Artists Help The Brand Agency Bring Multiple Sclerosis Stories to Life

The ‘Pictures of MS’ campaign, created by The Brand Agency, takes the real life experiences of three people at different stages of MS and brings their stories to life using the talents of three different international artists.

Dave Bugden, general manager brand, marketing and sales at MSWA, said that one of the challenges with MS is that most people don’t understand what it is like to live with this incurable condition.

“We asked The Brand Agency to tell the stories of people living with low, medium and high impact MS and show the diversity of the condition. We need people to understand not only the depth of the problem but also to give hope and show that there are ways we can all help,” said Bugden.

The creative team of Steve Straw, Kat Mercer and David Donald had the idea of visually demonstrating the way MS affects different people at different stages.

“We asked three international artists to give their interpretation of these stories, and tell them in their own way,” said art director David Donald.

“The idea was to share these three very personal stories, allowing the artist to capture the different experiences that people with MS have and how MSWA has helped each of them in different ways.”

Each piece of art links to the story being shared and being a print campaign it lets readers take the time to absorb the content.

The first two pieces of art have been completed.

‘John’s Story’ was created by renowned Spanish artist Cristina Guitian. Born in Madrid in 1981, Cristina studied illustration, then moved to London where she developed her own style, which earned her commissions with Nike and The Guardian.

The second ad is called ‘Maddy’s Story’, told by Asphyxia Victoria, an Australian artist, circus performer, puppeteer and writer. Asphyxia’s art is female oriented and very emotive, making her the perfect choice fort telling 25 year old Maddy’s story in a unique way.

The underlying theme of the campaign, ‘Every person with MS has their own story. With your help, we can tell a better one’, is designed to educate the public about MS and encourage people to visit the MSWA website and donate to help fund vital research and to provide support and services for people with MS.