TBWA\Media Arts Lab names James Taylor its first global chief design officer. Before joining TBWA\Media Arts Lab, James Taylor was a creative director at Jones Knowles Ritchie (JKR), where he led work for brands including Dunkin', Foot Locker, Jack Daniel's, School of Visual Arts and UNICEF Editorial Series People moves, company launches, account wins and other business news. TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Apple's dedicated global creative agency, has promoted James Taylor from global head of design to its first-ever global chief design officer. The appointment recognises his role in building creative teams and establishing design as an integral part of how the agency develops ideas across campaigns, identities and experiences. The promotion follows a series of Apple efforts under James' design leadership, including the Cannes Lions Grand Prix-winning Apple TV rebrand and the recently launched Apple Music identity. James joined MAL in 2021 as head of design and became global head of design in 2023. Since joining, he has expanded the agency's design capabilities and helped broaden its creative partnerships. Designers work with writers, art directors and other designers to originate and develop ideas, alongside the traditional writer-art director partnership, with shared ownership of the work from the outset. He also conceived of and continues to lead MAL's São Paulo creative team, which operates as an integral part of the Los Angeles office. Bringing together exceptional talent across disciplines, the team helps originate ideas and shape the work for Apple from concept through to execution. James' approach draws on his background in brand identity, combining foundational design thinking with exceptional craft. It centres on finding a clear, recognisable visual idea and giving it a distinctive expression that can work across formats, languages and cultures. "James has fundamentally evolved and elevated the ideas we create. Design at MAL is neither an afterthought nor a finishing touch. Ideas and design are inseparable," said Brent Anderson, global chief creative officer at TBWA\Media Arts Lab. "James has built a truly remarkable team that lives this principle day in and day out. And this appointment recognises both his leadership and the contribution that team makes for Apple, as well as his vision to expand that contribution across the globe." "Design is a way of finding the idea as much as expressing it. Designers bring an instinct for distilling complexity into something clear and distinctive. Put that thinking together with writers and art directors from the beginning and it opens up different creative possibilities. For Apple, the ambition is always a simple idea, made with extraordinary care. Pragmatic, but artful," said James. Experimentation is central to that approach. For James, making is part of thinking: an experiment with a material, movement or sound can reveal a creative possibility that a sketch or presentation cannot. For Apple TV, glass and light brought the identity to life in camera. For Apple Music, sound moved liquid to generate the visuals, making music the means of creating the identity itself. In both projects, exploring the behaviour of real materials helped shape the final expression. James' work with MAL's teams also includes the bespoke gold artifacts created for Apple Music's 100 Best Albums, the relaunches of MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, and a new interpretation of the AirPods silhouette campaign featuring Harry Styles to showcase Spatial Audio. As global chief design officer, James will continue to report to Brent Anderson and work closely with MAL's creative leadership across Los Angeles, London, Miami, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Seoul and Tokyo. His focus will include developing design talent across the agency and creating more opportunities for designers, writers and art directors to shape work together. "There's a relentlessness across the team at MAL that I love. Some ideas are easy to dismiss before you've had a chance to show what they could become. We keep asking questions, making tests and finding ways forward. Apple Music came from that attitude. The idea was simple; making it possible took curiosity, conviction and a lot of collective ingenuity," said James. Before joining MAL, James was a creative director at Jones Knowles Ritchie (JKR), where he led work for brands including Dunkin', Foot Locker, Jack Daniel's, School of Visual Arts and UNICEF. Earlier in his career, he helped develop the first cohesive brand identity for Zaha Hadid Architects. Over a career spanning more than 20 years, his work has been recognised by D&AD, Cannes Lions, The One Show, the Clios, the Art Directors Club, the Type Directors Club and the One Screen Film Festival. He has shared his approach to design and creativity at D&AD Festival, SXSW, the Fast Company Innovation Festival and other industry forums. "I could not be more excited for the future of every MAL office around the world," said Brent. "James and his team are all obsessively focused on designing ideas that have massive impact all over the world."

Smurfit Westrock develops seven-bottle packaging format for Corona Cero. October 15, 2026 Smurfit Westrock has collaborated with AB InBev and design agency JKR to develop a seven-bottle packaging format for Corona Cero, the alcohol-free version of the Corona beer brand, using a paper-based design intended to support the product's expansion into new markets. The packaging concept, called 7 Days, 7 Moments, is built around the idea of providing one bottle for each day of the week. It combines a distinctive consumer-facing pack with a corrugated transport packaging solution designed to protect the bottles throughout distribution. Smurfit Westrock said the development was completed through its Design2Market process, which brings together structural design, prototyping, testing and manufacturing expertise to shorten the time required to bring new packaging concepts to market. According to the company, the collaboration enabled the partners to evaluate and refine multiple design options before selecting a format suitable for commercial production and international rollout. Arco Berkenbosch, Chief Innovation Officer at Smurfit Westrock, said the objective was to coordinate the different stages of development while keeping the process straightforward for the customer. "The complexity was happening behind the scenes; our goal was to make the journey feel simple," he said. The concept has already been introduced in Colombia and Argentina, with expansion into additional markets under way. The packaging has also received industry recognition, winning the Richard DePaul Award for Creative Converting & Design at the 2026 Paperboard Packaging Council awards in Florida. The development comes as beverage producers respond to increasing consumer interest in alcohol-free alternatives. Smurfit Westrock cited research from IWSR forecasting compound annual growth of 7% in the alcohol-free beverage category through 2028. The collaboration illustrates how packaging manufacturers are working more closely with brand owners to develop formats that combine product presentation, transport protection and commercial flexibility. For Smurfit Westrock, the project also demonstrates the application of its integrated design and production capabilities to international beverage launches where speed to market is an important consideration.