A shiny red can that reads “Coca-Cola” and a whole list of ingredients: carbonated water, sugar, caramel, phosphoric acid, caffeine and natural flavorings. Coca-Cola is all about the magic of good taste & flavor – and apparently something highly secret. The natural flavorings are a unique blend of vegetable extracts and spices from around the world. Coca-Cola has never told what the 7 secret ingredients are, and this “Merchandise 7X” has remained the world’s most famous trade secret since Coca-Cola’s invention in 1886.

When John Stith Pemberton sold the first glass of Coca-Cola in his pharmacy in 1886, he was entering a new market for soda fountain tonics that promised health benefits along with refreshment. In 1869, Pemberton already experimented extensively with extracts of the coca leaf and kola nut, initially marketing a moderately successful health drink called “French Wine Coca.” Fifteen years later, one of Pemberton’s partners, Frank M. Robinson, invented the name Coca-Cola, derived from its central ingredients. Robinson also registered the product’s famous script logo. A marketing phenomenon was born.

From that day on, there has always been a mystique about the “secret formula” of Coca-Cola. Folklore even said that the original beverage contained cocaine, at least until the “Pure Food and Drugs Act” was voted in 1906. The official position of the Coca-Cola Company, however, is that the drink contained extracts of the coca leaf, but never the drug. Over the years, the Coke’s attorneys have fought in court to protect Coca-Cola’s secret formula. It’s been said that the ingredient list is kept in a security vault in a bank in Atlanta, Georgia and only a few employees know the full recipe, and those employees are not allowed to fly on the same plane and cannot be left alone with strangers while they are together. Over the years, Coca-Cola’s secret formula has been the subject of books, speculation and marketing lore.

But the real “secret ingredients” reach far above vegetable extracts or spices. Coca-Cola’s true magic is all about love, perspective, universality, friendship, purpose, humor and optimism. It’s a way of living spontaneous & finding happiness. It’s the belief that together we can create a more positive reality, where global love and joy rule supreme.

The current global “The Coke Side of Life” advertising campaign invites people to live in full color and listen to their hearts. The “Coke Side” is the positive side of life and focusses on universal experiences. Coke is probably the most famous cultural icon that links people from all-over the world. At its core, the concept of sharing is the purest essence of Coca-Cola. Drinking a Coca-Cola brings people from different nationalities, cultures and walks of life together. “The Pause that Refreshes” is a universal language and global connector, happiness in a bottle.

Coca-Cola Remix Art: “Universal Love on the Coke Side of Life” by Yker Moreno / DJ Spinbalon.

What makes a website great? Information, interactivity, freebies, … A sense of humor can help too. But what makes a website really compelling is that it’s useful, relevant & engaging for the visitors.
When Coca-Cola Brazil was looking to bring their website to the next level they put all their trust in Grïngo, an award-winning multimedia agency based in São Paulo and true visionaries in the interactive field. Over the last year, Grïngo has been creating a huge buzz for Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Light & Coca-Cola Zero with several extremely popular and anticipated projects. If you want to see flashes of genius & get some real cool web action, check out the links below. Expect the unexpected!

Coca-Cola Zero Celular

Karaokê Coca-Cola Zero

Coca-Cola Clothing Dance

Coca-Cola Light – Sabores do Mundo

This is the time for goblins and bats,
Weird-happenings and witches brew,
Halloween spirits, ghosts and cats…

Halloween has always been a holiday filled with superstition, magic and mystery. When European immigrants came to live & work in the USA in the 2nd half of the 19th century, they brought a variation of “Hallow’s eve” traditions with them. The beliefs & customs of different nationalities mixed with local celebrations of American Indians, and soon the American version of Halloween was born. Neighbors would celebrate the harvest, lit bonfires, share spooky stories about ghost and witchcrafts, have some drinks, dance & sing.

At the turn of the century, “Hallow’s eve” aka Halloween lost most of its superstitious overtone and the fearsome and malevolent ghost -stories were replaced by parades and town-wide parties. From 1920, the centuries-old Irish practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Americans began to dress up in festive costumes and go from house to house, asking for sweets or money. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Over the years, Halloween has become a significant part of American culture. Today, Halloween is the second-largest commercial holiday in the United States (next to Christmas) with Americans spending an estimated 8.2 billion annually on candy, gifts, decoration and costumes.

