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Clean beauty gets a genderless new look

Acla, Switzerland

Zurich – Acla is a gender-neutral, sustainable beauty brand with a graphic identity that reflects the industry’s new visual direction.

The first product from the personal care line is a pH-balanced Solid Shampoo Bar that is suitable for all hair types and packaged without plastic. The company also sells an aluminium container for storing and transporting the bar while travelling, as well as a hand-crafted tray made from clay for home storage. All of the brand's ingredients are derived naturally and processed in the Acla Workshop, a scientific lab in the heart of Zurich.

It’s the company’s striking visual identity, however, that's its most intriguing component. Less earthy and more high-tech, the company's graphics borrow from the worlds of science and design.

As we have previously seen with alternative protein company Geltor, the demand for ingredient transparency is leading to a new aesthetic identity in the beauty industry.

Strategic opportunity

Beauty companies should consider updating their branding to express their commitment to science and ingredient transparency

This online tool visualises your thoughts

Think in Colour by Knack. Design by Mutant, Belgium

Belgium – A tool by news magazine Knack, Think in Colour, asks people a series of questions to create a 3D shape that visualises the way their mind works.

Users visiting Knack’s website will be presented with a questionnaire that asks how they feel about various statements, ranging from ‘I have friends with radically different views about politics’ to ‘I like to do things that are a bit frightening’, and thus determining everything from open-mindedness to passion for taking risks. As users work through the questionnaire, they are assigned a shape that then morphs, changing texture, colour and movement depending on their answers.

Eventually, users can download a JPEG or GIF of their shape, allowing them to consider the nuances of opinion in a more interactive way. The questions were conceived in collaboration with psychologists at the University of Brussels (VUB). ‘We’re dealing with people’s thoughts here, so we spent a lot of time conversing with the people at the VUB to guarantee a relevant, well thought out tool and not a gimmick,’ says Odin Saillé, founder of creative agency Mutant.

By visualising people’s inner emotions, the project takes a more design-led approach to our microtrend Modern Therapy.

Strategic opportunity

Increasingly, our mental wellbeing will be something we can visualise tangibly. How could these shapes be used in gaming or digital worlds, for example?

BBC Proms celebrates the music of video games

London – For the first time in the music event’s history, video game music will be performed at BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall this summer.

Orchestral selections and interpretations of soundtracks across gaming history, including The Legend of Zelda, Shadow of the Colossus and Battlefield 2042, will be performed on 1 August. ‘We’ve always very happily put on concerts of film music, [but] I think if I’m honest we haven’t felt it was quite the right moment to put on a gaming music prom until now, because we were still waiting for a lot of composers to enter this field, explains David Pickard, director of the Proms.

One of the event’s key goals is to entice the burgeoning gaming community, which is largely composed of people aged 18 to 44, to become a valuable new audience for symphonic music. Given that the gaming sector now dwarfs the film industry in terms of annual revenue, the initiative is a shrewd attempt to remain relevant among younger generations.

Meta Café by Harry Nuriev, Crosby Studios and Repossi, France

Strategic opportunity

How can other cultural institutions that have been affected by the pandemic learn from the Proms’ approach to attracting younger audiences?

Stat: Shoppers are open to slower e-commerce deliveries

Uncommon Store, South Korea

Hyper-convenient delivery is being substituted for more sustainable shopping behaviours, according to a new US study by Blue Yonder. According to the report on Consumer Sustainability, more than three-quarters (86%) of consumers are willing to delay e-commerce deliveries for the sake of improving sustainability. Some are willing to wait up to five days, or even a week; however, they say they must be given an incentive to do so.

‘As retail emerges from pandemic-era practices, sustainability is back in focus,’ explains Edward Wong, senior vice-president of the global retail sector at Blue Yonder. ‘The findings of this study reflect the paradigm shift towards a more environmentally friendly supply chain as consumers are now willing to do their part to embrace more sustainable shopping habits.’

Accelerating e-commerce and demands for expedited delivery are forcing a new framework that puts eco-conscious practices at the centre of retail operations. Read our Eco-venience Retail macrotrend for more.