The Bear & The Hare

The Bear & The Hare,  John Lewis's Christmas advertisement has been making waves across the internet. Some folks are already saying it is the best holiday ad of the season and we haven't even gotten to Thanksgiving yet! Notice how it is part of a larger campaign that not only goes across platforms, but encourages continued interaction with the John Lewis brand.

The way it was made is super cool since it combines traditional hand drawn animation, stop motion, tons of hand made models, and a big laser cutter!

You can read more about The Bear & The Hare on FastCo.Create and there is another making of video  as well as where you can see more of the sets and models.

Update: I was disappointed in their store window displays though. They continued the Bear & Hare theme, but rather than picking up the look and feel of the commercial, they went with giant robot versions of the woodland creatures. The robots are cool looking, but it feels to me like they are violating one of the most important adages of marketing and advertising. Frank Stanton, President of CBS in 1951 said it best, "Just when you're beginning to get bored with what you have done is probably the time it is beginning to be noticed by your audience." It feels like they got bored, or the team in charge of in store wanted to be "original" at the expense of telling a consistent story.

Other cool design this week:

Social Networks Are Making Us Lonely. Really well done motion design by Shimi Cohen.

Five cool book designs via CreativeMarket.

A gorgeous one page scrolling web site from National Geographic about the Kennedy assassination. HT: Methodologie