Guardian 200 Years

In 2021, the Guardian turned 200, and the newspaper wanted to celebrate the milestone with existing readers whilst gaining new subscribers. Instead of celebrating past achievements, the Guardian chose to focus on what comes next.

The campaign uses very clever copywriting and juxtaposition of billboards — Obviously a copy led direction for a newspaper but definitely not obvious copy. Fantastic work by Oliver Agency who have structured themselves to exclusively design, build and run bespoke in-house agencies and marketing systems for brands. This must be a real challenge as a model but they are proving that it works by producing great work like this.

Why NB?

NB Studio

Alan Dye:

A shameless little self publicity movie about NB but it encapsulates how we work. Collaboration is the key – surround yourself with the best wordsmiths, image makers, interior designers, strategists whatever it takes to make the brief in hand shine. In this example we used Michael Wolff voice, James Grahams illustration and Johnny Kelly’s animation all mixed in with NB’s thinking…

Napoli Poster

John McConnell

John Dowling:

‘The solution is in the problem. If you can’t see the solution it’s because you don’t know what the problem is.’ John McConnell

Mothercare

NB Studio

John Dowling:

When you take a brand, established in the 1960s, suffering from both fatigue and increased competition and add design heavyweights like NB Studio, Michael Wolff and Ivan Chermayeff (amongst others) into the mix, this is what you get.

Qantas Safety Video

Qantas & Tourism Australia

Rob Duncan:

Inflight safety videos have been boring for years. The mold was really broken when Virgin Atlantic used fun animations and more recently when Virgin America turned their safety video into a music video. However, this is a clever, completely different idea from Qantas. This could easily have turned into an over emotional start-up type video but it feels very real, sincere and honest. A great reflection of the spirit of the Australian people as well as their country.

MoMA Belong Campaign

MoMA Design Studio

Jeffrey Iacoboni:

The copy-driven membership campaign for MoMA uses the museum as it’s medium to entice visitors to join in unexpected places.

Nike NYC

Triboro

Jeffrey Iacoboni:

New York City is a do-it-yourself place, therefore a Nike promotion for the city had to fit that aesthetic. Hidden within the Nike logotype is unforgettable lettering that marries the two entities.

Moderna Museet

Stockholm Design Lab

Jeffrey Iacoboni:

Using the rich archive of the modern art museum, the identity for Moderna Museet borrows lettering by Robert Rauchenberg from a 1983 exhibition catalogue. The distinct signature works wonderfully on the wide format of the building and is combined with a bold wayfinding system used throughout the small island it is located on.

Nabokov Covers

John Gall

Marc Catala:

Nabokov used to collect butterflies in butterfly boxes. This collection of covers is not only relevant to the content, but also generates a very usefull cover system while producing delicate and meaningful results.