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Creative Currents
Design and marketing brilliance, curated for graphic designers who want to stay sharp and a step ahead.
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Catch up on the latest current
Apple Music Audio Vibrations Made Real
As a brand that caters to creatives who are unhappy with AI stealing their art, Apple is pushing hard on human-made art in their marketing.
Their latest is a new brand animation for Apple Music that includes a behind the scenes video showing how they created the animation using real audio vibrations in a mineral liquid. It's a fascinating, hands-on, tactile approach to creating beautiful visuals with meaning and depth to them.
It says in their video description: Go behind the scenes of Made by Sound.
A story of music, collaboration and craft with Fred again.. and NEST Acoustics. Discover how sound brought the Apple Music logo to life, captured entirely in camera. Just music, made visible.
Their latest is a new brand animation for Apple Music that includes a behind the scenes video showing how they created the animation using real audio vibrations in a mineral liquid. It's a fascinating, hands-on, tactile approach to creating beautiful visuals with meaning and depth to them.
It says in their video description: Go behind the scenes of Made by Sound.
A story of music, collaboration and craft with Fred again.. and NEST Acoustics. Discover how sound brought the Apple Music logo to life, captured entirely in camera. Just music, made visible.
The Laughing Cow Stops Laughing
Cheese brand, The Laughing Cow, temporarily replaced their logo with a sad cow. The cheese wedge brand did this as a commentary on the wedges driven between people. So many small things such as sports cause issues and arguments between people, spreading them apart.
This is a reminder of the impact a brand can have in spreading messages and the creative power of adjusting your logo based on circumstances.
Source: Instagram @brandinquirer
This is a reminder of the impact a brand can have in spreading messages and the creative power of adjusting your logo based on circumstances.
Source: Instagram @brandinquirer
Out Of Office Design Trend
A fun use of product replacing the 3 O's in OOO designs.
Even without a product-based business, this could work for Pesach with 3 matzahs, for purim with 3 glasses of wine, for Rosh Hashana with 3 apple slices and honey, or for Chanukah with donuts or latkes.
Even without a product-based business, this could work for Pesach with 3 matzahs, for purim with 3 glasses of wine, for Rosh Hashana with 3 apple slices and honey, or for Chanukah with donuts or latkes.
New Rebrand: Calendly Case Study
Read from the design agency behind the rebrand - the overarching theme and focus that guided each design decision from the symbol and word mark customization to the icon set, animation, colors, and fonts. In an age of quick AI slop, t's a pleasure to see how much thought went into every detail of this brand. And it shows the power of a well-expressed and explained case study in helping people understand the depth of the design.
Adobe acquires Topaz Labs
Adobe says that Topaz will remain its own product, not locked under a Creative Cloud subscription. But they will hopefully start integrating some of Topaz's capabilities into Adobe. This could lead to some impressive advancements in Photoshop and Firefly.
The Rise of Childlike Illustrations in Marketing
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
As AI makes design and marketing more clean and robotic, the imperfect human touch is becoming more appealing in marketing.
Source: Instagram @becauseofmarketing
As AI makes design and marketing more clean and robotic, the imperfect human touch is becoming more appealing in marketing.
Source: Instagram @becauseofmarketing
Billboard Marketing Mystery
Instead of creating a flat design about their new product, Poppi covered the entire billboard in peel-off stickers. People interacted with it, had fun, filmed it, talked about it. Spread word of mouth to all of their friends and social media followings - all without Poppi paying any influencers or for any (additional) ads.
Source: Instagram @primepulse.inc
Source: Instagram @primepulse.inc
What actually constitutes a design revision?
This is a topic that often trips up designers.
You create a great design, contract includes two rounds of revisions, the client sends so many changes it would basically require redoing the entire design from scratch. Is that a revision? Or a totally new concept to be charged as a new project?
Kady Sandel lists here how she specifies what is included as a revision and what is not within her contract. So your client understands the expectations from the get-go.
Original source: Instagram @kadysandel
You create a great design, contract includes two rounds of revisions, the client sends so many changes it would basically require redoing the entire design from scratch. Is that a revision? Or a totally new concept to be charged as a new project?
Kady Sandel lists here how she specifies what is included as a revision and what is not within her contract. So your client understands the expectations from the get-go.
