Towel is such a common and generic everyday item, that it’s even hard to imagine that it can be any different than this usual rectangle shaped piece of fabric. But as always, we love to shake things up a bit, so we handpicked 14 of the most creative towel designs from all over the world.

Which one would you like to bring to the beach this summer?

1. True Clean Towel: Top – Bottom

Step out of the shower and have the confidence of knowing that you are drying your freshly cleaned face with a section of the towel which has not been used to dry ‘other’ places. Reusing towels makes sense, so why not be smarter and healthier about how you use your towel. (link)

2. Playboy: Beach Towel

Probably the easiest way to get on the “Playboy” cover. (Advertising Agency: Grey, Argentina, Buenos Aires)

3. The Axe Effect

The Axe Effect. (Advertising Agency: Lowe MENA, Dubai, UAE)

4. hi-Sun

Hi-Sun incorporates four products in one: a backpack, a beach towel, an inflatable pillow and speakers! You may lay down and listen to your iPhone®, iPod® or any other mp3 player with a 3.5mm universal jack. The speakers are amplified and thanks to the long lasting lithium battery (recheargable through an integrated USB port) you may listen to your favourite music for hours! (link)

5. Friends of Cancer Patients: Beach Towel

Advertising Agency: JWT, Dubai, UAE

6. Measuring Towel

Track the changes in your waist size every time you use a towel. (Designers: Changduk Kim & Jinsoo Jeon)

7. Maison Martin Margiela Convertible Beach Bag

A towel that transforms into a bag, or vice versa. You can place your essentials inside it safely for this one has zips at its sides. (link)

8. Preventable

An ad for the Community Against Preventable Injuries (Advertising Agency: Wasserman + Partners, Vancouver)

9. Wearable Towel

The Wearable Towel is unisex and can be worn in either a tunic style or a toga style. It has three arm openings placed along the side and does not employ the use of any fastener. We also hope that the quality of these towels is better than their Photoshop skills.(link)

10. Prime TV: Weekend Murder Scene

“Weekend Murders. Feature length UK drama, Saturdays 8:30pm on Prime.Summer is a season of volatile TV ratings. How do we promote our show ‘Weekend Murders’ when everyone’s at the beach? We followed them there…and murdered them! Or rather, we gave out pool-of-blood shaped beach towels so that when people lay on them, they looked murdered.” (Advertising Agency: DraftFCB, Auckland, New Zealand)

11. The Sand Towel

Do-it-yourself insurance created the Sand Towel as an incentive for people who took out travel insurance. Though just an ordinary white towel at first glance, when turned over it has a photo of sans printed on the back to use to cover your valuables when you go swimming. This clever device perfectly camouflages and protects your valuables so you can swim without worry.(Advertising Agency: DDB Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

12. Butt Face Towel

Just like the #1 True Clean Towel, this towel solves the same important problem. No more stressing about drying off your face with the part of the towel that just was drying your bottom. (buy)

13. Grill Towels

An ambient marketing activity which took place in Gordon beach, Tel Aviv, in order to increase awareness to sun damage and skin cancer. The activity included 50 towels with a coal grill print on them. The towels where placed from early morning to late noon, during which we received countless reactions from passers-by, unable to ignore the unusual site which appeared in front of them. (Advertising Agency: Gitam BBDO, Israel)

14. Gillette: Fur Fur Away Towels

Only 12% of women like men with body hair and 71,6 % of men prefer a shaved bikini zone. Gillette wanted to bring the topic of body shaving to the attention of men and women – just before summer as the topic of hair-removal is most relevant during that time. The idea is the world’s first bath towel with holes in areas where you would usually find body hair. Results and Effectiveness: thousands of bath towels were stolen at the start of the summer season. (Advertising Agency: BBDO Proximity, Germany)