As we enter a new year, we highlight some of the creatives that inspired us the most in 2016.
February
February seemed to kick start the 2016 desire for global brands to have a bit of a redesign. McDonald’s team of agencies redesigned their packaging, treating them as ‘mobile billboards’ and, for some reason, fashion accessories. Budweiser did a little strip back, while Uber updated their branding to celebrate ‘our technology and the cities we serve’
May
The very talented lettering artist Oli Frape dropped in to our office in May to show a few of us his glorious portfolio of commercial and personal work. A small group of interested designers very quickly swelled to a much larger crowd, as he talked about how he creates his gorgeous hand-drawn script for a huge variety of projects.
June
A few RY designers went to hear two of our design heroes, Morag Mysercough and Camille Walala give a talk at the St Bride’s Foundation. Both designers are known for their bold use of colour and geometric forms. Through the evening we were treated to a wonderful journey through the visual development of their careers.
August
Art director Kouhei Nakama’s released Cycle exploring the human form through a range of physics-based particle animation.
September
The Summer Olympics in Rio brought about a rich array of infographics and detailed break downs so we could all relive the moments over and over. Our favourites included New York Times’ composite photos showing decisive moments and their scrollable narrative of Simone Biles’ Olympic journey.
November
Christmas adverts were in full force come November. John Lewis went for a cute, jumping dog. We all felt that Buzz the boxer was much better than Buster though. Obviously hoping (along with most of the rest of us) that Hillary was going to win, M&S have gone for Mrs Claus. Aldi’s Kevin the Carrot wants to meet Santa. Young girl (with a haircut we all had when we were younger) waits for the Waitrose’ Robin. And Sainsbury’s for some reason features the singing James Corden