Original source: Instagram @kadysandel
Nutrition brand ditches AI-generated product shots for oil paintings
The sports nutrition brand commissioned four hand-painted still lifes to double down on its ‘no-shortcuts’ mindset
With AI-generated imagery becoming an increasingly routine part of branded work, Puresport has decided to go against the grain with a distinctly traditional campaign. The London-based sports nutrition and running culture brand has launched its Pomegranate Ultra Electrolytes with Team GB Olympic silver medallist Amy Hunt via a series of original still-life paintings.
For Puresport, the campaign is less about making a statement about technology and more about emphasising the belief that there is no shortcut to greatness.
With AI-generated imagery becoming an increasingly routine part of branded work, Puresport has decided to go against the grain with a distinctly traditional campaign. The London-based sports nutrition and running culture brand has launched its Pomegranate Ultra Electrolytes with Team GB Olympic silver medallist Amy Hunt via a series of original still-life paintings.
For Puresport, the campaign is less about making a statement about technology and more about emphasising the belief that there is no shortcut to greatness.
Flodesk 2026 Email Marketing Trends Report
The 2026 email marketing trends that actually apply to you, pulled from 14 billion emails sent by real small businesses.
When Copywriters Make Brands Unignorable
The messaging around these ads is that the copy is what makes them so great.
I'd argue that the design is doing a lot of work here as well. The fonts chosen, colors, layout all come together with tremendous restraint to subtly reinforce the message and allow the text to shine.
Just goes to show - even with the best copywriting, the design still matters. You don't get GREAT work without the two of them BOTH being great (*ahem* I'm looking at you, generic AI-generated websites and flyers).
Source: Instagram @adversestories
I'd argue that the design is doing a lot of work here as well. The fonts chosen, colors, layout all come together with tremendous restraint to subtly reinforce the message and allow the text to shine.
Just goes to show - even with the best copywriting, the design still matters. You don't get GREAT work without the two of them BOTH being great (*ahem* I'm looking at you, generic AI-generated websites and flyers).
Source: Instagram @adversestories
6 Ways to get more button clicks
6 Tips - Some of these were really interesting - like adding rounding to your buttons. I still choose the amount of rounding based on the client or campaign branding and what matches best, but now I try to always add at least a tiny bit of corner rounding instead of keeping it at a perfect 90 degree point.
Source: Instagram @dirty.copy
Source: Instagram @dirty.copy
New Rebrand: Go Fund Me
After acquiring Classy, the leading nonprofit fundraising platform, GoFundMe faced a pivotal moment: its product expanded deeper into nonprofit giving, yet its brand still reflected its early peer-to-peer roots. Drawing on existing equity, we were tasked with evolving the identity into a modern, product-informed brand that signals progress and GoFundMe’s leadership in this next chapter of fundraising.
By uniting individuals and nonprofits in one place, GoFundMe is helping move humankind forward with unprecedented impact and scale. Our brand idea, ‘Help Adds Up,’ captures the feeling of life-changing progress powered by community.
The identity transforms GoFundMe’s most recognizable asset—the goal bar—into a dynamic progress circle. This circle radiates into an arc, or ray, that sits at the heart of the logo and acts as a unifying device across the system, creating a sense of narrative momentum and shared progress.
By shifting from a purely sympathetic tone to a guiding one, the brand empowers action at every level and demonstrates that when individuals come together, every bit of help adds up to real, positive change.
You can check out the case study by the design studio, Koto.
By uniting individuals and nonprofits in one place, GoFundMe is helping move humankind forward with unprecedented impact and scale. Our brand idea, ‘Help Adds Up,’ captures the feeling of life-changing progress powered by community.
The identity transforms GoFundMe’s most recognizable asset—the goal bar—into a dynamic progress circle. This circle radiates into an arc, or ray, that sits at the heart of the logo and acts as a unifying device across the system, creating a sense of narrative momentum and shared progress.
By shifting from a purely sympathetic tone to a guiding one, the brand empowers action at every level and demonstrates that when individuals come together, every bit of help adds up to real, positive change.
You can check out the case study by the design studio, Koto.
