Creative round-up November 2022

It’s been a busy month on the design and branding news front and here’s a selection of items and happenings that have caught the eyes of the Ingenious team…

Creative responses to Qatar 2022 World Cup

The excitement of the World Cup has undeniably been tainted by the deaths of migrant workers working on World Cup infrastructure as well as abuse of LGBTQIA+ people in Qatar, neither of which can be ignored.

Independent brand and design studio Ico Design has launched Humanity FC, a campaign bringing together 32 international creatives who have contributed artworks around the theme of ‘Solidarity’. These form the hexagonal panels of a unique football which will be raffled to raise funds to support Equidem, a charity working to expose abuses of migrant workers on World Cup projects in Qatar and support them directly. The winner will be announced on 9 January 2023 and tickets are available on the campaign website, humanityfc.com

Dublin-based creative studio Hen’s Teeth have also launched a campaign, Goalissimo which supports Amnesty International’s compensation of migrant workers in Qatar. Selling a collection of jerseys by 13 artists who have used ‘the jersey as a canvas’ to reimagine their nation’s shirt. The jerseys are available to pre-order online from 2-17 December at hensteethstore.com

James Dyson Award 2022

This annual competition is open to students, recent graduates, young designers and inventors and its brief is to design something that solves a problem. The winners were announced this month and the international prize has gone to three students from Warsaw University of Technology for SmartHEAL, a smart wound dressing with a sensor to measure the pH level of wounds in order to avoid changing dressings too often which can lead to infections and tissue disruption.

The sustainability winner, designed by two McMaster University Canada students, is the Polyformer machine which recycles plastic bottles into affordable 3D printer filaments. It is designed for use in ‘makerspaces’ in Rwanda and aims to create more career opportunities in emerging economies, foster increased use of design infrastructure whilst also facilitating more recycling in these areas.

KiddiWinks plant-based milk branding

We love the branding for this new drink which is composed of oats, chickpeas and chicory root and is one of the first plant-based brands to operate in the Generation Alpha space, aimed at those born 2010-2025. The branding and packaging are designed by Brooklyn-based studio, Young Jerks and according to senior art director Kelly Thorn, required a ‘memorable and eye-catching’ identity and packaging system that was ‘both elevated and kid friendly’. The illustrative style they adopted includes mascots to make it ‘warm and inviting’ and the hand drawn logotype is designed to look ‘gloopy and milky’.

London-based studio Wildish & Co. were tasked with carrying the strong personality and voice from the brand system over to the website which is designed to appeal to both children and parents and where illustrations are crucial in ‘breaking down the research and science backing the drink’.

Design, climate action and the gallery sector

A recent report commissioned by the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, highlights the fact that there are significant opportunities to reduce the environmental impact of the UK galleries sector in staging exhibitions. With the relatively short life-span and frequent turnover of exhibitions, the report encourages a circular mindset around repurposing, retaining and leasing of materials, which should be planned in during exhibition design stages.

The Gallery Climate Coalition is an organisation which works with galleries to reduce the sector’s environmental impact. They are suggesting the establishment of ‘green teams’ to exercise best practice and ‘normalise environmental considerations at all stages of decision-making’. The Design Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum already have plans to improve the sustainability of exhibitions going forward, bringing in flexibility, re-use and reconfiguration of materials, together with regular carbon reports and reduction targets.

New passport for Switzerland

The Swiss government released a new passport at the end of October. Designed by Geneva-based creative agency Retinaa SA, it is inspired by Alpine peaks and valleys with two key themes of water and mountains. The first page features the Pizzo Rotondo mountain, the highest peak in the Gotthard Massif and source of Switzerland’s largest rivers, thus bringing together the main themes. The document seeks to combine aesthetics with security and functionality and includes the latest technology for identity security including UV light symbols, optically variable ink and quartz crystal watermarks. Biometric data is stored in a chip in the cover and can only be read by a device that supports encrypted transmission.

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

Carlo Collodio’s classic fairy tale was first published in 1883 and since then has undergone countless incarnations including Disney’s 1940 animated film and live action remake earlier this year. The latest version just released is a stop-motion film by Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water, Pan’s Labyrinth) who has been fixated with the story since watching the Disney film as a child. His take on it is typically dark, set in 1920’s Italy amid the rise of fascism. It took him fifteen years to get backing with funding only coming from Netflix in 2018. His aim was to make something ‘handmade, painstakingly made by humans’ and this is borne out in puppetry by Georgina Hayns together with an all-star voice cast.

Two great books for designers

Riccardo Falcinelli’s Cromorama was originally published in Italy in 2017 and intended for students. It in fact appealed to a far wider audience and is now available in English. Constituting an accessible and innovative history of colour, it looks at how perceptions of colour have changed, covering things that have informed our attitudes to colour over time from scientific breakthroughs to cultural movements, intellectual shifts and industrial innovation.

Jens Müller is the creative director at Vista design studio and a new multi-lingual edition of his History of Graphic Design vol. 2 1960-today explores the last 70 years of graphic design and its relationship with society’s cultural aspirations and values. Including 3500 examples of design from around the globe with in-depth analysis of specific items and biographies of the most designers of the era, it’s a must for any design studio.