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. Retail company TK Maxx has burst out of the starting blocks on both counts, with the first...
Is Gen Z turning away from booze, and what can brands do?
With younger generations taking a different approach to drinking, brands are having to rethink what they’re selling, and how they’re selling it...
The lesser-seen side of 1960s psychedelia’s creative culture
The history of psychedelic design is largely focused on graphics: record sleeves by Hipgnosis, for instance, or that ubiquitous Bob Dylan poster by Milton Glaser. And of course, psychedelic is a sprawling term; encompassing everything from drugs to certain sounds, colours, patterns, clubs, fashion and more. But one aspect of psychedelic counterculture that’s far less visible today is light shows…...
Why horror is experiencing a new golden age
A new exhibition at London’s Somerset House uses horror to tell a subversive tale of British history. Curator Claire Catterall discusses why horror is resonating in the mainstream...
How Liquid Death made canned water cool
It looks like an energy drink and behaves like a beer, but it’s actually just mountain water. Here’s how Liquid Death built a cult-like following with its heavy metal branding...
Clémentine Schneidermann wins this year’s Taylor Wessing prize
Clémentine Schneidermann has been awarded one of the most esteemed prizes in photography, the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, for 2022. The photographer is known for her delightful, collaborative images made with children and teenagers in south Wales, where she is largely based. It’s also where her newly crowned series, Laundry Day, was made. The series features her neighbour, Pauline…...
How food and drinks labels are fuelling waste
We speak to Ryan McGill, founder of Two Degrees Creative, about the problem with recycling symbols on food and drinks packaging – and how design can fix it...
Totally Wired delves into the fast times of the music press
Totally Wired, published by Thames & Hudson, explores the development of the music press between the 50s and the 00s, honing in on particular genres, artists, publications, figures and events that shaped these decades. This time period saw the birth of everything from rock ‘n’ roll and punk to reggae and electronic, R&B and hip-hop – sounds and styles that...
Photographer Eli Durst visualises self-help America
Texas-based photographer Eli Durst examines suburbia and social conditions in his work, and his new book, The Four Pillars, sits firmly at the intersection of those two themes. Several years ago, Durst began to spend time with a faith-based self-help group attended by American suburbanites who had become disillusioned or directionless. The founder of that group gave a lecture which...
Celebrating The Simpsons’ influence on creativity
It feels like a moot point to say that creatives love The Simpsons; it’s a bit like revealing that lots of graphic designers like football, or cut their teeth sketching band logos in their school exercise books. But that doesn’t make it any less joyful when another project comes celebrating America’s favourite two-dimensional family and its influence. Evergreen Fantasies –...
Why Creativity Matters: The role of purpose for brands
Why Creativity Matters is a new talk series from Creative Review which aims to demonstrate the key role that creative thinking and design plays for brands and business, particularly in challenging times. Brand purpose has become an increasingly hot topic for brands over the past decade, as businesses recognise that having a strong positioning attracts loyalty from customers and can...
How vegan brands found their sense of humour
As plant-based brands have boomed, the way they’re branded and advertised has shifted from worthy to funny, sassy, and slightly surreal...