Muse
The Official Magazine of the Art Directors Club NO. 02
MEET OLIVIERO TOSCANI
WISDOM FROM THE JURY CHAIRS
MEET THE FESTIVAL PRESENTERS
HOSTS OF THE FESTIVAL
What the famed photographer cannot live without
Albert Watson and Kyle Cooper on photography and motion
Artists tease what they’ll bring to Miami Beach
W South Beach, the New World Center and The Wolfsonian
A WORD FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
I got into this industry because I was an artist. I loved art: painting, drawing, music, ink, photography and film, and I still do. Advertising and design were a way for me to play with all these tools and simultaneously make a living doing something I loved. Advances in technology have transformed and destroyed the old ways of the advertising and design industries, but what remains unchanged is that within all the beautiful pieces of communication we create, therein lies art. This simple thought is the foundation upon which the Art Directors Club was founded in 1920, and the vision that we continue to respect today. The ADC 92nd Annual Awards will be the largest and most majestic gala to ever be presented by ADC, taking place at the Frank Gehry-designed New World Center in Miami Beach. In addition, ADC and the attendees of the 92nd Annual Awards + Festival of Art and Craft in Advertising and Design will honor all of the print, design, illustration and photography winners at The Wolfsonian; a place worthy of the most beautiful static creations in our industry around the world. It will be a completely international event. The Festival will be unlike any other ever created in the industry. We are going to look outwards beyond the expected inner-circle industry speakers to some of the world’s most interesting artists for inspiration. We have invited a range of incredibly inspiring creatives, from graffiti and calligraphists to world class LEGO® artists and designers who will not only inspire each of us to be better as a creative and an artist, but who will actually push us and our boundaries by involving us and allowing us to get hands-on with their craft in Miami Beach. What am I looking forward to the most? Probably hearing Oliviero Toscani speak—the man behind the influential United Colors of Benetton campaigns. I find it hard to believe that I idolized him and had his posters on my wall as a teenager, and will now have the opportunity to host him—along with the best creatives in the world—at our festival in April. Miami Beach will be a new permanent home for the ADC Annual Awards + Festival, and I think that this year’s festival will be the best one I’ve ever attended. In addition to the festivities planned, we’ve been sure to set aside a lot of time for networking, beach and pool time, shopping and browsing the local cultural greats. Wherever you are flying in from, I hope to meet you in Miami Beach.
Ignacio Oreamuno Executive Director Art Directors Club
CONTENTS
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20
WHAT IS ‘SHOCKING?’ WITH OLIVIERO TOSCANI
The famed photographer discusses shocking the world with the imagery of his time, founding Colors and what he cannot live without.
DESIGN LEADERSHIP WITH BRUCE MAU
Bruce Mau shares the experience of incorporating design thinking into social, political and entrepreneurial being and why he founded the Massive Change Network.
PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
COVER ART
The front and back covers feature the “Let the Art Decide” campaign by the Conquistadors Collective for the Art Directors Club’s 92nd Annual Awards Call for Entries.
FOR THE ART OF IT ALL
17
A SINGLE LENS WITH ALBERT WATSON
26
OBSERVING CREATION WITH KYLE COOPER
92nd Annual Awards Photography Jury Chair Albert Watson on sight, the most moving photo he’s ever taken and what’s left to accomplish in his career.
Kyle Cooper, Motion Jury Chair for the 92nd Annual Awards, talks about his childhood ambition, black widows and Spider-Man and the spark in the creative process.
2 Word from the Editor 3 Rafaël Rozendaal on the Internet as Art 10 One Red Paperclip with Kyle MacDonald 12 Gary Lachance of Decentralized Dance Party 14 An Artistic Headquarters at the W South Beach
16 Miami Festival Pricing and Information 24 A Gala Soirée at the New World Center 28 Building Blocks of Inspiration with Sean Kenney 32 Art and Design at The Wolfsonian
Indicates Festival participation
OCT 2012 5
A WORD FROM THE EDITOR
I did not think I could be more inspired than I was after the inaugural issue of Muse went to print last fall. I was wrong. As the ADC 92nd Annual Awards + Festival of Art and Craft in Advertising and Design draws near, and it becomes clear just who will be joining the Art Directors Club in Miami Beach to lead our festival attendees through workshops, presentations and adventures, I not only become more inspired, but incredibly excited and a little bit in awe. Who would think that in one month’s time, I would have spoken to the charming man behind the famous Benetton campaigns, Oliviero Toscani; one of the most influential photographers in the world, the endearing Albert Watson; or the insanely talented Kyle Cooper, whose title sequence kicks off every episode of The Walking Dead and who creeped me out in 2005 (and still does—in the best way possible—every time I rewatch Se7en)? Not I. Nor did I think I would learn so much about life with LEGOs, how to bring the art of the party back with a vengeance, why one might believe they could trade a paper clip for a house, how design could change the course of daily life in Guatemala, or the fact that one can sell the Internet, itself, as art. But I did. If one conversation with these folks could have the effect it did on me, I can’t imagine the effect that a workshop, presentation or adventure with these folks will have on the attendees of the Festival. This issue of Muse is jam-packed with insights and anecdotes from great artists. Some you may have heard of, some you may not—and this is only a sample of the complete list of women and men that we will get to play with and learn from in Miami Beach (visit adcawards.org to learn more about the full programming and schedule). April 2 can’t come fast enough. The art-filled hallways and walls of the W South Beach are waiting. The art and design exhibits at The Wolfsonian are waiting. The booming sound and performance experience of the New World Center is waiting. The beaches, the pools, the shopping and the bright sunshine of South Beach are waiting. And as I said in the last issue, for the winners of the 92nd Annual Awards, your Cubes will be waiting as well. The mojitos are on ice and the café Cubanos are brewing. The only thing left to grace Miami Beach is you. See you there?
Brianna Graves Editor of Muse Director of Content + Communications Art Directors Club
2 FEB 2013
ADC 92ND ANNUAL AWARDS + FESTIVAL OF ART AND CRAFT IN ADVERTISING AND DESIGN
THE INTERNET AS ART
RAFAËL ROZENDAAL FESTIVAL
PRESENTER
→
→ Not just anyone can sell the Internet
as art. Not art on the Internet, but the reverse. Indeed, Rafaël Rozendaal uses the Internet as his canvas, creating sites that are themselves art pieces. A Dutch-Brazilian visual artist, Rozendaal’s artistic practice consists of websites, installations, drawings, writings and lectures. His work researches the screen as a pictorial space; reverse-engineering reality into condensed bits, in a space somewhere between animated cartoons and paintings. His installations involve moving light and reflections; taking online works and transforming them into spatial experiences. Rozendaal also invented Bring Your Own Beamer (BYOB), an open-source, DIY curatorial format that is spreading rapidly across the world. Artists are invited to bring their own projectors to a one-night exhibition and, together, explore the medium of projection—moving light, sound and performance. Though he is now based in New York, Rozendaal has lived all
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over the globe, including Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Paris, Tokyo, Portland, Berlin and Brazil—where Rozendaal’s great-grandfather Humberto Castello Branco was once President. His work has exhibited in hundreds of cities worldwide and in April 2013, you will find Rozendaal in Miami Beach for the ADC 92nd Annual Awards + Festival of Art and Craft in Advertising and Design. THE ART DIRECTORS CLUB (ADC):
What in your background and experience inspired you to take to the Internet as a medium, over a more traditional canvas? I always liked the idea of making something that exists in multitudes. As a teenager, I was always drawing comics. I made black and white drawings that were easy to copy, so everyone could enjoy them. When I discovered the Internet, I immediately wanted to do something with it, because I sensed this huge potential. You are using the same Internet as Coca-Cola® and the Guggenheim Museum, which really RAFAËL ROZENDAAL:
gives the individual a chance. At the moment, my websites reach about 40 million visitors per year. How cool is that? ADC: It’s more than cool! What do you hope to communicate through your work, and to what audience are you most often trying to speak (do you have a particular audience in mind)? ROZENDAAL: I always say an artist
should be like a magnifying glass; you absorb the light around you and try to bring it to a focal point so you can start a fire. I want to reach as many people as possible. I’m not sure why, but I always thought that was logical. If you like what you do, you want as many people as possible to enjoy it. Some artists are happy with a select, elite audience of old rich people. Not me.
