Background to the Met Office
The Met Office is sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and is the UK’s national meteorological service providing weather and climate research and services to the UK public, industry, government departments and other organisations, helping people make better decisions to stay safe and thrive.
Our objectives
It was important that the ‘summary’ report was visually enticing, communicating the report’s findings in an engaging, impactful way. Whilst it was important for us to find an appropriate Met Office style for conveying the meteorological content and findings of the report, it was equally important that the document sat with other London Economics materials from a brand perspective.
The concept, styling and general look and feel
We created a concept and suite of assets based on the use of isobars (lines that are drawn on a weather map connecting points of equal pressure). Not only were these graphics familiar to the public in representing weather they also provided a useful tool for creating drama and movement around the page and were useful in linking separate pieces of information. These were used in conjunction with climate imagery and created a flow and movement to the document reminiscent of weather flow patterns.
The importance of colour palettes and white space
The palette was primarily taken from the brand guidelines of London Economics, with the usage of black and deep blue taken from the primary palette and mid to light blues taken from the secondary. The use of white space also played a vital role.
Talking to both the London Economics and Met Office teams we established that the document needed to be easy on the eye with key information engaging and accessible. We avoided content-heavy pages and established the right mix of body copy, iconography, stats and imagery to encourage interest and interaction.
The chosen design route
We explored several approaches to page layouts before proceeding with the chosen route and its application to the entire document. The route was based on clean lines, white space, and purposely content light with image and icon-rich pages. We created a simple typographic hierarchy based around the use of large section intro copy, smaller body copy and larger Information pull-out stats.
The final document was distributed online at the start of September on the Met Office website. You can download the PDF document here.
Daniel Herr had this to say
Thank you to the team at tothepoint for the excellent work over the last few weeks and months. Working with tothepoint has again been a great experience from start to finish. The dedication and flexibility shown by tothepoint throughout the project was especially appreciated. The end product speaks for itself – it’s turned out absolutely fantastically and really brings the study to life! I am very much looking forward to working with the team again. Daniel Herr, Associate Director, London Economics