing technology, improved mDDS and no parabens or artificial preservatives. The premium nature is reflected in the design which features a metallic royal blue with foil logo and chevron.

We initially asked leading London design agency, Bulletproof, to come up with some thoughts and concepts to help us achieve the new range positioning. We then took their initial work in-house where the colourways and designs were finalised and the artwork for the entire range was produced.

The revised shaving range is starting to appear in-store now and will be followed shortly by a design revision to our skincare platforms to help standoff on-shelf and ensure the quality of our products is reflected in the packaging.

The King of Shaves AlphaGel tube packaging has changed through the years, some 'snapshots' of previous designs are shown below.

The packs above were first seen around 2006 when the entire shaving range was given a unique 'petrol blue' colour to help give it a more cohesive on-shelf presence.

These packs (or similar designs) were around 2002-2006 in one form or another. Our packs are continually updated to keep them fresh, relevant and to ensure they comply with the latest packaging regulations.

Above left is the original AlphaGel pack (circa 1996) and you can see how the design was updated - see the above middle and right.

Despite technology promising us the 'paperless office', and we do a lot of soft proofing via PDFs, in the last calendar year we still managed to output 61,338 colour sheets and 5,474 mono sheets from our laser printer.

This is a massive increase on last year, perhaps reflecting the additional work that has been produced by the Design Team. Although I have mentioned we use PDF soft proofing extensively, unfortunately there is still no substitute I am aware of that concentrates the mind of a designer, proof reader or brand manager than having an actual print out in their hands to check, approve or comment on.

We're currently running a (small) press advertising campaign for King of Shaves. Featuring adverts copy-written by Will King, they are currently being placed in FHM, Men's Health, City AM, Shortlist and Sport magazine. A few are featured below (click on them to see bigger versions):

As we don't have the phenomenal budgets of our competitors, King of Shaves has historically relied upon 'word of mouth' and the hard work of our PR agencies (not to mention actually having great products that actually work) to spread the word. That's not to say we haven't 'dabbled' in traditional advertising in the past.

Back in 1997, when I was still working for an outside design and advertising agency, I worked on a couple of one-off adverts for the King:

We also wrote and designed their first advertising campaign which ran in FHM in 1999:

Later we ran a bigger campaign highlighting 'ordinary' users of the products to support the 'Face of King of Shaves' initiative which ran in GQ, FHM and Esquire amongst others. Tight copy deadlines meant that for the first one, the featured 'face' was rather too close to home for comfort...

King of Shaves K2 Sports Moisturiser, AlphaGel ASC Shaving Gel and Fishfingers Moulding Wax have all been nominated in this years Men's Health Grooming Awards. To vote please click here.

Issue one of KO! Magazine - The King of Shaves e-zine has been launched. Designed and produced by Made up Media, the company behind the succesful online football e-xine Catflap, it features the King of Shaves Shaving Manifesto, skincare hints and tips, an interview with Will King plus a competition to win the new King of Shaves Hybrid Synergy System Razor. Click here to read it.

KMI launched their first online store back in 1999. At the time I was working at Ambleglow and I bodged the design and pages together using a rudimentary knowledge of HTML and my trusty copy of GoLive's Cyber Studio 3 (one of the first WYSIWYG website authoring programs). It took me about three months of working every evening and I relied upon Olly Stephens (who is married to Anneke, the sister of one of KMI's major shareholders which is why he was approached to help us), who was also working in the evenings, to take my mess of code, ideas and graphics and turn it into a fully functioning online secure store and website.

Although 1999 is not that long ago, they were relatively pioneering days in terms of the internet. Online shopping then was a bit 'random' to say the least. My favourite example that Olly pointed out to me was Vauxhall's website where it seemed perfectly possible to order half a car - if you entered 0.5 in the quantity box the total came up with half the price - though I was too chicken to ever enter my credit card details it would have been interesting to see what would have been delivered... And Vauxhall weren't the only offenders (though arguably they were the funniest), the 0.5 trick worked on clothing sites, other grooming sites etc.

Time for a major change...
Although the shave.com/store has been updated 'under the hood' several times by Anneke and Olly, and I constantly tweaked the graphics (often at Will King's request), and Nicky Springle (who manages the store and customer care) added more products and brands, the site has been looking and feeling it's age. In 2007, after some recommendations made by Steve Bowbrick (an internet consultant who spent some time here at KMI after blogging about King of Shaves) we started working with some e-commerce experts based in Edgware, London called Paraspar.