ADC: As a global artist who has worked all over the world, what has influenced you most and stayed with you from each place you have lived?
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ADC 92ND ANNUAL AWARDS + FESTIVAL OF ART AND CRAFT IN ADVERTISING AND DESIGN
IMAGES BY RAFAﾃ記 ROZENDAAL: AESTHETIC ECHO.COM 2009, EVERYTHING YOU SEE IS IN THE PAST.COM 2003, SEETHROUGH.ORG 2003, BROKEN SELF.COM 2007, FREEDOM FROM FEAR AND WORRY.COM 2010, I AM VERY VERY SORRY.COM 2002, INNER DOUBTS.COM 2012, JELLO TIME.COM 2007
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Seoul Square, Seoul, Korea, 2012
ROZENDAAL: I was born in The
Netherlands but my mom is from Brazil, so since my first year I have been flying around the world. I always felt very special when I sat in an airplane flying to faraway places and I still love flying very much. When I stay in one place for too long, I get restless. I always admired the language of cartoons because the symbols developed in animation are universal; everyone around the world understands them. I always hoped my work would be non-local and as such, I don’t want to work with local subjects in time or space. I want my ideas to be so elementary that anyone in the world can relate. For instance, we all know what kissing is. My greatest cultural influence is the intensification of perception. When an artist looks into the world in his or her personal way, and translates those impressions into another medium, there is a level of abstraction, exaggeration and/or simplification. This happens in all cultures, whether it’s Mondrian, Disney or Hokusai. The more I travel, the more I see links between all cultures. I think when an artist really intensifies perception, the result is universal.
ADC: In your experience, how
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open are agencies to hearing and implementing the kind of solutions you put forward? ROZENDAAL: I worked at W+K Portland for a short time, but I don’t think that was the best way to go for me. I don’t want to be in an office all day, even if it’s a very cool office. I do about one or two brand projects per year, but I always want to work as a “featured artist.” That’s the best of both worlds and results in amazing projects.
Advertising is shifting. You can’t just buy media and put a big logo on it. I think brands and agencies are taking risks because they have to. I see brands working closely with artists and allowing them to “do their thing.” That’s great! The more the artist can “do their thing,” the more amazing the project will be, the more it will be shared and ultimately, the better for the brand. ADC: As you travel from city to city for BYOB events, what do you notice most about people’s experience with the events? ROZENDAAL: BYOB started as a simple
idea: Let’s make curating easy. Curating group shows is usually very stressful; so I figured if everyone took care of their own hardware, it would be easier, faster and more
spontaneous. When I began, I invited about 30 artists and I was surprised how fun it was. There was a great energy, and all of the artists were happy to get together and show what they were making. Immediately people asked, “Can I do this in my city?” So I posted a BYOB manual online to allow anyone to organize a BYOB. Within 2 years, more than 98 editions have happened in major cities like New York and London, but also in places like Cuba and Myanmar. I really enjoy the fact that each city has its own character. In some cities, the digital community is already very tight, but in other places the BYOB is a moment where everyone meets for the first time. But it always seems to be a very happy and spontaneous night. I think the power of BYOB is that the Internet “jumps out of the machine.” Today, the Internet is trapped inside our devices, but soon, all our surfaces will be screens, and BYOB shows us what that will be like. BYOB is also about the initiative of the individual and a tool to create an exhibition without any budget. There are so many people out there making interesting things who never get a chance to exhibit because they feel intimidated by the art world. I hope this helps them. FEB 2013 5
WHAT IS ‘SHOCKING?’
OLIVIERO TOSCANI FESTIVAL KEYNOTE
↑ He is the creative mind behind many a successful and awarded advertising campaign, bringing previously littleknown brands to the forefront of culture and conversation. But he’s not an advertiser. Oliviero Toscani is a world-renowned photographer.
Toscani is no stranger to raising awareness through his photographs. His work represents his time, and many an issue therein. Whether his campaigns for Benetton or his captures for other global brands,
6 FEB 2013
Toscani’s photographs gave a face— and a new unavoidable reality—to anorexia, AIDS victims, gay rights and capital punishment.
THE ART DIRECTORS CLUB (ADC): Your
These days, Toscani is also a winemaker and one of the best quarter horse breeders in Europe. A keynote speaker at the ADC 92nd Annual Awards + Festival of Art and Craft in Advertising and Design in April 2013, Toscani paused during a trip to Milan to share a glimpse into his experience and his work.
OLIVIERO TOSCANI: Well my father was the first photographer, reporter and the creator of Corriere della Sera, a major newspaper in Italy. At that time, there wasn’t any television and I grew up very close to photojournalists. It’s a special way to take pictures, to do so for the daily news. I used to bring the developed pictures—still wet
father was a photojournalist. What did growing up in that environment teach you?
ADC 92ND ANNUAL AWARDS + FESTIVAL OF ART AND CRAFT IN ADVERTISING AND DESIGN
FESTIVAL KEYNOTE SPEAKER
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No Anorexia Campaign, 2006
on paper—to my father, who would have me deliver them to a journalist. When you do that for journalism, you belong to a kind of elite because you know things first—even before your teachers! Today, that just doesn’t happen too much anymore. You see things on TV straight from life. It’s a different thing. ADC: What did you intend to capture
in photographs throughout your career? What stories did you want to tell first?
TOSCANI: I belong to the ’60s generation. I’m as old as Bob Dylan! I’m as old as the people in The Rolling Stones! I gravitated towards photos that I think were special to my generation. There are some photographers who without fashion, they wouldn’t be photographers. Some photographers who without design, they wouldn’t be photographers. Some photographers
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who without the news, they wouldn’t be photographers. That is not my case. I’m just a reflection of my time. And in my time, a lot of things happened. (Laughs) ADC: A lot of shocking things, perhaps, if one measured by your work? TOSCANI: What is shocking? You don’t get shocking in photos, come on. (Laughs) The painting of the Renaissance…what do you tell Michelangelo? That’s shocking? ADC: But do you think the realities of our times call for shock value to get attention? TOSCANI: People must see something on TV or see a picture; otherwise, they do not see it at all. We live in fear so we don’t want to see. The thing is that we feel far away. I ask myself, “How close does what’s happening have to be for us to understand it is
happening?” If you see it in a picture, that’s real, but you don’t get involved. But you now have knowledge and, therefore, responsibility. If it is on TV, it seems so far away. But a still picture is still very strong because you have to engage responsibility in what you’re looking at. ADC: Your anorexia photos could be an example of this, no? TOSCANI: I started to work on that project because I saw models coming in to the studio, skinnier and skinnier and skinnier, until I understood that there was something wrong going on. I did a movie that was projected in the Locarno Film Festival in 2006 about a 16-year-old girl saying why she was anorexic. I worked on that anorexic problem, then I found a guy with a clothing company who said he wanted to do something really strong about something interesting that would interest the whole world.
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United Colors of Benetton Campaign, Newborn Baby, 1991
We had a very little budget but I said, “Okay, it doesn’t matter the budget. If we do something interesting, everybody will notice it.” The whole world noticed it! (Laughing) In those times, you’ve got two opportunities: You repeat, and you repeat, and you spend a lot of money to make sure you’re understood, or you get a real image that makes people stare and look at it. ADC: What’s fascinating is that you are the man behind the lens of some of the biggest brand advertising campaigns in the world, yet you’re not an advertiser, you’re a photographer.
marketing…the research…the focus groups. People without fantasy or people that have got no imagination are terrible. (Laughs) There’s too much consumption, consumption,
TOSCANI: Well, power needs communication and communication needs power. Power needs communication to impose itself, and communication needs power to express itself. I think that this is an application of art. Communication is the highest expression of art. Simple as that. When communication gets to its highest calling of expressing itself, it becomes art.
Communication is the highest expression of art. Simple as that. When communication gets to its highest calling of expressing itself, it becomes art.
TOSCANI: No, no, I’m
not an advertiser at all. I hate marketing. Marketing is what ruined art. It’s the reason art and the imagination have been killed. It’s a terrible monster, the
8 FEB 2013
ADC: So, in other words, we’ve lost the art in what we’re doing?
consumption and at the end, people don’t need to consume any more. They’ve got enough.
