Need to Know
18 : 02 : 20

Barcelona – Next month’s annual creative summit will focus on the vital need for brands to respond to the global environmental emergency.

Over the weekend, 400 designers and creative thinkers will tackle the 2020 theme The Weirdness of Interdependencies. The aim, according to co-founders Lucy Black-Swan and Andres Colmenares, is to evolve the digital economy and understand its role as a strategic eco-system to address environmental concerns, in turn producing viable solutions.

Speakers such as Katja Bego, principal researcher at Nesta’s technology futures team, and Christie Morgan, art director and founder of Pitch Studios, will address the theme, as well as IAM Weekend’s overarching Everything Manifesto. According to Black-Swan and Colmenares, the manifesto is ‘a thought experiment for the next billion seconds’ and ‘a collection of proposals for changing humans’ complicated relationship with change’.

LS:N Global will be reporting live from IAM Weekend 2020, on 19–21 March. For more information on the speaker line-up and tickets, click here.

US – Mantl is catering for bald and balding men with a new range offering grooming products for the face and scalp.

The line is designed to nourish and care for the skin amid the stressors of modern life, and includes a cleanser, moisturiser, daily SPF and no-shine sheets. As well as offering functional products, Mantl also aims to empower men to embrace their baldness, providing a sense of community through its social media channels and Medium blog posts.

A further ambition of Mantl is to challenge stereotypes and outdated ideas about masculinity. Karamo Brown, the brand’s co-founder says: ‘My reputation and passion for supporting mental health extends to the development of Mantl – this brand catalyses and nurtures a conversation around what it means to be an attractive man who is bald or balding, ultimately empowering men who are dealing with this reality.’

As we explore in Modern Male Medicare, new pharmaceutical brands are increasingly helping to destigmatise men’s personal care through online platforms and communities.

A study by Kantar has revealed that green transport is on the rise and will represent nearly half (49%) of all trips taken in 2030.

The research, which asked 20,000 city dwellers across 31 cities how they anticipate their mobility might change over the next 10 years, forecasts that cycling will increase globally by 18% – becoming the fastest-growing mode of transport – while walking will jump 15% and public transport use by 6%.

It identified 10 global cities that will see the biggest transformation in terms of greener transport – Manchester in the UK, Moscow, São Paulo, Paris, Johannesburg, Guangzhou, Milan, Montreal, Amsterdam and Shanghai. According to Kantar, the results indicate how city dwellers and planners will need to rethink the ways that streets and urban mobility are organised in the future.

For more on the future of transport and changes in urban design and the key considerations for governments and brands, read our report on How Will AVs Impact Urban Design.