Fugu Mobile designs a mobile app for Mercedes-AMG, now available on the iPhone and iTouch. It is the first complete AMG app to cover the 8 AMG models available in China. AMG is a subsidiary of Mercedes that specializes in high-performance luxury cars. The app provides a comprehensive overview of each AMG model as well as 360-degree views, high-res photos and videos. The app acts as a tool for users interested in purchasing an AMG car or as a must-have for car enthusiasts. Fans can also register with AMG through the app and sign up for exclusive events and test-drives in China.
YAHOO!’s Bus Stop Derby is a two month, city-wide challenge that turns bus stops in San Francisco into social-gaming hubs. Stops in 20 San Francisco neighborhoods are outfitted with 72-inch touch screens that include 4 games that can be played while waiting for the bus. Users are playing for personal glory as well as neighborhood bragging rights in the live head-to-head games. To promote the derby, Yahoo! Client and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners commissioned Rizon Parein to create a 3D art piece.
The Selby collaborates with Cole Haan for the third edition of “The Inspired Life” series for Holiday 2010. Cole Haan chose six individuals (and one dog) who reflect the brand’s modern artisan aesthetic in their craftsmanship. Doug Clouse and Micah Currier, stationers of Browne & Co., Denise Porcaro, owner of Flower Girl floral shop, and Ben and Pete Van Leeuwen and Laura O’Neill, owners of Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream, star in the campaign. The campaign was shot in the printing press at the South Street Seaport Museum. The idea was the turn the location into a neighborhood photography studio. The clothing and accessories featured in the campaign are from the Fall 2010 collection.
Bobby Fisher captures artist Ashley Bickerton at his home in Bali for T Magazine’s Holiday 2010 issue. Bickerton is a former 80s wild-child artist from the Neo-Geo movement. Short for “new geometry”, the movement was defined by Bickerton, Jeff Koons, and Peter Halley and was a mix of pop, minimalist, and conceptual art. He moved to Bali full time in 1993, searching for a refuge close to sea and surf. During Fisher’s visit, Bickerton was at work on new art for a spring show in New York as well as picking old art to be featured in an upcoming book.
Pepe Jeans London has been designing and customizing jeans since 1973. London designer Nitin Shah and his brothers, Arun and Milan, started the company in a stand in Portobello Market. Today Pepe Jeans London trades in 60 countries on 5 continents with over 300 stores internationally. Kate Moss, Cristiano Ronaldo, Sienna Miller, Ashton Kutcher and more have modeled in Pepe Jeans campaigns. To tell the story of their brand, Pepe Jeans commissioned Serial Cut to create a vintage-style video.
Waldorf Astoria will open their new luxury hotel London Syon Park in February 2011. The hotel is located on the edge of the 200 hundred-acre Syon House estate, the country home of the Duke of Northumberland for over 400 years. Seven miles from the center of London, the hotel will offer guests modern luxury in the urban countryside. Henry Bourne captures the estate’s beauty and tranquility for an ad promoting the hotel’s upcoming opening.
Bourne shot the ad on the Syon House grounds at night with a large-scale production team. The ad features a Waldorf Astoria bed sitting beside a lake to show how the hotel’s pastoral setting inspired the elegant accommodations. Guests will have access to the grounds and the gardens on the estate, designed by the renowned 18th Century landscape designer Capability Brown, as part of their stay.
Client: Waldorf Astoria
Agency: February London
Creative Director: Andy Ellis
Art Director: Scott Wittman
Photography: Henry Bourne
Stylist: Suzanne Stankus
Production: Pure Creative Management
In time for the holiday party season, OfficeMax launches the Holiday Party Bingo game for Facebook. The game allows partygoers to connect around an event. To start, users create an event, invite friends or co-workers, and then customize a bingo board with twelve categories. Categories range from “Most Elftastic” or “Holiday Spirit” to “World’s Wildest Dancer” or “Party Crasher.” Invitees can make predictions about the party by nominating friends or co-workers to the categories. The game can also be used in conjunction with a free iPhone app that allows users to view the bingo board and upload photos from the event in real time.
