High Five: Sweden

Aaah, Hedvig. This is a nice one. As the challenger on a mission in the home insurance industry, Hedvig stubbornly goes its own way. On the outside, it seems like the creators in the in-house department are simply playing around and making fun stuff, but they still manage to use creativity as a real tool to gain business. This is probably the most successful in-house studio in Sweden at the moment. I do hope we see more like them in the near future, but yes, time will tell. Back to the project! So, an insurance company opened up a store where you got unique objects to decorate your home with, handpicked by interior stylists, when getting home insurance on the spot. Beautiful and quirky objects you couldn’t find elsewhere. It’s just joyous. Insurance can, and should be, emotional. I hope more brands get inspired by exploring their own visual identity as Hedvig does, as they stay true to its core, but love to play around with different outfits. 

When Maisie Williams teamed up with H&M to head towards a more sustainable future, I was intrigued. Not just because of the extravagant film, or the playful way to talk about sustainability within fashion, but also because they’ve managed to merge virtual reality with the more breathable one. Spending time with people who are real but not real in, sort of, a real way, while closing the loop both online and offline on the soothing platform of Animal Crossing. Why? Why not! This is a trend bound to explode and it’s nice to see a local-global brand take the first step with an important mission in mind. Let’s just hope that H&M are able to reach their goal, as the fashion business in general are embarrassingly slow at change. (Sorry, but I’m not wrong. *Looking at every clothing brand in the entire universe, as well as at myself in the mirror after not being able to close the wardrobe, again*). Great stuff, nonetheless.

Tired of Corona ads? Well, here's another one. This one though, manages to use the relevant humour and despair of people that got caught in their very own Corona moment. Meet the involuntary tourists of Sweden as they guide you to what they’ve been up to since they were not able to get back home due to circumstances we all already know. Meet Nikolas, for instance, a circus artist from Canada, who’d just arrived in Sweden to meet up with his brand new girlfriend. And just as the circus tour got cancelled, she dumped him. So what did he do? Explored his temporary home and found joy in various places. Sweden? Totally worth a visit.

There’s one kind of person that I believe that we can all agree that everyone hates. The 'parrot' (or the 'asshole' but that’s not a proper name for an advert). Even the parrot hates other parrots. The parroting behaviour runs deep in some people and those people are everywhere. And in times of a pandemic where a medical tool becomes a necessary new accessory, I wish this was the one that governments would force upon us. (Not that I’m anti-facemasks, I’m simply anti-assholes). It would be so much easier if the parrot itself got called out in public, instead of everyone sitting quietly and waiting for it to be over. And when I’m at it, I’d like to urge people to use Mentimeter, the brand behind this idea, a great tool both for business and pleasure. We use it on a weekly basis at the office, not only because it’s a client of ours and my eminent colleagues made this campaign, but because it’s simply that good.

This is not a campaign, but a new visual identity for Mojang Studios created by Swedish design agency, Bold. Design can be truly powerful, and great communication is built upon the beautiful matrix of extraordinary visual worlds. So, with a love for pixels, they took inspiration from their roots - 3D cubes, old desktop games and the ease of the '80s, mixed and combined in a modern shape. It’s playful, yet organised. It’s old, yet new. It’s bold, yet kind. Let’s all take a short moment and think about the fact that grown-ass people have done this. Grown people are working with this kind of stuff on a daily basis. They get to live in these visual worlds. Me, for once, get a brief moment where I don’t have to think about funnels and quirky yet crystal clear CTAs. (Those are important too! I know!)