Archives for posts with tag: collaboration

The democratisation of access in the digital age, we know can completely reimagine the potential for an artist of creative to reach an audience.  The Creators Project embodies the potential for the new globalised culture industry, creativity without borders – the ‘ground’ events are taking place not only in New York and London, but also Seoul and BRIC economies Brazil (Sao Paulo) and China (Beijing) where the events series culminates in a three-day ‘explosion’ in September.

The partnership behind it all?  Intel – the technology lurking behind almost every computer or electronic device we use – and Vice.  Now a creative-alterna-party-stalwart, Vice-the-magazine was created in response to a frustration with the generic, irrelevant voice of mainstream media.  Thanks to the innovations in desktop publishing in the 1990s vice Magazine was made a reality and, continuing that self-made success through the canny use of digital video technologies and online distribution, the unrivalled VBS.TV was born.

The Creators themselves work across music, film, art, design, gaming and fashion, with an eye-watering roll-call of the famous (see: Mark Ronson, Spike Jonze), the established (Diplo, United Visual Artists) and the you-really-should-know-about-already (take note: Mira Calix, Ricardo Carioba, Ladj Ly) – everyone has a profile, an interview and, most interestingly, a list of the technology they call upon to make their work.  The Creators Project is both a media channel for a new digital age, and a content creation studio, in their own words ‘an arts foundation of sorts that will facilitate the production and dissemination of new work with these artists and their collaborators’.  Brands such as Intel and Honda (The Dream Factory) working with individual artists and building platforms around them perhaps signals a new trend moving away from the traditional sponsorship support of arts organisations to a new era of digital community building and curated communities of innovators whose creativity speaks to the brands involved.

The future is bright indeed – see you at the London launch, July 17th.

Rose Enright

Cult following is of invaluable benefit to brands, so when two such cult powerhouses partner up, the benefits to both brand and consumer are incredible.  Cue: the adidas Originals Star Wars collection.

adidas Originals Vice President, Ben Pruess comments: “Like adidas Originals, the ‘Star Wars’ brand has a long and rich history of being a leader, leaving an indelible mark on pop culture.”  A representative from the film adds: “Lost a planet Master Obi-Wan has.  How embarrassing”.

Where was I…  One of a vast number of Star Wars creative collaborations by the good folk at Twentieth Century Fox, the adidas Originals Star Wars collection designs, whilst bearing Star Wars character names, remain actually quite subtle, with the designs borrowing simply from the colour palettes and general aesthetics of the films.

adidas have cannily supported the collaboration with a dedicated microsite where true diehard fans can download some of the glossy designs as wallpapers, while letting their cohorts know via the Facebook social networking tie-in application.

If you aren’t really that much of a sneaker-freak, you can at least bathe in glory in the celebrity-fest that is the campaign advert.  And fear not, the noticeable absence of any Jar Jar Binks shoes should ensure that both Star Wars’ and adidas’ integrity remains… The force is strong with this one.

Rose Enright

Hong Kong Museum of Art

If we all weren’t impressed enough already with Louis Vuitton’s cultural collaborations over the last 150 years (yes, really), a spectacular new exhibition is now on show at the Hong Kong Museum of Art.  Never one for lacklustre or discrete marketing campaigns, LV has announced the occasion somewhat spectacularly.  In a similar style as seen late last year in New York, when the brand’s 5th Avenue store was wrapped in Takashi Murakami’s Monogram Multicolor design for the holiday season, The Hong Kong Museum of Art has been covered in its entirety with Richard Prince’s ‘After Dark’, continuing the relationship with an artist the brand has worked with extensively on collections in recent years.

The exhibition celebrates the brand’s long association with art, including a look back at the renowned artist re-designs of the LV monogram and the rare treat of a selection of pieces from the Louis Vuitton Foundation being on public view.

Prince’s ‘After Dark’ series features blown-up covers of novels he has collected, each illustrating protagonists’ tales of ‘After Dark’, or after midnight in cities spanning the globe – every second city is Hong Kong.  The spectacle represents one of the first public art installations on Hong Kong’s history.

Hong Kong Museum of Art - Victoria Harbour by night

‘Louis Vuitton: A Passion for Creation’ is on until August 9th.

Rose Enright