Creative Circle: Tim Brown + Shariar Ghafar

Campaign Brief Asia asks two creative thinkers from the region to highlight recent great work that caught their eye from around Asia and globally. Creative Circle contributors this week are Tim Brown (above left) and Shariar Ghafar (right).

Tim Brown
Creative Director
Superunion Hong Kong
With the long-awaited, ill-fated, 2020-and-a-bit Tokyo Olympics now over, I thought I’d choose two Olympic gold medals of design to reflect on.

Asia: Pictograms have been an integral part of the Olympic design language since Tokyo 1964, where they were originally created to help guide confused visitors at the first Olympics held in Asia.

So almost 60 years later, back in Tokyo, seeing the Olympics pictograms elevated to another level seemed beautifully poetic. 41 competitions, boiled down to a simplified, internationally recognisable symbol and animated in a kinetic design for the first time this year, is a mammoth exercise in craft. But to most outside the design field, it’s invisible, as it should be. It’s functional, useful, necessary. Not exactly fun.

So amid an understandably sombre, fairly low-key opening ceremony, to see the Olympic pictograms brought to life in a way that felt uniquely Japanese, undeniably creative and just fucking fun was an absolute joy. The pantomime style segment, just like some of Japan’s weird and wonderful TV game shows, was expertly executed and despite where we are five years later, fulfilled the sense of excitement I first felt when Shinzo Abe popped out of a big green pipe, wearing Mario’s red cap in Rio. Bonkers. Beautiful.

View the Olympic Pictograms designed by Masaaki Hiromura at the opening ceremony.

Global: Skateboarding is cool. Skateboarding at the Olympics for the first time? Sweet. Nike-designed uniforms for skaters at the Olympics? Rad. But there was something about these events, and this gear that I thought was really refreshing.

Nike designed their gear for each of the four sponsored Nationalities (USA, Brazil, Japan, and France) with an abstract design language that referenced the landscapes of their home country. But it was the way that the gear held together cohesively, despite being individual in colour and pattern, that felt unified, unique. It felt more focused on the authenticity of the sport, the culture it creates, rather than flags, teams and national colours.

Somewhere between sweet street gear and elite sports gear, there was a perfect balance between peak performance Olympians and just some really, really, really talented kids ripping around a skatepark.

The events, both Street and Park, were great to watch, not just because of the tricks and talent on show, but because of how natural it felt for an Olympic event. The camaraderie and togetherness of the skaters, celebrating each other’s tricks and excitedly watching to see who would land what, felt perfectly reflected in the way the uniforms held together like one big team. Team Skateboarding. Gold. And a big win for Nike.

Designed by Piet Parra

Visit the Nike Skateboarding campaign page.

VIEW THE FILM

Shariar Ghafar
Associate Creative Director
Ogilvy Malaysia
Asia: “Tough times don’t define you. They refine you.” This is what the STAY HOME MILES EXCHANGE from Wunderman Thompson Bangkok and Thai Airways embodied for me. Whilst many businesses were hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, it’s hard to beat the shock that the aviation industry felt right from the get-go.

Thai Airways was able to pivot their focus from losses in revenue to staying relevant with their customers by giving them another good reason to stay home – more miles every minute they were at home. Not only did this help in flattening the curve but it also gave people hope to travel again.

VIEW THE STAY HOME MILES EXCHANGE

Global: Art and groceries – who would have thought these two words could make such a fun and brilliant idea. In a time where galleries were forced to close but supermarkets remained open, Bombay Sapphire and The Design Museum in London managed to reinvent itself. They did it in a way that actually beat the system, by turning their art gallery into a supermarket allowing them to legally stay open.

They made ordinary items on the shelf look unique. The hype and traffic they were able to generate was one thing, but I also loved the bold look of the store. Check out the video here.

VIEW THE CREATIVITY IS ESSENTIAL – BOMBAY SAPPHIRE CASE FILM