The Halloween tradition of dressing in costume has ancient Celtic roots. Many centuries ago, winter was a very uncertain and frightening time. The short and cold days of winter were full of constant worry. Many people were afraid that their food supplies would not be sufficient, were afraid of the dark and frightened by the evil spirits out there. To avoid that the ghosts would recognize them, the Celts started to wear masks when they left their houses so that the mean spirits would mistake them for fellow ghosts. On Halloween, they would also place bowls of food on their doorstep, to appease the ghosts and prevent them from trying to enter their homes.

Today, most trick-or-treaters and Halloween party people have forgotten about the original traditions and beliefs. Few people really know for example when or why the pumpkin carving practice began. With the “Happy Halloween” campaign, Coca-Cola focuses on the roots of “Hallow’s eve” and brings the story of Jack O’Lantern aka “Stingy Jack” back into the spotlight.

Jack O’Lantern illustration by Daniël Maas.

Stingy Jack grew up in a small Irish village were he quickly earned the reputation of being clever as well as lazy. Instead of working, he preferred to relax under his favorite tree, a solitary oak. In order to earn an “easy shilling” to spend in the local pubs, Jack gambled and played tricks on everyone: friends, family and even his mother.
One Halloween, the time came for Jack to die and the devil arrived to take his soul. According to the Irish myth, Jack invited the devil to have a last drink together. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn’t want to pay for the drinks, so he convinced the devil to transform himself in a coin that Jack could use to pay for their drinks. The devil agreed, but Jack decided to keep this “devil coin” in his pocket next to a silver cross, preventing the devil to change back into his original shape. Jack would not let the devil free until he was promised another year of life.

The next Halloween, the devil appeared again to claim Jack’s soul, and again Jack bargained, this time challenging the devil to a game of dice, a game that he excelled at. The devil threw two ones and was about to win, but Jack used a pair of dice he had whittled himself. Jack threw two threes, forming the T-shape of a cross and once again he had the devil in his power and he bargained for more time.

The year rolled around to another Halloween. This time, Jack tricked the devil into climbing in an apple tree. Once the devil was up there, Jack hurriedly placed crosses around the trunk, making it impossible for the devil to get down. After some time, the devil came with the deal that he would never take Jack’s soul, so Jack removed the crosses and let the devil go.

Years later, death took Jack by surprise. When jack arrived in front of the gates of heaven, St. Peter would not let such an evil character enter. The devil, still upset by all the tricks that Jack had played on him, kept indeed his word and didn’t allow Jack into hell. Jack was sent back into the cold & dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack placed the coal in a hollowed out turnip, a vegetable he always carried around whenever he could steal one. From that day on, Jack and his carved-out turnip lived as a pair of inseparatable twins, the vegetable lighting Jack’s way as he roamed the earth without a resting place.

The Irish started to refer to this scary personage as “Jack of the Lantern,” and then, simply “Jack O’Lantern”. On Halloween, they carved scary faces into turnips, potatoes, rutabagas, gourds or large beets and placed them in front of their houses to scare away Stingy Jack and ward off other evil spirits. European immigrants brought the Stingy Jack tradition with them when they moved to the US. They quickly discovered that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, were bigger and easier to carve out. So they started to use pumpkins, making perfect Jack O’Lanterns.

DOWNLOAD THE COCA-COLA “HAPPY HALLOWEEN” WALLPAPERS HERE:

Halloween is coming. Carve some pumpkins, take the torches, cauldrons, masks & skeletons from the closet & dress up as Batman, a candy corn witch, devil grrrl, clone trooper or a black widow. And what is Halloween without a scary Halloween wallpaper on your desktop? You can download these free Coca-Cola Art “Happy Halloween” wallpapers by clicking on the link under the artwork. The Coke Art Halloween wallpapers are available in 600×800, 1024×768 and 1280×960 screen resolution sizes.