Art is modern communication. It used to be the Sistine Chapel. (Laughs) It was meant for the people to come in and see the mighty God, and paradise and things that probably they don’t really see. That was the communication of the Church. That’s how church, religion and Catholic religion got powerful…through
ADC 92ND ANNUAL AWARDS + FESTIVAL OF ART AND CRAFT IN ADVERTISING AND DESIGN
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Top: Chirurgia Estetica, ELLE France, 2005
Bottom: United Colors of Benetton, HIV Campaign, 1993
communication. What do they actually do? They just communicate. That’s it. ADC: What about Colors? How did that come about? TOSCANI: Colors was an idea that
I had for a long time. I wanted to make a magazine with no news and no celebrities. That was really my creation. That was my magazine, and I think it was a magazine that did a lot to teach the future. People who came to work at Colors wanted to be journalists, but I didn’t want them to be journalists. I wanted them to be curious people. Everybody who
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worked at Colors was a young person who was tremendously curious about what was happening around the rest of the world. ADC: Where would we find Mr. Toscani these days? TOSCANI: I live in the country in Italy on a farm and I’m the best breeder of quarter horses in Europe. I do a few photography projects, and then I also produce wine, and all is good!
TOSCANI: Red, red, red! ADC: And lastly, what is the one thing in the world that you cannot live without? TOSCANI: Oh. (Pauses, laughing) That I can’t live without? It’s love, of course. Being in love, not love. I don’t know what love is. Being in love is a sentiment, a feeling. That’s the one thing I can’t live without.
ADC: Well that instigates an important question: do you prefer red or white wine?
FEB 2013 9
FROM PAPERCLIP TO HOUSE
ONE RED PAPERCLIP WITH FOUNDER KYLE MACDONALD →
FESTIVAL
PRESENTER
Have you ever heard of the guy who traded a red paper clip for a house? Kyle MacDonald is that guy. Inspired by a childhood game, MacDonald took the first thing on his desk and began an online-meets-offline journey of trading up to bigger and better things until he landed himself with a house (which he has since donated to the town of Kipling, Saskatchewan, Canada). Dubbed One Red Paperclip, the project resulted in MacDonald becoming mayor for one day, receiving the keys to a city, starring in a MasterCard® commercial, setting a Guinness World Record and much more. MacDonald is into outlandish projects—the kind that take on a life of their own, garner a lot of attention and more importantly, instigate big results. He is bringing his big thinking from Montreal to Miami Beach, leading a session at the ADC 92nd Annual Awards + Festival of Art and Craft in Advertising and Design in April 2013. But until then, MacDonald shared a bit about where this big thinking began.
→
The red paper clip that MacDonald began with and the house he ended up with.
10 FEB 2013
ADC 92ND ANNUAL AWARDS + FESTIVAL OF ART AND CRAFT IN ADVERTISING AND DESIGN
FESTIVAL PRESENTER
I truly believe that when one embarks on a so-called ‘crazy’ idea, they leave the everyday world behind and excite others who want to help them create the future. THE ART DIRECTORS CLUB (ADC): What
was the spark that inspired you to begin the original One Red Paperclip journey?
KYLE MACDONALD: I stole the idea
from a game called Bigger and Better that I heard about as a teenager. The idea of Bigger and Better was to start with a small object and knock on people’s doors, asking them if they had something bigger and better to trade for the object. After a series of successful up-trades, kids would wind up with something way bigger than they initially started with. Think of it as equal parts freestyle scavenger hunt and trick-or-treat. As the suburban legend has it, a guy in Vancouver started with an old shoe and came home with a car from a single night of playing the game. I never really played the game as a kid, but the idea revisited me when I was 25 years old, and I decided I wanted to get in on some of that action. I looked on my desk and the first thing I saw was a red paper clip. I picked it up, posted about it in the barter section of Craigslist and the fun began.
ADC: What was the most fascinating trade you made along the way and why? MACDONALD: The trade for an
afternoon with Alice Cooper. Not only did I get to trade an afternoon with Alice Cooper, I got to experience it as well. I ended up meeting Alice in Fargo, North Dakota and going on stage with him in front of 4,000 people to make a ceremonial trade of a giant red paper clip for a weather balloon…filled with blood. Of course, Alice promptly popped the balloon with a dagger and blood flew everywhere—coating me and the audience as well. It was a totally surreal experience, but he’s actually a really nice guy!
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ADC: Who is the most memorable person you’ve come across since founding One Red Paperclip? MACDONALD: Tough call, I’ve met so
many great people over the last few years. I honestly can’t boil this down to a single person. The surprising part of the whole Red Paperclip adventure is that I’ve been invited to speak to different audiences all over the world. Taiwan, The Netherlands, Lebanon, Texas, NYC, L.A., Northern Alberta...and the list goes on! It’s been
an absolute pleasure to share the Red Paperclip story with so many people. Speaking at a live event is such an amazing thrill. It’s a great way to tell stories, and an even better way to meet people. It’s really nice to get out in the real world and connect with people face to face. The Internet is an amazing medium, but despite all the so-called ‘social connections,’ it can be a very solitary place. The more we can do to get people interacting face to face, the better! ADC:
The “About” section of your
website states, “We believe that the extremely illogical way forward can lead to extremely logical value. And we love restrictions. When restrictions are imposed, creativity skyrockets.” Why do you believe this? If somebody says they’re going to raise money for cancer research by traveling across the country and booking a seat on a regularly scheduled aircraft, nobody would care. But if that same person tries to achieve the same goal by walking on their hands across the country, people sit up and take notice. It’s very illogical to walk across a country on your hands, which gives it immense value, or remarkability. The more remarkable something is, the more people will notice it, and better yet, tell others. So by embarking on something remarkable, people get excited. And when people get excited, they want to help make an idea happen, and will step forward to help that idea along. I truly believe that when one embarks on a so-called ‘crazy’ idea, they leave the everyday world behind and excite others who want to help them create the future.
MACDONALD:
ADC: You do a lot of crazy cool projects. What is at the heart of them all—so by extension, what is at the heart of who Kyle is, what he does and why? MACDONALD: I’m a guy who wants
to make interesting things happen. Things that people will hopefully enjoy. Things that will fire up their imagination to see the world in a different way. I love having unique experiences, and sharing them with others, but for me the most satisfying thing of all is to see somebody else act upon their own imagination and turn ideas into action. I’m extremely motivated to help others create the future by being a ridiculous teacher of sorts! FEB 2013 11
THE ART OF THE PARTY
TOM AND GARY’S DECENTRALIZED DANCE PARTY WITH FOUNDER GARY LACHANCE FESTIVAL
PRESENTER
→
According to Tom and Gary, partying is underestimated by 99% of the populace. This has inspired them to grab as many boom boxes as possible, an FM radio transmitter and crowds of party people in cities across North America to bring the art of the party back with the Decentralized Dance Party. Tom and Gary have even penned a Party Manifesto, with the necessary components being: clothing (they mean a kick-ass costume), props, music, dancing, behavior (as in stretching the limits of), location/ atmosphere and alcohol (though not really necessary if the party is cool enough, which Tom and Gary guarantee). They will bring the art of the party to Miami Beach with a workshop at the ADC 92nd Annual Awards + Festival of Art and Craft in Advertising and Design in April 2013.
12 FEB 2013
THE ART DIRECTORS CLUB (ADC): When,
where and how was the idea for Tom and Gary’s Decentralized Dance Party (DDP) born?
GARY LACHANCE: Tom and I are best
friends who grew up together in a small town in Northern Ontario in the ’90s, where our primary concerns were enjoying strange music, wearing funny clothes, pulling elaborate pranks, and partying in as funny, crazy and ridiculous ways as possible. Several years later, we both moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, and it was in Vancouver that I received my first iPod® as part of a bank promotion. I plugged it into the auxiliary port of an old boom box I had and a new era of partying was born.
For several years, the boom box never left our sides, as we partied hard and loud, wherever we went and with whomever we met. We crashed countless house parties, added heavy metal soundtracks to our frequent Roman candle battles and strapped it to our bikes for mobile partying all summer long. One night, as we were freaking out on a large cross-city bike party, the iPods on both our boom boxes died, so we tuned them both into the same radio station. It created a very cool distributed sound effect and so we speculated, “What if we were to get our own radio transmitter and hundreds of boom boxes?” It was a question we had to answer for ourselves, and one fateful evening in August 2009, we did.
