Creative Advertising & Typography With Mico Toledo

Was your nail polish once what every darling in Britain painted on? Did the '90s wash what was for over twenty years so ‘spunky’ about your makeup brand? What about your print ad from the '80s with a pseudo-Morrissey: If it looks this good on a man, imagine what it looks like on a girl? Has the print lost its charm? Get your typewriters and easels out. Your pens, Polaroids and rusty radios, too. With a retro TV box playing a catchy tune (You Might Get Stuck On Me), throw in a warm knitwear and pairs of hands, and you get a bracing lot of games. Have fun. Don't even talk about the chemistry set.

Part of the “17 Make Up Songs” ad campaign, the brains behind this video are creatives Mico Toledo and Sasha Markova of Mother London. The ingenious project gives every product launch a new song from up-and-coming artists who get a frame to case songs they write about feelings evoked by 17's stuff.

“My tip for anyone interested in type would be to go deep on the matter. Computers revolutionized the way we look and work with type but also narrowed the mind of a lot of people that started their professional life within the digital age. For me, the truth of type lies in understanding where it comes from to understand where it's going next. Go do a letterpress course, study wood letter press and understand the foundations of this amazing art. You will be able to break the constraints like Carson and so many other people did.” — Mico

You can download these wallpapers at Music Philosophy. Below are excerpts from Miko's To Do Book.

Mico is also a senior art director for “big honcho accounts” like Stella Artois, Ikea, Boots, and Becks. Born from the concern that a continental beer brand wouldn't gain credibility as a cider producer in a market so locally dominated, fictional 'Le President’ of Artois deems it essential to clarify the differences via public service announcements. “We turned Stella Artois’ continental origins into an advantage by announcing we were introducing, a ‘cidre’ not a cider—” cider’s more refined counterpart.

Send us your stuff if you're an art maker— sahara@imposemagazine.com