Design and motion studio ManvsMachine has deconstructed Nike’s iconic Air Max shoe for a new campaign promoting the Air Max 90 range.
ManvsMachine was asked to design a campaign showcasing the individual features of each shoe in the new Air Max collection, which is the first to combine Nike’s Air, Lunar and Flyknit technologies.
Using Cinema 4D animation software, V-Ray rendering and a distinctive “fractured-flow” edit style, the studio created a series of CG films in which various features of the shoes have been abstracted and animated, showcasing a range of textures and the most recognisable design elements of the Air Max:
“The films are full CG, and the production process was handled in-house in our Shoreditch studio, from creating accurate 3D models of the shoes and wrapping them in photographed textures, to designing, building and animating sculptural elements and environments…once underway, this process took about three months,” explains studio founder Mike Alderson.
ManvsMachine also worked on in-store graphics with retail design agency Hotel Creative, creating a series of 3D printed sculptures and a simple graphic system to illustrate the different features of each trainer:
“The sculptures were all 3D printed and sprayed in London [sizes range from 305mm to 800mm]. We created the objects in Cinema4D and handed them over to…Hotel Creative, who integrated them into the retail design,” explains Alderson.
Films will be used online, in-store and in outdoor advertising, and the installations and graphics are being rolled out in stores nationwide.
It’s another slick campaign from ManvsMachine, who created a charming animation last year to promote Nike’s Re-Use a Shoe initiative, in which worn out Nike trainers are ground down into a new material that can be used to make surfaces for playing courts, tracks and fields.
Cadbury has released a new spot in its Free The Joy campaign, which replaces the brand’s long-running Joyville series of ads. CR talks to Cadbury and ad agency Fallon about the new marketing direction.
The new ad is a sweet little number that shows a father and daughter engaging in some quirky dancing while they eat their Dairy Milk Egg ‘n’ Spoon snack. It follows another recent, boogie-tastic spot that sees a man performing some excellent chair dancing when placed on hold during a phone call. Both new ads are shown below, with the Boogie spot shown in a new 90 second version, which is released today.
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The new ads reveal a subtle new direction for the brand, replacing the Joyville tag which had been running since 2012. The Free The Joy line aims to emphasise the simple pleasure that the chocolate brings to those who eat it, and will be used across all the products in the Dairy Milk range. “Our new campaign is an evolution of Joyville,” says Matthew Williams, marketing activation director at Mondelez, which owns Cadbury. “We’re focusing more on our chocolate and the way it triggers joy for the consumer, and less on the way it is made or delivered.”
Accompanying the Egg ‘n’ Spoon ad is a ‘how to’ film (shown below), which teaches viewers how to perform their own version of the dance in the ad. Cadbury has had success in the past with audiences creating their own interpretations of its ads (this was particularly the case with the Eyebrows ad, which sparked a raft of amateur versions posted to YouTube), and it would appear that the brand is actively encouraging a similar response here. “Interaction is very important,” agrees Fallon ECD Santiago Lucero. “It is vital to embrace the fact that consumers have a thirst for a deeper engagement with brands and we need, where appropriate, to create communications that feed that. The ‘how to’ films we’ve developed for Egg ‘n’ Spoon are just the beginning – we are exploring a lot of ideas that will help us have a better and stronger relationship with our audience.”
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Both Williams and Lucero are keeping schtum about what’s coming up next in the campaign, though reveal that there are some digital and experiential projects in the pipeline. “This is one of the great things about our new platform – it works beautifully in any media,” says Lucero. “It’s simply about finding new, spontaneous, creative ways to release joy, and of course digital will be one of those ways.”
Wieden + Kennedy London has teamed up with directing duo Smith & Foulkes again for its latest ad for Honda, and created another beautiful piece of work.
The spot aims to highlight the size and quality of the Honda Civic Tourer’s interior. To do this, the viewer is taken on a journey inside various objects – a golf ball, camera, robot, suitcase etc – and shown the unexpected beauty that is found within each item. At the end of the spot, the objects all land inside the car, where they fit perfectly, of course.
Smith & Foulkes used a mix of stop frame animation and CGI to create the ad. For the full story on how it was made, look out for the March issue of Creative Review, out towards the end of February, which is a making-of special.
Credits: Agency: Wieden + Kennedy London ECDs: Tony Davidson, Kim Papworth Creative director: Scott Dungate Production company: Nexus Directors: Smith & Foulkes VFX: Time Based Arts Sound design: Anthony Moore & Tom Joyce at Factory
Dave Sedgwick has designed a new logo, website and brand identity for Manchester bar and arts venue 2022NQ.
The space – now known as Twenty Twenty Two – re-opens today with a new ping pong room housing sculptures made out of ping pong balls by artist Liam Hopkins and a wall showcasing work from up and coming artists.
To celebrate its re-launch, Twenty Twenty Two is also hosting a free exhibition of ping pong themed design and illustration work.
Sedgwick has worked with the venue since its launch in 2012. The 2022 and NQ in its original name refers to the bar’s street number and location in the city’s Northern Quarter, but Sedgwick felt it was confusing and “a little old fashioned.”