For the last five months they have been building us a brand new online shopping platform which Nicky has been populating with products (along with descriptions, ingredients, usage and so forth) whilst I have been preparing images of products plus store graphics, header images and promotional boxes in a distinctive, colourful style and inviting style.

What's in a name...
We have discussed (and argued about) the name for the new store and finally decided upon kmishop.com as the store not only sells our best known brands such as King of Shaves, Ted Baker Fine Fragrances and Fish Hair Styling, it also sells new and fast-growing ranges such as Patently Obvious, Angelfish and KOS Professional. Though if you can think of a snappier name, feel free to leave us a comment and if we use it we'll give you a year's supply of products!

So after several weeks on internal and then external testing, kmishop.com was formally launched last week with a mini email campaign to our database (more on the campaign in a future blog) and so far orders are up by around 300%.

Without you it would not have been possible...
I must end this post with thanking Anneke and Olly for many years of fantastic service, unparalleled technical knowledge, advice and know-how. Without them most of KMI's websites simply would have never existed and our online store certainly would not have survived for as long as it did.

Spencer of KMI's design team designed some graphics to go on the side of our transport company (DMW) lorries.

In early 2007 KMI decided that we needed to look at the design of the Ted Baker Bodywear - a range of premium / indulgent bathing self-select toiletries sold exclusively at Boots stores. Launched in 2005, the range has been incredibly successful in a tough market segment and we were conscious that we shouldn't 'rest on our laurels'. There were plans to increase the number of fragrances to two each for the men and women's ranges and we need to look at how the design could be extended to signpost this change to the customer.

We approached Bulletproof - a leading design agency who have worked with large FMCG brands such as Coca-Cola, Cadbury Schweppes and Kenco - and briefed them to brainstorm how the Bodywear brand could be moved forward. From several very interesting concepts presented, we decided to go with an evolutionary one which developed the original design's fashion-related background pattern and took it to a whole new level.

The concepts were approved (and loved) by Ted Baker and Boots so Bulletproof then designed up to 20 individual icons for each fragrance and these were worked into a cohesive and entertaining patterns. A fragment of each one can be seen below (click to see a slightly bigger version):

KMI's design team then took over, taking the patterns and designing and producing artwork for around 30 individual products. These incorporated an update of the Bodywear logotype, aligning it to the Ted Baker London logo to help increase the brand's visibility. We ensured the final artworks were proof read, fit for repro and were despatched to the relevant printers on-time. KMI also designed a custom tooled bottle for the revamped range, worked closely with the masterbatch suppliers to ensure colours were as consistent as possible across the different substrates used in the packaging as well as attending print passes throughout the UK and in Italy.

The impressive final results can be seen below and, of course, in Boots stores nationwide.

KMI have launched the first British designed, engineered and manufactured razor in over 100 years. The King of Shaves Azor Hybrid Synergy System Razor is the brainchild of Will King, the man behind the hugely successful King of Shaves 'software' brand. The new razor 'hardware' promises to shave closer, last longer and cost less, as well as being much more planet friendly than its competitors.

Elegant in its simplicity, and engineered without compromise, the Azor is available in two styles, 'Pola' (white and black) and 'Warp' (black and white). The Azor's key features include an internationally patented TST (Touch Skin Technology) elastomer skin bumper and pivot system, which pushes the blades progressively closer onto the skin for a superbly comfortable yet close shave, a unique wishbone shaped head design providing greater visibility when shaving, and a light, beautifully engineered handle which is aesthetically pleasing as well as being ergonomically optimised for performance.

The Azor's revolutionary technology is also matched with the King of Shaves long-standing commitment to the environment. Often battery powered, many system razors are made from metal, are highly energy consumptive in manufacturing, and flagrantly over-packaged, whereas the handle for the Azor is made in the UK, and all packaging (for handle and cartridge refills) has already been recycled, or is 100% recyclable.

King of Shaves is bringing the Azor to UK shavers with a 'Fair Shave' Campaign BattleBus, touring the UK throughout this summer.

