One Twenty Three West: Brand Transformations that Inspire Change
One Twenty Three West have been changemakers from the start. The independent idea and design collective started life in 2013 as a four-person team operating out of a garage in East Vancouver. Location was a minor detail for founders Jeff Harrison, Bryan Collins, Rob Sweetman, and Scot Keith, who were preoccupied by the bigger picture – One Twenty Three West was going to change the game.
Leading with their strong-suit - first-class design thinking - One Twenty Three West made a name for themselves as an agency delivering provocative and thought provoking creative solutions. Understanding the true value of collaboration, the collective operates as an extension of their clients’ teams, co-creating in close collaboration to solve their problems and bring about tangible change. The impact of this work could be felt right away; starting on a local-scale, with the launch of Vancouver Mural Festival; to large-scale healthcare campaigns driving nationwide engagement.
After a decade of designing outside the lines, co-founder Scot Keith, and partner and creative director, Mo Bofill, sit down with LBB to reflect on the company’s biggest change-making campaigns to date.
Tim Hortons - ‘The Canadian Coffee Lid’
Scot Keith> Tim Hortons was selling around 2 billion coffees a year around the time we got this pitch, but they were starting to lose customers because many of their customers hated those lids so much they were starting to get their coffee from competitors like McDonald’s. One of our partner’s, Jeff, has an architectural and industrial design background so he came up with multiple different design concepts. When we presented Tim Hortons with the ideas, we blew them away. It was a big project to take on and they took about a year and a half to test it. They tested it everywhere. Then it launches and Justin Bieber hates it, absolutely hates it. He went on Instagram to tell his millions of followers just how much he hated it and missed the old lids… Well, that just made the campaign even bigger!
I’m from a small town in Southern Ontario and the Tim Hortons there is the social hub – it’s where people go to meet. I’ll visit my hometown and bump into someone i've not seen for years and they’ll say, “Hey, I heard you did the Tim Horton’s lids!” I’m so proud of this work because it doesn’t fit what our industry normally thinks is creative It’s not an ad, it just happened to solve one of the most important problems Tim Horton’s had and Jeff and our team cracked it through creativity.
BC Children’s Hospital - ‘Small is Mighty’
Scot> BC Children’s Hospital is such a great organisation. When we were pitching to the hospital, we wanted to encourage them to up the ante and refrain from playing it too safe. During our initial planning session with them we learnt that one of their key challenges is the fact they take on so many different responsibilities. They support kids in life and death situations, their families, and a whole host of doctors, scientists and researchers that are working round the clock to cure rare diseases – as a brand, how do you house that? Our team came up with “Small is Mighty'' which felt like it summed it up perfectly. These kids are mighty, so let's not make them look like complete victims - let's show how resilient and brave they are.
Another reading of the “Small is Mighty” message looked at how all these small breakthroughs and research result in huge, mighty consequences and outcomes. In addition to this, through our research we found that a lot of people think that donating to a children’s hospital is something only billionaires do. We wanted to show that even small donations have a mighty impact. One of the cool metrics from the campaign found that more 18 to 34 year olds loved the campaign and donated money. People who had never donated money to the children's hospital before began to donate – and a bunch of small donations adds up.
Real Canadian Superstore - ‘Superfood’
Mo Bofill> This is one of our largest brand transformations to date. Real Canadian Superstore came to us with a big challenge: they looked like every other grocery store in Canada. They wanted to stand for something because Canadians didn't have an emotional connection to the brand.
We did our research and what we uncovered was that not only is Real Canadian Superstore one of the largest grocers in Canada, but they also have the largest selection of international foods. For example, if I were to shop at one of their stores in Mississauga, I could get a Filipino Ube ice cream! The fact they carry my culture’s food means a lot to me and all the other Canadian people from over 250 ethnic origins or ancestries.
We built a hybrid platform designed around the idea that the store has everything for everyone. We couldn't touch the iconic logo but we redesigned the branding to make it just as colourful as the foods that we love. We featured real Canadians: diversity, equity and inclusion underpinning every single decision we made. The stories we told, our casting, our music selection, who we asked to direct and do the photography, was very diverse. We're on year three with the client and they’re actually making DEI one of their brand pillars now. They’re using that branding to help people learn about different cultures through food – which feels like a very natural way to be inclusive, right?
Plenty of Fish - ‘Gallery of Dick Pics’
Mo> This client was one of the original dating platforms on the scene, so they came to us looking for help making them relevant again. We got to work trying to find true insight that would resonate and one thing a lot of people that use online dating apps struggle with is unsolicited dick pics. This insight led the creative direction and instead of creating a campaign about why Plenty of Fish is great, we decided to talk about something that their customers are experiencing as a challenge and poke fun at it.
In our first year we created an online gallery of ‘Dick Pics’ which was widely well received and got a lot of traction. In year two with the client we created a pop up experience, bringing the Dick Pics gallery to life in New York subways, and giving out swag from the online merch store. This stunt was really well received and we were super proud of it.
Our work with this client has continued to make an impact. Off the back of this work we also created an in-app function - a little eggplant emoji with a cross through it - that bans users from sending unsolicited pics. This campaign resulted in the highest sign ups the client has ever had and to this day they are still using our designs online and in-app.
Breast Cancer Canada - ‘Know More’
Mo> Breast Cancer Canada needed to update their brand to more accurately reflect the ground-breaking progress that’s being made in the space. There is a lot of pinkwashing in this market, so we wanted the campaign to stand out and feel different from the usual visual language. The pink still exists in our campaign because it's a universal symbol for breast cancer, but rather than leading with the traditional pink themes, the branding is designed to feel more sophisticated and scientific. We focused on the science aspect, illustrating how knowledge is power and there is such beauty in the power of these survivors. The platform’s name, ‘Know More’, is a double entendre: only when we know more will there be no more breast cancer. The clients are so happy with the work. Donations are up and the rebranding propelled them into another league where they’re getting sought after by organisations to partner with to raise funds for Breast Cancer.
Vancouver Mural Festival ‘You’ll Get it When You See It’
Scot> One of the original One Twenty Three West team members - from our days in the garage in East Vancouver - co-founded the Vancouver Mural Festival. He came to us for help with branding and we helped him create a deck to pitch to the City of Vancouver Board. It is famously difficult to get these types of creative events approved here in Vancouver, but this was approved so quickly because the Board liked the branding and the presentation. We also delivered an OOH campaign advertising the festival which incorporated interactive modular logos to represent each piece of art. Every logo conformed to the shape of the building where it lived and the artist could interact with it.
The festival went on to be a huge success which still takes place every summer, with several hundred murals around the city. We are very proud that we could help kickstart such an amazing local initiative that has elevated Vancouver’s creative identity.
