HarrimanSteel has unveiled Live Courageously, a new brand film and integrated campaign for Shackleton that reframes the explorer’s century-old writing as a message for modern times. The project asks a deceptively simple question: how do you make a heritage brand rooted in polar expeditions resonate with people navigating a world of uncertainty, distraction and constant noise?
Jess Grunow, graphic designer at HarrimanSteel, explains how the starting point was a line from Sir Ernest Shackleton himself: “Difficulties are just things to overcome, after all.” It’s one of many extracts from his journals and letters that have been woven together into the film’s monologue. Though written between 1909 and 1922, the words feel strikingly current.
She says: “A century ago, Shackleton faced the unknown with a compass of courage, resilience and moral fortitude. Today, those same qualities feel more essential than ever.”
Rather than positioning courage as the preserve of explorers or elite adventurers, the campaign broadens the lens. HarrimanSteel’s brief was to develop a brand anthem that defines what “Living Courageously” means in 2025.
In order to achieve this, the film mixes Shackleton’s voice with a collage of contemporary visuals, from frontline footage and hard realities to everyday resistance and the quieter acts of integrity that rarely make headlines. Taken together, they serve to remind the viewer that courage isn’t only found in extremes.
The team also repurposed Shackleton’s original writing, displaying his words alongside found stills and sourced footage to create a dialogue between past and present, illustrating how moral fortitude and resilience remain as relevant now as they were during the heroic age of exploration. The author’s reveal comes only at the end of the film, prompting viewers to reconsider their assumptions about leadership and conviction.
Across the imagery, HarrimanSteel deliberately highlights what it calls the “courage, conviction and contradictions” shaping today’s world. This is a film that doesn’t shy away from complexity, contrasting moments of bravery with scenes that hint at its absence. There’s no glossy triumphalism here; instead, it acknowledges the hard graft of staying principled when the path of least resistance is far easier.
“We held a mirror up to the modern world to remind people that courage, resilience and moral fortitude are just as vital today as they were 100 years ago,” Jess says.
To bring the idea into the real world, HarrimanSteel collaborated with photographer Steve Harries to create a series of portraits featuring three individuals who embody Shackleton’s ethos: explorer Levison Wood, writer and filmmaker Ash Bhardwaj, and world-record-breaking athlete Max Thorpe.
None are models recruited for the shoot; each has lived the qualities the brand wants to celebrate. Their portraits will form the backbone of the upcoming print campaign, which is set to roll out across press, retail and OOH.
The project also coincides with the launch of three new Shackleton jackets, including the Titan, its most extreme piece of outerwear to date. While product messaging sits firmly in the wider campaign, Live Courageously is framed as something broader than performance gear. It’s about the mindset behind the brand: a belief that courage is a daily practice, not an occasional grand gesture.
The film’s closing sentiment, lifted from Shackleton’s own writing, encapsulates that spirit: “By endurance, we conquer. Onward”. It’s a neat summation of a campaign spanning a century, connecting an explorer’s steadfast optimism with a contemporary call to action.
Jess reflects on that through-line: “We wanted to highlight that courage isn’t just found at the poles or on the peaks. It’s found in everyday acts of integrity, in standing firm for what matters, and in facing whatever storms life brings.”
With the print campaign soon to follow, HarrimanSteel and Shackleton aren’t finished yet, but as brand rallying cries go, Live Courageously feels like one with real weight.
