Canterbury
IRFU 24/25
Insight
Rugby kit launches typically follow the same old formula. It’s usually tacked onto a media day and is a bit of a chore for the players. And that comes across in the same, bland, strict 3-player-rule assets that come out the back of it. We needed to continue Canterbury’s new strategy of showing up differently by injecting a bit of controlled chaos into the mix.
Challenge
How could we create a sense of dynamism and movement within a fairly confined space containing quite a few sizable humans? How could we tell meaningful stories rooted in heritage, but in an aesthetically and emotively contemporary manner? How could we express the personalities behind some of the athletes as economically as possible with little time and limited dialogue?
Change
Unlike in football, the Ireland rugby teams include players from Northern and the Republic of Ireland. We built on this idea of unity by bringing the men, the women and the fans all together as one unit to blur the lines between elite pros and avid supporters. And with this being a shirt to represent all of Ireland, we drew inspiration from locations like Clew Bay, the Cliffs of Moher and The Giants Causeway to project natural patterns on our LED screen backdrop, interspersed with elevated BTS, to create a raw, digital, dynamic energy to cut through the standard category sameness.
Insight
Rugby kit launches typically follow the same old formula. It’s usually tacked onto a media day and is a bit of a chore for the players. And that comes across in the same, bland, strict 3-player-rule assets that come out the back of it. We needed to continue Canterbury’s new strategy of showing up differently by injecting a bit of controlled chaos into the mix.
Challenge
How could we create a sense of dynamism and movement within a fairly confined space containing quite a few sizable humans? How could we tell meaningful stories rooted in heritage, but in an aesthetically and emotively contemporary manner? How could we express the personalities behind some of the athletes as economically as possible with little time and limited dialogue?
Change
Unlike in football, the Ireland rugby teams include players from Northern and the Republic of Ireland. We built on this idea of unity by bringing the men, the women and the fans all together as one unit to blur the lines between elite pros and avid supporters. And with this being a shirt to represent all of Ireland, we drew inspiration from locations like Clew Bay, the Cliffs of Moher and The Giants Causeway to project natural patterns on our LED screen backdrop, interspersed with elevated BTS, to create a raw, digital, dynamic energy to cut through the standard category sameness.
