Safic-Alcan
Telling the story
behind the brand
Safic-Alcan is a global distributor of specialty chemicals and ingredients with an impressively long history.
Celebrating the company’s
anniversary in print
Working with a creative team
from the very beginning
Our process
- 1. Working with Hannah to transcribe the French and English versions of the “first volume” (1847-1997), since we only had access to hard copies.
This was an opportunity to familiarise ourselves with the material, check for inconsistencies and make recommendations for adjustments.
- 2. Interviewing several employees at Safic-Alcan to gather the information I needed to devise a flatplan for this second volume.
- 3. Obtaining Safic-Alcan’s approval firstly of the general structure and then of the French text which I wrote.
- 4. Sharing the French version with Hannah for translation into English and to Sophie for work on the book’s layout and design.
Overseeing the translation process into English improved my source text in French: a question from Hannah made me realise that clarification was needed in the French version, for instance.
- 5. Sending Sophie’s layout of both the French and English versions to our proofreaders.
Once again, I checked to see whether the comments made in one language applied to the other.
- 6. Sending the book to press, almost a year after the first interview!
The project’s culmination
‘I couldn't wait to have a look. […] I must congratulate you. You've understood exactly how Safic-Alcan works. Thank you for your hard work.'
Martial Lecat, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Safic-Alcan Group
Reaching
a larger audience
I’d been working with Imfusio on projects related to influence and social media for two years when they decided to build a platform to make their transformation resources available to a larger audience. The platform includes a resource centre for clients and an open-source library, available to anyone who visits Imfusio’s website.
Tools to ensure
consistency
For the library’s launch, we decided to provide a first batch of information sheets, each describing a facilitation technique or a tool from a practical angle. The platform was designed to be updated with new content on a regular basis. Reflecting Imfusio’s commitment to individual empowerment, I did my best to provide tools to ensure autonomous and consistent content production over time.
Tone of voice, editorial guidelines and glossary
The first step in this project was to formalise Imfusio’s tone of voice in a document and list the characteristics and constraints specific to the platform. This ever-evolving document was designed to be updated on a regular basis; I was able to amend it after Matters, the UX design agency which developed the platform, tested the interface’s microcopy on real users.
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- “Add to the editorial guidelines: spaces should not be included in the time format”
Conscious that the platform would be translated into English, I suggested developing a glossary from the start of the project; it was used and updated later by the translation agency.
Rewriting information sheets for the open-source library
The next step involved compiling existing material, asking (plenty of) questions and rewriting the content to reflect the template designed by Imfusio. As a fresh pair of eyes, I was able to standardise the information sheets while making sure the concepts and techniques would be easily understood by an audience with little experience of facilitation.
Imfusio also hired a specialist to write additional gated long-form content: at every step of the project, I worked closely with Anne-Sylvie to ensure our work formed a coherent and complementary whole.
Working on better taxonomy
The next step involved compiling existing material, asking (plenty of) questions and rewriting the content to reflect the template designed by Imfusio. As a fresh pair of eyes, I was able to standardise the information sheets while making sure the concepts and techniques would be easily understood by an audience with little experience of facilitation.
A continuous process
The reception to the first batch of information sheets was very positive and we’re already working on new content to further enhance the library.
More importantly, we’ve ensured everybody within the organisation, both now and in the future, will be able to create new content which is consistent with previously published information sheets.
Thank you Imfusio! Great library. Although I’ve already used some of these tools (from the Facilit’Hacker training [provided by Imfusio]), these information sheets are very useful and concise and I can’t stop reading them. Share them with other people to develop collective intelligence.
‘Loreleï helped us perfect our editorial tone and ensured our documents and our jargon were accessible and appealing to a wide audience. She quickly understood our approach, our needs and our values: she now anticipates our questions and reactions and makes excellent suggestions. She adapted to our way of working and our particular need for flexibility and she was unfailingly enthusiastic :)’
Marie Beriot O’Connell, transformation designer at Imfusio
