Brand Day London: Greenpeace and Lovers show how branding can inspire positive change.
How do brands stay relevant in an era of continuous digital transformation? Brand Day London aimed to answer that question and many more with case studies from leading global brands. Lovers, the London design collective, along with their client, Greenpeace, presented their campaign, End Ocean Plastics, that aims to drive awareness of ocean pollution and drive urgent change.
Lovers is aptly named for their mission, which founder and Creative Director Alex Ostrowski described as, “An ongoing experiment. Only do work that you’re head over heels about.” With a global workforce that is comprised of over 80% freelancers, Lovers aims to connect its designers with companies, projects and missions that they feel passionate about.
Integrity and flexibility are integral to powerful branding
When answering Greenpeace’s RFP, Ostrowski had a designer in mind who had previously expressed interest in working with Greenpeace. Unsurprisingly, having someone with genuine dedication to Greenpeace and the cause to work on the pitch differentiated Lovers from their competitors. Marcela Teran, the Art & Editorial Coordinator at Greenpeace who ran the project said, “Lovers presented something different in their pitch. And that was integrity.”
Lovers’ approach to the project began with literally pulling trash from the Thames Estuary in London to use as the inspirational foundation for the campaign. From there, they designed a custom typeface that had the appearance of plastic that had been weathered by a life in the ocean. In addition to the typeface, Lovers produced a flexible creative toolkit that multiple teams across Greenpeace and its supporters could use to promote the campaign’s call-to-action. It was critical that Greenpeace could take the creative elements Lovers provided and transform them to fit new campaign needs over time, as Marcela noted, “We are exposed to so many messages, part of the challenge was to create an identity that wouldn’t fatigue.”