Getting our hands dirty with Ineos and The & Partnership
Launching into a consumer category awash with well-established brands, Ineos Hygenics wanted to challenge conventions for their new hand sanitisers and liquid soap range. They turned to design and advertising agency The & Partnership to help them do just that.

The & Partnership developed a wonderful campaign idea based around all the things we put our hands through, focussing on the real, often touching, sometimes gritty, and occasionally the very messy sides of life – a big shift away from the light and overly sanitised cliches that are so common in the market.

Aiming at people who want to get out there and get the most out of life, the campaign is full of attitude and centres around the tagline ‘you can handle anything’.

To help bring this idea to life typographically in a distinctive – and very hands on – way, The & Partnership commissioned us to develop and craft a typographic style to match.

Working closely with their team, we explored the tagline using our collection of traditional wood type, from 10-line expanded sans serifs to huge 40-line condensed grotesques, experimenting with manicules and rules to highlight key points. We also explored adding textures through hand inking, varying pressure, and fingerprints hidden in the letters – both as a nod to the core idea and to make the designs completely individual. Each typeface, layout and ink style led us to a different expression and character, which we then refined down to the final execution.

The chosen typographic style was then hand set and printed to create bespoke suite of limited edition artwork, all inked by hand to give every print and each letter a unique appearance. These prints were in turn digitised to be developed into a brand typeface and a truly ownable asset for the brand.