ADC 92ND ANNUAL AWARDS + FESTIVAL OF ART AND CRAFT IN ADVERTISING AND DESIGN
FESTIVAL PRESENTER
ADC:
How does a DDP work?
LACHANCE: I wear a crazy backpack, “The Splack Pack,” containing an FM radio transmitter, mixing board, antenna and large battery to power it all. A wireless microphone and a wireless iPod Touch feed into it and a Nintendo® Power Glove is rigged to control the iPod.
This rig allows music and voice to be transmitted out to an unlimited number of boom boxes, which are held aloft by hundreds of “Party People,” creating a Decentralized Dance Party—a party with no central audio source and no central location. Tom leads the party with a giant glowing party scepter, “The Disco Stick,” and we are always assisted by our “Elite Banana Task Force,” a crack team of party helpers wearing giant banana suits who chaperone the party, fix broken boom boxes, and get people freaking out and having fun. We have thrown 52 DDPs in over 30 major North American cities during our “Party Safari” tours. We announce the starting locations only on Facebook the night before the party, and hundreds to thousands of people meet at the starting location, grab a boom box and join a crazed roaming dance party through the streets. ADC: Why the fierce commitment to the OG boom box?
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LACHANCE: The only technology that currently allows for this to happen is FM radio transmission, and the OG boom boxes can be fairly easily sourced for about $5 nowadays at thrift stores and garage sales. But we are also working on developing a new open-source, digital DDP-specific boom box called the “Social Stereo.” ADC: The popularity of DDP has grown…fast! Clearly, it is hitting a need or a nerve with people: What do you think that nerve is? LACHANCE: Like
most aspects of Western society, partying has become
ADC: Describe the coolest DDP that has taken place to date. LACHANCE: We agree that the coolest and “funnest” DDP of all time was the one where we took a subwaybus-ferry-ferry-bus-subway-beach route that spanned 13 hours and nearly 300 kilometers back in the day. Something about invading so many different areas, transforming a standard ferry ride into a pleasurecruising rave with all your (old and new) best friends as the sun set, partying with the captain and crew, receiving police escorts, blasting off the fog machines and strobe lights on the deck, and then being in the subway was amazing. Just being so ambitious and ridiculous that you get away with it all, the laughs and the highest of spirits created memories that will last forever. ADC: And importantly, who’s a better dancer, you or Tom? LACHANCE: We’re both bad dancers,
in the traditional sense!
commoditized and regulated to the point where it has lost its soul and vitality. The initiation of our open-source party concept has freed partying from these longstanding restrictions, and it’s been very clearly demonstrated that coming together to sing and dance, and celebrate together is something that thousands of people everywhere have a supreme desire to involve themselves in.
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AN ARTISTIC HEADQUARTERS HEADQUARTERS: THE ART COLLECTION AT W SOUTH BEACH
And how would a hotel—properties typically known for cheesy prints and bland, unengaging artwork—house the work of Andy Warhol, JeanMichel Basquiat and Damian Hirst? In the case of W South Beach, it is 14 FEB 2013
the owner’s passion for the art that makes it possible. Attendees of the Festival in April 2013 will be delighted by many of the pieces in the owner’s collection, including the photography of Danny Clinch (whose work is featured in the hallways and guest rooms at W South Beach), the sculptural creations of Tom Friedman and Tom Sachs, and the paintings of George Condo, Richard Prince, Christopher Wool, Mel Ramos and Kenny Scharf. Oh, and Warhol, Basquiat and Hirst. In 1986, Andy Warhol did a series of paintings that borrowed imagery from
the military—titled Camouflage—that gave him the opportunity to work in both an abstract pattern and an immediately recognizable image. Festival attendees will be greeted by Camouflage as they enter the reception area of W South Beach. Also throughout the ‘80s, Warhol collaborated with the now-celebrated, but at the time much younger artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat. The two worked on the same canvas together or separately, creating pieces such as Drumstick, Reagan/ Outlays in 1984-85. Warhol painted the profile of Ronald Reagan and included some financial references found in the newspaper. Then
ADC 92ND ANNUAL AWARDS + FESTIVAL OF ART AND CRAFT IN ADVERTISING AND DESIGN
PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
Where else would the ADC 92nd Annual Awards + Festival of Art and Craft in Advertising and Design call “home” than a hotel and property with its own world-class art collection? A festival dedicated to the art and craft that binds together the visual communications industries would naturally be surrounded by Warhol, Basquiat and Hirst originals, right? The Art Directors Club thinks so.
FESTIVAL HEADQUARTERS
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Top: Andy Warhol, Camouflage, 1986 Left: Andy Warhol & Jean-Michel Basquiat, Drumstick, Reagan/Outlays, 1984-85 Right: Damien Hirst, Zinc Sulfinate, 2002
PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
Basquiat added a rough and simple painting of a chicken drumstick over the Warhol imagery that seems to have no obvious connection to the subject matter. Upon entering the Living Room Bar at W South Beach, Festival attendees will see Drumstick, Reagan/Outlays on the left wall. The work of Damien Hirst, one of the best-known members of the “Young British Artists” who first gained attention in London in the early ‘90s, is well represented at W South Beach. A number of his paintings—and thankfully for the faint-of-stomach, not his animal bodies and body parts in tanks of formaldehyde—grace the
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walls. Hirst’s painting, Beautiful Queen Mother’s Knickers (1996), was made with a machine that centrifugally disperses the paint steadily poured onto a shaped canvas surface. Hirst’s 2002 ‘spot’ painting, Zinc Sulfinate, contains a rigorous grid of uniform-sized dots on a circular canvas in varying colors derived from pharmaceutical chemicals. These two paintings can be found on the marble wall outside of the reception area at W South Beach and in the Living Room Bar.
will enjoy each day, there will be plenty of opportunities to browse the owners’s extensive and impressive collection simply by exploring W South Beach. The Art Directors Club did not decide that the 92nd Annual Awards was “For the Art of It All” for nothing.
Whether en route to a Festival workshop, or during the afternoon breaks that all Festival attendees
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PURCHASE YOUR PASS
ADC 92 ANNUAL AWARDS + FESTIVAL OF ART AND CRAFT IN ADVERTISING AND DESIGN PASS PRICING ND
Do you want to join the Art Directors Club in Miami Beach in April? Reserve your Festival Pass by March 1, 2013 and save $350! All-Inclusive Festival Pass now until March 1, 2013: $1400 USD All-Inclusive Festival Pass after March 1, 2013: $1750 USD Your All-Inclusive Festival Pass will include access to ALL of the following perks during the ADC 92nd Annual Awards + Festival of Art and Craft in Advertising and Design April 2–4, 2013:
THREE NIGHTS OF ACCOMMODATIONS AT ONE OF THE TOP HOTELS IN SOUTH BEACH ALL DAYTIME WORKSHOPS/PANELS/SPEAKER SESSIONS HELD AT THE W SOUTH BEACH THROUGHOUT THE FESTIVAL ENTRANCE TO THE ADC DESIGN NIGHT CELEBRATION AT THE WOLFSONIAN ENTRANCE TO THE ADC 92ND ANNUAL AWARDS GALA CELEBRATION AT THE NEW WORLD CENTER ALL COCKTAIL RECEPTIONS AND AFTER-PARTIES THROUGHOUT THE FESTIVAL, INCLUDING A GUNN REPORTSPONSORED POOL PARTY AND MORE!
FESTIVAL-ONLY PASS (includes all workshops and social events throughout the three days, but does NOT include hotel accommodations): $750 USD STUDENT FESTIVAL PASS (includes all workshops and social events throughout the three days, but does NOT include hotel accommodations): $600 USD All pass purchases are non-refundable. Hotel accommodations available while supplies last.
