WINNER
Self, Made,
by Collins, for Exploratorium Museum
Collins’ ongoing design partnership with The Exploratorium museum of science, technology, and arts in San Francisco saw it create the marketing campaign for its summer 2019 exhibition, ‘Self, Made’, which examined human identity. The campaign centred on questions such as: “What makes us introverts or extroverts? Feel privileged or persecuted? What we're born with versus what we become? What makes you, you?”
Exploring the idea that each of us is made of innumerable variations of “experiences, emotions, environments, DNA, teachers, music, and more”, Collins’ approach was to see identity as an “evolving collage, not a photograph”.
The studio had no budget to commission photography or illustration, so created collages in-house that merge cultural influences, natural phenomena and abstraction to “encourage viewers to go beyond the surface level of appearance and explore the depths of personality, predisposition, and self-perception.” The work launched with a three-month in-person and online campaign across San Francisco, and Collins also collaborated with the internal exhibition team to integrate wayfinding, merchandising, giveaways and posters into a coherent experience.
The judges said: “This is something refreshing and new. A lovely type approach across the work and vibrant, diverse collage creative that gives the exhibition a distinct identity.”
Marvel Postage Stamps
by Interabang, for Royal Mail
Royal Mail commissioned Interabang to create a set of 10 special stamps and a miniature sheet featuring five stamps celebrating some of the most iconic superheroes in the Marvel universe. In a bid to ensure authenticity, the studio brought in Alan Davis, the British artist behind comics including Captain Britain and The Uncanny X-Men. The main stamps were deliberately kept “clean and uncluttered” to showcase the characters, says Interabang, but came complete with a sheet of stickers bearing catchphrases, sound effects and logos for users to embellish and customise them, meaning they could appeal to everyone from children to collectors. The miniature sheet features a 10-panel comic book strip “in which the Mad Titan, Thanos, launches a deadly attack on the world,” Interabang explains. The strip incorporates stand-alone stamps as frames within the visual narrative drawn by Davis.
PRINT COMMUNICATIONS
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Mortgage Kama Sutra
by Uncommon Creative Studio, for Habito
Uncommon Creative Studio wanted to bring a little spice
to its campaign for mortgage broker and lender Habito, commissioning graphic artist Noma Bar to illustrate its print campaign, Mortgage Kama Sutra.
Described as a “light-hearted, adult-only, take on the types of financial language and terms that buyers often struggle with”; among the illustrations are Down-payment Doggy and The Prime Rate Python. The agency came up with the concept after research found nearly half a million Britons admitted that getting a new mortgage stressed them out so much they weren’t intimate with their partner during the entire process, with one in 20 people saying it even led to their sleeping in separate rooms.
Nomad – EP Sleeve Designs
by Baxter & Bailey, for Nomad
Contemporary classical music imprint Nomad Music Productions was launched in 2019 by Galya Bisengalieva, a Kazakh-British violinist and leader of the London Contemporary Orchestra.
The label aims to “methodically broaden the parameters of contemporary classical music” through releasing music rooted in classical but which embraces new technologies and unusual collaborations.
Baxter & Bailey created an identity for Nomad based on this “genre-busting” approach while also drawing inspiration from “the often ebullient and kinetic world of electronic music,” says the studio.
Through explorations of graphic systems that create an “eclectic visual approach, underpinned by a consistency of typography and structure”, the team arrived at a “fluid and shape-shifting identity” with a “nomadic” logotype designed to roam freely across digital and printed touchpoints.
The underpinning system ensures that no two Nomad releases are visually the same: a consistently locked initial N allows the remaining letterforms of the Nomad logotype to “slip and slide across the physical or digital packaging”; and the design of each release can be tailored to reflect the nature of the recording.
Video Game Stamps
by Bitmap Books and Supple Studio, for Royal Mail
Bitmap Books and Supple Studio collaborated on a Special Stamp issue from Royal Mail showcasing some of the most iconic success stories in the British video game industry. Each stamp features a single game on a particular system such as space simulator Elite, Sensible Soccer and racer game WipeOut featured on systems such as the BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum and Sony PlayStation.
Each image was painstakingly selected from hundreds of screenshots taken for the commission that showcase each game in a way that aimed to induce as much nostalgia as possible in viewers. Each stamp includes game titles and dates created using actual typefaces of the games to remain faithful to their original designs. As a nod to the ‘Easter egg’ hidden messages that programmers added into games for fun, hidden messages in special inks are used across the stamps appropriate to each game (such as “GOAL!” on the Sensible Soccer stamp) which can be revealed under UV light. The presentation pack uses ZX Spectrum-inspired fluorescent ink and a series of descriptions of each game written by
famed mullet-sporting games journalist Julian 'Jaz' Rignall.
Impact Measurement: The People Behind The Numbers
by Manifesto Studios, for 60 Decibels
60 Decibels (named after the volume of the human voice when speaking) is a company launched by Acumen in 2019 that collects and analyses customer and sector-specific data using mostly phone- based surveys to measure social impact across the world.
In early 2020, Manifesto Studios was commissioned to design 60 Decibels’ first report; which needed to “celebrate the voice” of the individual customer while also providing detailed metrics and analytics. The aim of the report was that it would elevate the brand’s identity and become a useful tool going forward. The studio’s approach was to illustrate the company’s stories with smart use of spacing, and to showcase unedited quotations throughout the document. The consultancy had to use existing photography “of varying quality”, so it created a design system allowing these to work together through careful cropping and curation. Imagery aims to tell a” filmic story” often through using the same image rescaled and re-cropped. A new bold brand colour palette is shown full-bleed on messaging spreads to reinforce the identity alongside a distinct set of icons.