“People have struggled with the name for the past 12 months calling it a multitude of things from ‘two oh two two’ (SIC) and ‘Two thousand and twenty two’ etc etc. It was just not working,” he says.
“The venue itself is difficult to find due to its location on a side street, so to also have a name which wasn’t memorable seemed to be an issue. I decided to look at the words and started to work with Twenty Twenty and Two,” he explains.
The new logo uses the three Ts from Twenty Twenty Two in a stair formation, referencing the building’s underground location. Sedgwick has also introduced a new brand type – New Zealand foundry Klim’s Calibre – and designed ping pong-themed posters and signage.
“In terms of how the brand will develop, we are in early days, [but] I want it to be flexible,” says Sedgwick. “The venue space is ever changing, with all sorts of things happening on a regular basis and a rigid brand identity doesn’t seem to favour it. It’s important we keep to some rules though and these will become apparent over time on posters, signage and promo work,” he adds.
The ping pong exhibition, titled pongping, opens on February 6 and features work by more than 20 creatives including Si Scott, Design by Atlas, Studio Opposite, Craig Oldham, Teacake and Manchester collective Empre – for details, see twentytwentytwo.co.uk.
Posters by Dave Sedgwick, Foreign Policy & Barney Ibbotson
Need some motivation on this wintery Friday morning? Perhaps a little light butt clenching will help.
This new ad from Virgin Active needs little introduction. Part of a series of new, fun ads for the gym brand from Karmarama, it suggests butt clenching as a way of burning more calories. Watch and enjoy:
The spot forms part of Virgin Active’s ‘Don’t just live, live happily ever active’ campaign, which launched earlier this month with an unusual spot showing a semi-naked man driving a motorcycle furiously across a desert (see our coverage here). Both ads eschew boring gym scenes to instead promote fun and unusual ways of being active. Get clenching everyone!
Credits: Agency: Karmarama ECDs: Sam Walker, Joe De Souza Creatives: Rachel Holding, Daniel Leppanen Production company: Good Egg Director: Bugsy Riverbank Steel
This week Chipotle announced that it has created a four-part comedy TV series that will launch on Hulu and Hulu Plus in February. CR gets the low down about the project from director Tim Piper and exec producer Daniel Rosenberg.
The series, titled Farmed and Dangerous, starts on February 17 and stars Ray Wise, of Twin Peaks and Mad Men fame. Like Chipotle’s previous short films Back To The Start and The Scarecrow, the aim of the series is to entertain audiences and in turn raise debate about industrial farming practices (while emphasising Chipotle’s commitment to sustainable farming). Wise plays Buck Marshall, a cartoon-like evil corporate figure who represents the Industrial Food Image Bureau, a department devoted to presenting the industrial agriculture business in terms that are palatable to the public. A trailer for the series is shown below.
Piper and Rosenberg, who work out of New York-based studio Piro, first became involved in the project a couple of years ago, when Chipotle made contact after seeing some of Piper’s previous work, which includes the hugely successful Dove Evolution film and the web series The Palace of Light for Post Shredded Wheat.
“Chipotle were just finishing Back To The Start and said they wanted to try a longer form of story based on their ‘food with integrity’ mantra,” explains Piper. “Perhaps live action, scripted, in a similar tone to what I’d done for Shredded Wheat. They loved the idea of comedy but weren’t sure if it was feasible given the seriousness of the subject matter. We asked them who the ‘villains’ and ‘heroes’ were in their world, and the comedy soon became apparent – it was all about the villains.”
Buck Marshall, a larger-than-life figure, was born out of this observation. In the trailer, he is shown in damage control mode after a security video from fictional industrial giant Animoil goes viral. The film shows a cow blowing up after being fed a new petroleum-based animal feed called PetroPellet.
Despite devising and funding the project, any mention of Chipotle is conspicuously absent from the finished series. “Chipotle specifically asked not to have a presence,” says Piper. “They wanted the show to be as entertaining as possible without chest-beating their own achievements and beliefs. The marketing strategy behind doing the show is to let people know Chipotle made it (with PR). They want to entertain people, not disrupt their leisure with obnoxious bragging advertisements.”
While the tone of the brand’s previous animated shorts has been earnest and emotional, with this series Chipotle is clearly aiming for out-and-out comedy. Alongside the trailer, there are also a number of other films that have been released on YouTube, which introduce the characters in more detail. In one, below, Marshall is even shown taking apart the Scarecrow short.
The approach here may seem very different, yet Piper feels it complements the brand’s earlier films. “They create these beautiful animated shorts, which are emotional and ultimately inspiring, and then manage to convey the same message with live action comedy,” he says. “Because they stick to high production values and high creative integrity for both, it seems to work.”
The term ‘branded content’ has been bandied around adland for years now, but there have been few projects that have really managed to pull off the delicate balance between creating something entertaining that also makes sense for a brand. From the trailer, this series looks promising, and it is clear that the team at Piro was fully aware of the dangers that can befall this kind of project.
“When brands overextend into the story, it is a let down for everyone,” says Rosenberg. “But when they inspire storytelling everyone appreciates it.
