Magazine I S S U E
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Illustrator Emiliano Ponzi on drawing Bukowski
Interview with Garrick Hamm, Design Jury Chair of the ADC 92nd Annual Awards
Photography Gold Winner Henry Leutwyler raises the barre with his “Ballet� series
A LITTLE OASIS IN THE BIG APPLE Located inside the ADC Gallery in New York City, the Google Members Lounge is open to all ADC members looking for a quiet place to get things done. Whether you’re an international member
prepare, or you’re a local member who is tired of brainstorming at the neighborhood coffee shop, the Google Members Lounge is another fantastic free perk with your ADC membership.
in town on interviews who needs a place to ADC
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NOT YET A MEMBER? Please visit www.adcglobal.org/membership for details.
Table of Contents A R T
D I R E C T O R S
C L U B
M A G A Z I N E
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I S S U E
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Word from Executive Director and Editor
Art & Craft Meet Sun & Sand in Miami Beach
Raising the Barre: Behind the Cube with Photographer Henry Leutwyler
A Jury Chair’s Perspective: Fernanda Romano, CCO at Naked Brasil
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Ponzi Scheme: Behind the Cube with Emiliano Ponzi
Curators of Sweden: Tomorrow Awards Winner
A Jury Chair’s Perspective: Garrick Hamm, Partner at Williams Murray Hamm
Brands for Bands, with Kate Moross (YGX)
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Hands Up: How Droga5 CCO Ted Royer Led the Judging Process
Getting Weird with Bradonio (YGX)
My Take on Art & Craft in Advertising, by Gigi Lee
Life Is Electric: Behind the Cube with Dentsu Japan
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Sleepless in Stockholm
A Jury Chair’s Perspective: Naveen Selvadurai, Co-founder of Foursquare
The Funny Side of the Truth: Behind the Cube with DLKW Lowe
Portfolio Night 11 Around the World
COVER ILLUSTRATION
The front cover features a book cover from the Charles Bukowski series illustrated by Emiliano Ponzi. Emiliano won Gold for Illustration at the ADC 92nd Annual Awards, and is also a winner of ADC Young Gun 6. ADDITIONAL CREDITS
Art Direction: Erin Jang Contributing Writers: Brett McKenzie, Megan Garwood, Esther Clowney, Ariel Adkins, Zack Kinslow Copy Editor: Elizabeth A. McCaffrey
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FROM THE ART DIRECTORS CLUB
I G N A C I O O R E A M U N O
BRIANNA GRAVES
Executive Director
Editor and Director of Content + Communications
IN JUNE OF 2012, I was honored to accept the title of Executive Director of the Art Directors Club, with a mission to breathe new life into this nearly century-old institution without losing sight of the club’s original goals. After all, the ADC is the world’s first organization to celebrate artistry and craftsmanship in design, advertising and related creative fields––a legacy we hold dear. It’s been just over a year since I took on that task, and I am happy to say that the ADC has blossomed into a thriving club. Our gallery in New York has been a hotbed of activity, hosting all sorts of events for our members several times a month. We have been expanding our initiatives beyond the borders of the Big Apple. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the ADC 92nd Annual Awards + Festival of Art and Craft in Advertising and Design, which took place in Miami Beach this past April. To call that event a success is a gross understatement—as the hundreds of attendees could attest—and we hope we will meet even more of you in sunny Miami Beach next year! One thing that the ADC is not doing is resting on its laurels. The ADC staff, whom I can’t thank enough for their tireless efforts, is hard at work building on the successes of the past year, and we promise that the next year will be even better, whether you’re an illustrator who lives a short subway ride from the club, or a design firm on the other side of the world. The ADC belongs to its members, and believe me, it’s in very good hands.
IF THE ADC 92nd Annual Awards + Festival of Art and Craft in Advertising and Design was any indication, excellent work is among us but incredible craft en masse has yet to come. This year’s cream of the craft rose to the top during the judging in New York and Costa Rica, and was awarded an ADC Cube in the majesty of The Wolfsonian Museum and Miami Beach’s New World Center, home of the New World Symphony. A rededication to art was simultaneously celebrated over three days in Miami Beach by acclaimed photographer Oliviero Toscani, designer Bruce Mau, artists Rafaël Rozendaal and Jon Contino and more, alongside the 2013 Festival attendees. Who took home an ADC 92nd Annual Awards Gold Cube and why? The ADC writing team dug in “Behind the Cube” to help us better understand what goes into the kind of work that sets the bar on art and craft in the creative industries. Our team also chatted with four judges from the ADC Awards and the Tomorrow Awards, and discovered how they rallied their troops to select the absolute best for veneration. Speaking about the Tomorrow Awards, this issue also takes us on a Swedish adventure, reliving last year’s “Curators of Sweden” Tomorrow Awards winner, as well as preparing us for this year’s gala in beautiful Stockholm. Throw in interviews with two of ADC Young Guns X winners, alongside a recap of a very successful Portfolio Night 11, and you have yourself a very full issue indeed! We hope this issue intrigues and inspires you, and with a little luck, that inspiration will lead to you to collecting a Cube on the ADC Annual Awards stage in Miami Beach next April.
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Art & Craft Meet Sun & Sand THE ADC 92ND ANNUAL AWARDS TAKES OVER MIAMI BEACH
After nine decades in New York City, the Art Directors Club moved its Annual Awards gala to the beautiful shores of Miami Beach…and wrapped an amazing three-day festival of creativity around it all. The ADC 92nd Annual Awards + Festival of Art and Craft in Advertising and Design attracted guests from as far away as Brazil, Japan, Sweden, Hungary and Israel, and featured everything from LEGO® bricks to hand-lettering workshops. There were poolside parties, musical guests and awe-inspiring presentations from creative visionaries such as Bruce Mau and Oliviero Toscani. The festival concluded with a majestic gala at the stunning Frank Gehry-designed New World Center, awarding 204 ADC Cubes in the fields of advertising, design, photography, illustration, interactive and motion. Next year’s festival will be even more spectacular, so start picking out your swimsuit and we’ll see you in Miami Beach next April!
DESIGN NIGHT CELEBRATION
Held at the beautiful Wolfsonian Museum, Design Night featured an inspiring keynote by legendary photographer Oliviero Toscani.
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THE AWARDS GALA
The grand finale of the Festival was a night to be remembered, with emcee Cindy Gallop and a Latin-flavored afterparty.
FESTIVAL WORKSHOPS
World famous designer Bruce Mau encourages the crowd to develop their own personal manifestos.
Kate Oppenheim and Ari Kuschnir, Executive Producers at m ss ng p eces explore YouTube Associations with Rafaël Rozendaal.
“Alphastructaesthetitologist” and ADC Young Gun Jon Contino walks an audience through the art of the monogram.
OPENING NIGHT POOL PART Y
Emerald is Pantone’s 2013 Color of the Year, and it could be found everywhere at the Festival, right down to the eye shadow.
Sean Kenney’s LEGO® workshop was a playful highlight for many festival attendees, including Umbrella’s Hidvégi Zoltán and Kázmér Miklós from Hungary.
