Stella Artois – Buy a Lady a Drink

In the quest for brands to be more responsible and do the right thing in the market, it becomes more and more important to find a cause people care about that your brand can stand for. If we consider that some brands make more money than entire countries, it becomes pretty important that they take on the same responsibilities that countries do.

What is key is finding the cause that is most closely linked to your brand’s product, assessing what parts of the value chain can be detrimental and working to improve those things. And hopefully helping people at the same time!

That thinking is what makes this initiative from Stella Artois such a strong piece of work. As a beer, it is clear that one of their most important ingredients is water. If a beer brand is ‘taking’ water from society, then surely it should be doing something to mitigate that? Enter Buy a Lady a Drink. In 2015, this initiative gave more than 290 000 people clean drinking water for 5 years through water.org and this year they hope to do even more.

This year, they have developed a full VR experience that you can check out on the site as well as stories of the people affected. It truly is a lovely piece of work, something that makes a real difference in people’s lives – like all the best brands should!

Have a look at the site right over here.

Axe – Find Your Magic

When you think of ads for Axe there are certain things you just expect to see. Guys simply spraying themselves with product and women falling over themselves to get closer, inexorably drawn to the scent of… well… mass-produced deodorant.

That is what makes this new ad for Axe such a departure from their previous work. Here, we are seeing a much more inclusive idea of what it means to be a man in 2016 (and it starts with a great swipe at Old Spice and their muscly, uber-mensch style archetype). We have someone in a wheelchair, a guy in heels doing his thing and even some homosexual flirting in a record shop.

What a great, inclusive way for Axe to reposition themselves as a brand that can appeal to ALL men, no matter how they identify themselves, rather than something appealing to a rather teenage subset of the male fraternity. On top of this, the ad is shot beautifully, with loads of great vignettes and a kickass voiceover to boot. It’s firing on all cylinders.

Go on Axe! Keep doing more of this!

Goodbie Skateboards – Tarot Series

This selection of decks for Goodbie Skateboards by local illustration studio One Horse Town feature the kind of graphics that will get any young kid into design and art into skateboarding (just like all the best skateboard deck designs do).

We love the attention to detail and the quality of the illustration and really we love the subject matter too. Redesigning something as well known as the Tarot deck is no mean feat and One Horse Town have really done something great here.

It’s almost a pity to think that if these are used properly they’ll get all scratched up and beaten over time!

Awesome stuff!

NASA – Visions of the Future

Space has always been cool. That goes without saying. But when you’re NASA in 2016 and you haven’t sent someone to the moon in years, it gets a bit harder to get your brand out there and get kids dreaming. Yes, the International Space Station is a feat of modern engineering and human will, but… it’s not really stepping onto a planet untouched by humans.

This is what makes these posters so exciting. Over and above the nostalgic design, harking back to the 60s and 70s in terms of not only travel posters but also sci-fi illustration, these posters make space seem exciting and fun again. They advertise unknown worlds to us, places no human has ever been to (and honestly, may never get to) but what they really do, is they allow the child within all of us to dream. To put up one of these posters on a bedroom wall and let our imagination run wild.

But you may be asking? Posters – these? On the bedroom wall? How? NASA has made all of these posters (there are 14 in total) available for free download in hi-res. That’s right – you can download them for free, take them down to a print shop and get your very own intergalactic travel poster. It doesn’t get better than that!

To see all of the posters – check out the official download site here

.

Alex Prager – Face In The Crowd

Alex Prager is an American photographer who currently works in California. We love her bright, colourful style with an almost 50s style eye.

Here, we’re sharing parts of her project ‘Face In The Crowd’, which we think is just so exciting. Such busy, but considered compositions that bring to mind highly detailed illustrations like Where’s Wally (without being so childish of course).

Don’t forget to click on her name further up this post to have a look at her other work!

 

Paul Robertson – Illustration and Animation

Paul Robertson is an Australian born illustrator and animator, known for his mastery of pixel art.

We’ve shared just a few of our favourite pieces from his site here, but we do suggest you look at them all.

So much fun!

GoPro – Best of 2015

It’s incredible how photography is evolving and improving, with new camera formats and new ways for people to capture moments in time. While there will always be a place for traditional photography and well-planned shoots, this kind of POV style representation of things the majority of us will never experience (or perhaps have the bravery to try…) is just so exciting.

As the technology improves too, with HD shooting and the like, making great videos and shooting amazing images is becoming democratised. If you have the gear and the will, you can create something amazing.

Now THAT is exciting!

Kakias – Feta Cheese

Don’t let the name fool you… this feta cheese is something special, and we love the fun packaging. Designed by Radical Elements, an agency based in Athens, this brings in elements of a traditional Greek salad in a graphic way.

Who said feta cheese had to be boring?

Yield French Press

Here’s one for the minimalist fans out there! This French Press by Yield, an American design company, uses just what it needs – in both the product and packaging design. We especially love how the minimal design aesthetic runs through the entire project – from the beautiful form of the French Press itself to the minimal, foiled pack.

With something this beautiful, it’s hard to tell whether you should keep the French Press on display or leave it in its packaging!

Sons of Liberty Cards

Dan and Dave is a company that makes high quality, design-forward playing cards. With this project, they commissioned illustrator and designer Jeff Trish to design a deck inspired by the ‘Sons of Liberty’ – the founding fathers of America.

With loads of woodcut-inspired detail, intricate illustrations and a fair share of masonic imagery, these cards are truly a work of art!

Check them all out below!