# Work & Vanity

> Work & Vanity is a creative practice building on human irrationality: strategy, identity and campaigns that connect with people with less wasted budget.

Work & Vanity is led by Miks Bergmanis (Founder & Creative Director 13 years in creative agencies), based in Riga, Latvia, Baltics, Northern Europe. Its belief: Logic builds products. Irrationality builds brands. Contact: run@workandvanity.com (will reply within 1 working day). Instagram: @work.and.vanity (https://www.instagram.com/work.and.vanity/). LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/109986513/.

## Pages

- [Work](https://workandvanity.com/): selected projects.
- [Rules](https://workandvanity.com/rules/): 7 rules of great work, how a project runs, and awards.
- [Let’s run](https://workandvanity.com/lets-run/): how to get in touch.

## Work

- [Mobilly](https://workandvanity.com/work/mobilly/): What kind of story can a payment app have? An emotional one. MOBILLY, CONCEPT, IDENTITY. The payment space was becoming increasingly saturated, with both private and government competitors offering essentially the same functionality. Parking, public transport and other everyday payments were becoming standard features, making it harder for Mobilly to stand out. At the same time, Mobilly already had strong brand recognition and a distinctive orange visual identity. The challenge was to evolve the brand without losing the familiarity people already associated with it.
- [Mariposa](https://workandvanity.com/work/mariposa/): How to be unique when unique is the status quo? By giving people a story to step into. MARIPOSA, STRATEGY, CONCEPT, IDENTITY. Riga has plenty of music events competing for the same weekends and the same people. Most rely on artistic posters, because that’s what cultural events do. So they run into the same problem many commercial brands face: when everyone does the same thing, even custom artistic identities start to look alike. How do you make people choose one event over the rest?
- [2annas](https://workandvanity.com/work/2annas/): How to grow an audience in an already small pond? By giving people more to see. 2ANNAS, STRATEGY, CONCEPT, IDENTITY. 2ANNAS is a non-profit international short film festival that also hosts events between seasons. Its programme spans everything from classic love stories to experimental, hypervisual work. But the more experimental the event, the harder it was to draw a crowd. In Latvia’s already small pond, the audience for avant-garde film is even smaller.
- [The Drying Flag](https://workandvanity.com/work/the-drying-flag/): How to show a crisis that can’t be seen? By putting it into a symbol nation understands. NATIONAL BLOOD DONATION ASSOCIATION, CONCEPT, DIRECTION (Made under McCann Riga). Latvia needed more blood donors. While national pride is strongly tied to the Latvian flag and its iconic blood-red colour, the country still lacked people willing to donate blood and become everyday heroes.
- [Fine Works](https://workandvanity.com/work/fineworks/): How to give an object meaning? By making it part of a family’s story for generations. FINEWORKS, STRATEGY, CONCEPT, IDENTITY. Fine Works is a boutique furniture design and production house in Kuldīga, one of Latvia’s most beautiful cities, combining a rich local woodworking tradition with experience gathered in the Netherlands and beyond. Furniture design and production is one of the most saturated fields in Latvia, thanks to its abundant forests and deep woodworking traditions. So the challenge was to find an angle that said more than just good design and craftsmanship.

## 7 Rules of great work

1. **Irrationality is the rational choice.** You know the salad is better. You order the burger anyway. People don’t choose what’s right. They choose what feels right. So the most rational thing you can do is find the irrational thing that moves them.
2. **Strive for vanity.** Vanity gets a bad name. But no brand worth noticing ever wanted to go unnoticed. Modest brands get ignored.
3. **Great is messy.** Push everything through a process and you get timely work, not great work. Your brand deserves its own path to an idea made for your business alone.
4. **Meaning beats quantity.** When budgets are on the line, 250 slides on why it will work feel like a guarantee. Are they? No. The risk stays exactly where it was. Good ideas don’t need hundreds of slides. They just need to be good.
5. **Make room for no.** Good work comes with friction. Expect a few no’s. What you get in return is an idea that’s yours alone. If every idea you have gets an enthusiastic nod, be wary.
6. **Sow before reaping.** Every brand has two seasons: sowing and reaping. Sow interest and belonging now, and you’ll have something to reap later. Work & Vanity does the sowing so there’s something to reap.
7. **Choose good over convincing.** Machines can pump out 40 pages of convincing from a single prompt. But is any of it good? Work & Vanity knows the difference.

## How a project runs

1. **Introduction.** We talk through the problem your business needs to solve and agree on the scope. You get a clear brief.
2. **Workgroup.** Together we find the building blocks: who you’re talking to, what moves them and what your brand can genuinely give. You get a strategy the idea stands on.
3. **Proposal.** Ideas are presented, and the right one is chosen together. Two rounds of feedback are built in. You get a concept worth making.
4. **Development.** The idea gets made and launched while you focus on running your business. Then we see what it’s growing. You get work that’s worth launching.

## Awards (Miks Bergmanis)

- Gold in New use of media - ADCE
- Gold in Creative use of Media - Adwards
- Gold in Social good - Adwards
- Gold in Creative excellence - Adwards
- Silver in Creative excellence - Golden Drum
- Bronze in Social good - Effies
- Silver - Kyiv International advertising festival
- Silver in Creative use of Media - Adwards
- Silver in Creative use of Media - Adwards
- Bronze in Outdoor advertising - Adwards