James Sommerville

James Sommerville initially combined creativity with entrepreneurship as a pavement artist across his native United Kingdom. He co-founded ATTIK at the age of only 19 at his grandmother’s house. In the 1990s, he designed the early campaigns of MTV, AOL, Sony Playstation and Nike. ATTIK went global in 2000.

In collaboration with the University of Huddersfield and Regional Development Agency, Yorkshire Forward—Sommerville conceived the world’s first, creative industry-based master’s degree course.

In 2013, Sommerville joined Coca-Cola as VP of global design. Among his endeavors—he led design of visual identity systems for major events such as the World Cup and Olympics—and for other billion-dollar brands within the Coca-Cola portfolio such as Sprite, Minute-Maid, Dasani, Vitamin Water, Fuse Tea and more. Now, Sommerville is leading Coca-Cola’s largest global marketing campaign.

With a global reach of more than 200 markets, Coca-Cola is launching its largest campaign. One Brand is a global marketing strategy that—for the first time ever—unites all Coca-Cola brands under the iconic brand positioning in one global creative campaign, “Taste the Feeling.”

The packaging leverages its iconic red color across all variants. The creative work represents universal storytelling and authentic, everyday moments with a Coke at the center. James Sommerville, VP of global design, led both the packaging and visual identity system, along with the photography campaign language. He will share insights and the strategy of creating such a huge campaign—and his vision of depicting “contemporary nostalgia” for one of the world’s most iconic brands.