Melbourne-based independent creative agency By All Means has collaborated with artist Oslo Davis to create limited edition Locktown t-shirts to help Melbournians during lockdown.
Priced at $45, the t-shirts can be ordered at locktown.com.au, with profits going to Beyond Blue.
The t-shirts were inspired by Melbourne’s lockdown record. After 235 days under strict stay-at-home orders, Melbourne trumps Buenos Aires as the city to have endured the most number of days in hard lockdown
The agency approached Beyond Blue, noting the increase in people using the organisation’s services. As at June 11, the demand was 20% to 30% above pre-pandemic levels.
“We haven’t worked with them before but we came up with the idea and we wanted to give it a home and they were the first people we turned to,” By All Means co-creative director Toby Cummings told AdNews.
“We admire the work that they do as an organisation. Right now people in Melbourne need a service like that more than ever.”
The agency celebrated its seventh birthday in May. With new clients and outgrowing its Collingwood base, a move to Melbourne’s CBD was delayed until this month because of the lockdown.
“Trying to promote the City of Melbourne is in our interests, in our DNA, we’re proud Melbournians and proud supporters of the cultural city we live and work in,” Cummings says.
“We’re going into our city office with a host of new clients including Lifestyle Communities, Clarks, Bridge Road Brewers (Beechworth) and Fiverr.”
Last year, By All Means created a card game for the holiday season called Let’s Talk About … ANYTHING BUT COVID! It featured 52 conversation topics like ‘Who’s your favourite cult leader?’.
The light-hearted approach has been applied to the Locktown t-shirts, which list lockdown dates on the back in a similar way to dates on concert t-shirts.
“The intent here is definitely to be humorous and to bring a bit of levity to the situation. I think it’s a pretty grim time for everyone at the moment and we all need as much laughter and humour as we can find,” Cummings says.
“It's not really a political comment at all, it’s an amusing observation of the situation we find ourselves in”.
Artist Oslo Davis describes himself as “a semi-famous illustrator & artist who does lively, witty work for both his own amusement and for publications and projects worldwide”. Cummings says Davis is “one of Melbourne’s artistic icons”.
“For us, he’s the ‘most Melbourne’ illustrator in the world. And with his ability to walk that fine line between lightness and darkness, he was the natural choice!”
By All Means will donate profits from t-shirt sales to Beyond Blue to help fund mental health and wellbeing support services to improve the lives of individuals, families and communities affected by anxiety, depression and suicide.
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