Creative round-up August 2023
It may have been holiday season but August has been far from quiet on the design and branding news front! Here’s a selection of happenings from the last few weeks that have caught the eyes of the Ingenious team…
New York Times subway campaign
On the subway between Times Square and Grand Central in New York an entire subway train has been transformed into an immersive ad to promote the breadth and scope of the New York Times. On the exterior, each shuttle carriage has been split into a different product within a NYT subscription from Games to Cooking and News. The interiors have been transformed too – in the Games car passengers can see how many words they can come up with during the 90 second ride. The Cooking car contains QR codes giving free access to recipes and the Athletics car is a recreation of the New York Giants locker room!
According to Amy Weisenbach, NYT senior vice president and head of marketing, this fun and clever campaign is ‘bringing New Yorkers beyond the front page they think they know and putting our full suite of products on display…’
London Design Festival 2023
Start planning for London Design Festival next month with events all over the city 16-24 September. Celebrating and promoting London as the design capital of the world, the festival plays a key role in the growth of the design industry and contributes to the UK’s reputation as a creative powerhouse. The city is divided up into design districts, each with its own unique personality which reflects the local community and where visitors can explore installations, exhibitions, workshops and talks a short walking distance apart.
Highlights include Aura at St Paul’s Cathedral, an installation by Spanish artist Pablo Valbuena which transforms sounds in the cathedral into a pulsating line of light projected at architectural scale, and Halo by Moritz Waldemeyer, a transcendent light installation at St Stephen Walbrook Church, both celebrating the 300th anniversary of Sir Christopher Wren’s death. Spirit of Place is an installation on The Strand by Simone Brewster in collaboration with Amorim cork forest, Portugal and look out for the special programme of events at The Victoria and Albert Museum.
For a full list of events click here https://www.londondesignfestival.com/programme?activity_discipline%5B%5D=1&is_filter=true&tab=images
Coca-Cola messages of support on Women’s World Cup pitches
Many of us were glued to our screens during the Women’s World Cup earlier this month and a campaign by Coca-Cola Australia celebrated the growth of women’s football and reminded viewers of the journey and hardship to get there. The temporary messages appeared to be etched into the grass of pitches across the Women’s World Cup with each statement beginning with an example of negative commentary and ending with fresh statistics breaking down these preconceptions. The messages proved an impactful way of illustrating the changing narrative around women’s football.
Rouvy rebrand
Ingenious creative director Glenn loves getting out on his bike at weekends and when he can’t get outside he uses Rouvy,a brilliant virtual cycling platform that brings realistic, scenic routes into your home! They have just rebranded so while the cyclist in Glenn is enjoying the app, the designer in him is also loving the new visual identity!
With a modernised logo inspired by the kinetic motion of pedals, bold graphic patterns that capture the dynamic thrust of tyre treads, a vibrant colour palette, bold new typeface which unifies the look with strong, distinct lines and updated tagline ‘Keep Going’ providing inspiration and motivation for users – all in all the new look is streamlined, clean and sleek. So much to love about Rouvy!
New look for Hyde Park Picture House
Being an ex-Leeds student, this item caught the eye of our office manager Caroline who used to frequent the famous Hyde Park Picture House (HPPH) which has just reopened after a 3-year refurb. The Edwardian building is the world’s last gas-lit cinema and has been carefully renovated and given a new visual identity to match which ceverly references its cinematic heritage while using straightforward design elements to appeal to a diverse audience. Created by Leeds-based design agency, Rabbithole, the core element of the new identity is a cinematic reference – the circular cue or ‘cigarette burn’ that used to indicate a film change to projectionists, the overlapping edges of which act as a framing device in the new HPPH logo. The yellow hue of the logo is frequently used in cinema branding as it stands out well from other colours.
The logo is also animated with the lines multiplying and spinning to mimic the Victorian moving image technology of a zoetrope and breaking into Technicolor colours. These also inform the colour palette of sub-brands relating to HPPH’s different curatorial strands serving varied audiences across the local community.
America ByDesign Season 4 – Innovations
News has just been released about this mainstream CBS show to be aired in 2024 which will focus on Coca-Cola’s design evolution across 131 years, giving audiences an insight into the company’s creative process and a glimpse into its historic archives. The series is led by Coca-Cola’s vice president of design, Rapha Abreu, who in his design manifesto for the company wrote ‘design is in everything’.
ByDesign series co-founder and executive producer Mike Chapman describes good design as ‘invisible and seamless’ and suggests that those responsible are often not recognised outside the industry. He also thinks that the public’s conception of design and its power is limited. The aim of the series is therefore to ‘democratise’ and ‘raise the tide of design to the general public’ and Abreu adds that the show could help to ‘elevate the industry’ by encouraging more companies to invest in design and more people to come into the industry to work. Definitely a show to look out for!
Email is Dead exhibition
Set to open at London’s Design Museum next month this exhibition will illustrate that email is in fact far from dead and at 50 years old has endured as the primary form of communication across businesses worldwide, used by over 4 billion people.
Looking at the impact of email and communication from the 1970’s to 2070, the challenge was to make an everyday subject into something approachable, playful and inclusive which sparks curiosity and interaction.
Using props including inflatables and digital interactive experiences on a variety of scales together with sound effects, the show delves into what email ‘smells, feels and sounds like’ in an attempt to ‘make the mundane magnificent’. The exhibition identity is designed using a ‘contemporary pixel pattern and email iconography’ in a ‘3D sculptural way’ which aims to mimic the look and feel of the exhibition itself.
Opening 28 September, all in all it sounds like quite an experience!