Changing the world one Lexus, one sticky note and one 3D billboard at a time
Plus: How COVID-19 unintentionally gave us sabbaticals, fewer remote work managers and ... a lot more murders
This week’s top 10:
Relatable: How do you solve all the world’s crises? You make a to-do list with giant sticky notes and attach them to skyscrapers and the pyramids, like Project Everyone did in the video above. Check out the campaign site here.
Thinking beyond the project: This Fast Company piece asks esteemed creators to discuss the major issues they think need better design on the macro level. And yep, it gets deep: “Design is complicit in the systemic issues of our time. If we can design conspicuous consumption, we can design sustainable consumption with the levers we have to shift behaviors.”
Luxury creations: The match between Lexus and creators – the former of which makes base car models most creators can’t afford – may seem odd at first, but the brand has been going hard on content marketing for years. (Remember any of these?)
How remote work is removing the middle manager (and that’s probably a good thing): “Management has become a title rather than a discipline.” That’s the message from this Atlantic essay about how companies that shift to permanent remote work may get creative when reassessing hierarchies. One alternative proposal mentioned in the piece – a new level of employee who is highly compensated for being outstanding at their niche and mentoring others with similar skills while not having to incorporate bureaucratic skills to reign over an entire division – seems particularly appealing for creatives.
Speaking of work culture: Sabbaticals for all – as opposed to sabbaticals as a long-term perk for veteran employees – are a hot trend right now for forward-thinking companies that can afford to offer them.
Welcome new subscribers! And if someone shared this with you, click the button to getBrandnerdin your inbox every Thursday.Job opening: Want to be a hand model? Frank’s RedHot is holding a contest on TikTok.
Six letters, one color: A fun, self-guided tutorial to the method behind the creation of hex colors.
Expect more of this: You may remember the 3D lion billboard from last fall. Brands – in this case a collaboration between Balenciaga and Fortnite creator Epic Games – are taking advantage of that tech worldwide. The billboard activation above has been running in cities on three continents.
Flip phones 4 life: This conversation between tech-resistant author Dave Eggers and tech journo Kara Swisher on their views of how FAANG companies are eating the world was a fun back and forth.
So all that social isolation meant … more killing?: If you missed it this morning, the NYT story on murders rising nearly 30% nationwide last year is worth the double take (no paywall). Though, as the first chart in the story will show, we’re still killing each other at a far lower rate than we were between the late 1960s and early 1990s. So … good job everyone?
See you next Thursday.