The first night featured plenty of poolside pleasures courtesy of Martin Guitar, including a live performance by Keaton Simons. SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR TITLE SPONSORS:
Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority, Adobe, iStockphoto, Pantone, 4A’s, GE, The Creative Register and C.F. Martin & Co., as well as our partners theatreMAMA, Float4 Interactive, Direct Source Packaging, American Icon, Bernstein & Andriulli, Paradigm Events, InkFactory and AVR Depot.
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Physical meets digital: Who made best use of Adobe Creative Cloud in Monorex’s Secret Walls graffiti art battle?
“It’s not simply the grit of ballet. It is a beautiful photograph of ballet’s reality.”
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BEHIND THE CUBE
AD C Awards Photography Gold Winner
Henry Leutwyler was granted nearly “full access” to the New York City Ballet Master-in-Chief Peter Martins (whom Henry attributes for the success) to document the reality behind the dance. His intimate snapshots of the well-respected dance company earned him a Gold Cube in photography at the 92nd Annual Awards.
Raising the Barre ART DIRECTORS CLUB:
How did you gain access to one of the foremost dance companies in the world, the New York City Ballet? HENRY LEUTWYLER: Met them, and the love story started. We’re in love still. I got the job because I have been photographing ballet since I was 18. I’m 52. It took me a long time, in reality 13 or 14 years, to get there. ADC: What attracted you
don’t know how to do their own hair and makeup. They don’t know how to sit, and they don’t know how to hold a glass. This is not the case of the ballerina because she spends her life in front of the mirror. It’s just beautiful. ADC: Ballerinas and dancers know how to work the space around them, as well as the space in the shot. Is there anything difficult about photographing someone who knows her body so well?
the moment for a fraction of a second. That’s not how a dancer thinks of her or his body. You need to teach ballerinas and dancers this different dimension. You are going to freeze a perfect moment, and the perfect moment is only going to work if the perspective works. You have to make it happen, and you have to correct it, and slowly, slowly you’re going to get there. That’s the challenge. The challenge is a collaborative effort, in general.
Henry with New York City Ballet Master-in-Chief Peter Martins
to the ballet?
HENRY: I used to go to the
ballet with my parents when I was a kid. I liked the art form. Then when I became older, I started thinking, “Wow, ballerinas look good. They have intelligent bodies. They can do it over and over, compared to models.” I was used to working with great models. Now the models are a little different. There are so many who don’t know how to pose. They
HENRY: The only thing that is difficult is to break the mold. You have to get something different out of them that doesn’t look like the classical ballerina or dancer posture. The problem that photographers have when we photograph ballet is that photography has only one dimension. It’s flat. It freezes the moment compared to a ballerina moving on stage, where you can barely stop
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ADC: How do your commercial shots differ technically from the photographs in BALLET? How do you want the book to impact the photography industry? HENRY: New York City Ballet is a committed art that has a long, historical trajectory of form and style. I thought it would be more beautiful to break the mold for studio portraits. You have to break
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away from the white advertising stigma. There’s barely any Photoshop. There’s a joy. There’s energy. Now, we’re going to go into the dirty side, which we haven’t discussed. BALLET shows what ballet is really about. Gritty, sweaty, smelly, painful. You normally see the perfect moment but you don’t hear the dancers lying on the floor exhausted, crying, after the performance. In the
book—I think—you get the real-life idea. The idea behind the book was not to show the grit but to show that you’re standing on it. Think about it: half the time dancers are naked; half the time they’re sweating; half the time they are in the shower, out of the shower, in the shower, out of the shower; half the time, the guy has his face in the girl’s crotch and the other way around. They don’t care. That’s the reality. The grit is beautiful.
bad way or a good way, but let them talk. Put white and black together, make fun of whatever you can, and you’ll have a good campaign. It’s not always easy for all of us. You have to make some unpleasant choices once in a while. However the industry changes, we continue to move people with our images. Photography is still the best job in the world, yet it is just photography—so chill a little bit, make friends, have a glass of Prosecco. It’s going to be fine. It’s a pretty good life.
ADC: What’s next for the industry, for you?
“Nothing can replace the thrill of the full house with 25,000 people watching one ballerina dance on stage.”
PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
HENRY: Unfortunately, “good” only gets you a Merit [Award], and we want these guys [holds up Gold Cube]. Well, to get these guys … it does come with a hefty price. We have to elevate people’s tastes. Shock value. Get into trouble. The best thing that can happen to you is that people talk about you in a
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A JURY CHAIR’S PERSPECTIVE
If you can say one thing about Fernanda “Fefa” Romano, CCO of Naked Communications in São Paulo and New York, it’s that she never settles on the here and now. Her career has taken her all over the world, and throughout it all, her eyes have always been open to the industry trends that are coming up just beyond the horizon. This foresight made her an ideal choice to chair the ADC Awards Interactive Jury this past February, as well as co-chairwoman of the Tomorrow Awards Monster Judges this coming September. We had a chance to catch up with “Fefa” at the ADC Gallery in New York, where we chatted about her involvement in both awards shows.
Fernanda Romano ART DIRECTORS CLUB: Earlier this year, you chaired the Interactive Jury for the ADC 92nd Annual Awards. What was that experience like down in Costa Rica? FERNANDA ROMANO: First of all, it was a great idea to have the judging in Costa Rica. It’s always good to separate yourself from your day-to-day activities. You can’t duck away for a quick 30-minute meeting. You’re just left with a beautiful atmosphere, one that puts everybody in a friendly mood for the task at hand. This was also the first jury to fall under the ADC’s recommitment to the art and craft of our business. This was a wonderful initiative, and one that really changed the kinds of conversations we were having in the jury room. There was less emphasis on the usual “what was the strategic brief?” kinds of questions, and more emphasis on whether or not an entry had the power to move people in the streets. ADC: Every awards show jury comes with its own challenges. What were some of the things to overcome when chairing the ADC Awards Interactive jury? FERNANDA: Everybody had very different things to say, and we really wanted everybody to speak and share their opinions, but we only had a limited amount of time. Even though it was very tempting to get everybody to contribute, sometimes I had to say, ‘No guys, let’s make a decision and move on.’ It would’ve
been great if we had another day or two to really be able to experience each other’s knowledge and culture, and learn from each other. That said, the time we did have was well-used. We didn’t really have any violent disagreements. We had intelligent conversations and it was wonderful. Some awards show juries can be really draining, but this was, perhaps, the most pleasant I’ve ever worked with. Of course having an outstanding body of work to look at, plus cold beers in a tropical paradise certainly help! ADC: Shifting gears, you’re also the co-chair of the Monster Judges for the Tomorrow Awards. You’ve sat on the Monster Jury twice before. How have you seen the Awards evolve, and what do you have in store for this year, now that you’re in charge? FERNANDA: I think the conversation changes with whoever is the Monster Judge chair. The first year I was in-
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volved, Rei Inamoto was the chair, and he brought a lot of his AKQA thinking to the table. Last time Robert Wong was the chair, and when you have someone like him with a design and technological background, you end up having different kinds of conversations than you would on a typical awards show jury. This year, with (Foursquare Cofounder) Naveen Selvadurai and myself as co-chairs, and an even more diverse group of Monster Judges, I expect things to be very different in the room. The world is changing very quickly, and with the people behind those changes on the jury, the conversations will be very interesting indeed! ADC: It sounds like you are ready to embrace an awards show with less emphasis on what advertising agencies are creating. FERNANDA: Oh, I love it, I love it, I love it! We need to have other points of reference, and I think it’s very limiting when the ad world only looks to the ad world for inspiration. We also need to start building and designing things if we want our industry to stay alive. When we start thinking like builders and designers, we’re putting the user at the center of everything. Rather than creating messages or products or services that people don’t necessarily want to hear or buy or subscribe to, we are looking at people and seeing how they are evolving and where they are going, and then trying to find needs and service those needs.