The Azor is available nationwide from Boots (from 21st July 2008), Sainsbury's and online from www.kmishop.com.

The King of Shaves Azor Campaign BattleBus has now started its summer 2008 tour around Britain promoting our 'fair shave' manifesto. Our bus is an 11.5 tonne converted double-decker Neoplan Skyliner which has been fully refurbished with an all new leather and chrome interior with shaving stations, 40" plasma screen, high quality sound and DVD system, sofas, recessed lighting and importantly (to those bus people 'in the know'), six brand new Euroliner wheels!

Below are some images of the refurbished bus. Check out the tour dates here to see when you see the BattleBus in action.

The graphics were designed here at KMI and files supplied to specialist vinyl suppliers who output the actual images and lettering and applied them to the bus.

And this is what it looked like before:

Today the King of Shaves Azor launches in Boots stores throughout the UK. At their flagship store, (Sedley Place, in Oxford Street) Will King has taken a photo of the new point of sale banners and display units designed by Michelle of the KMI Design Team.

I've been tied up helping out on the King of Shaves Azor Campaign Battle Bus news page, uploading images of the summer 'fair shave' tour to our flickr account as well as editing (in a quick'n'dirty fashion) videos that we have shot at each date on our tour campaign.

Boots Launch and London Tour:

Capital Radio Outside Broadcast:

Johnny Vaughn Saved With The Azor:

The latest King of Shaves KO ezine is now uploaded and ready to read at www.kingofmags.com. Click here to read the Summer issue.

The previous issue can be found here.

King of Shaves products have been nominated in a number of categories in this year's FHM UK grooming awards. Click here to vote for your favourites!

Last weekend (5-7 September 2008) KMI launched our first fragrance for Hed Kandi in Ibiza to selected members of the press. Following on from our successful body sprays, Eivissa Eau de Toilette is the first fragrance for Ministry of Sound's funky Hed Kandi brand.

Conceived and designed by KMI, Eivissa comes in a gorgeous custom tooled glass bottle that fits beautifully into the hand and features the 'sun burst' motif from the Hed Kandi logo. It also features a removable charm that also stops the fragrance from being accidently dispensed. Sold in a beautifully elegant high gloss white carton with gold print and emboss detailing, this Eau de Toilette will be initially available from Boots and The Fragrance Shop this autumn.

Some images from the press launch can be seen on our flickr.com pages here.

Launched exclusively in Boots stores this month (October 2008) is our brand new cosmetics range - Ted Baker Beauty. Colour direction is heavily influenced Ted's seasonal fashion collections and the make-up shades and packaging will be updated twice a year. Designed by KMI's in-house design team, the Autumn / Winter 2008 packaging features strong colours, one of Ted's fashion prints and an elegant foil blocked logo. The interiors have mirrors framed in 'gilt' and detailing includes metallic gold lettering and Ted Baker London labels on the inner spines of some kits.

The range currently comprises Haute Ted (two different colour palette kits) includes pressed face powder, as well as cheek, lip, lash and eye colours, iii (six kits) eye make-up, Lippy (six kits) lip and gloss and Master'ize (four kits) eye shadow, eye pencil and mascara.

Custom matching point of sale units will be used to promote the range in-store at Boots and KMI have already finished the design and artwork for the expanded Spring / Summer 2009 range.

For the last three days we have been on location in sunny Potters Bar shooting the winners of our modelling competition for the Fish and Angelfish 2009 screen-saver calendars. We've been on-set from 8am to 6pm each day, which has meant many of us leaving home at 6am and not getting back until 8pm, but the long days have been worth it as we have over 3000 top quality images (making over 30GB of data) to work from. The team consisted of the photographer, his assistant, a clothing stylist and his assistant, a make-up artist, four hairdressers from the Fish Hairdressing Salon and myself (art directing and occasionally making the tea) - plus four female models and five males. Oh and not forgetting representatives from our PR agency, the very helpful owner of the property, and (importantly) the caterer who kept us going with home-made sandwiches, pizza and cakes! More details of the shoot, the people involved and the calendar release date will be revealed shortly...

However I will be going through all the shots over the next couple of weeks and narrowing them down to the final 24 which we will use in the calendars.

Until then, here's a behind the scenes taster...