Please read our Terms of Use before downloading any wallpapers from the Coca-Cola Art Gallery website.

http://www.popandroll.com/Coca-Cola-Art_Halloween1.zip

http://www.popandroll.com/Coca-Cola-Art_Halloween2.zip

http://www.popandroll.com/Coca-Cola-Art_Halloween3.zip

How to install? FireFox Users: Right-click your mouse on the Coca-Cola Art wallpaper and select “Set As Desktop Background”. Then click on the “Set Desktop Background” button. Internet Explorer Users: Right-click your mouse on the Coke Art wallpaper and select “Set As Background”. Mac Users: Drag and drop the Coca-Cola Art wallpaper onto your desktop. Do this by clicking your mouse on the Halloween wallpaper, hold down the button while you drag your mouse onto your desktop, then release the mouse button. Your desktop will have to be visible on your screen so you can drag your mouse onto it. And in the meantime, keep an eye out for these spooky pumpkins!

The Coca-Cola Halloween wallpapers (all artworks, illustrations, graphic designs, photo footage & images) are for personal use only.

“Coca-Cola” ®, “Coke” ®, the “Dynamic Ribbon Device” ® and the design of the “Coca-Cola Contour Bottle” ® are registered trademarks of The Coca-Cola Company. © The Coca-Cola Company, 2008 – All rights reserved.

Give your desktop an all new Coke Art look! If you are getting bored with your current wallpaper, we’ve got some cool & exclusive Coca-Cola artworks to spice up your desktop. The Coca-Cola Art Gallery contains 12 specially designed free wallpapers by various famous artists and graphic designers.
You can download this collection of high quality Coca-Cola Music & Nightlife wallpapers by clicking on the link under the artwork. The Coke Art wallpapers come in a range of popular formats, featuring 600×800, 1024×768 and 1280×960 resolutions. If you want the wallpaper in standard 1024×768 format, you can also drag and drop the image to your desktop.

Please read our Terms of Use before downloading any artworks from the Coca-Cola Art Gallery website.

http://www.popandroll.com/Coca-Cola_Nightlife1.zip

http://www.popandroll.com/Coca-Cola_Nightlife2.zip

http://www.popandroll.com/Coca-Cola_Nightlife3.zip

http://www.popandroll.com/Coca-Cola_Nightlife4.zip

This zip contains both versions of the Coca-Cola Art wallpapers: http://www.popandroll.com/Coca-Cola_Nightlife5.zip

The zip contains the 2 versions of the Coke Art Gallery wallpapers: http://www.popandroll.com/Coca-Cola_Nightlife5.zip

http://www.popandroll.com/Coca-Cola_Nightlife7.zip

http://www.popandroll.com/Coca-Cola_Nightlife8.zip

http://www.popandroll.com/Coca-Cola_Nightlife9.zip

http://www.popandroll.com/Coca-Cola_Nightlife10.zip

You can download more creative, beautiful & exclusive Coca-Cola Music & Summer Festival wallpapers here.

The Coke Art Music & Nightlife wallpapers (all artworks, graphic designs, illustrations, images & photo footage) are for personal use only.

“Coca-Cola” ®, “Coke” ®, the “Dynamic Ribbon Device” ® and the design of the “Coca-Cola Contour Bottle” ® are registered trademarks of The Coca-Cola Company. © The Coca-Cola Company, 2008 – All rights reserved. Graphic Design by RockAndRoll Agency © 2005-2008.

With the “Coke Side of Life campaign, Coca-Cola proves once again to be in tune with the world’s most current trends in visual arts, design, motion graphics, lifestyle, music & nightlife. Thanks to the company’s amazing efforts (bar & club activations, venue branding, VJ-sets, the limited aluminum Coke M5 & WE8 bottles series, …), Coca-Cola is now an important ingredient in nightlife all over the world.

In nightlife, it’s all about the vibes, about being a trendsetter amongst the cool, about being seen in the limelight. Dress, dance, dare – go wild! But sometimes, it’s cool just to “chill”.
Since the late ‘90s, long working hours and hectic lifestyles have generated a huge boom in lounge & chill places: trendy bars, clubs or restaurants with a relaxed atmosphere, glamorous and luxurious interior design and a large selection of food & drinks.

Another cool aspect of the lounge trend is the diversity of the music. Lounge tunes have the soul of jazz, the sexiness of funk, elements of early house music, all mixed with today’s electronic symphony of sounds. Successful lounge cd-series as Hotel Costes, Buddha Bar, Sinners Lounge, Cafe Del Mar, Supperclub, Hed Kandi Chilled, Cafe Ibiza or Bargroove have sold million of copies. And the trend is far from being over. Every week, there’s another grand opening somewhere of a fabulous lounge bar, club or restaurant – the last one even more spectacular than the one before.