This could have been a voicenote
Heineken discovered an interesting quirk in their audience in Brazil - those people sent 4x as many long voice notes to their family and friends. So they capitalized on this seemingly random factoid and created an entire campaign around it: scan a QR code on a billboard and it'll take you to a chat with Heineken. Send them an absurdly long voice note that someone sent you and they'll send you a voucher for a free beer.
Why it worked:
The campaign focused on a universal human experience we can all relate to (listening to long, unnecessary voice notes)
Everyone wants something free! This campaign brought new customers in the door and also brought back returning customers through a unique, personal experience bound to be remembered long-term.
It gave them a platform to position themselves on / an enemy to be against, giving them a stronger foothold in people's memories, a stickier brand.
Why it worked:
The campaign focused on a universal human experience we can all relate to (listening to long, unnecessary voice notes)
Everyone wants something free! This campaign brought new customers in the door and also brought back returning customers through a unique, personal experience bound to be remembered long-term.
It gave them a platform to position themselves on / an enemy to be against, giving them a stronger foothold in people's memories, a stickier brand.
Is messy design the new minimalism?
There's a new rise in organic, messy, authentic-feeling design. For a decade or two clean minimalism was the trend. Now the pendulum is swinging back to busy designs. Designs that feel human, that AI can't generate.
This is also the trend with social media: where the standard used to be carefully curated grids, it's now raw, authentic, daily living - the highs and the lows.
It seems like in general with the rise of technology in our lives, people are craving human connection more than ever.
Source: @samsoedesign
This is also the trend with social media: where the standard used to be carefully curated grids, it's now raw, authentic, daily living - the highs and the lows.
It seems like in general with the rise of technology in our lives, people are craving human connection more than ever.
Source: @samsoedesign
New Rebrand: Etsy
In the design agency's words, the rebrand goal was "to weave the art of discovery through every element of Etsy—from visual identity to marketing assets to digital product. In an e-commerce space increasingly devoid of any humanity at all, we set the foundation for a brand and product that celebrates being human."
Design-wise they softened the logotype, making the curves feel more natural, and enclosed the logo within an orange square meant to symbolize "starting points." The square then becomes a repeating element throughout their brand designs.
My favorite part is seeing how they apply the branding to new marketing materials such as billboards and digital/status ads - how they've updated both:
- The visuals (emphasizing shapes and variety), and also
- The messaging (emphasizing the human touch and homemade aspect)
to keep everything aligned to their specific business goal for the rebrand (overcoming the negative perception from the AI slop and cheap Chinese knock-offs flooding their marketplace).
(Only time will tell if a rebrand can actually fix this issue - as opposed to putting in place measures to improve the quality of their product/marketplace 🤔 - or if it will end up mostly being an external aesthetic improvement...)
Design-wise they softened the logotype, making the curves feel more natural, and enclosed the logo within an orange square meant to symbolize "starting points." The square then becomes a repeating element throughout their brand designs.
My favorite part is seeing how they apply the branding to new marketing materials such as billboards and digital/status ads - how they've updated both:
- The visuals (emphasizing shapes and variety), and also
- The messaging (emphasizing the human touch and homemade aspect)
to keep everything aligned to their specific business goal for the rebrand (overcoming the negative perception from the AI slop and cheap Chinese knock-offs flooding their marketplace).
(Only time will tell if a rebrand can actually fix this issue - as opposed to putting in place measures to improve the quality of their product/marketplace 🤔 - or if it will end up mostly being an external aesthetic improvement...)
Creative Ad Concepts Around AI
When there's a hot topic everyone is talking about, it can be a great concept for an ad that will interest a broader audience:
Sources: Instagram @roiinmarketing, Ads of the World, Marketing Brew
As Marketing Brew put it: "brands want to jump in on generative AI, whether to prop it up or make fun of it."
Sources: Instagram @roiinmarketing, Ads of the World, Marketing Brew
As Marketing Brew put it: "brands want to jump in on generative AI, whether to prop it up or make fun of it."
More KitKat Marketing Goodness
Now that we're talking about KitKat (see last week's post :) here's a great billboard design they created. Excellent integration of visuals and copy into a cohesive concept.
Source: Instagram @adswithbenefits
Source: Instagram @adswithbenefits
Newsjacking - Brands Ride the KitKat Heist Hype
12 Tons of KitKat chocolate bars were stolen - other brands were fast to react on social media.
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