How to Upgrade Your Ad Campaign to an Inclusive Mentorship Programme

Desperados beer recently launched a Design Collective and mentorship platform with Kate Moross. Creative duo Pierre Giles and Ankita Tobit from We Are Pi  chat more about how to turn ad campaign into an inclusive global mentorship program, despite Covid restrictions. 

What is the Desperados Design Collective?

It’s a group of young designers that were hand picked from around Europe. They were selected to create Desperados’ latest campaign under the mentorship of Kate Moross. Desperados is all about being creative and experimenting, so we decided to create party posters for all different Desperados parties that we will hopefully be able to throw and attend in person once things go back to normal.

Why did you create it now?

We realised that the pandemic was hitting artists the hardest. While bigger name artists are weathering the storm, younger, lesser known artists aren’t getting too many big opportunities. We wanted to give these artists a chance to work with a killer mentor, a big platform to showcase their skills while also paying them for their experience. It resulted in some beautiful work, so we’re looking forward to carrying on this platform beyond the pandemic.

Who did you work with to make it happen?

We worked with the incredible Kate Moross, our global design mentor, and eight rising artists from across Europe & Africa to create these bespoke artworks.

- Diana Ejaita (Nigeria)

- MANTODEA (Belgium)

- Lion Sauterleute (Germany)

- Kevin Guedj (France)

- Marco A. Cacioni (United Kingdom)

- Kuki Krzysztof Iwanski (Poland)

- Rosh (Spain)

- Kevin Guedj (France)

- Elza Jo (The Netherlands)

How did you create it?

We started out with us thinking about all the parties we would drink all the different flavours of Desperados at. Then we created a bespoke brief for each of our artists. From house parties, to sweaty warehouse raves to garden parties to pool parties to music festivals, we covered every type of party under the sun and created a poster for them all.

The mentees and Kate spent three weeks crafting their work. Lots of fun back and forth and many learnings along the way that we will definitely take into the next edition.

What did you learn along the way?

We learnt that having a mentor is the key to success on a project like this. They helped bring everyone together, even if it was virtually. Kate also helped our artists navigate the client feedback without getting lost in it or feeling like they had to give up on their own personal style.

That’s a proper collaboration and if you don’t have that you can’t succeed.