D&AD’s latest campaign posed a provocative question: Creativity: Dead or Alive? In a series of conversations with leading voices across the industry, they explore the pressures reshaping creative work, such as automation, AI, shrinking budgets, tighter timelines and algorithm-led decisions. It’s less of a dramatic declaration and more an honest temperature check on where we are right now.
For us, the answer is clear: creativity isn’t dead, it’s just transforming. It is us writing this newsletter on things that inspired us, it’s showing up in policy decisions that back artists, in community-led platforms like ‘Reasons to Stay’ that use words to literally save lives, in unbelievable scientific discoveries like repairing nerves with Spider Silk and tiny health-tracking devices. It’s there in stadium-scale storytelling at the Super Bowl, in creating visuals powered by nature and even in online games like Fortnite embracing tactile craft over hyper-polished visuals.
And yes, it’s also being challenged. When AI tools start generating Reddit discourse at scale, the question feels less theoretical and more urgent. So maybe the better question is who (or what) gets to define creativity next. Let’s get into it!
Government support is crucial when it comes to keeping creativity alive, or should we say the creatives. Ireland has just taken a pioneering step by turning its ‘Basic Income for the Arts‘ pilot into a permanent support scheme for creative workers. Following a three-year trial that found artists able to focus more on their work, experience less financial stress and contribute more to cultural activity, the government will now pay 2,000 selected artists a weekly income for three-year cycles.
It’s said to be the first permanent programme of its kind in the world, a rare example of policy recognising that nurturing creativity means more than short-term grants and one-off projects and as a team full of creatives, we’re absolutely here for it and hope other countries feel inspired to follow in Ireland’s steps.
Not all creativity is commercial and Reasons to Stay is a powerful reminder of that. The platform was created by Ben West, a mental health campaigner, who launched it to mark eight years since his brother took his own life. Reasons to Stay invites people to write open letters, sharing their personal reasons for staying alive, creating a growing archive of hope, honesty and human connection. We were extremely touched by Ben’s story and strong will to create the change he wished existed in the world.
Looking at it as designers, it’s a very minimal, simple website but so effective, a letter loads the moment you open it, removing as many barriers as possible for the user. On second glance you’ll find a lot of information, learn about Ben’s mission, how to share the site, as well as helplines and resources. But the primary function remains clear - read a letter, find a reason to stay. It’s creativity used not to sell, but to support and that feels like some of the most important work design can do.
This year’s Super Bowl delivered spectacle in every sense. Bad Bunny’s halftime performance, viewed by record-breaking audiences, stood out not just musically, but visually. Working with creative director Harriet Cuddeford and Yellow Studio, the team transformed the football pitch into a cinematic tribute to Puerto Rico. From landscapes echoing the island’s grassy terrain to architectural and cultural references woven into the set, it felt immersive and intentional. The ambition was to tell a journey rooted in Latino identity, while celebrating universal themes of music, family and togetherness. We felt like the result was more than a performance, it was cultural storytelling on one of the world’s biggest platforms and excellent example of creativity being very much alive.
On the advertising side, Dunkin’ leaned heavily into nostalgia with a fully realised ’90s sitcom universe, directed by Ben Affleck. Starring familiar faces including Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc and Alfonso Ribeiro, the advert plays like a “forgotten masterpiece discovered on VHS”, celebrating Dunkin’s 1995 iced coffee breakthrough moment.
Created with Artists Equity, it’s a clever piece of pop culture “time travel” that taps into our appetite for retro storytelling and Ben Affleck’s fourth Super Bowl ad. What really made it stand out to us is that they took it a step further, releasing limited-edition ’90s merch and 1.995 million free coffees, showing that nowadays brands are not just creating one video ad but building entire worlds and immersive experiences to cut through.
Shifting our focus to creativity in science, one of the most inventive pieces we’ve come across recently involves spider silk in nerve regeneration. Scientists have been experimenting with tubes made from natural fibres, combining spider dragline silk with silkworm silk, to act as a scaffold that guides damaged nerve fibres to grow and reconnect after injury. In animal studies, nerves have been shown to regenerate along these silk “handrails” far more effectively than with traditional methods, thanks to the silk’s biocompatibility and structure that supports cell growth.
We were slightly shocked when our teammate Jenna brought this discovery to us but all ended up agreeing on one thing, it’s an amazing example of using what we already have, nature-inspired materials, to potentially create industry-changing tools for healing and rehabilitation.
A new sensor, the size of a paper clip, could change how we monitor heart conditions. The CardioMEMS HF System, developed by healthcare company Abbott, is implanted directly in an artery between the heart and lung during a minimally invasive procedure. This ultra-small device allows people to track heart health from home, potentially catching issues earlier and reducing hospital visits.
As a studio interested in health and design, we see this as an exciting example of technology becoming unobtrusive in the best way, improving outcomes without demanding attention and showing how clever, small-form innovations could genuinely save lives.
AKQA’s latest project rethinks what a brand identity can be. Instead of starting with static guidelines, the studio developed a “living” visual system powered by real ecosystem sounds. By translating audio data from natural environments into generative design elements, shifting forms, patterns and movements, the identity evolves in response to nature itself. To us, it’s not just aesthetically striking, it’s conceptually powerful.
What we love most is the contrast at the heart of AKQA - using advanced technology to reconnect us with the natural world. Rather than tech pulling us further away, it becomes the bridge back to something organic and alive. Innovation doesn’t always have to feel technical and synthetic, maybe the most forward-thinking ideas are the ones that bring us closer to the planet and our roots.
And then we stumbled across Moltbook, an AI designed to generate Reddit posts that, briefly, made us loose hope. On one level, it’s funny. On another, it’s deeply dystopian. An algorithm trained to simulate messy, opinionated, very-human internet discourse feels like a strange milestone. It made us raise some uncomfortable questions about authorship, authenticity and how much of what we consume online is actually real. If creativity is about human expression, what happens when even our chaos is created by machines?
To end on a positive note, that reflects our true thoughts, we’ve noticed a shift in advertising lately towards the hand-made. A surprising place to spot that was Fortnite’s new trailer, announcing Chappell Roan’s arrival in the game. It didn’t stand out just for the pop culture moment, but for the craft. The trailer leans into a distinctly handmade, tactile aesthetic by using embroidery, 2D anime style animation and stop-motion animation techniques before transitioning to the distinct Fortnite look.
In a space often dominated by polished CGI and AI-generated content, this approach feels very intentional, a solid proof that creativity exists. It’s showing us that to stand out brands are willing to put the time, effort and money needed to create hand-crafted, high-quality visuals. We’ve been noticing this trend, from the Winter Olympics trailer, we mentioned last issue, to now Fortnite, a move back toward visible craft and imperfection and, honestly, we’re really excited about this shift.
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