BEHIND THE CUBE
AD C Awards Illustration Gold Winner
“Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.” –Charles Bukowski Tasked with the assignment of designing covers for the Charles Bukowski series, lauded illustrator and recognized ADC Young Gun Emiliano Ponzi created a collection of stark images symbolizing the salient themes in each of the Bukowski novels. After his efforts resulted in a Gold Cube at the ADC 92nd Annual Awards, the ADC spoke with Emiliano about the evolution of his award-winning illustrations—but not before immersing ourselves in a Bukowski novel.
Ponzi Scheme
ART DIRECTORS CLUB: Tell us about the intellectual process behind your creation of the Bukowski Book Covers. Did you read all of the books? EMILIANO PONZI: I started reading Bukowski when I was about 16 or 17, an age at which teenagers are attracted to the charm of the forbidden. Bukowski was the king of rebels, going against the system, lost in self-destruction and a sea of booze. His world looked like a kind of wonderland where the only guideline was following instinct; a world without rules except, perhaps, to wear underwear at times. Discovering that the gap between his novels and his daily life was, in fact, very thin surprised me a
EMILIANO: This meant a lot of research for me at many levels: research into his clothes, attitude and gesture, the places he frequented, the colors of the ’70s such as old Polaroids. I started with keywords for each image: words like ‘irreverence,’ ‘alcohol,’ ‘slut,’ and ‘easy sex,’ etc. The Bukowski body of work is much more complex than it first appears to be. Besides alcohol, women and obscenity, there is the sensibility of an amazing poet and novelist capable of capturing primary human emotions and instincts. My aim was to combine his inner emotions with the environment and background where his stories took place. ADC: Could you speak to the artistic process of creating the covers? EMILIANO: For Musica per Organi Caldi, I started sketching a building in black and white, and a man outside vomiting in a corner of the parking lot. After some back and forth, I felt that showing Bukowski
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throwing up was too strong, too explicit and, perhaps, too didactic. The building turned into two strips of neon lights, a ‘Diner’ sign and a few windows. Bukowski became a naked figure with a flag flying from his shoulders… All the cars were reduced to generic vehicles to create an audience of sorts for our character performing another drunken night’s play. I believe the main matter of communication isn’t an overwhelming deluge of objects and details. One should focus on single and direct messages. My mission is to depict a simplified version of reality that is quite far from a simple version of it. In the simplification process, all the complexity and the meaningful specifics are maintained but transformed into icons. ADC: Were you surprised by the feedback from the creative community toward the Bukowski Book Covers? Has it all been as positive as it seems? EMILIANO: My experience in the US market has been that one must be very cautious when showing nudity or explicit images. I knew the illustrations
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were acceptable for Europe, and I was happy to find out that they were warmly accepted in the US as well. Winning the ADC Gold Cube was then something I couldn’t imagine. It was really a surge of emotion, one of those moments that pay for all the effort I put into what I do at the very best of my ability. I’ll be proud of this for a long time. The covers have had very positive feedback—except from one person. An important art director and friend told me I included too many details in the covers. I found it quite funny how he was describing them: ‘You know, Bukowski is too small here to show his junk, too.…’ ADC: How would you describe the idea of craft within your work? EMILIANO: Craft is represented by the patience in doing and undoing, adding and subtracting to get straight to the point. In this sense, I find always inspiring the Michelangelo Buonarroti words: ‘Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.’
PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
lot. Fiction and non-fiction are blended in his work.
PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
BUKOWSKI BOOK COVERS Emiliano Ponzi created individually potent illustrations, equally compelling as a series, for Feltrinelli’s publication of Charles Bukowski novels in paperback.
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VOLONTAIRE
When the country of Sweden decided to brand itself in the Twitterverse, you just knew that this tech-savvy nation wouldn’t be resting on mere tweets and follows. Instead, Curators of Sweden was born, an ongoing display of the Scandinavian nation’s ideals. Created by Stockholm-based agency Volontaire, Curators of Sweden has been just as successful on the awards show circuit as it has been in the global press, winning multiple accolades, including the country’s first Art Directors Club Tomorrow Awards trophy. As the Summer 2013 season of the Tomorrow Awards prepares to celebrate in Stockholm this September, we sat down with Klaus Hahn, CCO of Volontaire, to chat about what made this winning entry such an unqualified success.
Tomorrow Awards Winner
Curators of Sweden KL AUS HAHN: [laughs] There was an existing Twitter account run by the Swedish tourist office. They were basically sending out oneway tourism messages once in a while, but there was next to no interaction. The tourist office joined with the Swedish Institute, a government agency that spreads Swedish values to the world, such as democratization and freedom of speech. These two organizations came to us for help in revamping the Twitter account.
ADC: In essence, this is an exercise in branding a nation… KL AUS: Exactly, but nation branding is like any other branding. It has become more competitive and globalized. Sweden wants to be seen as progressive, transparent, caring, honest and innovative, but you can’t just say these things. We felt that you have to be able to prove them to the world, and so we thought of the extremely daring idea of giving an official communication channel to our citizens. ADC: What were some of the initial concerns and challenges? KL AUS: Everybody loved the basic idea, but it was also very scary. How do we
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control it? Do we ghostwrite the stuff or put celebrities in charge? But no, we knew we had to be authentic. On the technical side of things, we had to figure out how we would transfer the password to each new curator. Obviously, this isn’t something that Twitter was designed to handle. Every Monday morning was going to be a real hands-on experience, trying to ensure the next curator could access the account. ADC: How did you decide who would be a ‘curator of Sweden’? KL AUS: For the initial handful, we looked at the Twitter community and found a few people who we thought were interesting and handled the
PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
ART DIRECTORS CLUB: As remarkable as it is to have a country relinquish control of its Twitter account, it seems amazing to learn that countries even have Twitter accounts.
