Morag Myerscough’s artwork in the sky

Her colourful set of banners marks the first time the flags along London’s Oxford Street have been handed over to an artist.

The installation consists of 105 individual four-metre flags, which have been created using recycled marine plastics. Stretching from Tottenham Court Road on the east side of Oxford Street to Marble Arch in the west, the rows of overhanging flags reveal the message ‘Time for Clean Power’. It’s the first time the flags have been curated by an artist, and the first time they’ve been used to champion an environmental cause.

“My work is synonymous with bold colours and powerful positive messaging. It is so wonderful to see Europe’s busiest street filled with colour and hope,” Myerscough said of the project.

“With this work I wanted to put out an optimistic approach towards our future, if we work together we can help make the changes we need to happen. The oranges, greens and blues represent the sun, sea and air that we need to power ourselves to a renewable future.”

Pepsi Says It Goes Better With Food, Creates Tasty Comic Book-Inspired Cans

Pepsi’s current promotional campaign, “Better with Pepsi,” highlights how its signature cola pairs great with some of our favorite foods like doughnuts and pizza. Some of Pepsi’s latest collabs have involved snacks and cola mashups, like maple-drenched IHOP pancakes and Cracker Jack popcorn.

The latest from PepsiCo’s design teams in Shanghai and Bangkok celebrates the connection between Pepsi and mealtime with playful artwork featuring some favorite snacks across the Asian Pacific market. Pepsi’s goal is to appeal to Gen Z consumers by highlighting how we are our authentic selves at home. 

Neat

Cleaning products will help keep your home spic and span, but once you’re done with them, the packaging often ends up dirtying the environment. 

Neat is a personal care and household cleaning brand on a mission to reduce plastic waste but is doing so in a way that’s both approachable and aesthetically pleasing. Developed by Ryan McSorley and Josie Harfield, the founders used their experiences in business strategy and product design to solve the problem of single-use plastic and water waste in homecare products. 

Neat’s idea is simple—clean the earth and clean your home. Through sustainable materials and fresh packaging, consumers won’t have difficulty understanding why the brand’s mission is so meaningful. 

Africa best design work

Art and design publisher Counter-Print has released From Africa, the seventh book in its popular From series, which has so far brought us work from Japan, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Switzerland and South Korea. Each book is a celebration of the design culture belonging to the different countries and regions.

The book emphasises Africa’s cultural diversity, and huge mix of design influences. As Counter-Print co-founder Jon Dowling writes in the book’s intro, “its many, diverse countries are sources of vibrant design and African influences are seen in art and culture around the world. However, there is no one ‘African style’ and we should refrain from generalising a continent of such vast scale.”

In his introduction, Dowling also comments on the tendency to stereotype the stories of the continent, which extends to its design output which has too often been represented by “ethnic prints, earthy colours and textures”.

Burger King’s minmal ad campaign

The creative centres on the fast food brand’s trademark flame grill lines, which are emphasised in a series of minimal graphic images that continue the vintage flavour of Burger King’s 2021 rebrand.

A series of accompanying taglines – woven into the stripy grill marks of the burgers – mock fast food competitors, with outdoor ads strategically placed near Mcdonald’s, KFC and Subway restaurants. The campaign’s echoed in limited edition Whopper wrappers, also emblazoned with grill lines, and BK employees at London’s Leicester Square restaurant will be decked out in stripy shirts.

While it might seem that Burger King is following where McDonald’s has led, it’s all part of a wider trend of simplified branding, with businesses in all areas adopting more stripped back approaches, in part to make imagery and logos work better in digital. It’s yet to be seen if the pendulum will, at some point, swing back towards maximalism.

Credits:
Ad Agency: BBH
CCO: Alex Grieve
ECD: Helen Rhodes
Deputy ECD: Felipe Serradourada Guimaraes
Copywriter: Marcy Rayson
Art Director: Callum Prior
Designer: Christian Kolodziejski

McDonald’s continues its minimalist mission in new print ads

Created by Leo Burnett London, the latest UK campaign for McDonald’s features the fast food brand’s distinctive products – including the Big Mac, a gherkin, a strawberry milkshake, and fries – in a stripped-back illustrative style.

It is a look that we’ve come to expect from the brand, and which follows campaigns including its previous work for McDelivery and also its packaging redesign, introduced last year.

In this new campaign, the posters feature subtle location pins to emphasise the home delivery service, accompanied with copy simply stating ‘we deliver’.

The continued use of bold, elegant illustration certainly stands out in a sea of fast food brands showing close-up images of burgers etc, and unsurprisingly is appealing to the creative teams working on the brand, according to ECD Mark Elwood.

Apple channels its classic iPod ads

Credits:
Agency: TBWA\Media Arts Lab
Directors: Gal Muggia, Vania Heymann
Production Companies: Iconoclast, Versatile