Get to know Mike Cannings of BMinc

Big ideas from the big man

If you’ve ever browsed our website, filled in or read a piece of our documentation, scrolled through our social media or received a piece of print from us, then chances are you’ve almost certainly come into contact with something that all-round creative genius, Mike Cannings, has had his careful eye for design all over and has helped to establish for TPSG and/or PSG SIPP.

Mike’s creative output can be seen almost everywhere. From the quirky illustrations you see online and, in our literature, to the lovely animations in our product and service videos. But Mike’s involvement in creating our brand goes way beyond creating lovely artwork packed with eye catching drawings and that recognisable colour palette. In fact, he helped to create that unique visual identity for us as well as our company logos in the first place. Mike’s history with the company goes back as far as the dawn of time for both our companies though not just because he’s known TPSG and PSG SIPP Communications Director, Mike Baker, since before Mike B, Steve Fox (Business Manager) and Duncan Parsons (CEO) first established both companies. Mike C even provided a strikingly different look to Mike B’s wedding stationery!

At the point the companies were being set up and needed a public profile, the brief to ‘Big Mike’ (as he is more fondly known to us) was very simple – “Have a look at a bunch of other pension administrators using dull corporate colour palettes and equally dreary stock photography (think retired couple on the beach, shots of Canary Wharf etc), and make sure we look nothing like them”. A discussion about Mike Baker’s favourite bedroom colours and Big Mike’s love for drawing quirky illustrations eventually led to something, which to this day, we think remains fresh and summarises our brand perfectly. So, what does a regular day for Big Mike look like? He’ll often be juggling a variety of requests for design work for other established brands like Unitedhealthcare, Nationwide Building Society and the NHS to name a few, while his project co-ordinator Georgina, keeps his design time planned like a well-oiled machine. Between all this other work he’ll be working on our brand, taking briefs from Mike and Marketing and Comms Manager, Marcus Forsey and turning them into glorious pieces of branding using a variety of professional graphics and illustration tools.

Aside from the awesome brand design work he does for us on a regular basis, Mike Cannings has been at the forefront of ensuring our videos, website, documentation and print all come together in an instantly recognisable way, often utilising support from his equally talented associate teams. With Mike and these guys safely steering the look and feel of the PSG and PSG SIPP brands, we couldn’t feel in safer hands.

Check out some of Mike’s brilliant work

Great minds think alike

“I have worked with PSG for almost 10 years and right from the start, it was never a client/supplier relationship. We work brilliantly as a team bouncing ideas off each other to create some truly brilliant creative. I love getting a call from PSG which always starts with, ‘we’ve had an idea…’ You know it’s going to be good.” Mike Cannings