Actually, there is nothing really new here. The term “lounge” dates back to the 16th century (in the sense of “a place of relaxation”) and in the 19th century ‘lounging’ became very popular. Ok, the places weren’t exactly designed by Stephane Dupoux or Karim Rashid but they served hot tea, poured some cool drinks and there was some nice music, too. The type of music played in this kind of waiting rooms and cocktail bars was the lounge music of those days, oldies-but-goldies piano tunes – often with a touch of Swing.
Prohibition forced the consumption of alcohol into private clubs and gave birth to an entirely new culture of secret underground lounges.

The late Fifties and the swinging Sixties were the golden age of “lounging”. People wanted a break from their 9-to-5 stress and the gastronomical wasteland of the TV dinner, so they escaped to their favorite lounge and lead an imagined glamorous & libertine lifestyle in their oasis of choice, even if it was only for a couple of hours.
While some of the lounge music was truly slow, there was lot of uptempo too: music from movies or TV shows, and various exotic genres such as Bossa Nova, Cha-Cha-Cha & Mambo. Lounges became popular sites for socializing and spending a lazy afternoon or evening out.

In the late 1980’s, a lounge revival takes off. US bars & clubs are decorated with tiki masks, fish nets, palms & other kitsch & camp goodies. TV’s are stacked on top of each other like modern totem poles, each screen silently showing fifties lounge heroes as Sinatra (Frank or Nancy), Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett, Sam Butera, Wayne Newton & Co. Las Vegas classics flow smoothly through jazz standards & exotic grooves.

Halfway the Nineties, Europe took over and set new trends. The current way of bundling music with design can be traced back to Paris, with the debuts of the original Buddha Bar and Hôtel Costes. The rest of the world would follow fast…

Lounges have changed a lot from the Fifties to the present. Every lounge is different, but every lounge creates its own sense of lounge-ness. To cite marketing expert Shane Keller: “It’s a way of being. It is about flowing through life just like the music flows and floats into our feelings and emotions. It is about being with your friends and sharing moments of pleasure”.

The artworks to illustrate this post are “Nightlife Remixes” by “Coke Art Gallery” of vintage Coca-Cola advertising (1920-1960).
All Rights Reserved. © The Coca-Cola Company.

Siggi Eggertsson is a young graphic designer/illustrator, with already a huge amount of work under his belt.
Born in Akureyri, a small town on the north coast of Iceland in 1984, Eggertsson was raised by his mother, who is also an artist. When Siggi was 15 years old, he started to “fool around” with design programs, making posters for music concerts and art exhibitions.
To quote Lou Reed & John Cale (from their Andy Warhol tribute “Songs for Drella”): “When you’re growing up in a small town/You know that you want to get out”. There was indeed no Picasso or Michelangelo coming from Akureyri, so when Eggertsson was 18 he was getting a bit bored and applied for the Graphic Design Dept. of the Iceland Academy of the Arts. He got accepted, so he moved to Reykjavík.
To broad his horizons, Siggi did an internship at the New York design studio Karlssonwilker, lived and worked in Berlin before ending up in London.
Eggertsson quickly started to make a name for himself in international design, art and media circles. In 2006, Print magazine ranked him as one of the 20 most promising designers under 30 years old. His works have also been featured in many books and magazines as Computer Arts, Clark and Dazed & Confused.

Eggertsson’s influences are varied and eclectic, from ancient Viking, Egyptian and Roman art, classical painters like Matisse, Legér and Picasso to the current music scene. He also feels inspired by people as Stefan Sagmeister, Peter Saville, Robbie Williams and Vincent Gallo – the way they think, their lifestyles and their approaches to creativity.

Siggi had the luck to do projects for bands as Zoot Woman, The Delays, Gnarls Barkley, … and open-minded brands as H&M, Nike and Stüssy. Still he feels that his self-initiated work is more important than anything else. It’s where he can experiment and push his style in new directions.
During his stay in Berlin, he created his own version of the cityscape in true Impressionist tradition but instead of taking a canvas outside, he created his artwork directly on his computer.