Developed by Kempt, the coders behind some of the UK's leading online games, King of Shaves have launched King of Air Guitar. Featuring the new Azor, King of Air Guitar is based on the best selling rock group games that are popular on all the major games consoles, but this one you can play on your computer (almost) anywhere and requires no expensive controllers. It features top bands such as Electric Six, The Wildhearts and Beanius and players in the UK can win a home entertainment 'upgrade' worth £1,500.

Click here to play King of Air Guitar. Or to see our other online games, visit www.kingofgames.co.uk.

KMI have developed a small microsite for Ted Baker Fine Fragrances and the new Beauty cosmetics range. Initially our in-house design team visualised a series of static visuals. Then with text supplied by Ted Baker, the web specialists at CreatorMail produced the site which can be seen at www.tedcares.com.

In October I was on location in Potters Bar (!) directing the Fish and Angelfish 2009 screen saver calendar photo shoot. The downloadable screen saver calendars are used to help promote our Fish and Angelfish hair styling brands We also shot a bit of 'behind the scenes' footage which is now up on youtube.com - or can be seen below.

KMI has recently launched it's corporate website at www.kmicorporate.com. Designed by Airship, people behind the Fish and Angelfish micro sites, it contains overviews on all our brands including King of Shaves, Azor, Ted Baker Fine Fragrances and the our new Floraroma brand portfolio. There are also news pages, details on our sponsorship programmes plus a downloads area for product images and press releases. The site is designed to be clean, functional, easy to read and navigate whilst being simple and cost-effective to update.

www.kmicorporate.com

The results of our photoshoot in October 2008 can now be downloaded from the Fish and Angelfish websites. Under our art direction, and with styling from top guru Andrew Clancey, the photographer Stefan Lancandler shot all the images for our new screen-saver 2009 calendars. These were retouched in-house by the KMI design team and then handed over to Airship who built the screen-saver calendars in Windows and Apple Macintosh format.

In addition to the screen-saver calendars, you can also download wallpapers and a high quality PDF version of the calendar for you to print at home. These items are all branded with Fish and / or Angelfish logos and are designed to provide people with a constant 'reminder' of these great styling brands. And we are using the imagery to help boost the brands' profiles on websites such as Zoo and Hello.

You can download the calendars from www.fishsoho.com and www.angelfishsoho.com plus you can see some behind the scenes videos here.

You can see the images from the final calendars on flickr.com, the boys are here, and the girls here.

Leading packaging website, thedieline.com, has featured Patently Obvious and the Azor packaging on their blog. Follow the links in the text to read what they had to say.

In September of 2008 we started looking at revamping the design of Angel Fish to coincide with the launch of some new additions to the range. Launched two years ago, the original range and design needed a refresh to take advantage of some of the innovative products our operations team and Fish Hairdressing had developed.

We took the decision to unify the packaging to give the range a consistent yet still striking colourway. The internal design team came up with a number of proposals which were worked through and developed. This included redrawing the logo to make it more feminine (less 'rock chick') and coming up with a new, sexy and confident 'angel' illustration.

The first three products of the new range (which can be seen below) have recently gone into Boots, the rest will follow later this year.

Following on from the King of Shaves Azor for men we have now launched the King of Shaves Woman Azure for women. Packaged in the same recycled (and recyclable) materials as the men's razor, the design purposefully eschews the traditional pastel colours of female shaving for a strong, striking and on-trend gold and black design.

The Azure combines shaving comfort and performance via an internationally patented TST (Touch Skin Technology) elastomer skin bumper and pivot system. This allows the Endurium coated, super long-lasting blades to shave at optimum pressure against the skin whilst a larger soft rubber 'bumper' helps reduce risk of unwanted nicks and lifts hairs for a smoother shave.

The Azure's uniquely patented wishbone-shaped head design provides greater visibility when shaving and the ergonomically designed, lightweight handle allows for a superbly comfortable shave which effortlessly follows every contour and curve of the skin.

The Limited Edition Azor Wave has recently been launched into Boots stores throughout the UK. Designed in-house here at King of Shaves the pack features a striking take on the Union Jack helping to re-enforce the British design of the revolutionary Azor. The Azor itself features a unique blue and white colour scheme and is available for a limited time only.