To learn more and purchase your pass today, visit adcawards.org/festival
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ADC 92ND ANNUAL AWARDS + FESTIVAL OF ART AND CRAFT IN ADVERTISING AND DESIGN
A JURY CHAIR’S CALLPERSPECTIVE FOR ENTRIES
A SINGLE LENS WITH ALBERT WATSON One of the 20 Most Influential Photographers of All Time
Albert Watson, Photographer and 92nd Annual Awards Photography Jury Chair Photo by Gloria Rodríguez
↑ Scottish-born photographer Albert Watson began his career studies in graphic design. Watson then went on to study film, but along the way, he dabbled in photography studies until his passion for photography took over as a full-time career. An illustrious career at that, having shot more than 100 covers of Vogue around the world, and the covers of most major magazines from Rolling Stone to Time to Vibe. Watson’s lens has established looks for many brands and captured the iconic rock stars, rappers, actors and celebrities of our day. As the 92nd
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THE ART DIRECTORS CLUB (ADC): Has your sight, or your lack thereof in one eye, affected your career in any way?
thing is I have no idea. The reason I have no idea is because when you’re born that way, that’s what you do, that’s just who you are. But the one thing to remember is that, for the most part, when people use the proper camera—not your iPhone®— but if you have a traditional single lens reflex like a Nikon®, or a little Canon®, guess what you do? You put it up to your eye. You don’t use two eyes inside the camera. You use one eye.
ALBERT WATSON: Well, the interesting
Would I like sight in both eyes? Yes.
Annual Awards Photography Jury Chair, Watson will uphold the Art Directors Club’s commitment to the art and craft in photography, and the winning work chosen by his jury will be on display in The Wolfsonian in Miami Beach during the ADC 92nd Annual Awards + Festival of Art and Craft in Advertising and Design.
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Mick Jagger, Los Angeles, 1992
22 NOV 2012 18 FEB 2013
ADC 92nd ANNUAL AWARDS ADC 92ND ANNUAL AWARDS + FESTIVAL OF ART AND CRAFT IN ADVERTISING AND DESIGN
PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
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Left: Kate Moss, Marrakesh, 1993 Right: Aicha Haddaoui, On the Road to Marrakesh, 1997
About 20 years ago, I went to a doctor. He tested my eyes and said, “There’s nothing wrong with your eyes, but you should have glasses.” I said, “Well, why do I need glasses?” He said, “Because if you lose sight in the other eye, that’s it. Glasses form at least a little bit of a defense mechanism, like wearing goggles. So you should have glasses on all the time, all day.” So I do. ADC: Do you have any subject that
PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
you’ve always wanted to photograph that still has not made it in front of your lens? WATSON: I wouldn’t mind doing some landscape photography in Scotland, but landscape is very, very tricky for one reason. Strangely enough, good landscape photography depends tremendously on weather, meaning you need it. You don’t need a sunny day because landscape photography and a sunny day is just incredibly boring, and incredibly “postcard-y.” A lot of times, landscape photography works very well if you’re in mist, if you’re in wind that bends trees in a direction, if there’s rain on the hills or clouds that are moving. Therefore, sometimes you have to wait for weather, so if you were going to do a book on landscape photography MUSE Muse
in Scotland, for instance, you’re committed to going there for eight or nine months, or to going there for four months—probably from October through January—twice. With my schedule, that’s a fantasy thing. ADC: Is there anything about your
career that you would go back and change if you could?
WATSON: Not a lot. I wouldn’t necessarily have changed anything, actually. I mean, of course small details, but apart from isolated things like that, everything was the right decision. I would always be a photographer. I think I was made to be a photographer. ADC: What is the most moving photo you’ve ever taken; moving for you, not necessarily moving for other people? WATSON: There’s a shot of a child, which I love and meant something to me, that I did in Morocco. It was in the book Maroc. I wanted to photograph this child, and the child wouldn’t look in the camera. The child’s grandmother was there and she had tattooed hands, obviously a grandmother’s hands. She twisted the poor child’s head towards the camera, as though to say, “Look at
the camera.” I hit the picture, but just as I hit the picture, the child switched its eyes to the other side, because it wouldn’t look. I always felt that shot had something—that moment of defiance from a child that didn’t want to look at the camera, even when forced. It was very nice, that moment. ADC: That is so beautiful. What would you say you have left to accomplish after such a prolific career? WATSON: Well, there’s a weird thing with photographers. For some reason, photographers never retire. It’s not like a normal job where people, on average, retire. Photographers just seem to keep on shooting.
I remember a few years ago meeting Irving Penn’s studio manager, and I said, “How is Mr. Penn doing?” The studio manager kind of shook his head and said, “Oh, not as well as he used to. He only likes to come into the studio three days a week to work.” I said, “Oh, only three days now?” and I said, “Well, how old is he now?” and the manager said, “Well, he is 91.” He was still going in to the studio for three days and he was 91. I think it’s just the way photographers are. NOV 2012 23 FEB 2013 19
A LIFE OF DESIGN
DESIGN LEADERSHIP
WITH BRUCE MAU, CO-FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, MASSIVE CHANGE NETWORK FESTIVAL
PRESENTER
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Bruce Mau has spent a lifetime immersed in—and as a leader in the field of—design as founder of Bruce Mau Design, and later as founder of both the Institute Without Boundaries and the Massive Change Network with wife Bisi Williams. Mau, Williams and their teams constantly work to integrate design more consciously into every aspect of social, political and entrepreneurial being, and seek to make design, design thinking and design leadership accessible to the masses. Mau and the Massive Change Network will lead the attendees of the ADC 92nd Annual Awards + Festival of Art and Craft in Advertising and Design through a workshop in design thinking under the sun of South Beach in April 2013.
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THE ART DIRECTORS CLUB (ADC): Most
people are familiar with design as a discipline, but what is “design,” by definition to you and by extension, what is design thinking?
BRUCE MAU: When most people think of design, they think “visual,” they think “object,” and they often think “fancy and expensive.” When people hear the word “design” who aren’t themselves designers or familiar with the collaborative nature of the practice, they often think “singular authorship” and the “hand of the artist.” These ideas still crowd the thinking around the definition of design.