Eggertsson has a very simple yet very original and recognizable style. He begins an illustration with a sketch on grid paper, and adds abstraction and color later, fusing linear into pixilated shapes. His muted take on geometric & symmetric shapes and curving lines results in impressionistic jigsaw puzzles. Very ‘fresh’ and ‘now’, glorious pop art for the years 2000. “It’s still developing and I’m really interested in how far I can take the style,” he tells. We’re curious & looking forward to see his new work and projects.

Berlin, En Plein Air
“I’ve drawn this image on top of a 12 floor building in Friedrichshain. The battery in my computer does not last for ever, so I had to do it in several turns. I used Illustrator while I was drawing the image, and the colouring was done afterwards in Photoshop. This is an ongoing project”.

Patchwork Quilt
“This is a quilt I made for my graduation project in The Iceland Academy of the Arts. It’s based on my childhood memories and it’s made out of 10.000 pieces”.

Polar Bear & Tiger

Peter & the Wolf
“An illustration for one of my favorite children stories”.

Poster for Zoot Woman

Album Cover & Concert Poster for Gnarls Barkley

Coke Side of Life Posters: Op Art, Pop Art, Minimalism & Surrealism

Eggertsson did 4 posters for Coca-Cola (through Armchair Media). “I was playing with color and shape. Later I realized that each poster is similar to an art movement. The first one is Pop Art, the second one refers to Minimalism, third one is kind of Surrealist and the last one Op Art.”

You can see more of Eggertson’s art on his Vanillusaft website.

Brazilian-born Rubens LP remembers spending hours as a child drawing comic heroes like Wolverine, Superman, Batman and the X-men with his father. But even though he stopped drawing for a number of years after that, somehow that passion never left him, and by the time he was in college he was drawing all the time.
Exhibitions of Dali, Picasso, Miró and the Brazilian artist Aldemir Martins also made a strong impression on him. One glance at his works show that despite its contemporary outlook, there’s a traditional heart beating within.

For Rubens LP, creating artwork is about inspiring people, and true art has a unique kind of beauty. It’s never about the money, but it’s always about being true to yourself.
LP also loves to read, and feels he’s discovering the world through studying philosophy, socialism and religion. Perhaps tellingly, he explains: ” I don’t draw with my mind; I draw with the soul. And everything inspires my soul. Everything”.

Rubens LP’s clients include Smart, Brazilian model and actress Alinne Moraes, Absolut Vodka, Simyo, Borgata and Sony Ericsson. Here you can see the artworks Rubens LP designed for a Coca-Cola & MTV Brasil project.

Illustration for MTV Magazine

Billboard for Borgata Casino

You can check out more of the LP’s wonderful graphics on his personal website and on Fluxus Central, a portfolio of his commercial works.

While temperature is falling in big parts of the world, people from Oceanian countries are welcoming the warm weather and planning their perfect summer.
Summer is a perfect time to have fun & relax. Go down to the beach with some friends, have a BBQ, drive around in a convertible, take a sunbath, swim & surf or crash a pool party.

Last year, Coca-Cola New Zealand promoted “Summer As It Should Be” with a series of modern pin-up prints, featuring local bikini beauties ready to dive into surf and sand with their board-size bottles of Coke.

Ninocka is the alter ego of Nina Ostensen-Hocevar, a self taught digital graphic designer and illustrator living and working in London/Stockholm. At the moment, Nina is working on setting up her own graphic design studio. You can see more of her work and projects on the Ninocka website:
http://www.ninocka.com

“I used the eye from my logo to create a bizarre version of the “traditional” Coke Side of Life ads”.

“I hand drew the flowers and traced them in Illustrator before playing with them in Photoshop”.

What do James Joyce, WB Yeats, Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift and George Bernard Shaw all have in common? Apart from their literary talent, they all hailed from the same city, Dublin – home to writers and Ireland’s largest city.
Situated near the midpoint of Ireland’s east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey, Dublin has been Ireland’s capital since the Middle Ages.

Today, Dublin is the 3rd most visited capital in Europe. A city trip to this ancient Viking settlement allows you to explore both the historical and the hip, from castles and churches to pubs and clubs, its arts and vibrant culture, its energy and buzz. The vibrant city life brims with traditional Irish culture and trendy European cool, all set against the backdrop of its stunning coastline.
Thanks to the economic upsurge of past decade, Dublin has also grown into a true shopping & strolling paradise. Bustling street markets, ethnic cuisines and fashion shops full of designer labels have all contributed to Dublin’s newfound trendy status.