F R O M S W E D E N W I T H L O V E Curators of Sweden engaged the Twitterverse in a most unique way, and earned media coverage from all around the globe.
we wanted, and that interaction faithful 65,000+ followers, and media well. They didn’t necessarily have has been enormous. every week we lose a few thousand the largest followers, but they covered T K T K T K C A M PA I G N N A M E ! Captiontext goes heretkasdfass fill out lines here tasdfasdfasdftk describe above photo toptk and gain a few thousand. The rises interesting subjects. We wanted to let tend to come from people whose them be themselves, and over time, ADC: Other countries and regions interests line up with a particular tweet by tweet, we will paint a picture have jumped on this ‘rotation curation’ curator. We had a sheep farmer as a of the country, one which is a lot more concept, but Curators of Sweden still curator, and suddenly we had a huge authentic and progressive. Since then, appears to be the strongest. You have to following in Scotland, Australia and the curators have been nominated by chalk that up to more than just having a New Zealand. Everyone was discussing previous curators and the community. head start, no? everything from wool to meat prices. Another week, we had a lesbian truck ADC: But with everybody being themKL AUS: I think it’s because that, in the driver, and suddenly we had the motor selves, well, not everyone is everybody’s end, the whole experience is very Swedish. press and the gay and lesbian cup of tea. How would this grow the It’s very democratic, much like other community following. @sweden Twitter followers? aspects of Swedish culture. We get our But the Curators of Sweden furniture from IKEA and our clothes from project was never about getting the H&M. We communicate through Skype, KL AUS: We always knew that every most followers. Sixty-five thousand folwe listen to music through Spotify, we curator would have their own thoughts lowers isn’t much in this world where get our news through Metro and everyand opinions, but it was never about Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber have thing else through The Pirate Bay. It’s not necessarily liking what they had to tens of millions. It was the interaction all legal, but it’s all inherently Swedish. say. Right now, @sweden stays at a
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A JURY CHAIR’S PERSPECTIVE
Garrick Hamm, 92nd Annual Awards Design Chair and Creative Partner at London based brand design consultancy Williams Murray Hamm, delineates this year’s design judging process and shares secrets of winners’ success.
Garrick Hamm ART DIRECTORS CLUB: What do you identify as the most imperative facet of a single ad or campaign?
something better. That’s really important. Now, craft is even slipping in our industry. Everything is slightly easier to do than it used to be. We need to keep those crafts skills and maintain care and attention to detail. It is really, really important with a genuine, original idea that somebody has taken the care to look at the spacing, to look at the way the colors of the type might sit and absolutely study it.
GARRICK HAMM: An original idea that is just beautifully executed without fault. It’s getting the absolute balance. You know it’s done well when you look at an advertisement, and the parts composing it are so simple that you wish that you’d done it yourself. The good stuff is found at the nexus between genius and simplicity. ADC: You’ve had a long history of judging
design at innumerable awards shows during your career, and you keep coming back! Tell us what you gain from judging?
GARRICK: I love to judge. It’s a great, creative kick up the arse to be around amazing global work that you can see with your peers. It’s refreshing to be around people whom you respect and to hear what they’ve got to say about an entry—why they like it or why they don’t like it. But, also, it gives you a kick up the arse to look at your work differently. You gain a global aspect in how trends are changing. It’s an absolutely privilege to be flown halfway across the world for my opinion, and it was a great honor to be a Brit as the chair whilst in America. I thought that was interesting, and I loved it. ADC: Besides having a Brit as our Design Jury Chair, what else sets ADC Annual Awards apart from other shows? GARRICK: It’s more difficult than other shows—if not the most difficult. It’s definitely one of the hardest to win simply because it’s got the word ‘art’ in it.
There are plenty of awards shows that will highlight and applaud good design or advertising in design, but the ‘art’ part of it makes it really, really difficult to do well. They set the benchmark for the rest of the pros to live up to. The graduate awards are just as important, perhaps more, because they direct the new generation. The awards illuminate work that represents this philosophy, so graduates and people coming up can realize that that’s really important. You can’t just bang something down. ADC: Could you expound upon what Williams Murray Hamm hopes the audience gains from art and craft highlighted by this year’s ADC Annual Awards winners? GARRICK: You don’t have to be in the industry to see an ad on television and know when it touches you, when it really pulls you. It’s those little bits of art and craft that the consumer engages with that are equally important—it’s all those that makes something loved, that makes
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ADC: As the chief creative editor at Williams Murray Hamm and an outstanding judge of design, what’s some advice you would give to someone entering next year? GARRICK : It’s an ideas business, so study what ideas are and how they work and why they work and how they’ve been crafted. Then, apply that to your own work. My advice would be to really, really make sure you understand it before you move on and try to do your own stuff. It’s a duality of a balance; you have to do both. The other day, I advised someone to look back through annuals, which is why the annuals exist. You need to go to somewhere where these ideas live. You need to be able to understand them for them to inspire you. I’ve had an amazing life, and I’ve had an amazing time in the industry. A long time ago, somebody helped me, and it’s pretty important that people like me help other graduates as well. It’s a wonderful world to be in. If you can help somebody enter it, that’s good. If you can guide somebody, not simply help them, there’s nothing better than seeing a graduate coming up through it and blossoming. There really isn’t.
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© 2013 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Creative Cloud, the Creative Cloud logo, Creative Suite, Adobe Muse, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. ADC | 17 | 09/13
KATE MOROSS
Young Guns X Winner
Kate Moross is a 27-year-old creative and Young Guns X winner. She is the Director of Studio Moross, a London design studio that works mainly with the music industry.
Brands for Bands ADC
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ART DIRECTORS CLUB: You are the art director for two bands: Simian Mobile Disco and Jessie Ware. How did those relationships develop? KATE MOROSS: I met Simian around 2007. They asked me to come see a show at a venue in London. I’d been doing flyers and a bit of T-shirt design in the music industry at the time, and after the show they asked me to design some T-shirts. They went down
really well, so about six months later Simian’s manager called me and said, ‘We really want to have a creative director for the band.’ I didn’t even know that was a thing at the time either, to be honest, and I said, ‘Well, creative director’s kind of the wrong word, why don’t we call it art director?’ That was the catalyst for me developing the one-stop shop for photography, video, Web, packaging and live show visuals. I was doing all that stuff anyway; Simian
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IF YOU LOVE ME
Studio Moross’s video for BenZel + Jessie Ware’s “If You Love Me” melds the visual styles of both musicians in a psychedelic Bond homage.
was just the first band that let me manage everything and collaborate with other people around their projects. I met Jessie through her management. They were keen for me to work on the project and brand her, because she hadn’t had any creative behind her before. I met up with Jessie and she said to me, ‘I want to look like an expensive box of chocolates.’ And actually, to this day, I check back and see if what I’m working on fits that brief. ADC: I remember seeing your artwork for “Devotion” on Pitchfork, and it really made me want to listen to the music. It’s mysterious and classy. KATE: “Devotion” was a very delicate one for Jessie because her music has so much crossover between mainstream and underground listeners. The independent music scene’s still really behind her, and it was important that we kept it accessible to both groups of people. I think Jessie’s done that with her music, so we wanted to do that with the artwork. ADC: Music package design must be
difficult because you’re trying to entice someone to listen to something by the way it looks, and those are very separate experiences.
