Need to Know
20 : 08 : 19

US – The digital payment platform commissioned illustrator Sebastian Curi to rethink the aesthetic of peer-to-peer payments.

Venmo, which lets friends transfer money to each other, has developed the brand’s visual identity to match the energy of its user base. The 50 illustrations created by Curi aim to reflect the stories behind every payment, whether last-minute concert tickets, ‘a dollar to say hi’ or the £5.6m ($6.8m, €6.1m) spent by Venmo users on pizza in 2018.

‘The number of illustrations intend to show variety and diversity through the arc of scenes and characters,' explains Curi. ‘The entirety of the graphic system celebrates friendships in all their forms and empowers connections without losing a consistent look and a clear visual style.’

Venmo’s colourful identity re-imagines the visual cues of the fintech industry for a new generation of consumers. For more, read our design direction Fluid Capital.

Margate – Natural skincare brand Haeckels has launched biodegradable packaging for selected products.

As part of its continuing efforts to make its packaging plastic-free, Haeckels has developed two plant-based materials to package its candles and oil sets. The UK brand’s mycelium packaging uses mushroom roots, which grow in a mould around a mix of sawdust, flax and hemp husks, and its seed paper is made from recycled paper pulp mixed with wild flower seeds.

Both materials are used to create packaging that adds vital nutrients back into the ground as it biodegrades – a concept that the brand calls ‘biocontribution’. The mycelium packaging can be re-used, composted or planted in the garden to improve soil quality, while the seed paper will germinate and grow if placed on top of a pot of compost and watered. According to Haeckels, these all-natural packaging solutions mark ‘a huge step in a positive direction for us as a brand’.

In our Material Far Futures report, we consider how innovators are using material science to turn environmental excess into valuable new resources.

London – The conceptual project visualises the journey of bananas from their origins to supermarket shelves.

Created by designers Björn Steinar Blumenstein and Johanna Seelemann, Banana Story is a collection of alternative ‘made-in’ labels for the world’s most popular fruit. While the small stickers used by exporting brands cannot communicate the complexity of a banana’s journey around the globe, the project’s proposed labels seek to illustrate the entire supply chain and people involved at each stage.

Now on show at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Food: Bigger than the Plate exhibition, the project calls for supermarkets to embrace the complex back story of a foodstuff that’s easily taken for granted. ‘A journey, halfway over the globe, is lost in the bananas’ new magical scenery: the supermarket,’ reads the press release. ‘Any evidence of the 33 people that handled it along the way remains hidden.’

Our global supply chains, hidden from sight, are made to seem less vulnerable than they are. Our macrotrend Uprooted Diets explores how brands can educate consumers on the processes behind the food we eat.

People are increasingly turning to user-generated video content to learn about the lives of others, according to a US study by Google and Omnicom Media Group. While online video content is often used as entertainment or news sources, 51% of people say they feel the need to connect with – and better understand – others through video content.

According to the study, this desire to learn about the lives of ordinary people is exemplified by the rise in uploads of day in the life videos on YouTube, which show the mundane moments of people’s daily routines. According to Google, creators of these films range from college students to celebrities, who have uploaded more than 50,000 such videos to date in 2019.

As a push back against glossy entertainment and influencer content, viewers are finding solace in relatable content created by and for ordinary people. Read our microtrend Everyteen TV for more.