“Coke Side of Dublin” poster by Eboy.
Svend Smital, Steffen Sauerteig and Kai Vermehr founded Eboy in 1998 as a channel to explore their shared interest in pixel graphics. Ten years later, the Eboy collective is still alive and kickin’ at the forefront of the pixel art movement.

Sometimes grey weather, but always a laugh.
Photography by Kyrstin Ní Éalaithe. All rights reserved.

Coca-Cola Urban Art in the streets of Dublin.

“El Lado Coca-Cola de Juandapo” by JGaara

“I play the street life, because there’s no place I can go. Street life, it’s the only life I know. Street life, there’s a thousand cards to play…” Remember this smashing tune by Randy Crawford?
Cities are urban jungles and art in the streets is a wild thing too. Street art and graffiti share the groove of the street and public space: this is where they hit home. The whole city becomes a medium for the street artists’ creativity and authenticity. Done with spraycans, stickers, stencils or markers, street images are often spontaneous, rough and dynamic. Not made for eternity, but to be enjoyed here & now!

“Skate Side of Coke” by Félix Lemieux

“Coke Side of My Life” by SZC

“Venus de Coca-Cola” by Bleys Of Amber.
Spray paint, stencils on paper. Based on the Venus de Milo and a sixpack of Coke.

Even though Bulgarian artist Stefan Chinof likes all kinds of illustration and techniques, he developed his typical style with typographical sketches.
There’s a refreshing side to Chinof’s experimental way of communicating. His handdrawn illustrations are a mix of bold colors, playful swirls and curls & small yet powerful statements: “Everything to Gain/Nothing to Lose/It’s a Good Day/For Shining Your Shoes/For Singing a Song/How Can Anything Be Wrong?”

It’s always great to discover spontaneous DIY versions of Coca-Cola artworks, often created using analogue techniques: pencil, Indian ink, charcoal, watercolour, gouache, …

Tribute to “Coke Side of Thailand” by Saiyukiii

Tribute to Adhemas’ “Coke Side of Life” artwork by Spring Rayne. “I had to create a pop art image for my art class & I love Coca-Cola…”

Forty years ago, Coca-Cola came to Hungary. In 1968, Coke was the first American product that made it through the Iron Curtain. To commemorate this occasion, Coca-Cola unfurled a collection of vintage pictures of “Happy Hungarians”.

“The purpose of our life is to be happy” – Dalai Lama

“Happiness in a bottle”

“Love is doing small things with great love” – Mother Teresa

Blow-up of the limited edition Coca-Cola Sziget Festival bottle, designed by the Hungarian artist Slow

Coca-Cola Art Bottles Installation

Coca-Cola Art Bottles Installation

Coca-Cola Art Bottles Installation

Coca-Cola Art Bottles Installation

Coca-Cola’s “Happy Moments” installation is part of the “Happiness Exhibition” by ARC Magazin. There are 62 original Happiness billboards and slogans plus 36 cultural posters; mind blowing work by Hungary’s most creative minds.

In 1846, the Hungarian poet Sándor Petőfi already came to the conclusion that the only happiness which is available to mankind is love: “The heart freezes if it doesn’t love”.
121 years later, John Lennon wrote “All you need is love”, a simple message to be understood by people from all over the globe.

One of the 62 billboards, showing Hungarians raising the flag of joy

This billboard reflects on the “stock market of life”

Things that make us happy (Boldogság is the Hungarian word for happiness)

Another “Happiness” billboard. A recent study shows that a smile motivated by real happiness is likely to inspire others to smile

A side exhibition showing a selection of this years cultural posters

You can visit the ARC Happiness Exhibition and Coca-Cola’s “40 Years of Happy Moments” expo at 56-osok Tere (just next to Heroes Square), Budapest, Hungary from August 28 -September 16, 2008. Entrance is free.

Ramón A. Olivares, a digital image-maker and vector artist from Cádiz (Spain), likes to push his art into new directions, trying out new styles and techniques. Here you can see his personal take on “The Coke Side of Life”.

“Until The End Of Time” by Ramón A. Olivares – RAO Diseño Gráfico

Meals on the Coke Side of Life. All rights reserved.

