Hasta La Ideas

Levi’s is the latest brand to recognise the potential of hooking up with young, relatively unknown, creatives and artists to create an ad campaign. The most recent iteration of its Go Forth campaign sees the denim company work alongside Portuguese street artist Alexandre Farto, aka Vhils, to create a series of portraits of local “modern day pioneers” on walls in Berlin…

The campaign, by Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam, features portraits of four creative and community figures in Berlin: Joe Hatchiban, who hosts large outdoor karaoke shows in the city; artist duo Various & Gould (one of whom is shown above); photographer Sven Marquardt; and community organiser Fadi Saad, who is working with immigrant teenagers to help them acclimatise to German society.

Vhils has carved the four portraits into walls in the city, in his distinctive style. In the film above, he appears to use small explosions to complete the works. Appropriately enough, these look in the film like a kind of echo of Jonathan Glazer’s classic Levi’s spot, Odyssey, where the main characters burst through walls (see it here).

The murals appear without any overt Levi’s branding, only the campaign’s slogan, Go Forth. In addition to the portraits, Levi’s is also presenting a five-week long printing workshop in the city. Located in Mitte, in a temporary venue in the city’s former mint, Alte Münze, the Levi’s Print Workshop provides free screenprinting and supplies for use by visitors, and is hosting a range of exhibitions and instructional workshops to teach people the art of screenprinting. Visitors can create their own hand-printed T-shirts, postcards and digital artworks. This is the fourth in a series of workshops held by Levi’s, and the first outside the US (print, photo and film workshops have previously been held in San Francisco, New York and LA respectively).

The making-of film above gives more detail on the four figures featured in the portraits in Berlin. For those in the city, the portraits can be seen for real at Revalerstrasse 99 (Fadi Saad), An der Schillingsbruecke (Various & Gould), Chausseestr. 36 (Joe Hatchiban) and Potsdamer Str. 151 (Sven Marquardt). The Levi’s Print Workshop will run in Berlin until August 18. For more info and to register for classes, go to levi.com/printworkshop.

Credits:
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam
ECDs: Mark Bernath, Eric Quennoy
Creative directors: Rosie Bardales, Alvaro Sotomayor, Tyler Whisnand
Creatives: Mathew Jerrett, Ivan Cash, Sean Vij, Daniel Maxwell
Digital creative: Tiago Varandas
Documentary director: Sanne van Hecke

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