Visa launches new brand identity system

Branding agency Mucho revealed the early stages of Visa’s brand evolution 2 summer ago, and the financial services company last year launched the full update to its brand identity system. The agency highlighted that “to most people, Visa has been synonymous with credit and debit cards”, and one of the key aims of the new branding was to “ensure it is seen as more than a credit card company”.

Based on 200 hours of stakeholder conversations, the agency also developed a new mission statement for Visa that leans into brand purpose: “We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere.” This philosophy is tied into the brand symbol, an equals sign, which has been extracted from the recognisable bars that were historically used in the Visa logo lock up prior to 2005. “The symbol has always been there – we just dialed into the opportunity to use it in a creative way,” said Mucho creative director Rob Duncan.

Key to the new branding system was establishing consistency worldwide while helping the existing design elements – such as the Visa wordmark – work harmoniously in digital environments, adjusting colour palettes to work better on digital touchpoints (namely small mobile screens) as part of this.

The agency developed an iconography and illustration system, brought together by the Visa colours (shown below), and worked with Commercial Type on a new typeface, Visa Dialect, which was designed with legibility in digital executions in mind. Mucho also focused on enhancing Visa’s B2B standing with a sleek range of assets using motion design, made with the help of creative studio Field.io.

Take away your takeaway

Takeaway packaging is the third largest source of littering in cities across the world, according to recent research by the University of Cádiz in Spain.

As Norway’s largest takeaway restaurant chain, McDonald’s is a substantial part of the problem in Norwegian cities – and it doesn’t help that its iconic golden arches make its packaging very noticeable. But in a new campaign led by Nord DDB, the fast food chain is taking ownership of this role.

Leading with the message ‘take away your take away’, the campaign is all about showcasing the ugly side of McDonald’s packaging and encouraging fast food lovers to help the brand reduce littering.

Photos of McDonald’s trash lying around in the streets of Oslo have been artfully captured by photographer Jói Kjartans for print, social media, OOH displays and McDonald’s trays in order to reach as many customers as possible.

Trash cans have been placed next to OOH displays so that the golden arches can be used as a trash-guide, and the campaign also includes a commercial shown on TV and online. As for the longer term, the brand has initiated several measures to create long-term solutions.

Director Daniel Kwan releases a kid book with A24

After breaking into the world of book publishing several years ago, film production company A24 is expanding its focus to younger audiences. Earlier this year, it released its first children’s book project – a reprint of Star Child by Claire A Nivola, which, in a clever ploy, was quoted in another A24 enterprise, Mike Mills’ 2021 film, C’mon C’mon.

One of Kwan’s new books is called I’ll Get to the Bottom of This, beautifully illustrated by Sean Lewis. The story follows a dog detective investigating a car pile-up that leaves all of the characters (also dogs, which may explain the traffic accident) trapped in a tunnel. While everyone tries to work together to find a way out, the detective is more preoccupied with finding someone to blame.

The investigations take an even more obscure turn as his line of questioning extends to the main suspect’s organs, before he’s challenged to think beyond himself by a higher cosmic power.

A playful visual identity for plant-based milk brand KiddiWinks

The 100% plant-based milk reimagines a childhood staple with a formula comprising oat, chickpeas and chicory root, providing eight grams of plant-based protein and more than six grams of fibre.

Ahead of KiddiWinks’ launch in the US (it will roll out to other markets in the coming months), the team brought in New York-based Young Jerks to develop its branding and London creative agency Wildish & Co to lead on its website design.

The agencies started by asking themselves, what would a plant-based milk brand for kids look like? “KiddiWinks is a really interesting brand as it hits the intersection of sustainability and health, both key decision drivers in purchase decisions – especially for parents,” says Wildish & Co managing director, Sam Fresco.

Young Jerks opted for an illustration-led visual identity, which is full of youthful personality but also stylish enough for grownups. At its heart is a “gloopy and milky” hand-drawn logotype, says senior art director Kelly Thorn. Supporting fonts include Caspar by Flavor Type and Visby Round by Connary Fagen as the body copy, chosen thanks to its “soft serve” feel, she adds.

Joya And Tom Fruin’s Home Fragrance Collaboration

Brooklyn-based Design StudioJoya recently teamed up with artist Tom Fruin to create a collection of candles replicating a New York morning. The candles and their outer packaging beautifully represent Fruin’s well-known style, and the multicolored designs are a stunning contrast to candle’s typically stark glass.

WithCo’s Minimalistic Packaging Highlights An Ease Of Use

The better-for-you batched cocktail mix WithCo worked with Lauren Ledbetter to design an elegantly minimalistic bottle. The use of white space is smart, while the splash of color on the base represents the flavors within. Each design element is simple, visually representing the product’s simplicity and ease of use.

Ragged Edge rebrands Gaia, a startup offering the world’s first IVF insurance

Offering the world’s first IVF insurance, Gaia was created after its founder, Nader AlSalim, had a firsthand experience of what is a complex and expensive procedure. He was inspired to find a way of helping other families access IVF without succumbing to the financial hurdles that often make it impossible or unsustainable in the long-term.

Ragged Edge’s refreshed branding for Gaia counters these depictions, instead offering an inclusive, welcoming picture of the modern family, as well as a more empathetic and realistic understanding of the IVF journey. Using simple yet effective collaging techniques, it shows the many experiences one can go through during this process, as well as the different kinds of people that choose to use IVF.

This diversity is further embraced through Gaia’s new wordmark, which features both an uppercase and lowercase ‘a’ to represent the fact that no two families are the same. Meanwhile, an inspiring yet grounded colour palette aims to capture the difficulties of going through an IVF journey without compromising the optimism needed along the way.

As a whole, Gaia’s new identity is empathetic yet realistic. Unlike other organisations within the fertility industry, it does not shy away from the fact that the success of IVF is never guaranteed, and the process itself may not be an easy one. But nor does it make the treatment feel out of reach. Instead, it presents IVF as something that everyone should have access to, no matter their financial situation or the makeup of their family.

Logo Design

I had the pleasant to digital draw up this logo design. Fox & Holly have rebranded all there handmade crafts under one logo rather than multiple different logo creating a stronger identity.

Magazine covers of the year 2022

Time, The Resilience of Ukraine

Valeriia also provided the inspiration for Time’s first cover addressing the war, created by JR – an artist known for his large-scale activist works. A drone was used to capture the powerful final cover image, which illustrates how a 45-metre tarp print of Valeriia’s photograph was unfurled and hoisted by more than 100 people outside Lviv’s National Opera.

New York, Who Becomes a “Murderer” in Post-Roe America?

The New York Times Magazine, The New York Issue

FT Weekend Magazine, Queen Elizabeth II 1926 – 2022

The world’s media was full of tributes to mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II in September. British Vogue paid its respects with a royal purple cover, free from any other adornment, which it had previously published to commemorate the loss of George V and George VI. For its weekend magazine supplement, the Financial Times commissioned Estonian illustrator Eiko Ojala to create a beautifully crafted memorial cover. The cut-out inspired design depicts the monarch through different periods of her life, repurposing the portrait that became synonymous with the longest-reigning monarch in British history.