The Edit: five projects including Anak’s brand world for Bettr starring three relatable anti-heroes

Each and every day, we’re lucky to discover dozens of interesting and inspiring projects from around the world. From global identities and campaigns to side projects and independently published books, The Edit is home to five of them; every two weeks. In their brand identity for Bettr, global design practice Anak has created an imaginative world to represent the B Corp specialty coffee company’s commitment to creating real impact. Embracing the messy and difficult aspects of sustainability, the project introduces three imperfect yet relatable anti-heroes – Mervin, Debs, and Sheldon – who inhabit ‘Planet Bettr,’ a planet with plenty of problems just like ours. “Bettr doesn’t shy away from the gritty, painful realities of creating social impact, so our characters are likewise drawn from the real-world problems faced by Bettr’s beneficiaries, workers and customers alike,” explains Creative Partner Lee Hanyi. “Mervin’s liquid drippiness, for example, serves as a visual metaphor for anxiety while Debs is a walking, juggling embodiment of self-doubt/self-confidence. Sheldon’s highly-impractical form speaks to the necessary naivete and optimism you need for trying to ‘Bettr’ the world around you.” These characters are featured across various surfaces, turning every coffee cup, sticker, and packaging tape into a narrative. “Our characters are deliberately weird, neurotic and flawed creatures,” notes Hanyi. “The planet they inhabit is combusting steadily and they always find themselves caught in some unusually precarious scenario.” The identity is tied together with a raw, loose-edged illustration style and a bold logomark, which together communicate the brand’s ‘work-in-progress’ ethos. The look is complete with a bright yet earthy colour palette, inspired by the naturalistic elements of the coffee world, led by a sunny and optimistic yellow hue. Go Pack is a line of CBD supplements tailored to the needs of gamers, with a look developed by Berlin-based studio Navarra.is. “The challenge of creating a reliable lifestyle brand that would incorporate a finely tuned ‘gamer-look’ while still standing out from the common video game and esports aesthetics was one of the main reasons we were interested,” Senior Art Director Christoph Brandes tells us. Drawing inspiration from the concept of ‘Medkits’ in gaming, the visual direction takes cues from medical and pharmaceutical packaging. For example, the logo, designed around the concept of a crosshair, symbolises focus and the subsequent ‘flow state’ of an immersive game. Mirroring the concentration-enhancing and wind-down properties of the supplements, the identity employs a two-colour coded system, with orange representing pre-game focus and green signifying post-game relaxation.