King of Shaves in house-design team designed our new all-year-round gift sets. Smart looking, in glossy black packaging featuring the new Azor 'better because it bends' system razor and our award winning shaving gels, they are available throughout the UK from major retailers soon...

Designed in-house at King of Shaves, our new Travel Kit includes a Azor 'better because it bends' system razor, an advanced Azor Shave Gel and a post-shave face balm all in one hand luggage friendly kit.

The King of Shaves Company Ltd has recently launched it's corporate website at www.thekingofshavescompany.com. It contains overviews on our entire range plus news pages, details on our sponsorship programmes and a downloads area for product images and press releases. The site is designed to be clean, functional, easy to read and navigate whilst being simple and cost-effective to update.

www.thekingofshavescompany.com

We last looked at the colourways for King of Shaves AlphaGels in early 2008. Then we had settled on Pantone Process Blue as the signature colourway for the 'Alpha' platform. The different colour of the gel would help signpost the variants in the range.

However we made a mistake. Consumers were confused, when displayed on-shelf the bulk colours of the Super Cooled Menthol variant was too similar to the Antibacterial versions. Unfortunately the long lead time on ordering and printing new tubes (between 12 and 18 weeks!) and our production cycles has meant we've only now had the opportunity to correct this error. We have selected a much brighter green for the cooling menthol AlphaGel and a more restrained 'medical' green/blue for the antibacterial gel. The colours look fantastic on shelf, with great stand-off and this time we know the sign-posting for consumers is spot-on.

King of Shaves has launched our first Shaving Bond, an opportunity to help us grow the brand against our global competitors. Will King has blogged extensively about the bond, you can read more here, here and here. To support the bond we designed in-house long-copy advertisements featuring Will in striking mono photograph which ran in The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph and The Mail on Sunday.

We also commissioned a website containing detailed information on the bond, all the "lawyers made us say this" text and an application form. The Shaving Bond was also promoted by email, using our Azor Battle Bus and leafleting.

More information on the Shaving Bond No.1 can be found at www.shavingbond.com and on our corporate website www.thekingofshavescompany.com

One of the adverts:

The microsite:

One of our leaflets:

The new Azor S Sensitive, our first razor designed for sensitive, dry or problem skin, was launched to the press at a special event held at the Lawn Bowling Green in Hyde Park. For the event we designed a logo, the invites, supporting posters and had some photography commissioned to demonstrate the Azor S Sensitive's more flexible hinge.

You can read more about the event on The King of Shaves Corporate website:
www.thekingofshavescompany.com

Designed by top London digital agency, Anorak, today saw the launch of the brand new King of Shaves consumer website www.shave.com.

Over a year in the making the site features a sleek new design, informative Flash animation, interactive product selectors as well as the usual mix of informative shaving and skincare tips, top viral games and, of course, Will King's famous blog.

A chapter closes
With the new site going live it brings to close a chapter in King of Shaves history. Our first website went live back in 1998 when Will Carling was endorsing King of Shaves and the internet browser wars were first hotting up, the site was optimised for Internet Explorer 3 or Netscape Navigator 3 (anything else just wouldn't cut-it)!

How it started
I got involved in 1999 when I still worked at Ambleglow, a small Berkshire based design and advertising agency. I basically told a white lie to Will King and said I could build a much better website so I sat down with my copy of GoLive's CyberStudio 3, and armed with dangerously little knowledge of HTML, every evening after work for about three months I proceeded to bodge together a new website and an online store design.

An amazing programmer, Olly Stephens, marshalled by his wife Anneke (who was heavily involved with customer care and webby 'stuff' back then and for many years after) took my HTML and turned it into a fully functioning website and online store which in those days was no mean feat. Especially as Will and me kept changing everything. Every five minutes.

That design and Olly's amazing "ahead of its generation" code stood the test of time. The store was eventually replaced in 2008 (though Olly made many under-the-hood changes to keep it hack-proof and reliable), I only really changed the graphics once. You can read more about the store here.

Although it has taken until August 2009 to finally replace my (frankly dated) design with something that is much more modern, stylish and reflects the performance of our products, here at King of Shaves we are all really excited by our new revamped site. We look forward to your comments.

