One Brief Under the Christmas Tree

Not only St. Nicholas visited us before Christmas, but also Cemark — the leading Ukrainian cement producer. And when St. Nicholas brought gifts, Cemark brought the brief for creating a New Year's calendar.

Cemark — Ukrainian Cement-Producing Giant

Cemark unites Mykolaivcement, Kamianets-Podilskyi, and Odesa cement factories. It is part of the CRH Group — the leading producer of building materials in the world. At the beginning of 2022, the company held a strategy session, formed brand values, and was ready to present all this news to its employees. But you know… the imperialist neighbors… Cemark never had a chance to introduce these new ideas and values to its employees.

Hard Cement. Hard Task

We had a critical task — not just to make another calendar but to share the brand's values and mission with the employees through such Christmas presents. We needed to visualize all the meanings the company had been building for years in 12 months — each calendar page had to share the essential ideas.

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Warm Hugs Behind Cold Walls 

Cement is cold, rational, and soulless. The category's problem is that everything here is super heavy, bulky, and massive. When you think about cement, you feel its weight right away. But we wanted to show something completely different. We decided to bring emotions and add lightness to this cemented universe. As we tried to look broader, we realized that buildings do not consist of cold cement walls but of what is behind them. If you look closely, you'll see the soccer fans' happy tears behind the cement walls of Arena Lviv. You can hear the laughter of loved ones behind emotionless buildings. And you can feel the joy of many because of what the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant sarcophagus keeps.

Our concrete* art director Yulia read the book Design and Form by Johannes Itten right before the project started. The phrase from the book became the basis of the design concept: "Walls, windows, and doors form the house, though the space within them is the essence of the house."

From now on, the walls don't represent their traditional sense. They are the lucky charms of all human emotions and experiences, as cement keeps precious moments. The walls took on a human form.

*Yulia became the ambassador of concrete projects in the agency without realizing it, as Cemark is already her third concrete project.

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More Concrete Details

To emphasize the life inside the walls concept visually, we used a mix of linear graphics to show the lightness of structures. And since Cemark is building an independent Ukraine, we must indicate this in the design. Therefore, blue and yellow became the primary colors of the calendar.

Arriba! Strategic Creative Agency

Max Burtsev — Сreative Director;
Olya Burtseva — Account Director;
Dasha Starko — Copywriter;
Yulia Nagorna — Art Director.