JKR

Today marks the 250th anniversary of Arthur Guinness signing the lease on his Dublin brewery. And at one minute to six (1759, the year in question) this evening, around the world, Guinness are kicking off music events and celebrations to mark the date.

Yesterday on the blog we were downcast at the amount of brands wallowing in nostalgia rather than looking to the future. But this is no mere backwards look – the iconography for the event has a fresh contemporary feel, and the celebrations have an eye on the brand’s future rather than its glorious past. For example, along with the partying, a charitable fund is being set up by the brand worth £5m to empower individuals to better their communities.

Guinness 250 Anniversary from jones knowles ritchie on Vimeo.

The identity for the event itself has some really nice versions such as this screen saver by Red Urban agency (see above). We don’t use our blog to promote jkr work, because we aren’t trying to sell anything here, but to be transparent, The Greenspace created the logo, and we have been responsible for the off-pack manifestation with the flexible wave of dots, which has itself been adopted and applied by many local agencies.

Above is the press campaign created by Saatchi X, and below is the ad campaign by
Saatchi & Saatchi.

jkr designed a celebration stout for the year…

And, while not a specific part of the anniversary celebrations, the Guinness Draught in can has also been redesigned by jkr, aiming to make it a more powerful badge in the drinker’s hand:

So apologies if today we appear to be patting ourselves on the back – the truth is that many agencies and markets all over the world have played a role in making today significant for the brand, and that’s the remarkable story we wanted to share…