MacLaren McCann doesn’t believe in luck. It has left nothing to chance with its mandate to design Applied Arts’ Advertising & Interactive Awards edition, which went on sale last week.
The agency was invited to design the magazine’s overall theme, cover, editorial content and eight pages around the idea of “What’s Luck Got To Do With It?”
MacLaren “jumped all over” Applied Arts‘ invitation to participate, said senior vice-president and co-creative director Mike Halminen, who headed up the assignment with Sean Davison, the agency’s senior vice-president and co-creative director.
According to Halminen, Applied Arts gave the creative team carte blanche following their initial meeting with the agency about five months ago.
“They said to us, ‘this is your chance to tell your agency’s story.’ Sean and I had been thinking about luck for years, actually, and we finally had a chance to share this whole philosophy of being lucky, the number 13, and McCann’s history,” said Halminen.
The agency’s first office opened on Nov. 13, 1911, and the agency eschews the assumption that 13 is bad luck or that luck has anything to do with advertising success.
Halminen reported that, from a production point of view, things went smoothly, “but we really pushed the craft on this in terms of the photography and typography.”
MacLaren McCann tapped eight staff members in total to work on the project, but hid the work away from everyone else at the shop.
“We wanted to keep it a secret from the other agency staff throughout development,” said Halminen. “Firstly, it’s kind of an unveiling with Applied Arts, but we also wanted to craft something that would be a surprise to the rest of the agency.”
Last year, Rethink Communications was Applied Arts‘ guest agency designer.
