The challenge

The best of the creative industry in Spain is condensed in the Spanish Advertising Annual, a document published every year by the Club de Creatividad (CDC) –a non-profit organisation made up of the top influential members of local advertising in charge of selecting the most significant commercial communication projects broadcasted the previous year.

With a history of more than 20 years, this document has become a “cult” object historically edited by the most prestigious studios in the country. For its XXIII edition, the CDC has commissioned Studio Banana the complete creative direction and development of this yearbook, from the realisation of its visual and conceptual system to the choice of materials and the photographic production, edition, and printing as well as the execution of its launch campaign.

The outcome

A sounding board for the most creative ideas in the sector.

An authentic collector’s item designed to transcend.

An iconic visual system that manages to capture the attention of a highly demanding community and empathise through a bright, spacious and impressive concept: Inspiration.

This act so intrinsic to our profession, as vital and characteristic of the human being– is present on each page of this high-end book, successfully translating our constant drive to generate impactful and meaningful experiences.

The XXIII Spanish Advertising Annual includes the best advertising communication projects broadcasted in 2021, selected by a jury of 41 professionals. To give meaning and purpose to the challenge of creating this annual tribute, Studio Banana undertook a long and fluid process of research and documentation. The definitive proposal revolves around a great central axis that configures the personality and authenticity of this document: inspiration.

“There’s a certain way of exploring -prior to what we acknowledge- from which it is possible, without knowing how a thing is, knowing it. This way of knowing is so open that it admits different forms, without for that reason it is still known what it is like.

This foreknowledge or scent is my guide in the unknown, in what is desidered, in what is necessary. I never argue with him a priori and I never stop a posteriori.”

Eduardo Chillida –Spanish Sculptor

Case and cover: the camera obscura

To materialise the concept of inspiration and its light effect, we designed a sort of camera obscura. Following the idea of a closed box and a small hole through which a minimal amount of light enters projecting the image of the outside on the opposite side, the yearbook consists of a robust, quality black case with a die cut allowing the reader to sense but not see; thus evoking the metaphor of inspiration and the arrival of ideas  to our mind.

“Inspiration and its result come like a lightning bolt when taking the book out of its case; illuminating through its colour, its physicality, its beauty and, above all, its content –the best works of Spanish advertising of 2022.”

Veronica de la Sierra –Art Director at Studio Banana

A closer visual proposal

One of the main objectives of the design was to give space and size to the projects´photographs –the main protagonists of the yearbook. To achieve this, each double page alternates the photographic composition with the typographic composition, thus forming diagonals generating dynamism.

To give visibility to the jury behind the selection of the projects that make up the yearbook, we carried out a photo session aimed at obtaining two contrasting portraits of each member that would later be combined and retouched in monochrome colours: a classic and formal American close-up and a more spontaneous one in which each person was encouraged to convey their relationship with inspiration, resulting in a variety of postures and gestures.

The texts and the title pages

For the title pages we used graphic resources drawn in a synthetic way and built with colour palettes that gently fade from warm to cold tones until the chromatic circle is  closed.  In most cases, the texts occupy diagonal spaces on a double page with two columns –one for Spanish and one for English– and are further differentiated by the body of the text. The technical facts occupy four columns to optimise space and visualise its hierarchy in a different way. 

The identification of prizes and the back cover

Through a colour gradient effect on the spine (which evokes the mixture of the different “metals”) we indicate the prizes awarded by the jury to each project, while we use coloured circles for the prizes awarded by the jury in each category.

The subtlety of the dry stroke marks the “c of c” logo, with greenish-bluish tones as a gradient background.