January 21, 2010

Volkswagen Gets A New Look from Emir Haveric

Emir Haveric traveled to Malaga, Spain to shoot Volkswagen’s new Golf R and the Scirocco R. The campaign is showing now across all of Germany and parts of Europe on billboards, in magazines, and more. American fans of the Golf R can rejoice as Volkswagen has decided to release the Golf R stateside to replace the R32.

The R-series Golf offers drivers a 2.0-liter direct-injection TSI, 265 turbocharged HP, and Volkswagen’s 4Motion AWD system. The campaign for this impressive new car marks the beginning of a new look in Volkswagen campaigns. Gone is the friendly, family oriented look and in is a slicker, more sophisticated approach, captured by Emir Haveric.

Haveric explains, “Volkswagen translated literally means ‘people’s car,’ and in the past, that was a big part of Volkswagen’s communication – let’s be very friendly, so none of the past campaigns have the coolness or toughness of this one. Everything [for the Golf R] is very dark and moody, I believe this is the future direction of the look that Volkswagen is moving towards.”

Emir Haveric has been at the forefront of shooting cars combined with CGI, but for this shoot Haveric and the creative team at Volkswagen opted out of CGI. Having a shoot with the car present allowed Haveric to try many different lighting variations with much faster feedback than waiting for a computer to generate images.

Haveric opines, “I think CGI is just a tool, and if people are smart – hopefully it’s going to stay a tool. If not, all of the pictures are going to look the same. The technology is not far along enough where you can create as many lighting variations as you can on a shoot.” He furthers, “Sometimes from a production standpoint it makes sense to use CGI when there are many different shots of cars in different colors and the client wants to save money on transportation, but most important campaigns are still real shots.”

With technology on his side, Emir Haveric continues to shoot cars around the world. He is currently working on another project with Volkswagen shooting the Touarag. Check back for more news from Emir!

-Helen Shih

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Client: Volkswagen
Agency: ddb Berlin
Art Director: Anika Kempkensteffen-Jock
Creative Director: Natalie Sofinsky
Photography: Emir Haveric