Category Archives: creative review

Monzo reveals cheery brand refresh

13/12/2022

Launched in 2015, Monzo is heralded for breaking the curse of dry, corporate brands in the personal banking sector. Its uplifting colours, down-to-earth voice and intuitive experience marked a clean break with the traditional banks, winning over a generation of millennials and beyond.

The new identity centres on the coral hue that made Monzo stand out in the first place, supported by ‘deep navy’ and ‘soft white’, and a wider secondary palette. Colours have been dialled up in the M logomark, which will be rolled out in touchpoints such as the app icon, though the shape of the logomark remains unchanged.

In terms of typography, the friendly, rounded Oldschool Grotesk was chosen as the display typeface, while a custom version of Universal Sans – Monzo Sans – will be used as the primary typeface for functional purposes.

A “warmer” approach has similarly been taken to the art direction and brand photography, as well as a suite of illustrations created by Ola Dobrzyńska.

Elf the movie or Asda Christmas ad?

02/12/2022

By far my favourite Christmas ad of all time!

Credits:
Creative Agency: Havas London
Chief Creative Officer: Vicki Maguire
Creative Directors: Dan Cole, Andy Garnett
Associate Creative Directors: Rob Greaves, Sam Daly
Senior Art Director: Richard Gorton-Lee (Chunky)
Senior Copywriter: Mark Wilson
Senior Designer: Sam Kallen
Production Company: Rattling Stick
Director: Daniel Kleinman
Post production and VFX: Framestore
Creative Director: Kamen Markov
VFX Supervisor: Jules Janaud

Jamie Oliver’s pasta brand

29/11/2022

Otherway was enlisted to create the design identity for Pasta Dreams – a partnership between TV chef Jamie Oliver and Taster, a company comprised of food sub-brands which are all focused entirely on home delivery.

According to Otherway, the aim was to step away from what people might traditionally associate with Italian food, with an emphasis on retro design details.

The playful identity comes to life in a set of animations. Blobs of olive oil float through the air, and in the Pasta Dreams logotype, they rise up to form the counters in the letters A and R.

The psychedelic imagery carries through to the packaging, which highlights the “shapes, swirls, and splashes” people come across when cooking pasta and features a warm palette of peach, orange and brown.

The Pasta Dreams design concept seeks to appeal to younger customers rather than Oliver’s “traditional audience demographic”, yet there was an important balance to strike between unexpected and on-brand.

TK Maxx Christmas ad

25/11/2022

The Christmas campaign season is playing out differently this year. Ads are arriving earlier to avoid media clashes with the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which starts late November. And of course, there’s the small matter of a cost-of-living crisis to contend with.

The message here is fun, from the soundtrack – Cerrone’s 1977 disco classic Supernature – to the colourful setting of the ad, which was filmed in Poland. It seems to strike the right tone for TK Maxx, whose USP is all about surprising finds at low prices, and steers clear of the worthiness we’re bound to see this year.

Credits:
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy London
ECD: Susan Hoffman
Creative directors: Paddy Treacy, Hannah Smit
Creatives: Georgina Brisby, Marcelo Duarte
Director: Max Siedentopf
Production company: Riff Raff

British Airways’ new campaign celebrates the myriad reasons we travel

22/11/2022

The campaign, entitled A British Original, plays on the ‘what is the purpose of your visit?’ question travellers face on landing, delving into the stories that lie behind such a deceptively simple statement.

The ads themselves are extremely minimal in design, making the copywriting the star of the show. Uncommon has written 500 individual lines for the campaign, which range from the mundane – ‘Because this weather sucks’ – to the moving – ‘I’ve had a ring in my pocket for long enough’.

According to Lucy Jameson, co-founder of Uncommon Creative Studio, it’s part of a move to focus on people instead of planes, in particular “British originality”. The airline is also currently working on a new safety video starring BA staff as well as some famous British faces.

Zero waste supermarket Good Club as Dizzie

11/11/2022

As Good Club has grown and its ambitions have changed, the team commissioned Nice and Serious to find a look and feel that was more upbeat and eye-catching, and the updated visuals are certainly hard to ignore. A bold primary colour palette of pink and red gives the brand a sense of fun and friendliness, while secondary colours, such as blue, purple and yellow, add extra vibrancy to packaging and imagery.

This palette is accompanied by an array of endearing illustrations by artist Anthony Orozco that include silhouettes of refillable food items on pot labels, and a cast of playful brand mascots composed of the pots themselves. Encouraging potential and existing customers to utilise Dizzie’s refill options – a core part of the company’s mission and a bigger focus this time around – was one of the main objectives for Nice and Serious.

Speaking of the challenge, the agency’s creative director, Peter Larkin, says, “We wanted to elevate the experience out of the eco-clichés, and onto the shelves of everyday customers across the UK…. From the simplified product illustrations through to the Dizzie ‘whoosh’ and brand mascot, we created an identity full of movement and character.”

Finally, to reinforce the idea that refills can be fun, rewarding, and hassle-free, the agency developed an upbeat tone of voice to reflect this: “For the tone of voice, we set out to conjure up those little joyful moments that are totally unique to the refill experience,” explains Larkin. “So whilst being familiar (and sometimes frank) was important, it also meant using words to surprise and satisfy. Our motto was to channel ‘written ASMR’.”

Ikea Norway promises to buy back unwanted furniture 

08/11/2022

Following the Trash Collection 2021, a campaign and initiative that spotlighted Ikea furniture which had been salvaged from the rubbish and re-sold at its second-hand stores, the Swedish retailer has announced the launch of the Life Collection 2022.

In a similar spirit to last year’s initiative, this one attempts to save and repurpose old furniture that is no longer needed. However, this time around, the furniture is not coming from the trash, but directly from people’s homes, with Ikea buying items back from owners.

As suggested by the title of the campaign, Ikea understands that buyers often don’t want to keep every piece of furniture forever and, given that life is a rollercoaster, these items can become unwanted due to a variety of reasons. In the short campaign film, directed by Kavar Singh and Niels Windfeldt, these reasons include death, sobriety, separation, childbirth, or simply because a significant other finds it “too tacky”.

The Life Collection 2022 marks another step towards sustainability for the brand, as it continues to address the widespread issue of waste. As one of the world’s biggest buyers of wood, it has faced criticism in the past for unsustainable logging practices, and as such, has worked hard in recent years to improve its credentials.

Credits: 
Agency: Try
Creatives: Caroline Riis, Eirik Sørensen
Designers: Jeppe Gjesti, Mats Mæland, Magnus Snickars, Dennis Magnus-Andresen, Tommy Lybekk, Marthe Solli, Elise Eik Ismar
Directors: Kavar Singh, Niels Windfeldt
DOP: Oskar Dalsbakken