In fact, the reality of 21st century design practice is that most design
is invisible. It is the design that you don’t see that makes the airplane fly; makes the water come out when you turn on the shower; makes the interface serve up just what you are searching for. When you listen to people in their common language, you will hear the word design used to describe all sorts of goals and ambitions that are not classical outcomes of design. People talk about designing events, designing systems, design processes, designing messages, designing experience and designing interaction. In the end, design is a method of leadership. Design is our best method of envisioning a future and systematically executing on the vision. When we think about design
ADC 92ND ANNUAL AWARDS + FESTIVAL OF ART AND CRAFT IN ADVERTISING AND DESIGN
FESTIVAL PRESENTER
and ecological this way, we realize processes that that design has provide the changed scale Author of “The Incomplete Manifesto context for in its capacity for Growth,” a 43-point program to help everything we for impact. do. They need Everything we do designers and creatives think about the ability to is now subject to synthesize design innovation. their process analytical and Everything is creative methods now subject to Awarded the Chrysler Award for Design in order to produce the capacity holistic solutions. of design to Innovation in 1998 produce specific that and desirable Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council Fortunately, is what designers outcomes— naturally do. We products, confront problems experiences, we don’t already businesses, way challenges any designer to know how to solve. We learn about organizations, social movements— learn in new ways. The idea that them and work to understand the even natural systems and living you can learn to be a designer, nature of the challenge and the scope organisms. This radically expanding and then practice the design that of the opportunity. We sketch and capacity challenges designers of you learned until you are ready iterate solutions, and synthesize the the 21st century to develop the new for retirement, is simply no longer best results that are both technically practices of design and to guide plausible. Designers must become sound and emotionally powerful. the new processes to create a more entrepreneurial learners. A designer ethical, equitable and abundant in the 21st century is a navigator of world. For me, design leadership is the ADC: What is an example of design massive change, an orienteer on the ambition of design thinking. thinking in practice? changing terrain of possibility, a guide to the opportunities that exist in the ADC: What are the implications of MAU: Everything I have worked economy and ecology as it continues design thinking on what the individual on has been to some degree an to evolve and transform. A designer young designer is attempting to learn application of this method. From the must learn to learn. Designers need and incorporate into their work? development of the fan experience a depth of expertise in the processes model for the new Meadowlands of learning, listening, creativity and Stadium for the Jets and Giants, to MAU: Well, you can image that innovation; combined with a broad the design for the future of Mecca; thinking about design in this new exposure to the cultural, economic Muse
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from the development of a social movement to confront 36 years of civil war in Guatemala to the sustainability platform for the global Coca-Cola® system. I never would have imagined as a young designer that I would be asked to confront the situation that we were engaged with in Guatemala. I was first contacted by the Guatemalan Minister of Education and she explained that after 36 years of civil war, the people of her country had lost the ability to dream. The public imagination was dominated by three images— violence, poverty and corruption— and when the citizens of Guatemala imaged their future those three ideas pushed out everything else. As designers, we take for granted that we can imagine a positive future. That is what we do every day. Imagine a country where most people know only civil war as their experience of life. We worked with a group of citizens to develop a social movement called, “GuateAmala!” “Mala” means “bad”, “Amala” means “love of.” We created the “Love of Guatemala” movement. We developed a program called “The Culture of Life” and after 36 years of the culture of death, the people of Guatemala were committed to building the foundations that we take for granted. The program was structured around these foundations: the culture of justice, the culture of education, the culture of enterprise, the culture of dreaming and the culture of equity. Most people would
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not think of a social movement as a design problem, but the design of GuateAmala! demonstrates the scope of what the method of design is capable of. ADC: What inspired you and Bisi to found the Massive Change Network and what is the intention of the Massive Change workshops? MAU: When we founded the Institute
Without Boundaries in Toronto, we created a purpose-driven, entrepreneurial, experience-based,
design learning experiment. It was a very powerful method that immersed a small number of students in a studio environment for twelve months to confront a very tough challenge in a very public context. The first outcome of that program was the Massive Change project that was launched at the Vancouver Art Gallery as a 20,000 square-foot exhibition and a book published by Phaidon. When we moved to Chicago, we were intending to set up something very similar. But a young man challenged us with the insight that what we were
ADC 92ND ANNUAL AWARDS + FESTIVAL OF ART AND CRAFT IN ADVERTISING AND DESIGN
doing was very old-fashioned. It was based on restricted access. He said, “Bruce, you should have 300,000 students, not 30.” As we began to research innovation in education we discovered he was absolutely right. That is our goal for the Massive Change Network. To develop the most advanced thinking and methods in design practice and learning methods, and provide the greatest possible access to generate real impact. ADC: What is the advantage to a company or organization to
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incorporating design thinking into their business model? MAU: The real impact of incorporating
design thinking into an organization is best demonstrated by the best design company in history: Apple®. By thinking of the entire enterprise as a design opportunity, extending the application of design to the economic and experience platform of the business, designing the software and the hardware of our music experience, designing the app store and galvanizing a generation of creative entrepreneurs to
develop applications for the iPad®, Apple created the most valuable enterprise in human history. That is the real opportunity in applying design thinking to enterprise— creating value. When we think of value more broadly as improved performance, greater impact, and human accomplishment beyond only monetary value, and when we think of enterprise more broadly, to include organizations, governments, cities, social movements and communities, we realize that the potential for design to confront the great challenges we are facing in the world today is really profound. FEB 2013 23
A GALA SOIRÉE AT THE NEW WORLD CENTER Behind the 92nd Annual Awards Venue with Craig Hall, VP–Communications
↑ Miami Beach’s New World Center, home of the New World Symphony, is where music meets architecture. A collaboration led by Frank Gehry and the Artistic Director of the New World Symphony Michael Tilson Thomas, the project materialized in January 2011 into a 101,000 square-foot campus that transcends aesthetics and pushes innovative sound and performance boundaries. Just off Lincoln Road in South Beach, the New World Center will play host to the ADC 92nd Annual Awards Gala on April 4, 2013. Craig Hall, the symphony’s Vice President for Communications, gives a little insight into the vision, mission and purpose of both New World Center and the New World Symphony. THE ART DIRECTORS CLUB (ADC): What was the original inspiration, dream and mission for constructing the New World Center in collaboration with Frank Gehry?
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CRAIG HALL: The inspiration was drawn
from the original mission of the New World Center, which is to prepare musicians for careers in classical music, as well as to be ambassadors for the art form and leaders in the communities in which they will live and work. The New World Center was a direct result of this mission, which requires both the New World Center staff and the musicians who are studying in our fellowship program to experiment with new performance formats and different ways to make classical music accessible to audiences of all backgrounds.
The effort with Frank Gehry, his team of designers, and everyone else on the project was 100% collaborative, which is one of the reasons the building is so successful. First, Michael Tilson Thomas and the staff of the New World Symphony took two years to imagine the future program
of the organization, and what spaces and technology we would need to achieve that vision. Then Frank Gehry and his team translated that vision into a design for a new campus. We were all very clear about the goals for the project, and that the building’s form was based on function: Each of the design elements supports the programmatic goals that we laid out, and does so in a way that is not just functional, but also playful and inspirational. ADC: The New World Center boasts some truly unique technological advances in the quality of sound and performance. What should a new visitor to the New World Center expect to experience? HALL: The concert hall was designed to produce an intimate event experience; there are seats all around the stage, and the furthest
ADC 92ND ANNUAL AWARDS + FESTIVAL OF ART AND CRAFT IN ADVERTISING AND DESIGN
It’s nearly impossible to be passive or disengaged because of your proximity to the stage, and because the sound envelops and surrounds you. It’s an immersive environment in terms of the acoustics, but also because of the projection capabilities.
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to make people feel that they were a part of the event, not just watching it. ADC: How does the New World Symphony program work?
seat from the stage is just 13 rows away. So there is a participatory feeling to every event here. It’s nearly impossible to be passive or disengaged because of your proximity to the stage, and because the sound envelops and surrounds you. It’s an immersive environment in terms of the acoustics, but also because of the projection capabilities. There are five main “sails” in the concert hall connecting the ceiling and the walls that have an acoustic purpose, but they also serve as canvases for projections, which create an immediate sense of environment. In addition to the main stage, there are also four smaller satellite stages located throughout the hall. Not only is there seating all around the main stage, but there are stages all around the seating areas, which was designed to give the audience a sense of being inside the event. The overall design objective for the space was
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HALL: The New World Symphony is a three-year fellowship program for musicians embarking on careers in classical music. Our 86-member orchestra is made up of young musicians—all of whom have their bachelor degree, and many of whom have a Master degree or Ph.D.— seeking careers in classical music.
We have about 30 openings each season, and for those openings, we receive about 1,500 applications from musicians who are performing at a very high level. In addition to continuing development of their artistry by working with many of the top conductors and soloists that they perform with at the New World Symphony, the Fellows undertake a great deal of professional development instruction, such as writing scripts about the music they’re performing, and delivering it to audiences from the front of the stage. They have to make sure it’s engaging to audiences who are familiar with classical music, as well as those who have little to no experience with the art form.
ADC: How is the New World Center helping to establish Miami Beach as a cultural destination? HALL: The draw of Frank Gehry buildings around the world is well documented, and the New World Center is truly unique in a number of ways. It’s unique in Frank Gehry’s own design vocabulary, in the way that a cultural building is positioned within its community, its accessibility to residents and visitors, and the technology used inside and outside. It has also helped to build the cultural profile of Miami through the attention it has received in national and international media; in the first three months after it opened, coverage of the New World Center had already surpassed one billion impressions. Furthermore, it is setting the stage for other cultural developments in Miami that will open in the next two years, including the new Perez Art Museum Miami (formerly the Miami Art Museum) designed by Herzog de Meuron, and the Miami Museum of Science. It’s great for Miami Beach and what we’re building here, but the New World Center also serves as a model for other cities in how to build a well-integrated, attractive 21st century community.
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OBSERVING CREATION WITH KYLE COOPER A man that you may not know that you know (unless, of course, you’re in-the-know).
Kyle Cooper, 92nd Annual Awards Motion Jury Chair, Founder, Prologue Films and Co-Founder, Imaginary Forces
↑ Cooper has directed hundreds
of title sequences—including the arresting openings to The Walking Dead, Argo, Se7en, American Horror Story, Spider-Man, Tron, the Incredible Hulk and so many more—and has been credited with restoring the art of the title sequence. Despite his modesty on the subject and collaborative nature, critics often claim Cooper’s work is superior to the films they introduce. Cooper’s successful career in design and advertising—with numerous industry greats at Yale University, R/GA, Imaginary Forces and now Prologue Films—never dulled his quest to work in film. While he holds the honorary title of Royal Designer for Industry from the Royal Society of Arts in London, Cooper would be more aptly dubbed “King of the Title.” The winners chosen by Cooper’s Motion Jury will be revealed at the 92nd Annual Awards Gala in Miami Beach on April 4, 2013.