Dala Botha aka Datsolalee is a South African designer, at this stage working at an advertising & design agency. Growing up in a small town, she was interested in music and art – yet music always was her first priority. After finishing highschool she started studying marketing and business communication, majoring in graphic design.
“This is my 5th year working in the typical agency environment – though I’ve freelanced and taken off time for the music as well but these days I enjoy expressing myself more in my design than my music”.

As you can see, Datsolalee loves to design for Coca-Cola. “At a former agency Coke was one of our clients and we always could go wild with our designs”.

Coke card. All rights reserved.

Artwork for Coca-Cola Bottlers Nigeria. All rights reserved.

“Coke Side of Music” poster by Armslikenoodles

Armslikenoodles is not so secretly Matt Allison, a Bedfordshire/Leicester based designer who tends to draw a lot and make websites. His work is playful, colourful & stylish – creating realistic portrait illustrations, t-shirts, badges & just about anything else you can slap a line, shape or character on.

Graduated from De Montfort Leicester with a shiny degree in Interactive Design, Matt specialises in illustration and installation/web design/graphic design. On his website you can see more yummy things he is doing at the moment: http://www.armslikenoodles.co.uk
PS: Matt doesn’t really have arms like noodles.

In 2006, Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam has commissioned artists and collectives from around the world to create experimental work for the global “The Coke Side of Life” campaign. The result is a range of original artworks by emerging image-makers as different as Catalina Estrada, Geneviève Gauckler or the Peepshow Collective, … many of whom have gone on to make strong impacts in today’s graphic design & art scene.

© All art is the sole property of the respective artist(s).

© All art is the sole property of the respective artist(s).

© All art is the sole property of the respective artist(s).

© All art is the sole property of the respective artist(s).

© All art is the sole property of the respective artist(s).

© All art is the sole property of the respective artist(s).

© All art is the sole property of the respective artist(s).

© All art is the sole property of the respective artist(s).

© All art is the sole property of the respective artist(s).

© All art is the sole property of the respective artist(s).

© All art is the sole property of the respective artist(s).

© All art is the sole property of the respective artist(s).

© All art is the sole property of the respective artist(s).

© All art is the sole property of the respective artist(s).

© All art is the sole property of the respective artist(s).

Artworks commissioned by Wieden+Kennedy for the Coke Side of Life campaign.
© All art is the sole property of the respective artist(s) and may not be used without the consent of the artist(s). All rights reserved.

“Happiness Factory”, Coca-Cola’s multi-awarded TV spot by Psyop & Wieden+Kennedy tells the wonderful story of the journey of a Coca-Cola bottle through a vending machine. The stunning graphics, brilliant animation and emotional intensity make this “Coke Side of Life” commercial an instant classic.

The storyline shows a young man putting a coin into a Coca-Cola vending machine, which brings us into a world of fantasy behind the machine. We discover a great variety of the most spectacular 3D landscapes and a wondrous mix of cute and strange animated creatures. As the coin rolls down into a waterfall, a squadron of Chinoinks (a cross between a pig and Chinook helicopter) transports an empty bottle to the filling station. For the “Happiness Factory” workers, this is the start sign to exhibit a true labor or love. Everyone does the best they can to fill the bottle with happiness. Once finished, the bottle is kissed goodbye by the Love Puppies (some cute & fluffy white balls), while penguins scientists chill the bottle by shredding a snowman with a wood chopper. Once cooled, the Coca-Cola bottle is sent to the vendo’s exit door accompanied by a marching band, cheerleaders and fireworks.

Psyop’s storyboards and character sketches for the original “Happiness Factory” spot.

The Happiness Factory spot was so successful, that Coca-Cola asked animation experts Psyop to come up with a mini-movie. In the three-and-a-half-minute film the story follows the adventures of a Happiness Factory worker as he discovers that they run out of Coca-Cola. Be prepared for some drama, struggle & overwhelming action.

In a launch usually reserved for blockbuster movies, Coca-Cola rolled out the virtual red carpet for the premiere at the Coke Cinema in Second Life. This glamorous event was attended by hundreds of stars avatars, including Coca-Cola’s Sr. Vice President Marc Mathieu and punky pop star Avril Lavigne.

Wieden+Kennedy, the ad agency behind Coca-Cola’s “Coke Side of Life” capaigns, also created trailers, movie-inspired poster ads, wallpapers & other e-goodies and even this making of / mockumentary, which takes us behind the scenes of the Happiness Factory.

