Services
We design communication for science, technology and engineering. Reports, websites, identities, decks and the material that carries an organisation's expertise to people outside it.
Who reads it, and what they need to do next, should decide what gets made. Not one version stretched across everyone, but the right piece for each reader. That isn't a studio opinion. It came out of a research study we set up, with 152 participants taking part. It decides how every project here starts.
Three programmes cover most of what we do: Platform, Publication and Reach. Where you start depends on what you already have.
Platform
Brand, website, or both. We create identities from scratch, reimagine ones that have stopped working, and build sites that do justice to guidelines you already have. Where there’s room to, we start from what the organisation could be rather than what it currently looks like. This is usually the first thing we do with a new client, because everything else stands on it.
We did this for the Local Resilience Forum covering Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, a partnership of the NHS, emergency services, councils and the voluntary sector: identity, plain-English content, and a live dashboard drawing verified updates from all of them into one place. Other Local Resilience Forums across the UK have since asked about it.
Identity
Logo, colour, type and the system that holds them together across everything you produce.
Content
Structure and plain English. What each reader needs to find, in the order they need it.
Build
A site your team can run afterwards, with accessibility considered from the start.
Publication
You have one substantial thing to say this year and one real chance to say it well. It usually gets squeezed into the last fortnight before the deadline, and it shows.
One piece, done properly: an annual or impact report, a white paper, a findings summary, an e-learning course. On its own, or built on a Platform we’ve already done with you.
We did this most recently for Neuronostics, whose BioEP technology models brain activity to speed up epilepsy diagnosis: a six-panel patient leaflet that explains it without jargon, written to be taken home, read again, and used in the conversation with a clinician.
Argument
Structure before design. What it's for, and what a reader should do next.
Design
Layout, typography and data visualisation, so the evidence is visible rather than buried.
Production
Print, an interactive PDF with its own navigation, a web page, or an e-learning module in Rise. Whatever the audience will actually use.
Reach
Launched, published, done. Then the conference comes round, you need a deck, and the poster is needed by Friday.
A senior team on call, carrying your brand and your work outward. On its own, or continuing from our other creative services.
We built Morek’s brand and have produced their data sheets and campaign material ever since. They work in marine engineering for offshore renewables, and after this long nothing needs re-briefing.
Scope
Decks, posters, banners, exhibition graphics, forms, campaign collateral and updates to existing work. If it's print or digital, it's in scope.
Allocation
Book a monthly allocation ahead so it's there when you need it, or take it project by project. We scope it to what you actually produce.
Team
The same people each time, who already know your material. No re-briefing.
How we work
We are a senior two-person team, which means you work directly with experienced people throughout. Where specialist input is required we bring in trusted partners under our direction: developers, scientific copywriters, photographers, medical journalists. We remain accountable for the process, the quality and the experience throughout.
Whichever programme you’re on, every project runs through the same four stages:
- Clarify: the structure, the audiences, the priority actions and what success looks like.
- Design: a visual and creative direction, with accessibility considered from the outset.
- Build: production, with our specialists where the project needs them.
- Refine: reviewing together, QA, and the training and documentation that make the work manageable after handover.
“Cobo is a fantastic company to work with. They exceeded expectations by creating an original brand that makes us stand out whilst following the visual cues of the marine industry.”
Bob Colclough, Managing Director and Naval Architect, Morek
Senior
No handoffs to junior staff. The people you meet are the people who do the work.
Specialists
We find the specialist your project needs and bring them in under our direction.
Handover
Documentation and training so you aren't tied to us for changes.