DEVOTION ALBUM ART The black and white album art for Jessie Ware’s “Devotion” shows the singer looking like an expensive box of chocolates — as per her request.
KATE: It’s easy to overthink music packaging. I don’t intellectualize it; I just try to make sure it feels right for the music and feels right for the artist. As much as music is about the listeners, an album is a very personal project for a musician. You need to make sure that they really feel happy with it. I think if that’s true, then it will meet the expectations of the listeners. ADC: You recently founded Studio Moross. How has it changed the way you work? KATE: I started the studio just over a year ago. At this point, it consists of three designers and a studio manager. It basically means that instead of me being able to do about 35 jobs a week, which is what I used to do, we can work on 60. It’s a quite intense studio environment, but we all arrive in the morning and go home in the evening on time. ADC: Can you talk about your video for BenZel & Jessie Ware’s cover of “If You Love Me”? KATE: We [Studio Moross] did that
around the time that a James Bond movie came out. We wanted it to feel like a psychedelic title sequence for James Bond but featuring Jessie and this colorful, sexy R&B song. We shot Jessie off the back of a press shoot she was doing. We went to
U N PAT T E R N S Moross’s work for “Unpatterns” by electronic music duo Simian Mobile Disco included designing a custom typeface and creating/commissioning nine music videos.
the photographer’s studio and did a silhouette video capture of her performing. We brought that footage back and created a negative and positive mask of her, and then into that we placed loads of really bright, rich, visually dense imagery of inks and paints and smoke, which we filmed using a microscope and macro lens.
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It was hard because the song has two artists and we had to marry their expectations, but we got there in the end, and the video was really well-received. It’s one of my favorite pieces I’ve done, as well as the lowest-budget film I think I’ve ever done. That’s probably why I liked it the most, because I was in control of everything we were doing.
A JURY CHAIR’S PERSPECTIVE
Advertising is a big category in the ADC Annual Awards. See how Ted Royer, Chief Creative Officer of Droga5, managed the judging process in Costa Rica as Advertising Jury Chair.
ART DIRECTORS CLUB: How did you feel about being asked to chair the ADC 92nd Annual Awards advertising jury?
TED: I thought it kept moving pretty well. There wasn’t too much politics or ill feeling. Everyone was fun and funny, and respectful. When we went to dinner on the final night, everyone felt pretty boisterous and happy. They were tired, but in a really good mood.
TED ROYER: Really excited when I heard it was in Costa Rica! But seriously. I’ve known Ignacio for a while, and I’ve always liked what he’s done and his enthusiasm for the industry. I’m really happy to support what he’s doing with the Art Directors Club, and I was honored that he chose me to be chair.
ADC: What was your biggest takeaway after seeing all the work?
ADC: What was your perception of the Art Directors Club before chairing the advertising jury? TED: I actually wasn’t too involved before. I had been to a few events and entered a few things into the show, but there are a lot of shows. For a small place like us, it’s hard to be involved in all of them. My impression of the Club, preIgnacio, was good—obviously there’s an amazing history, with some of the best talent in the world having been a part of it. But, my impression is that it got a little bit musty. Then I remember Rick Boyko talked to me about it, and had me come in and meet with the team. He was tasked with injecting some new energy into the Club. Then when they hired Ignacio, I thought, ‘Alright, cool. Things might start happening here now.’ ADC: Did judging the awards change your perception? TED: When I was participating in the judging, and we talked a lot about ‘craft’ being the focus of it, that changed my perception. I now saw what made this show unique, and how it stood apart from the pack. The award
means something—it’s not just one more trinket that people put on their desks. ADC: Describe the overall judging process. How did you guide the jury to uphold ADC’s commitment to craft? TED: You have to make sure that every voice is heard, because some people tend to be quite loud, while others are quiet. So I would always try to pull an opinion out of everybody. Then if the conversation got repetitive, we made sure everything was said but then ended it—or else we’d be there all night. I also like people putting their hands up. I’m not into ‘secret balloting’. You’re in the room with these really talented professionals—you want to know what they think. I try to encourage more openness. ADC: Was it difficult to stay focused on the art of it all, and not get sidetracked by fancy case study videos and ROI?
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TED: Well, I would’ve loved to see more of the digital work, because that’s usually where a lot of the cool innovative thinking lies. But I thought there was a really nice body of work this year. There were a few things that surprised me that I hadn’t seen before. The level of student work in the show was astonishingly good. There were a few pieces of film and artwork that were just incredible. One kid did a Grand Theft Auto film that was amazing looking— almost better than the professional work. ADC: What do you think we’ll see more of next year at the 93rd Annual Awards? TED: I just hope we get some more clear work that has a real point-of-view about something. More work that actually embodies a solution, rather than just talking about a problem. I always get excited about work like that. I’d love to see where we’re going with storytelling and craftsmanship in film. There were a few really interesting films that mixed special effects into the story in the right way, like the Morrisons commercial. It had a lot of different styles, but it just told a really good emotional story. That’s a great example of the story coming first, and the effects supporting it—rather than vice versa. Oh, and more humor is always a nice thing.
BRAD HASSE
Young Guns X Winner
With a diverse production background in commercials, music videos, documentary and television, Brad Hasse (a.k.a. Bradonio) has traveled the world chasing a variety of stories and content. He’s worked with the World Health Organization, Greenpeace, United Colors of Benetton, Subway, MTV, National Geographic, and music artists such as RJD2 and Wax Tailor. We sat down with Bradonio to discuss his recent Young Guns X win, his experience at ADC’s Festival in Miami Beach and his constant search for the quirky and absurd.
Getting Weird with Bradonio until others catch on and ask you to repeat that for them. Rinse and repeat, for all of eternity.
BRAD HASSE (“BRADONIO”): I wanted to excitedly jump up and be freeze-framed in mid-air like in a local car commercial. But I couldn’t do that, so instead I happily reflected on the work I submitted and realized that a good amount of it was actually passion projects. It felt great to know that I was being recognized by the ADC not only for my commissioned work, but also for concepts and a style that was very personal to me.
ADC: How did you keep the Scope Bacon Mouthwash secret?
