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Give The Rainbow With Limited Edition Skittles

by Casha Doemland on 04/09/2019 | 3 Minute Read

Every June, companies and brands across the world celebrate Pride, a month-long celebration for members of the LGBTQ+ community by creating limited edition packaging or by donating to a non-profit or charity. Last year, Disney donated 10% off all Rainbow Mickey profits to the Gay and Lesbian Independent School Teachers network, while Milk Makeup created a limited edition Pride Pack that gave 50% of proceeds to The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York City.  And that’s just a few.

Skittles, your favorite colorful bite-sized fruit-flavor candies, have also switched up their iconic packaging every June to show some love. For two years, they opted to "Give the Rainbow" with all black and white packaging, and white skittles.

Now, in 2019, they're taking it one step further with the help of London-based brand and packaging design agency Straight Forward Design and communications agency, adam&eveDDB whose vision involved reaching out to artists from the LGBTQ+ community to design the packaging.

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“We were actively looking for ways to create a deeper connection with the LGBTQ+ community when we discovered that artist Thomas Wolski had created a series of works using the ‘rainbowless’ Skittles packs,” says Mike Foster, Co-founder and Creative Director of Straight Forward Designs. “That got us thinking about working with different artists and creating a collaborative collection.”

So, Straight Forward Design created a template for the pouch and then reached out to four artists, presenting them with a simple question for the brief—what does the Pride flag mean to you?

From there, the ball was entirely in their court to create whatever flowed from their fingertips and onto the page, as long as it fit the dimensions of the pack and didn't exceed the number of colors for printing.

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Fine artist Thomas Wolski created a monochromatic sketch stacked with intricate details and hidden objects that showcase the chaos and excitement of pride, while artist, filmmaker, activist and author Fox Fisher took a more playful approach with different animals kissing in the colors of the rainbow.

Kate Moross, art director, illustrator and graphic designer chose to celebrate the origins of the flag as it shines in the middle of a sunlit sky surrounded by peace, love, life and nature. The fourth and final artist and illustrator, Maia Boakye chose to display the essence of pride with humans dancing and swaying together as one.

While each artist delivered something completely different, all four designs show love and pay homage to the community they're proud to be a part of.  Additionally, the campaign shows the power of collaboration, from the ideation phase by adam&eveDDB to the execution by Straight Forward Design and the four incredibly talented artists.

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