THE ART DIRECTORS CLUB (ADC): If you take it way back to Kyle as a little boy, what did he want to do when he grew up? KYLE COOPER: I wanted to make
monsters. I wanted to work in the Creature Shop at ILM, where I wanted to make design creatures like Pumpkinhead or draw comicbook-type things. I didn’t think about being a comic book artist, but I would make my own little sequences. I knew I wanted to work in film and was always interested in this idea of titles in the back of my mind.
ADC: You’ve had some incredible mentors, teachers, colleagues and partners, from Hugh Dubberly to Paul Rand and Chris Pullman, to Bob Greenberg, Steve Frankfurt and Phil Gips and Armin Hofmann, and so many more. How has their influence impacted your career? COOPER: I’m very appreciative to the
people that have given me a vision, and have contributed to helping me understand what kind of artist I was
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going to be, and what my vocation was going to be. To the people that helped me not only just to have a job, but helped me to understand what my aesthetic was, or what work was good, or how to measure work—a lot of young people don’t quite know what they’re good at. People give you a vision along the way and there were a lot of people who helped me to find the kind of work I wanted to do. ADC: You are often credited for revitalizing the title sequence as an art form. Can you speak to the art in what you do? COOPER: I do this to be involved in
something that I know is going to be passionately done and people are going to care about every aspect of it, rather than just have it be measured by test screenings and how many people we can get into the seats. A lot of people have been hiring me to put something into the movie that was maybe overlooked, or to enhance the movie in some way through some additional storytelling or content. The conditions around the problem aren’t
ADC 92ND ANNUAL AWARDS + FESTIVAL OF ART AND CRAFT IN ADVERTISING AND DESIGN
A JURY CHAIR’S PERSPECTIVE
necessarily to sell more, but rather to solve a specific problem and to tell a specific story. Ideally, it will be in an artful way. The things that I think are artful are things that are expressive and things that are just a good solution to the problem, and I like the artful nature of observing things closely and appreciating creation. ADC: What allows you to be so successful in achieving good solutions to your clients’ problems? COOPER: I listen to the director. I’m
not a better designer than half the guys doing this, but half the people don’t listen. They just want to do self-indulgent things and they don’t respect the client. I’d like to be anonymous at this point in my life, frankly, unless I’m directing it. Then I can be the guy that states the problem and other people can help me figure it out.
ADC: Where in the creative process is the little spark for you that gets you excited about what you’re doing? COOPER: The moment where we
figure out what we’re going to do, when I have the concept. There’s a lot of pressure from whomever the client might be; from very seemingly important people to solve something, and figure something out, and make something that’s better than anybody’s expectations for perhaps less money than what you were paid
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the last time. It’s very stressful and I have fear that manifests itself as anger or depression when I don’t know. Before you have the epiphany that solves this fear, there is a heaviness that follows you around… until that moment when you know what the plan is. For instance, the moment working on Spider-Man where I sit up in bed and say, “Oh, I get it; the type will be caught in the webs like flies.” ADC: Speaking of Spider-Man, I understand that you studied a family of black widow spiders and an octopus while you were working on that sequence. Why? COOPER: The idea of observing
creation. I like taking things that exist in the physical world and photographing that stuff, whether it be chemical reactions to things, or the way things break, or the way things spill. Observing the physical world, and shooting the physical world, and creating these conditions for things to go wrong, it’s just very inspiring to me. I found a black widow—and the idea for Spider-Man —behind a dresser. I put it in a jar and the idea that I had— because he fights Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2—was that an octopus has the same number of legs as a spider. And I went to a fish store and I bought a salt-water tank and I bought an octopus, and I was photographing the octopus and looking at the
octopus and I was photographing the black widow. Of course I had to change the scale of the black widow because the black widow is smaller than the octopus, but I thought it would be interesting to create this fight between the black widow and the octopus and have them line up with each other because they have the same number of legs. Laura Ziskin, who was a lovely producer at the Spider-Man movie and a friend of mine, had a different idea of what the title sequence should be, so we ended up doing something simpler that was just based on the drawings of Alex Ross. ADC: What is the most gratifying part about what you do, and is there one experience that stands out among the rest? COOPER: I feel like what makes me happy is coming up with a conceptual solution, and a story and a direction, and solving a problem for a client. It’s the situation surrounding the different experiences that I’m very thankful for, and I can’t necessarily identify my favorite piece. I just think that the experience and the relationships that come out of each one are what I enjoy—some are bad, but some of them were really wonderful. I get to work on the Oscars right now because there’s a guy that produces the Oscars who I’ve helped before and I care about him. So for me, it’s the people and it’s the conditions.
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FESTIVAL
PRESENTER
BUILDING BLOCKS OF INSPIRATION With Sean Kenney
childhood imaginations, people like New York-based artist Sean Kenney. For more than 30 years, Kenney has been turning LEGO® bricks into sculptures, as well as corporate commissions for brands like Google®, Mazda®, Nintendo®, JP Morgan Chase and Samsung®, and personalized gifts for people around the world. He is also the author of the best-selling building guide for kids, Cool Cars and Trucks, and runs MOCpages.com, the world’s largest LEGO fan community. Kenney and his blocks will grace the ADC 92nd Annual Awards + Festival of Art and Craft in Advertising and Design in April 2013, where Festival attendees can expect to get into the mix and start laying little bricks in Miami Beach.
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THE ART DIRECTORS CLUB (ADC):
You describe yourself as “a fulltime professional kid.” At what point did you realize that a full-time professional kid could make a living and a big splash with what you were doing? SEAN KENNEY: I never really put down my LEGO collection. Even as I got older, I continued to “play” in my spare time while I worked a regular job, and I shared my creations online with fellow adult hobbyists. Somewhere along the line, people started calling me and asking to commission logos, for me to attend events and to create portraits of their kids. It wasn’t long before there were so many people excited by what I was doing that I didn’t need to work a “day job” anymore. It’s been a steady build since those days, and now I’ve been doing this full-time for eight years. I have a staff of assistants and a commercial studio here in New
York City filled with 1.8 million LEGO pieces, tons of sculptures and lots on the to-do list! There was no single “big explosion onto the scene”; it’s always been more of a slow, steady build (much like one of my sculptures). Bit by bit, as I create more pieces, host more shows, reach more fans and publish more books, I’ve slowly built up a fan base and garnered attention from media around the world. It also makes it very surreal because I never woke up one day and said, “Today I am Awesome LEGO Man!” So I don’t feel like I’ve ever “arrived” at any kind of success; I’m just sort of still on that slow, steady build. ADC: What did you do before you committed to LEGOs, and by extension was that previous job a motivation to make the LEGO leap? KENNEY: I previously I worked in
ADC 92ND ANNUAL AWARDS + FESTIVAL OF ART AND CRAFT IN ADVERTISING AND DESIGN
PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
↑ Some people never abandon their
FESTIVAL PRESENTER
PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
technology. I spent 10 years designing website interfaces and web user experiences, and writing software. I wore a suit every day to work. But the whole time, my “inner child” was itching to get out and play. Every night after work, I would go home and build something...sometimes while I was still in my suit! Technology was somewhat interesting, and it was intellectually and creatively stimulating. But I’m not the sort of person that fits into the cubicle world, and despite the fact that I’d done what society said I should—that I was “successful”—I was never really happy. One day I was sitting in my office in a cold-looking, quiet, boring, 40-story glass skyscraper on Park Avenue in New York. I was sitting at my desk but I wasn’t working; I was daydreaming about beautiful architecture and bright plastic blocks and thinking about what I would build when I got home. It was about then that I realized that was exactly what I needed to do: I should follow my dreams. So I stood up, took off my tie and walked straight out—just like that, in the middle of the day. And I never looked back. ADC: Why LEGOs? I suppose a fulltime professional kid could take on anything in the world of imagination,
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so why the building blocks? KENNEY: Why not? It’s certainly a lot of fun! I get to play with toys and make people smile; what better job could there be? Traditional sculptures in clay, bronze, and stone are very serious looking, but a sculpture made with LEGO bricks is fun and bright and something everyone can relate to. When you look at a LEGO sculpture, you understand how it was put together, and can maybe even imagine doing it yourself. It’s great to watch kids get excited and start creating things themselves. You don’t see that same thing happening when people view bronze sculptures or oil paintings.
