El Comerç Ens Fa Viure — Shop Local Campaign for Quart de Poblet Town Council
Campaign. 3D Animation. Art Direction.
Ajuntament de Quart de Poblet
2025
El comerç ens fa viure (“Local shops keep us alive”) is a 360° advertising campaign created for Quart de Poblet Town Council, in Valencia, to celebrate and promote local businesses. It starts from a simple but powerful idea: when the shops wake up, the town wakes up. The campaign tells a visual story that places neighbourhood shops at the heart of street life. They’re where everyday encounters happen, where relationships are built and where the town comes alive.
The brief: anything but a dormitory town
The goal was to grab attention and show young people and new families in Quart that this is not a dormitory town. There is life here, there are shops, and every purchase can be the start of a new story. The campaign had to be emotional without falling into clichés. It needed to speak the visual language of younger generations without leaving long-standing residents behind, and to steer clear of negative messages like “without shops, there’s no…”.
The concept: shop awnings as a symbol of life
Visually, the campaign is built around shop awnings, an iconic part of the town’s streetscape that becomes the main graphic device. The striped patterns come from a selection of real shops in Quart de Poblet. They are reinterpreted through colour gradients that turn them into surfaces of light and movement, symbolising the energy local businesses bring to the streets. A town full of colour is a town full of life, and here that colour comes from its shops.
Alongside the main claim, a series of secondary messages in Valencian highlights the human side of local commerce: Històries que passen de mà en mà (Stories passed from hand to hand), On ens coneixen pel nom (Where they know us by name), El futur també és de proximitat (The future is local too), Cada tenda té ànima (Every shop has a soul) and Cada compra mou el poble (Every purchase moves the town). Each message has its own gradient palette, inspired by a real awning, and is set in bold condensed typography that’s built to be noticed on the street.
The short film: when the awnings open, the town wakes up
The campaign film is a natural extension of the graphic concept. In it, local commerce acts as the town’s conductor, setting its rhythm and shaping its stories. The film unfolds in four parts. First the shops wake up: awnings roll open at dawn, the baker kneads dough and the greengrocer has a coffee at the door before opening. Then the town comes alive through quick, natural everyday moments. Next, those stories come together in the town square. The film closes on the campaign identity.
3D motion graphics and title design
To connect print and video, the awning concept was carried into the campaign’s title and credit system and its different adaptations, all designed and animated in 3D in Blender. The film’s title is itself a 3D awning bearing the campaign message. This creates seamless continuity between the posters and the short film.
Applications
The campaign was rolled out across print and digital: street posters, bus shelter ads, advertising columns, large-format banners on building façades, social media, and branded paper bags and tote bags for local shops.
My role
Concept, creative direction, art direction, graphic design and 3D motion graphics.
Credits
Client: Quart de Poblet Town Council
Agency: Mel Comunicació
Concept, art direction & design: David M Ballarín (ByDMB)
Photography: Fernando Toboso
Video: Ana Morilla