Today we received these Coke Side of Life photo’s and animation by Tibor Géber (aka Tibi) from Hungary. He’s the guy on the pictures, and as you can see he’s not only a big Coca-Cola fan, but also a fervent collector of Coke goodies.
You can check out his blog at http://mikvannak.hu

Over the past decennia, Coca-Cola fired the imagination of artists from Norman Rockwell to Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. Today, the “Coke Side of Life” universe is still inspiring a new generation of talent.
A few days back, we received these wonderful vector drawings by Luca Molnar.

Luca is a young and talented illustrator/image-maker from Miskolc, Hungary. Just turned 18, Luca works on numerous design projects and exhibits her self-initiated work on a regular basis, in Hungary and beyond. Working across disciplines with a passionate energy, Luca’s artworks are detailed and colorful renderings of a world of fantasy – true soulfood for the mind.
You can see more of her particular visual style on her website: http://www.lucamolnar.com

A wise man once said that the simple ideas are the cleverest. “The Coke Side of Life” is all about a simple idea, really. Drinking a Coke makes people happy. It tastes good. And it’s an invitation to “live on the positive side of life.” That’s the message behind ‘The Coke Side of Life,’ Coca-Cola’s global campaign that launched in 2006.

Coca-Cola has always been at its best when it reflects the simple, optimistic moments in life. The Coke Side of Life recognises that the most universal experiences are those where Coca-Cola is refreshingly honest and uplifting.

The Coke Side of Life campaign invites people to create their own positive reality, to be spontaneous, listen to their hearts and live in full colour.

Welcome to the Coke side of life. Willkommen auf der Coca-Cola-Seite des Lebens. Bem-vindo ao lado Coca-Cola da vida. Benvenuto sul lato Coca-Cola della vita. Hayat›n Coca Cola taraf›na hoflgeldiniz. Bienvenue côté Coca.

Welcome to this story of positivity. Keep your eyes wide open, so you don’t miss the show. Because it’s all about perspective, the way you look at things. Seeing the glass never half empty but always half full. Hoping for the best, never expecting the worst. See both sides of the story and chose the happy ending.

Live on the Coke side of life. Leb auf der Coca-Cola-Seite des Lebens. Viva no lado Coca-Cola da vida. Prendi il lato Coca-Cola della vita. Hayat›n Coca Cola taraf›nda yafla. Prenez la vie côté Coca.

Pick up your Coca-Cola bottle like a happiness requester. There’s no such thing as a debt for all the smiles you’ve been spending. Pick up the phone when optimism rings, take every no and replace it with a big Yesss!

Walk on the Coke side of life. Geh auf der Coca-Cola-Seite des Lebens. Caminhe pelo lado Coca–Cola da vida. Fai due passi sul lato Coca-Cola della vita. Hayat›n Coca Cola taraf›nda yürü. Avancez côté Coca.

Doo, doo doo, doo doo, doo doo doo… Take a walk on the wildflower side. Look around & enjoy! Recharge your batteries for an effervescent mind. That’s bubbling, about to overflow. Happiness may not come from a bottle but those bubbles seem to act like a feel-good throttle on your mental motorbike, on your way to Zen. For all the kings and queens of the Coke Side, your smile is a crown!

Wonderful Coke Side of Life billboard in Bangkok, created by a Thai artist. In the artwork, you can see a temple and pagoda sparkling in the sun and some Tuk Tuk cars (3-wheeled motorcycles with a covered top and place for passengers). Bangkok, the City of Angels, is also known for its extraordinary museums, shopping centers and the charming street stalls where you can find some cool & crazy stuff.
No wonder the cute little character in the illustration is saying: “Whenever I come to Bangkok, I fall in love with this city”. Bangkok, the Happy City in the Land of Smiles.

Photography & explanation by hiOakie (Thanit Chiraskamin)

“Bangkok on the Coke Side of Life” can. Photography by Peter Christ.

Huge blow-up version of the Coca-Cola bottle, on a Bangkok roof.

Photography by hiOakie

Photography by Ian Fuller
Coca-Cola poster in the streets of Bangkok.

Coke Side of Life poster

Detail of a Thai Coca-Cola can.
Bangkok, the Happy City in the Land of Smiles.