Uniqlo On The March
Uniqlo’s latest online campaign features a line of plaid-clad models on a never-ending march
The Changing Face of Letterpress
The London College of Communication (formerly London College of Printing) has a history rooted deeply in print, design and industry
Design Indaba Blog: Nobumichi Tosa
By way of a summation of the array of ideas at his disposal, Adam and Joe’s BBC3 profile of artist Nobumichi Tosa and his Meiwa Denki organisation is well worth a look here. Tosa just performed at the Design Indaba and, via a series of videos, went through many of his Nonsense Machines that have delighted audiences all over the world. While his singing robots (who have working vocal cords made of rubber) were actually quite moving, one of my favourite pieces would have to be his “machine for moving a dead fish”. Yep, that’s really all it does. But then, it does do it very well indeed.
Great New Videos
When I Grow Up by Fever Ray, directed by Martin de Thurah
Here’s a round-up of great new videos to help ease you to the end of the working week. We kick of with a moody number for Fever Ray track When I Grow Up, directed by Martin de Thurah.
All Aboard For 100 Minutes Of Havana
Regular readers of CR may recall we showcased a selection of art pieces created for the 100 Pieces of Havana project curated by design studio Intercity (co-founded by ex-CR art director, Nathan Gale) in our August issue last year. Now Intercity has worked again with rum brand Havana Club on the next iteration of the project: 100 Minutes of Havana – a live, one-off art battle set to take place next Wednesday 4 March at East London’s railway arch venue, Village Underground. A selection of the artists due to take part in the art-off next week met up at the venue earlier this week to have a practice session, customising one of the four underground train carriages that sit atop the venue…
Design Indaba Blog: Day Two
Day two of Cape Town’s Design Indaba began very promisingly, with a demonstration of the best that South African animation has to offer. Jannes Hendrikz and Markus Smit from The Black Heart Gang showed their beautiful 2006 short film, The Tale of How. The Black Heart Gang are interesting in that they’re just a trio comprised of a video-maker, an illustrator, and a writer/musician and that, between them, have produced such well-crafted and involving work…
Awww: Viral Factory Plays Cute Animal Card for Samsung
Dontcha just love animals doing cute things? A dancefloor for chicks, computer screen for rabbits or puppy photo booth – just some of the suggested uses for the new Samsung Ultra Touch s8300 (why do phones have such rubbish names?) in this new ad from The Viral Factory. Click through to watch it.
Design Indaba Blog: Day One
A real human presence: two of Rick Valicenti’s Notes to Self
Although not driven by any explicit theme, today’s opening series of lectures at the 12th Design Indaba in Cape Town proved to have a common thread in invoking the human being at the centre of the creative process. In his closing address earlier this evening, Bruce Mau extended this pervasive thought with an impassioned talk on how our core senses of “love and ambition” will be critical in helping inspire change through design: change that, Mau believes, is encouragingly already beginning to take root…
New Cravendale ads and more nice work
Bad Bull for Cravendale, agency: Wieden + Kennedy London
Here’s a round-up of great ads that have passed through CR Towers of late, beginning with
Wieden + Kennedy London’s latest for Cravendale. The ad is another collaboration with surreal Belgian stop motion animators Pic Pic Andre and sees a bad bull enter the Cravendale Milk Bar and cause chaos…
A Library Full Of Dead Trees
Reading material in Crawley’s brand new library building is not restricted to the pages of the books on its shelves, thanks to a series of typographic tree sculptures created by artist Gordon Young and a team of collaborators that includes design studio Why Not Associates…
Record Sleeves Of The Month
Berlin-based design studio, Hort’s work on record sleeves invariably floats our boat and we love the batch of sleeves they’ve recently produced for Jazzanova’s album Of All The Things (which actually came out late last year) and singles Let Me Show Ya and I Can See. We’ve also picked out the latest Rune Grammofon release, the new Prodigy album artwork, and also a vinyl box set released by sports brand Nike in honour of one of its most revered sneakers…
Back to 1948: Nike’s New London Store
Last Friday, CR was invited back to 1948 – a new Nike store located under a railway arch in London’s Shoreditch. We found that what was merely a “pop-up store” last time we visited in August last year is now a rather groovy, permanent retail space, cleverly designed by brothers Oscar and Ben Wilson (aka The Wilson Brothers), for the brand to showcase and sell future Nike Sportswear (NSW) collections and extra special Tier Zero products…
Creative Review’s Annual Awards 2025 are officially open for entries
One of the most respected and trusted awards for the advertising and design industries are back for 2025. Run, don’t walk to get your entries in before the Early Bird Deadline on 25 October
How to scale your design business
Growth is a dream for many businesses, but it comes with challenges. Daisy Crowder, brand and marketing director at design recruitment agency Craft, offers advice on how to navigate the change and keep staff on side
Cultivating community with Ganni
The Danish luxury fashion label has spearheaded the characterful evolution of Scandi style. Here, chief brand officer Priya Matadeen discusses its approach to collabs, the pressures of being a responsible brand, and how Ganni Girls grew from a hashtag to a badge of belonging
Why are brands apologising so much right now?
Brands are saying sorry at a more rapid rate than ever. CR’s advertising columnist Ben Kay delves into why sorry is no longer the hardest word and whether this is an effective strategy for winning audiences
How Guinness embraced social
By loosening its approach to advertising, and engaging with its audience directly, the drinks brand has transformed with the times and won a whole new set of fans
Tracing Banksy’s art history remixes
Kelly Grovier’s new book charts the artist’s persistent dialogue with classic and contemporary art
How Lego creates meaningful brand experiences
We speak to Lego’s VP of global brand development Alero Akuya about the brand’s rare ability to straddle the physical and virtual worlds with ease – whether through its immersive new art exhibition in Paris or collaborations with Epic Games and Nike
Matt Willey brings a human touch to Kaos titles
The Pentagram partner has created the titles for the acclaimed new Netflix show, which reimagines the Greek myths in a contemporary setting
A visual history of movie posters
A new book from Reel Art Press collates the first comprehensive history of film posters. We explore why they remain an underappreciated area of cultural design
The Monthly Interview: Rob Lowe, aka Supermundane
Mark Sinclair talks to the artist and designer about his new book, Lost Ordinary Magic, and the importance of recognising the power of simplicity and the everyday wonders that surround us
Unravelling adland’s obsession with 90s nostalgia
We explore how the 90s, an era the UK looks favourably upon for its thriving culture, are continually inspiring a stagnated creative industry
Building the visual world of Fontaines DC
The band’s surreal new album visuals explore a darker, more grotesque side of romance. We speak to the creative team behind the campaign about challenging the visual tropes of rock music