“In truth, advertising creative is typically quite different from storytelling creative,” he continues. “It’s a different creative muscle. While ads usually focus on a single, central proposition, stories focus on broader elements like character arcs, turning points and conflict to propel action and move the story forward. Chipotle’s internal creatives collaborated with Piro and TV and film writers in writers’ rooms to create the right balance between message and entertainment. Entertainment quality was the final measure of what stayed or went, but brand strategy, values and messaging were always at the forefront.”
Farmed and Dangerous begins on Hulu and Hulu Plus on February 17. To watch the trailer and teasers from the series, visit the Farmed and Dangerous YouTube page here. More info on Piro is at pirovision.com.
YCN Studio has launched a campaign promoting Plymouth College of Art’s creative facilities and the importance of hands-on learning in arts education.
While most UK art departments are facing funding cuts, Plymouth has invested heavily in new resources and opened a £7 million art, craft and digital design wing last September. YCN Studio was asked to create a campaign showcasing the college’s new facilities, and has launched a short film and poster series based on the idea of physical energy.
In a film shot on campus by director Pip, PCA students are captured welding, cutting wood, sewing, painting and developing photographs. The video features some beautiful close-ups of materials, including molten glass, charcoal, ink and ceramics, set to music by Brooklyn band Javelin.
Posters feature images from the shoot and key lines from the film in type distorted through water and glass, which YCN Studio director Alex Ostrowski says is designed to intrigue readers and ‘echo the physicality in the rest of the campaign’.
Producer William Teddy says the video was shot at a high-frame rate to slow some shots down and help people see different processes up close. “The idea was to get very close-up and cinematic, so we enlisted Pip, who’s also a photographer with an amazing eye,” he adds.
The college is also launching a social media campaign to highlight the need for physical facilities in arts colleges, and is asking users to submit photographs of their work or studios using the hashtag #YourEnergy.
In an article explaining the initiative, the college warns of the dangers of turning art schools into “offices and lecture halls”, and says it will be working to encourage “a greater focus on tangible facilities in UK art and design education, which…runs the risk of becoming over-reliant on desk-based creative learning.” You can read the full post here.
Creative direction, writing and design: YCN Studio Film Production: Agile Film Director: Pip Film Producer: William Teddy Music: ‘Susie Cues’ by Javelin
It’s become a bit of thing for airlines to create quirky in-flight videos. This latest example, a very watchable 80s themed film, comes from Delta.
The film is the latest in a series of experiments with in-flight films from Delta (the airline created a holiday-themed one last Christmas, for example), but this new piece is the brand’s most charming attempt so far. Other airlines that are being similiarly playful include Air New Zealand, which has led the way in this arena, creating ambitious in-flight films including one themed around The Hobbit and another featuring the All Blacks, and Virgin America, which created a high-octane, Glee-style film that aired last November.
The new Delta film, created by Wieden + Kennedy New York, sees the essential information delivered in traditional style by an air hostess stood in the aisle of the plane. When the camera cuts away to the passengers, however, things take an unexpected turn, as we discover that everyone flying that day is an 80s throwback.
Leg warmers, a Rubik’s Cube, and lots of big, big hair all make an appearance, alongside cameos from 80s TV and movie stars, including Alf, shown in the still above. All these clever touches keep you watching over the five-minute-plus film, which of course is the elusive goal of the in-flight safety video. It could be argued that the references might be lost on younger audiences, but we presume Delta’s target audience are those that will get the joke.
Credits: Agency: Wieden + Kennedy New York ECDs: Scott Vitrone, Ian Reichenthal Creative directors: Sean McLaughlin, John Parker Creatives: Greg Rutter, Alan Buchanan Production company: Arts & Sciences Directors: Matt Aselton, Azazel Jacobs
London College of Communications has announced the line-up for its annual Green Week – a series of free talks, exhibitions and workshops exploring environmentally conscious creative work.
This year’s theme is survival and the five-day programme, which runs from February 10-14, includes a look at environmental and ethical photography, design, film-making, journalism, product design and architecture projects.
Nat Hunter and Sevre Davis of the RSA will be debating design for social impact, Tom Hunter and Robert Elms will discuss the theme of home in photography, and the Design Council’s John Mathers will give a lecture on ‘world-changing creativity’.
D&AD is also taking part in the programme, hosting New Blood White Pencil feedback sessions and a two-day National Trust workshop with Fred Deakin. Other hands-on events include a workshop making books from waste materials, an insect-tasting session and activities exploring sustainable materials such as natural dyes, alternative power sources and urban regeneration.
Student and graduate events include an exhibition of design activism from graphic media and design students, an environmental photography show held by LCC alumni and a screening of Brian Hill’s 2010 documentary, Climate of Change, hosted by MA documentary film students.
A full programme is available here. For more info or details on how to book events, see the LCC blog.
Afin de faire parler pendant le Super Bowl du 2 février prochain, la marque Kia a décidé de vanter le modèle K900 en rendant hommage à la trilogie Matrix, avec un Laurence Fishburne en Morpheus proposant à un couple de découvrir une nouvelle conception du luxe. Un spot de l’agence David&Goliath.
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