Context.

This project is very close to my heart because I have been working with Crush for over twenty five years. We first met on a global Heineken music project in the late 90s and they have been my go-to design agency ever since. I should call out that Crush looked after all the design and production work themselves, of course. My focus was the initial positioning piece, articulating the importance of ‘craft’, not least in the age of A.I.

Crush is a passionate creative agency. You can feel the love and pride in their work, and that stems from the joy that the studio gets from thinking, making and refining different solutions for different clients. Crush have always experimented with new trends, new tools and new formats, out of pure creative intrigue as much as commercial opportunity.

At a time when A.I. is impacting how people think about design and produce work, Crush wanted to build a fresh agency proposition that would celebrate their own distinctive mindset, skillset and value.

Crush’s True Story.

Technology can enhance creative work, but it can also diminish it. Without experienced specialists in the driving seat, technology can quickly drive the creative edge out of design…the exact thing that design is there to deliver. This technological threat-v- opportunity was the ‘creative tension’ that became the basis for Crush’s new ‘Honour the craft’ proposition.

‘Honour the craft’ is an internal call to action to place human craftsmanship at the centre of the creative process. This is not a defensive anti-AI position, far from it. Within ‘craft’ there is a creative spirit and with that comes an irresistible urge to challenge craft, push craft, test craft, in order to hone it and progress it.

This positioning enables Crush to celebrate the agencies incredible body of experience, highly tuned instinct and desire to keep moving forward in the persuit of ever-better work.

By making the internal ‘Honour the craft’ proposition the client-facing message, Crush invites the client into their specialist world, with a subtle reminder to be very aware of how A.I. needs to be watched carefully by an experienced eye.

Impact.

‘Honour the craft’ opened up a raft of deeper craft-focused messaging that has been rolled out through all Crush comms. It has become a thought-leadership theme for how Crush talks about new work, new advances in design technology and examples of poor craft across the industry.

Honour the craft is a clear articulation of Crush’s bold and passionate creative mindset. Since launch it has received wide praise from the design industry, and the brands Crush works with.