To reach designers with a passion for typography, Jung von Matt/Alster created a font of their own. Dubbed the “Troja Script”, the font showed a recruitment ad instead of the usual font preview.
After being uploaded to various free font websites, the font generated 14,000 downloads and 23 applications for the open position at the agency.
German ad agency Thjnk and production studio I Made This teamed up to create a unique RGB Billboard that revealed different messages depending on the colored lights.
The billboard featured three different messages in three different colors. Cyan, magenta and yellow. At night, the billboard was lit up by red, green and blue (RGB) light bulbs, which made the different messages visible depending on the shining light bulb.
The red showed the cyan text. The green made the magenta text visible. And the blue light revealed the yellow text. With this simple visual trick, the billboard made the most of its limited space and embodied Ikea’s space-saving message.
The idea leans on a simple perception hack. You print multiple messages in different ink colors, then you control which one becomes dominant by changing the light color that hits the surface.
By switching between red, green, and blue lighting, the billboard effectively “filters” what you see. One physical surface. Multiple readable layers. No moving parts required.
IKEA’s promise often comes down to doing more with less space. This billboard does the same thing. It demonstrates the benefit while delivering the message. The medium becomes the proof.
It is also efficient. One placement delivers three messages, but it still feels coherent because the mechanism is consistent and easy to understand once you see it happen.
What is the IKEA RGB Billboard?
It is a billboard designed to reveal different messages depending on whether it is lit by red, green, or blue light.
Who created it?
German ad agency Thjnk and production studio I Made This.
How many messages did it contain?
Three messages, printed in cyan, magenta, and yellow.
What lighting was used at night?
Red, green, and blue (RGB) light bulbs.
Why was it a good fit for IKEA?
It demonstrated a space-saving principle by making one billboard placement do the work of multiple messages.
DHL’s large network of offices, trucks and employees, makes it faster than most of its competitors. To communicate this through an ad campaign is an expensive proposition. So they got German trojan campaign specialists Jung von Matt/Neckar to make their competitors (UPS, TNT and DPD) unknowingly promote them as the fastest packet delivery service.
Large inconspicuous packets were created and sealed with thermal foil. On being cooled in large refrigerators these packets turned black. UPS, TNT and DPD were then asked to deliver these packets to difficult but central city locations. During delivery these packets were exposed to the warm city temperatures and this caused them turn to yellow and expose the words “DHL is Faster”. 😎