We couldn't have done it without you
Olly and Anneke are still involved in running one of our servers, maintaining the blogs, forum, corporate sites, other miscellaneous sites including the upcoming shavingbondclub.com (as well as some KMI Brands sites), but it's the end of a (small) era with the launch of the new shave.com. However we would not have been there back in 1999, well ahead of the game, without Anneke and Olly. Thanks guys.

Oh, and if you are interested in seeing more of what our site(and others) have looked like through the ages, then visit http://www.archive.org/

Our new TV advert for the King of Shaves Azor System Razor was shown tonight. Created by top London agency Hooper Galton it can be viewed on youtube.com or below:

Will King started King of Shaves during the middle of the last recession back in 1993. He hand-filled the first 10,000 bottles of his original King of Shaves Shaving Oil at his kitchen sink, even getting his girlfriend, parents and just about anyone he could to pitch in! From such humble beginnings, King of Shaves has grown to become a brand loved by men alike across the entire the globe.

Will's new book shows budding entrepreneurs the way to realise their business dreams even in times of economic hardship. It's the inspiring entrepreneurial from-the-kitchen-table-to-supermarket-shelf story. Will explains how to keep the faith and follow your business dream even when the odds are heavily stacked against you.

Buy the book now from amazon.co.uk, click here.

Or from WH Smith, Waterstones and play.com.

Launched to the press back in August, the Azor S Sensitive System Razor is now starting to appear in-store in the UK.

Designed especially for sensitive, problem or dry skin, the unique flexible hinge has been re-engineered so that it utilises a softer Elastomer. This "Bendology Technology" allows the incredibly flexible hinge to gently, yet progressively, hold the four long-lasting Endurium coated blades against the skin without any undue pressure, giving a very comfortable and smooth shave thus making it the ideal razor choice for men with skin prone to razor burn, breakouts and skin irritations.

The Azor S also features a larger skin pre-tensioner that sweeps across the skin's surface lifting hairs for a better shave whilst reducing the risk of unwanted nicks and cuts. The handle has been re-designed with the addition of side creases for improved grip and there is now a new soft-touch cartridge ejector release making it even easier to change blades - not that you will be doing that very often as our Endurium coated blades last longer!

The pack has been widened slightly so as to fit in the spring-loaded displays that some retailers have. The design features a new subtle background 'S' which is based on the original 'swoosh' used on the original slimmer Azor packs. The board has an in-line matt seal whilst the 'S' and the logos are picked out with a spot gloss UV varnish.

Following on from the new Azor S Sensitive System Razor packaging which features a new background 'S' design (based on an interlocking version of the original Azor packs' arch 'swoosh'), we have revised the design of the Azor Shaving Gel tubes to match the new razor packaging.

Yesterday I was in our new 'Brand Centre' office just off Regent Street in London. We were doing a photo shoot with Basement of Will King for one of our PR agencies. One of the shots required the entire office to help out...

I'll post up some of the final images once we have selected them. Only 496 to wade through!

King of Shaves has launched the new Azor M Alloy System Razor. Designed and manufactured in the UK and tipping the scales at 47g, compared to the 17g Azor, the part metal handle Azor M is perfectly balanced and ideally weighted for maximum control and comfort whilst shaving. The tactile handle features side creases for improved dexterity and grip, trim guides for shaping and styling facial hair, a larger skin pre-tensioner (reducing the risk of unwanted nicks and cuts whilst helping to prevent in-growing hairs) and an improved soft-touch cartridge ejection mechanism making it even easier to change blades.

Designed in-house the silver card packaging emphasises the new allow handle and a combination of matt and spot gloss UV varnish is used to create the background 'swoosh' and embossing is used to highlight the logos.

More information on the Azor M can be found at www.shave.com/azorm

King of Shaves have an advert out in Shortlist magazine in the UK today announcing the new Azor M Alloy System Razor. The advert was designed and artworked in-house.

We have done a couple of photoshoots with Basement Photographic of the new Azor M Alloy System Razor and of Will King. We have uploaded some of these images to our flickr account and you can follow the links below to view them:

Click here for Azor M photos.

Click here for Will King photos.

The Winter Olympics opening ceremony is this evening and we just wanted to say "good luck" to our Bob Skeleton slider Shelley Rudman (and to her fiancé Kristan Bromley who we also used to sponsor).