ADC: You do a nice job of combining your passions with your job. For example, the Scope Bacon Mouthwash April Fools hoax. Do you have any pointers for mixing business with pleasure? BRADONIO: One for you, one for me ... or maybe two. It’s very difficult to explain to others your vision without having a body of work that consistently displays it, especially if it’s on the outside fringe of what’s considered normal. If you aren’t already doing the type of client-based work that you want to be creating exactly, then continue to do the passion projects on the side, over and over and over again
BRADONIO: My career depended on it. [laughs] Whenever a brand is willing to poke a bit of fun at themselves and be the center of an Andy Kaufman-style joke like that, it makes it exciting to play along. It feels more human. And instead of this content being advertised to everyone, it’s actually consumed voluntarily and is forwarded along for the pure entertainment of it. I love being involved with projects like that. ADC: Speaking of personal human brands, tell us a bit more about your alias, “Bradonio”. BRADONIO: I started off doing the onestop-shop thing, as a director, DP and editor. For the better part of a decade, my goal was to travel around the world, meet more people, experiment and learn. There wasn’t much cohesion to the body of work though; the content and genres were all over the place. Bradonio has been my nickname for a long time, and when I lived in Italy for
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a few years it really stuck. It ended up becoming the brand that encompassed exactly what I was most passionate about, and only that—socially absurd and visually quirky projects. It’s almost like an exercise in style, staying specifically focused on this for the next decade, and see how much fun I can have with it. ADC: Having spent time at FABRICA, founded by Oliviero Toscani, what was it like to meet the legend himself when you were in Miami Beach at the ADC 92nd Annual Awards + Festival of Art and Craft in Advertising and Design? BRADONIO: It was great to finally meet him in person and get to know him over those few days. When he was judging the Secret Walls digital-meets-physical art battle, the very first thing he said to the contestants was, ‘What you did in the first few minutes was nice. I really liked it. [pause] But you should’ve stopped then. You spent the next twenty minutes ruining it. So I’m just going to flip a coin to decide who won.’ It was painfully honest, but also a good learning experience. It just takes a few days with Oliviero to come home with a list of stories and moments like this. Makes me wish that he was still there when I had my residency at FABRICA.
PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
ART DIRECTORS CLUB: What was your reaction when you found out you were a Young Guns X winner?
“ S O L I D I F I E D ” B Y G R A M A T I K : Handcrafted shadow puppets dance to the eery dubstep vibe.
PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
S C O P E B A C O N M O U T H W A S H : Bradonio and P&G trick the world with a brilliant April Fool’s hoax.
“ T H E C A R P E N T E R ” B Y H O M E B O Y S A N D M A N : A sideways mirrored effect gives this music video a whole new perspective.
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Color Publications for accurate color. Pantone LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of X-Rite, Incorporated. Š Pantone LLC, 2013. All rights reserved.
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GIGI LEE
E xecutive Creative Director, Y&R Malaysia
Gigi Lee is the creative lead behind Y&R’s “More than just the classics” campaign for Penguin books, and has also led design teams at Saatchi & Saatchi, O&M and LB / ARC Malaysia.
Art and Craft in Advertising SUCCESS IN ADVERTISING is a group effort. Everyone puts in their collective input based on their expertise and personal experience. Strategy, account servicing, creative, production and the FA artists all play a pivotal role. Dear reader: you might be wondering what this has to do with art and craft. It takes an equal amount of effort and teamwork to create well-crafted, beautiful, impactful pieces of communication. Because every visual nuance tells part of a story that truly delivers on the old adage “A picture is worth 1,000 words.” Great pieces of art direction should evoke an emotional response, making each piece more meaningful and rich. It’s true, not every poster will be like Penguin’s “More than just the classics.” But good art and craft goes beyond that. It can take the simplest of ideas and make them stand out. Everything from typography, illustration, vector art and colors are tools we manipulate for a greater end result, even if it’s a supermarket catalogue. Like ideas, art and craft in advertising is constantly evolving. It takes research, exploration, attention to details and thinking to produce a piece of work that is neither over- nor under-crafted. This is because design is its own language. Brands like Nike
and Adidas are perfect examples of how identity and design play a role in their various interactions. Now let’s look at Penguin’s “More than just the classics.” Penguin is one of the largest publishers out there. They print just about everything, but their problem was, no one else knew. Everyone thought they only do classics; hence, the campaign title. So how do we sell the different genres? By bringing them to life. Each poster was painstakingly crafted and built. Yes, built. We didn’t digital image the entire campaign. We sourced for materials and built each poster by hand. Some bigger than a person. An example of that was the Sci-fi poster. Built from several pieces of metal, shaped and molded into the finished product. Now imagine that replicated nine times. It wasn’t the size of the task that we’re most proud of. It’s the visual storytelling. The Travel poster was the entire planet Earth squeezed into the Penguin books logo shape. The Fairytale poster was about the innocence of a child and an ominous wolf. A piece of advice from yours truly: art and craft, like anything in life, is only worth doing if you craft it well.
M O R E T H A N J U S T T H E C L A S S I C S : Gigi Lee and her team rolled up their sleeves and actually constructed each of the Penguin logos for the campaign. The pieces pulled inspiration from all the genres of Penguin books — fairytales, hobbies, language, music, travel, architecture, gardening, graphic novels and science fiction.
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Life is Electric BEHIND THE CUBE
AD C Awards Illustration & Design Gold Winner
In 2012, Yoshihiro Yagi, Art Director at Dentsu Japan, painstakingly deliberated every nuance in the triple Gold Cubewinning campaign “Life is Electric” for Panasonic. Yagi shares insights on pairing illustration with advertising for global impact.
YOSHIHIRO YAGI: As competition in the electronics industry intensifies globally, it was indispensable to communicate the ‘signature’ of our client, Panasonic. In developing its corporate ad ‘Life is Electric’, we hoped to reach out to future Panasonic fans—in doing so, we needed to establish the true communication identity of Panasonic, something that defines our client. Defining the ‘signature’ of Panasonic was a very tough task. However, we found the answer in Panasonic’s diverse product lineup, ranging from blackboard eraser cleaners, lamps and TVs, to bicycles and solar power generation systems. All people, old and young, male or female, love these products We realized that underlying Panasonic’s vast product portfolio is the company founder Konosuke Matsushita’s inspiration toward electricity and his determination to make the most out of electric power in order to make this world a happy place. His philosophy was the key ingredient in driving the company’s growth and its integrity, so here we found the answer, which is absolutely unique to
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PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
ART DIRECTORS CLUB: First of all, where did the idea behind “Life is Electric” come from?
ADC: What was it like to arrive at such a brilliant, demure, yet effective approach to advertising? YOSHIHIRO: Since this campaign was for a home electronics company, we thought it would be too conventional to use electronics goods as key visuals. What kind of an image would allow the public to extend their thoughts from Panasonic’s craftsmanship to its futuristic approach to its product development? We came up with an image that we thought was the best to represent Panasonic’s point of origin—an electronic circuit diagram—which we felt would ignite and inspire people’s imaginations. Well, using an electronic circuit diagram is surely more unusual and fun than simply incorporating actual products, don’t you think?
PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
ADC: Yes, your design is simply stunning. What made your team recommit to our industry’s roots in the art and craft in advertising? YOSHIHIRO: These days, people talk so much about the latest technologies and frameworks, but I believe every great creative work can only be built upon a solid foundation that recognizes the importance of art and craft. As a team consisting of an art director, copywriters and designers, working hard in pursuit of
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the best design possible is all too natural for us. It was no coincidence that our client, Panasonic, also embraced a philosophy to produce the best ideas that lead to the best products for its consumers. I think that this campaign derived from a happy marriage between Panasonic and Dentsu’s creative team, who are all determined to come up with the best of the best. ADC: What were some challenges that you had to overcome to see ‘Life is Electric’ rendered? How did you find solutions to them? YOSHIHIRO: When we saw Mr. Weisbecker’s illustrations, we felt that the subtle nuances, details of his works and the warmth they exemplified were extremely relevant to Panasonic’s corporate identity. Therefore, we paid a lot of attention to retaining the warmth of his illustration, such as trying to convey the texture of the aged paper he used to draw his works on. We even asked him to do some drawings that showed traces of lines having been erased. For the TV spot, we took care to bring these subtleties to the screen. For the posters, we used silver ink effectively to bring out the shading of the pencil lead. We think that this campaign is a chemistry of all these miniscule, not obvious, yet critical elements. ADC: Why did you choose to enter ‘Life is Electric’ in the ADC 92nd Annual Awards? YOSHIHIRO: If we hadn’t submitted our work to the world-renowned Art Directors Club, where else should we send it?! Winning a Cube from ADC is, and will always be, one of the greatest aspirations for any designer or art director. All my team members and my client, and last but not least myself, are extremely proud of this achievement!
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For a deeper look “Behind The Cube,” visit our blog at adcglobal.org
Panasonic—Mr. Matsushita’s love for electricity. For this campaign, we asked renowned French illustrator Philippe Weisbecker to participate. He drew electronic circuit diagrams in pencil with a rustic, innocent style, conveying Panasonic’s simple ideology, ‘We love electricity, and we want to contribute to people by giving them excitement and an eyepopping experience through our Panasonic products.’
One of the many unique features of the Tomorrow Awards is that its awards gala is always held in a different city. After stops in Montreal, Amsterdam and São Paulo, the Tomorrow Awards are headed to Stockholm, Sweden this September! We hope you’ll join us in Stockholm for the fun, and have asked our Swedish friends for tips on what to do, see, eat and drink in their beautiful city.
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FRANTZÉN Be prepared to spend a pretty penny (or is that krona?) at this two-star, Michelin-rated restaurant, located in Stockholm’s Old Town. Its open kitchen allows guests to witness the magic before tasting it. Lilla Nygatan 21
HOTELLET The “beautiful people” (of which Stockholm has its fair share) can be found at this sleek and modern venue, whether they’re professionals out for an after-work drink, or chic partygoers ready to kick off a promising evening. Linnégatan 18
MAGASIN 3 Away from where the action is, but oh, what a find once you arrive! Magasin 3 is one of Europe’s finest contemporary and experimental art museums, with exhibitions that are sure to inspire those with a Tomorrow Awards mindset. Visit by boat and enjoy the view along the way! Frihamnen 3
NK Any trip to Stockholm wouldn’t be complete without at least passing through the doors of Nordiska Kompaniet, Sweden’s grandest department store. If it’s good enough for the Royal Family, it’s good enough for us. Hamngatan 18-20
ROLFS KÖK If you’re looking for a distinctly Swedish dining experience, head on over to Rolfs’ Kitchen, a cozy place known for its fun, unpretentious atmosphere and its spin on classic Nordic cuisine. Tegnérgatan 41
STUREKAT TEN “Fika” is a word used to describe the quintessential Swedish coffee break. It’s a tradition here in Stockholm, and it doesn’t get any more traditional than Sturekatten, where you’ll find quiet little nooks that will take you back to your grandmother’s tearoom. Riddargatan 4
NORDISKA MUSEET Just because the Tomorrow Awards looks towards the future doesn’t mean that you can’t learn from the past. The Nordiska Museet is a museum dedicated to showcasing hundreds of years of Swedish culture, from the sixteenth century to the present day. Djurgårdsvägen 6-16
NIT T Y GRIT T Y What, were you expecting H&M on this list? Yes, the Swedish fashion giant is pretty ubiquitous in Stockholm, but the cooler kids head on over to Nitty Gritty for the latest in trendy threads. Krukmakargatan 24-26
HERR JUDIT/JUDITS SECONDHAND All that’s old is new again at Herr Judit, a Swedish institution when it comes to high-quality vintage men’s clothing. Judits Secondhand is a few doors down, and is equally as iconic for women’s attire. Hornsgatan 65/ Hornsgatan 75
For more information on the Tomorrow Awards Gala, visit www.tomorrowawards.com
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PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
EKSTEDT Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and where there’s fire, you’ll find renowned chef Niklas Ekstedt nearby. All of his red-hot restaurant’s meals are prepared over a roaring open flame. Humlegårdsgatan 17
AKKURAT If your palate prefers whisky and beer to cocktails, you’ll be hard pressed to do better than Akkurat. Dozens of brews on tap, hundreds of varieties by the bottle, and a fine collection of fine whiskys, all in a traditional pub setting. Hornsgatan 18
A JURY CHAIR’S PERSPECTIVE
Since its inception, the Tomorrow Awards has attracted the attention of advertising agencies with their proverbial fingers on the pulse of the latest technological trends. In recent years, however, more and more techie types have been entering—and winning—this creative innovation awards show. Enter Naveen Selvadurai: entrepreneur extraordinaire and Co-founder of the iconic social networking site Foursquare. Naveen will be joining Naked Communications’ CCO Fernanda Romano as Monster Judge co-chair for the Tomorrow Awards this September. We caught up with Naveen to get a few thoughts on what it takes to stand out in a constantly evolving creative landscape.
Naveen Selvadurai ART DIRECTORS CLUB: We are in an age where pretty things have to work, and things that work can’t be ugly. As both the Co-founder of Foursquare and as a casual observer, what are some of the challenges in the marriage of art and creativity with technology?
through Foursquare. They could walk through say, a park, and have the system not just tell them where they were, but also describe things around them, based on Foursquare tips and comments. ADC: What are some of the coolest places you’ve been “mayor” of?
NAVEEN SELVADURAI: For a long time,
technology has been about something that makes an existing process easier or faster. Whatever you use, it has to solve something, make something work and then just get out of the way. We live in a world where there are so many more things that are competing for attention. If you make something, it has to be more polished than ever before. Four years ago, two guys with a little bit of design skill—nothing polished—could build an app and get it to soar and do really well. These days, if the app is not super-polished, if it doesn’t look good, people will move on. ADC: Is it easier to get people to love a million-dollar idea, or is it easier to get a million dollars for a lovely idea?
NAVEEN: I believe that getting a million people to love your idea is far easier than the latter. More importantly, I would rather have a million users than a million dollars. A million users are a million unique pieces of direct feed-
back. They’re liking your project, they’re thumbs up-ing it, they are writing you emails. Perhaps they’re calling you, and they’re giving you validation for what you’re working on. What better motivation is there? ADC: The Tomorrow Awards doesn’t just celebrate brand-new ideas and technologies, but also using established ideas in new and exciting ways. What have you seen done with Foursquare that you didn’t remotely have in mind when you first envisioned the app? NAVEEN: There have been so many good stories! I know of some guys who built a system so that blind people could listen to their environment
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NAVEEN: [laughs] Well there have been a number of places in New York, but it’s very hard to stay ‘mayor’ for long in a city of this size. There is a bookstore in the town of Marfa, Texas that I became the ‘mayor’ of last summer. It was a fantastic place in this fantastic corner of West Texas filled with artists and musicians. There was also a very famous restaurant in the south of France where Picasso and other artists used to eat. Picasso was so poor back then, and he would pay for his meals with a painting every once in a while. So now when you go in there, you see all these Picassos on display. I was like, ‘I really have to go sit there and eat!’ I arrived one night, but it was too late for a meal, so I just had drinks. The next day I went back for lunch, and with that second visit I became ‘Mayor’!
