Joe Blogs
Here at CAKE we like to keep up to date with the ever-evolving design and marketing campaigns. Our Junior Graphic Designer, Joe has put together a presentation of our favourite's from over the past month.
Wales FA Rebrand
London design agency Bulletproof has developed a new visual identity for the Football Association of Wales, featuring a modernised version of its red dragon badge.
Tasked with overseeing the first major refresh of the association's branding in a decade, Bulletproof’s brief called for a new identity that would encompass all football in Wales and embody the organisation's motto of "Together, Stronger".
Basing its design on the country's heritage and traditions, the agency set out to create a system of graphic assets for the digital age with the dragon as its central element. Other aspects of the project also include a new typeface and a colour palette inspired by the Welsh landscape.
Say Yes To Less
London design agency Jealous worked in collaboration with Oxfam UK and esteemed typographer Anthony Burrill, looking at ways to revitalise our view on the fashion industry.
In support of Oxfam’s Second Hand September campaign, which encouraged people to pledge to say "no" to new items of clothing for one month, looked at how they can revitalise old garments, bringing a new and thereby longer life to them. Utilising Burrill’s iconic typographic style as the key design language to the project, it allowed consumers to not only acquire a piece of design ephemera, but to also in-turn promote a message of sustainability.
Fee Gilfeather, Oxfam’s sustainability expert, said: "Being creative and jazzing up a t-shirt we’ve fallen out of love with by applying a screenprint is the perfect way to revive our wardrobes, without purchasing new clothing. We hope tips and tricks like this will encourage people to sign up to Second Hand September and take on the challenge of buying no new garments for the month. By buying second hand, or making do with what we have, we can all play a part in reducing the mountains of clothing sent to landfill."
Shame Plane
Staying in the field of environmental activism, Grafik + Program’s Shame Plane conceptual site intends to shed more light on the impact our choices have on the planet.
Functioning relatively simply, this website allows you to input where you are flying to and from, revealing the direct harm you will cause to the planet, measured in the metres squared of arctic ice that will melt. The great thing about this site is how the damage can then be offset against lifestyle changes, with going vegetarian, reducing food waste to zero, and living car-free having the biggest impact.
Victor Ginsburg Müller, the lead designer behind the project explains that Shame Plane “was a way to turn personal anxiety into work anxiety, so we could frame it in processes and methodologies easier to cope with.” This digestible and remarkably harrowing project is a brilliant display of how considered infographic and UI design can work as a tool to educate empower and create change.
Adieu Smalls
Looking at the more joyous side of design, a new feline inspired font has been unveiled by cat food brand Smalls.
Aiming to convey a cats’ sense of “playfulness”, Adieu Smalls was produced by the company’s lead designer Miles Barretto in collaboration with the Oslo-based Good Type Foundry. Looking for inspiration, Barretto has stated “The one reference that stood out the most and inspired the font was how cats use their body as a form of communication”
“When a cat is interested, a slight hook is formed at the tip of the tail,” Barretto continued. “If we look at the characters U and E, you can see similar hooked tips that break out of the ascender and descender.” A similar “playfulness” can be seen in the M and O characters.
Feline movement also inspired the brand’s packaging, whose aesthetic is an attempt to reflect the “cat-like behaviour of ‘nudging’”. Overall, the brands packaging looks to “shift the aesthetic that is commonly seen in conventional cat food.”
Listen Like You Used To
Working in collaboration, Spotify UK and creative agency Who Wot Why? have pinpointed exactly what great copywriting looks like. The “Listen Like You Used To” campaign contrasts the way today’s 40s-50s crowd enjoyed music back in their youth versus the comfortably bland realities of today.
The campaign’s specific goal was to connect with any viewers who were teens between 1979 and 1999. The brand says its research has found that people’s musical tastes as teenagers largely set their preferences into adulthood, meaning that if you enjoyed that Spice Girls CD in 1996, you’re probably still going to find it’s a banger in 2019.
Spotify head of marketing in the U.K., Olga Puzanova, said in a statement about the campaign that Who Wot Why captured the perfect tone both for Spotify and its target audience. “The chemistry with Who Wot Why was immediate,” she said. “They get our brand, they get our tone of voice and, like us, are passionate about using creative storytelling to create and shape human connections.”