You can follow Shelley on Facebook, her blog and get the latest results from her website www.shelleyrudman.com. Or read about her at www.shave.com/shelleyrudman.

To find out more about Kristan Bromley, you can follow him on Twitter and via his website www.kristanbromley.com.

And you can learn more at the official Winter Olympics website: www.vancouver2010.com.

Queen Of.... is the new women's shaving range from King of Shaves. It launches in striking white packaging and comprises of two smooth shaving gels, a women's version of the award winning Azor System Razor and a replacement Endurium cartridge pack.

The design concept was produced by London agency Creative Orchestra, who also commissioned the photography of the Queen Of... Divas who grace the front of each pack.

The youthful and fun 'look and feel' is designed to appeal to our target market of teenagers and young ladies. Artwork and text were finalised in-house at King of Shaves and the range launches in Boots stores in the UK during March and in Sainsbury's stores in May.

Following the cool understated 'black' styling set by the new wider Azor System Razor and Shaving Gel packaging, we have launched a new range of more affordable skincare products for men.

Following the launch of the Azor S Sensitive and the Azor M in wider packaging, the Azor System Razors and replacement blades are now starting to reach the shelves in their new wider packs. Although we have tried to make our packs using the minimum of materials (all of which are, or course, recyclable) we had to slightly increase our pack width so that the Azor would be able to be merchandised in the 'push' mechanism displays favoured by some retailers.

Made in the UK, the Azor handle has also been redesigned with a larger skin pre-tensioner (designed to help prevent ingrowing hairs), an enhanced handle with improved grip, and a new soft-touch cartridge release. The award winning Azor still features the same long lasting Endurium blades and unique 'bendology technology' soft-flex hinge that gently yet progressively presses the blades against your skin for a comfortable shave.

Since King of Shaves de-merged from KMI Brands last year we have been waiting for the right opportunity to re-brand our online store. Launched in June 2008, it was called kmishop.com, a name which obviously no longer accurately represents our business.

We have now called the site www.kingofshavesdirect.com and the store now only stocks King of Shaves, Azor and Queen Of... products. We have given the site a mild face lift, changing the headers and footers to black to match the shave.com consumer site as well as introducing a new logo for the store and updating the front page slide-show and promotional graphics.

There was also a great deal of behind the scenes work done by ourselves and by Paraspar (the e-commerce company behind the store) in ensuring the name was updated on all the store pages, forms, emails and so forth as well as ensuring redirects were in place from the old domain.

And don't panic, if you are a fan of Ted Baker, Fish and all the other great KMI Brands products, these can be found on their new online store www.kmiclub.com.

King of Shaves have been lending our support to James Corden's "Back the Beard" campaign via the independent website backthebeard.org. We quickly produced some banner adverts and imagery for the website (see a couple of examples below) and they added a suitably irreverent information page for us! Hopefully we'll still be backing the campaign at 5pm this evening...

Our new King of Shaves shave sexy advert debuts on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/kingofshaves) and our YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/kingofshaves) on July 19th 2010.

Our hot new King of Shaves advert on youtube.com features Diane Wood, the world's most famous female professional Master Barber as 'Barbarella X' and King of Shaves latest razor, the new Azor M. Add Myla Lingerie, a remix of Carmen and you don't just get a shave, you get the King of Shaves!

Our new range of grooming products for men, KINGS, was launched on the 29th July 2010 to the press. Including hair and bodywashes, deo sprays, face care and hair styling products, the design concepts came from Creative Orchestra whilst all the final artwork was produced in-house here. The range features three different, yet contemporary (and complimentary!) looks, which champion classic British style with a twist.

Launched at the same time is a compact, yet fun, website designed and coded by design consultant Rees Kenyon. Screen shots can be seen below (underneath a couple of pictures of the actual range) or you can visit the site here: www.kings1965.com

We have also provided imagery for the Facebook, Twitter and blog pages so that all the brand communications have the same look and feel.

Now that our 'Shave Sexy' viral advert featuring Barbarella X has been launched, we have been tweaking the layout to our official Facebook and YouTube channel pages. The fonts, colours and imagery have been chosen so that the 'look and feel' of the content is as consistent as possible across different sites.

You can follow King of Shaves on Facebook here: facebook.com/kingofshaves and you can subscribe to our YouTube channel here: youtube.com/kingofshaves