Stan Chow created and illustrated the characters that represent each category for OfficeMax. After OfficeMax briefly outlined the character and their category, Chow fleshed them out by drawing on real-life inspirations. For example, the couple kissing in “Mistletoe Moment” is based on Chow and his wife. The “Too Cool for School” character was based on a singing waiter Chow once had in Goa.
Anthropologie gets into the holiday spirit with a short film starring their new ornaments and decorations. Tatiana Arocha brings the ornaments to life using stop-animation in “Trim.” Arocha’s idea was to create a story that would connect all the ornaments together. For example, a polar bear knocks over a box of fake snow to coat the landscape while two bundled-up dolls make snow angels. She says, “It was a lot of fun to play around and figure out what each ornament was going to do, what its personality was and to create little worlds for them all to live in.”
The film was shot over two days at the Urban Outfitters studio in Philadelphia. One aspect of stop-animation that Arocha appreciates is that it allows for improvisation. While she planned many of the shots, some of the best ideas came together on set. For example, the creation of the word “trim” with a garland of yarn balls was a collaboration between Arocha and Anthropologie’s crew.
Arocha says she was excited about working with Anthropologie because they offered “inspiring creative direction along with the freedom to do something cool.” She found herself right at home with the brand’s feminine style and appreciation of texture and color.
“Trim” is currently playing on Anthropologie’s website here.
Client: Anthropologie
Direction and Animation: Tatiana Arocha
Director of Photography: Andrew Casey
Senior Web Art Director: David Chanpong
Senior Art Director: Simon Lee
Art Director: Jamie Allison
Amanda Lepore graces the latest cover of the Norwegian magazine VIXEN. Kareem Black photographed the transsexual model and fashion icon in a sci-fi themed shoot at Root studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NYC. Although Lepore can seem larger than life, Black found her “breathtakingly humble, quiet and down to earth”.
Tom Corbett photographs a fashion espionage mission for his first collaboration with German Cosmopolitan. The December issue’s spread features model Anna Thompstone as The Avengers’ EmmaPeel. Thompstone channels Peel’s iconic strength and drama in classic colors, sexy lace and figure-hugging leather. Corey Wallace is Peel’s partner John Steed. The shoot took place at Crathes Castle, a 16th century National Trust castle and garden in the Aberdeenshire region of Scotland. The location was chosen for their sculpted 300-year-old topiary hedges of Irish Yew, which figure heavily in the images.
Bobby Fisher photographs the exclusive surf resort of Nihiwatu for T Magazine’s winter travel edition. Located on the remote Indonesian island of Sumba, Nihiwatu is home to one of the best surf breaks in the world. Adventurers flock to the eco-resort to test themselves against the legendary waves and to see one of the last Stone Age cultures on Earth. Claude Graves, one of only 3 Westerners living permanently on the island, has spent the last 20 years building the resort. It functions completely off the grid, producing much of its own food, electricity, and diesel fuel. In addition to surfing, Nihiwatu boasts world-class fishing, diving and snorkeling and land activities such as mountain biking, trekking, yoga, and massages.
Brian Doben photographs People magazine’s favorite country stars of 2010 for their latest special issue, on newsstands now. Keith Urban, Miranda Lambert, Lady Antebellum, Taylor Swift, Dierks Bentley and the Punch Brothers, Brad Paisley and Little Jimmy Dickens, and Reba McEntire are seen at their favorite spots in and around Nashville. McEntire is also on the cover of the magazine. The locations either have personal significance to the stars or are of cultural significance to the city of Nashville, which is still recovering from devastating floods in May. For instance, Lady Antebellum chose 3rd and Lindsley, the bar they first performed at together, while Brad Paisley chose the once flood-ravaged Grand Ole Opry House, which he helped reopen with Little Jimmy Dickens in September.