BEHIND THE CUBE
AD C Awards
ART DIRECTORS CLUB: In ‘The Truth’ spot, how did you achieve such a beautiful balance of heartfelt and humorous? Do you think this helped to reach Morrisons’ broad audience? RICHARD DENNEY: I think it did because we were honest and did it with a very British sense of humor. You have this buildup to Christmas, you’re pulling your hair out— the late nights, the thousands of cards you have to write even though you don’t see these people all year. Mom has been up all night preparing the feast. All these rituals that we go through to get to this magic moment. Families put lots of effort in and it is a quite chaotic, stressful time for parents trying to organize everything and make sure it’s just right. But we do it every year. And at the end of it we sit back, enjoy it all and laugh. We wouldn’t have it any other way. We called it ‘the funny side of the truth.’ So many people could identify with it. To be able to laugh at that truth is what made it acceptable. We go through these things that can be quite painful. But
it’s those times that we do come together, we share and we all laugh at ourselves. ADC: Describe the production process of this spot. What were some challenges you faced, and how did you overcome them? RICHARD: Christmas TV advertising in the UK is like the Super Bowl in the US—everyone goes all-out with the big celebrities, the big song of the year. And apart from one or two, the rest just tend to blend in. We didn’t want to just be another Christmas commercial—we wanted to stand out. But also make people laugh, be honest and genuine with them, and entertain them. We started the creative process in June. At first, we looked at standup comedians to tell the story, but it wasn’t powerful enough and didn’t feel genuine. Shooting in September, the production team had to achieve an authentic, barren palate of winter visuals at the wrong time of year, creating winter out of late summer. This meant stripping away leaves from bushes and chilling exteriors to give the illusion of an authentic winter scene without resorting to clichéd visuals
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like fake snow or ice. The bare Christmas tree was ‘deneedled’ by hand and then each needle tracked individually in post-production to give the effect of the needles falling off. In the stovetop scene with twentytwo gas rings, the device was specially designed and constructed, with each ring equipped with an air jet underneath it, firing pressurized air against the underside of the pan, making the vegetables within bubble realistically while maintaining complete control over the process. The ‘Boxing Ring Turkey’ sequence took over two weeks to complete. The bird itself required a separate two-day, stop-frame animation shoot (by the animators responsible for Wes Anderson’s ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’). Our score was composed by Oscarnominated composer John Debney, who composed the music in Los Angeles, before accepting notes and revisions by video conference. Again, in keeping with the film’s authenticity, the piece was recorded completely live in London by a full orchestra at Clapham Road Studios.
PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
An inside look at Morrisons’ award-winning TV spot, “The Truth,” with DLKW Lowe Executive Creative Director Richard Denney. Richard takes us behind-the-scenes on how the spot was crafted — literally — to harness both humor and heartstrings.
ADC: What are your thoughts on the use of special effects to supplement the story, versus leading with them?
ADC: Were any of the characters’ interactions based on your own personal family memories?
RICHARD: For me, it’s amazing what tools we have, and the amount of talented artists that are out there. We’ve got loads of special effects in this spot, and I would say that’s a credit to the director and his team’s imagination. We had classic stop-frame animation (the boxing turkey), which was a beautiful touch. Then we had 3D modeling (the giant towers of sprouts) where the props were built by hand. A real mixture of effects that added so much without overpowering the story.
RICHARD: I can see my mom wrestling the turkey, without a doubt. We didn’t have the massive range where you could fit everything in the oven. It was like military precision, trying to fit it all. The one scene that definitely related to the whole team was ‘The Helpers.’ This seems to happen in every family. ‘Can I give you a hand, love?’ And they haven’t got a bloody clue where anything is. To the point where Mom wants to say, ‘Just get out of my kitchen.’
ADC: The craftsmanship of this spot— from the casting to the set design to the storytelling and even surreal special effects—was totally on-point. Tell us your perspective on the importance of ‘craft’ in advertising. RICHARD: We’re big champions of craft. Some of the best pieces of work in the past few years have phenomenal detail in them. It’s what makes them stand out. You do see some ideas on television that are good but let down by their craft. Our idea could’ve been shot many different ways. You could’ve used CGI in its special effects, but we believed it would’ve lost its charm and authenticity.
T K T K T K C A M PA I G N N A M E ! Captiontext goes heretkasdfass fill out lines here tasdfasdfasdftk describe above photo toptk.
PHOTO BY: LOREM IPSUM DOLORE
T H E T R U T H : This TV spot was shot over 12 days in a series of locations and studios around London. Featuring 22 distinctly different scenes in 90 seconds, it incorporates live-action, stop-frame animation and elaborate prop design. Art Director: Nathan Parker led a team of five (he previously worked with Adele, Kasabian, plus major commercial brands like Boots and H&M).
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Portfolio Night 11 May 22, 2013: As the sun hung low in western skies, the eleventh annual Portfolio Night—the world’s largest portfolio review for aspiring copywriters, art directors and designers—unfolded in 24 cities around the globe. Hundreds of world-class creative directors and thousands of young creative hopefuls met in various venues for an evening of advice, mentorship and fun. “Portfolio Night is always an exciting time of year, and a whirlwind of emotion,” says Sarah West, Global Director of Portfolio Night. “There’s anxiety, there’s joy, there’s disappointment, there’s resolve. There is just about every feeling you can imagine as all of these young creatives meet creative directors face-to-face, many for the very first time.” So what’s next for the Portfolio Night team? “Getting ready for next year,” laughs Sarah. “The energy and goodwill for this year’s event will carry us all the way to next May!”
PN11 gave aspiring creatives face time with at least three renowned creative directors in their city.
LEAPS AND BOUNDS
2013 saw six brand new cities involved in Portfolio Night for the very first time. Newcomer Detroit, USA had attendees jumping for joy.
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Portfolio Night is not just a great opportunity for creative directors to dole out advice, but also to recruit for their agencies.
WORLD MUSIC
Portfolio Night doesn’t end when the scheduled reviews do. Many cities keep the party going with live music, be it Kansas City blues (above) or South African hip-hop (below).
For many attendees, Portfolio Night was the first time they’ve ever shown their portfolio to a real creative director.
QUEBEC CREATIVIT Y
The city of Montreal, Canada is no stranger to Portfolio Night; it is one of only two cities that have been involved all eleven years. When PN started in 2003, portfolios were almost all printed books. Today, tablets and laptops are the norm.
To host Portfolio Night 12 in your city, contact Sarah West at sarah@adcglobal.org
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Download the Art Directors Annual 91 app. Now free on the iTunes store.