So over the last month we’ve been creating and helping to launch a new musical sound for new duo FIKA. Having helped to create their identity, social media tools and the video to go with their first track – ‘Wide Eyed’. #TTPtryit!
With a tight deadline and no desire for the traditional video shoot, FIKA wanted us to bring their lyrics to life in animation. Listen to the track below and see the full video created by ttp designer Joe Cook.
Joe has many talents so he has also helped with some reportage photography, with subtle photoshop retouching, and this image is now being used across their social media platforms and as the visual representation of the duo. This and other images are also being sent in their media pack to the music bloggers to help get their track on the all important playlists.
We initially worked with them on the brand. Sam is a brand manager so knows the importance of getting it right from the start and he and Al already had some clear ideas. The small studio they’ve set up in Clapham is painted and named ’studio blue’ so this provides one of the two key colours that are used for the identity. The other is black to match the bold typography that creates the mark. The pyramid A element echoes the play button on music systems and will be used as a graphic device in future materials.
Sam and Al have known each other for about 8 years, first meeting at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, then both studying Music at Southampton Uni and now they live near to each other in South London.
Al says “We’ve always shared a passion for the same styles of music which is why I think collaborating as FIKA has been such a natural process. Our musical influences are pretty wide ranging but with interesting crossovers; we were both brought up on great music from the likes of Prince, MJ and Stevie Wonder, then found ourselves hooked on artists like D’Angelo and Jill Scott. More recent artists we’re into are people like Allen Stone, Anderson Paak, Tom Misch and Jordan Rakei. We think something all these artists share in common is the ability to combine great feel and musicianship with awesome songwriting so that the music is still accessible to a lot of people – this is something we try to capture in our music!”
For the launch of their first single, inspiration was drawn from this quote at one of our workshops: “We love bouncing ideas off each other and have always shared a passion for the same kind of music as well as introducing each other to new sounds.”
This simple statement formed the basis for the campaign brief and the idea of PONG – a visual play on them literally bouncing ideas off each other.
PONG has become the theme to launch ‘Wide Eyed’. The image we have created is now being used as a teaser in still format on their Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages and has an animated version to grab attention. It will also be used with an extract of the track linking to the full video on YouTube. It is early days but this gradual roll out across social media will help build the following and gain traction.
This strategy is essential for getting your name and music out there but they could always do with a few more likes, shares and downloads of their track, so make sure to check them out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
Spotify:
Itunes: Wide Eyed
So it’s all in FIKA’s hands now but Al had this to say about working with us “Working with Simon and Joe at To The Point has been a fantastic experience. From their guidance in designing the FIKA logo and trialling different approaches in the photo shoot, to the incredibly cool job Joe did in creating the Wide Eyed pong-themed animation video, the creative input and direction they gave really helped us to achieve the branding and feel for FIKA that we were after.”
FIKA is a Swedish concept to “take a break & have coffee” so we hope the music and video will help you chill while you have that coffee… just not too strong!