I’ve released my series of children’s books, which I call “idea books.” I wanted to show kids how they can make really cool things with the pieces they already have at home, and perhaps give them a nudge to see what they can come up with. Adults, too, are taken by my work. Many start with a nostalgic connection to LEGO (or to other construction toys—wooden blocks… Lincoln Logs®…Erector® sets) from their own childhoods and marvel,
ADC: Who is the audience that you are primarily trying to connect with or move in some way? KENNEY: I think there are a few audiences. Children, of course, look to my work and are often in awe at the things I make. I recall as a child myself, poring over the work of the “LEGO Masters,” learning what I could from photos of their work, and I know kids are now looking to me in the same way. It’s both very rewarding as well as intensely wonderful to know I’m inspiring children to create and to be creative. It’s for that reason
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ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF SEAN KENNEY
30 FEB 2013
ADC 92ND ANNUAL AWARDS + FESTIVAL OF ART AND CRAFT IN ADVERTISING AND DESIGN
that someone like myself can actually leave a stuffy, white-collar job to do something I love for a living. It is, in many ways, a dream that we all share. But beyond that, the sculptures themselves are often something that works on a more grown-up level. I have a very minimalist design aesthetic, and I try to keep my work clean, simple, telegraphic and fun. I think adults are drawn to those aspects of the pieces I create (more so than children, perhaps). My series of lamps, for example, could have easily been a wonky collection with mish-mosh colors and spaceships and doors and firemen—and kids would probably eat that stuff up—but that’s not really who I am. I wanted to create something classy and retro and elegant and fun that anyone would be proud to set in their living room. ADC: Where do the art and the craftsmanship lie in what you do? KENNEY: The physical craft of constructing sculpture with LEGO bricks is an obvious challenge, as creating subtle, curved shapes with hard little plastic rectangles can be tricky. Unlike traditional sculpture, you can’t just carve out a shape or add to a surface. You have to think ahead as you’re building upwards linearly. It’s very tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s very
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rewarding to build something organic. Even less austere subject matter (for example a scale model of a building) present challenges imposed by the medium; you’re limited to a very narrow set of colors, and you are working at a very blocky resolution. How do you make a 100-story building (with 100 rows of windows) on a model that’s only 60 pieces tall? And is the Empire State Building tan or is it gray? That it depends if it’s cloudy or sunny, midday or sunset—and both colors imbue a very different character onto the building (are you going for a golden reminder of the Art Deco era? Or an aging monolith?). But beyond the craft of the medium is where I really try to capture the essence of whatever I’m creating. Whether it’s a human portrait, a hotel or even just a corporate logo, my job when creating these pieces is to become the vessel for the vision of my client and/or the subject. It’s not enough to make a mosaic look like you; it has to somehow capture your spirit. That model of your house has to be more than just a mathematical reproduction; it has to remind you of home. To accomplish these things, you can only best try to envelop yourself in the subject or in your client’s vision and try to dig down to see what’s beneath the surface. ADC: What is the LEGO sculpture you
have always wanted to build, but have not yet gotten to? KENNEY: I’m inspired by the world around me, and specifically as an urbanist, I’m intrigued by our relationship with cities and transportation. I’ve done a few sculptures on the periphery of the idea of sustainable transportation, but I’ve really wanted to explore more deeply the relationship we all have with the spaces in which we live our lives, and how we traverse those spaces. I lived in Texas for a brief time, and even though I was within the city limits of Austin, it’s so spread out that I had to drive nearly five miles —to the first traffic light!— to get to the supermarket. When you need to burn a gallon of gas to buy a gallon of milk, there’s something wrong with the world. In world cities like New York, London or Shanghai, everything is compact and reachable under one’s own body power. The contrast of this type of sustainable lifestyle with the ex-urbanized American masses is striking, and something I’d love to start showing in a very visual way. Maybe it will help people see what kinds of decisions they’re really making by choosing to live so far from work, food, education and other basic needs, and how it’s affecting their well-being, health and the environment. But, of course, in bold, happy, kiddy primary colors...somehow.
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ART AND DESIGN AT THE WOLFSONIAN Home of ADC Design Night with Mylinh Nguyen, Art Director
Deco district lies The Wolfsonian: a museum, library and research center (it is, after all, a part of Florida International University). The Wolfsonian uses objects to illustrate the persuasive power of art and design, to explore what it means to be modern, and to tell the story of social, historical and technological changes that have transformed our world. In order to give the winners of the design, illustration, photography and print work that is submitted to the ADC 92nd Annual Awards the space and reverence that it deserves, winning work will be displayed in The Wolfsonian and celebrated during ADC Design Night on April 3, 2013.
THE ART DIRECTORS CLUB (ADC): What is it about art and design that is most important to the Wolfsonian? MYLINH NGUYEN: The Wolfsonian places emphasis on everyday objects—whether of art or design— and the stories that they reveal about the technological, social and cultural transformations of the modern world. This emphasis is important to The Wolfsonian because by reflecting on the ideas, values, dreams and fears of the societies that made these artifacts, we are able to reexamine the relationship we have to objects today and understand what they say about us and the time in which we live. ADC: Is there a particular time in history that is most well represented in the museum? NGUYEN: The Wolfsonian’s collection
covers the period from 1851 to 1945. The first date is the year of the Crystal Palace in London, the first of 32 FEB 2013
the great international expositions. The latter date, of course, is the end of the Second World War. So our collection covers the period of the height of the Industrial Revolution and of European colonialism in Africa and Asia. Then, the two World Wars, and many smaller wars, such as the Spanish Civil War; the rise of totalitarian dictatorships in the Soviet Union, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany; revolutions in transportation and communication technologies; rapid urbanization; and key aesthetic movements, such as Arts & Crafts, Art Nouveau, Futurism and Constructivism. ADC: How do The Wolfsonian’s collections reflect the intersection of culture and society with art and design? NGUYEN: Everything that we do is based on the idea that art and design are not simply reflections of broader social or cultural conditions, but are active agents in making the
ADC 92ND ANNUAL AWARDS + FESTIVAL OF ART AND CRAFT IN ADVERTISING AND DESIGN
PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
↑ At the heart of Miami Beach’s Art
HOME OF ADC DESIGN NIGHT
material and visual worlds around us. Designers create images and objects that persuade people to join armies, think a particular way or buy particular products. They give form to the objects that we use, the spaces that we live and work in, and even the cities where we reside.
PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
ADC: What response do you hope to elicit out of visitors to The Wolfsonian, as well as from the locals of Miami Beach to having this resource in their backyard? NGUYEN: We hope that by illustrating the persuasive power of art and design, our visitors will leave The Wolfsonian with the confidence to look critically at, and make sense of, their visual and material surroundings. We also hope that our local community will not only take advantage of our collection as a resource for research and inspiration, but also learn about the historic significance of the building as a
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shining example of Mediterranean Revival architecture in the heart of Miami Beach’s Art Deco District. ADC: What exhibitions will be on display in April 2013? NGUYEN: Our permanent collection exhibition, Art and Design of the Modern Age, will definitely be open all of April. This provides an overview of The Wolfsonian’s collection—showing decorative art, furniture, industrial and graphic design, fine art, rare books, architectural drawings—and many other kinds of material. We are currently presenting Describing Labor, an installation by the artist Esther Shalev-Gerz, which will close April 7. Through new works of video, audio, and photography rooted in The Wolfsonian’s extensive collection of materials depicting work and working figures, Describing Labor interrogates our relationship to the labor that forges the physical world.
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ADC 92nd ANNUAL AWARDS FOR THE ART OF IT ALL
FESTIVAL OF ART AND CRAFT IN ADVERTISING AND DESIGN
LET THE ART DECIDE
MIAMI BEACH APRIL 2–4, 2013
ADCAWARDS.ORG/FESTIVAL