Style without frontiers: young, authentic and personal, future-orientated. The web an active, global meeting place.New technology, augmented reality, to sustain the soaring freedom of ideas and imagination. These are the elements of Benetton’s new worldwide communication campaign - the first global online casting session - from 8 February to 16 March 2010, which will choose faces from around the world for United Colors of Benetton’s next product campaign. A democratic campaign, open to the world and its young people, in perfect Benetton tradition. At the same time, it’s innovative because for the first time this campaign highlights personal styles, which are not necessarily the latest trend, and the desire to be unique, using the new media and high-tech tools which are rapidly changing our world and our perception of reality.
It’s My Time. This is the slogan of the campaign, developed by Fabrica. This seamless blend of media, tools, platforms and technology – publishing, new web options, video, social networks – will open a boundless virtual “plaza” where Benetton will engage with the styles, personalities, languages and creativity of the world’s young people to compile an unprecedented, exclusive sociological sampling of their inspirations and aspirations and their interest in the future.
The ball starts rolling in February with a worldwide periodical-press campaign. Young people are invited to attend a global casting session and illustrate their style and personality – the things that make them unique – through videos and photographs, which can be uploaded at will and free of charge at www.benetton.com/casting and through a special YouTube page.
To stimulate the imagination, innovative and hi-tech tools will be used in advertising for the campaign, enhanced with interactive and augmented reality. This ground-breaking technique, recently used in Colors 76-Teenagers, intensifies the readers’ experience by immersing them in a world that blends the real with the virtual.
It’s My Time, an innovative communication campaign in the name of open culture.
The new It’s My Time campaign offers young people around the world a means of sharing their opinions, as well as a “place” to be noticed and a dream to aspire to. Through the open culture of social media, the blogosphere and citizen journalism, it promotes a radical freedom, enabling them to make the leap from objects to subjects. Benetton is giving an open invitation to take part in a revolution from the bottom, from one to many, that is both collective and individual. To share their tastes, free the spirit of aggregation, and find like-minded friends. And, at the same time, to be there, to express themselves as individuals, to assert themselves and their true personalities, away from the usual stereotypes.
It’s My Time: a global, democratic competition
From 8 February to 16 March 2010, the young people taking part in Benetton’s global casting session will be voted by the web community. The 100 finalists will then be evalutated by a specially-formed jury of experts, who will choose 20 finalists to fly to New York and feature in United Colors of Benetton’s advertising campaign for autumn-winter 2010/2011.
It's My Time
Erik Ravelo: creative director
Andy Cameron: executive director
Bernardo Lecci: advertising director
Federica Roncalli, Elizabeth Cretney: producers
Piero Martinello: photographer
Lawrence Blankenbyl, Valerie Gudenus: videomakers
Francesco Novara: musician
Giulio Munari: motion graphic designer
Bryce Licht, Joshua Levi: graphic designers
Michela Venturin: web designer
André Amaral: social media designer
Julian Koschwitz: augmented reality designer
The “Water: The Challenge” workshop booklet is available for downloading in the section "Workshops" of Fabrica's website, along with the videos of Christian Caujolle's interview and lecture.
The installation Exquisite Clock has been invited to Maison&Objet, the prestigious international design and furniture fair taking place in Paris from 22nd to 26th January. Exquisite Clock is a clock made of numbers taken from everyday life – seen, captured and uploaded by people from all over the world on a web 2.0 website.
At Maison&Objet, Exquisite Clock has been presented as part of the event "Hybrid – Nature, Techno, Urban", envisioning the convergence of nature, design and technology in today's world, where social, economic and environmental issues significantly push architects and designers to provide solutions that reposition the essence of domestic life. Exquisite Clock was presented as a gigantic projection displaying time formed by vegetables: the core message is how nature transforms time as seconds go by.
Exquisite Clock has been developed also as iPhone application as is currently shown also at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, within the exhibition "Decode. Digital Design Sensations" (until April 2010).
Maison&Objet, 22-26 January
Paris Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre
Hall 3
Fabrica has been invited to Transmediale, a major festival taking place in Berlin and focusing on how new technologies and global network practices can influence culture and politics in today's world. On 4th February Andy Cameron, Fabrica's Executive Director, will moderate the conference “Creativity as an Economic Resource”, exploring the relationship between art and capital. He will illustrate the vision of Fabrica, the creative laboratory of Benetton Group, founded in 1994 with the aim of combining culture and industry and offering young people from around the world an opportunity for creative growth and multicultural interchange. On 5th February Cameron will participate in the "Futurity Long Conversation", an encounter among 21 leading experts from the fields of art, industry and science such as Bruce Sterling and Conrad Wolfram, to discuss and explore the abstract and qualitative elements defining what we conceive of the future today. Cameron will illustrate the project "Future of Retail", born in partnership with Telecom Italia Future Centre, Ars Electronica FutureLab (Linz) and the London College of Fashion. The project's aim is to improve customer experience in clothing stores, investigating the new approaches and opportunities offered by yet unexplored digital, interactive and network technology.
During the Cologne's Design Week, the Sisley store in Ehrenstrasse will feature Bizarre, a collection of ceramics, especially created by Sam Baron for Sisley, re-inventing one of the best Portuguese traditions through a contemporary vision of the old "savoir-faire". The collection assembles a futuristic approach of souvenirs inherited from the past, merging details of a long tradition of nature-inspired shapes with classic vases and tableware pieces.
Consisting of five limited-production objects, which will be sold in the Sisley store during the Design Week, the Bizarre collection is a range of vases and tableware in classic shapes with industrial-production ceramic figurines used as three-dimensional decorative details. A way of “populating” our home with strange, hybrid creatures: from a vase which hosts a family of swans or with indiscreet rabbit ears that create floral motifs, to the plate that seems to have a fish swimming in it, or the salt and pepper set where a bee has settled gently. The ceramics are made by hand and produced by Olfaire, in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal.
18-24 January 2010
Sisley Store
Ehrenstrasse 45-47
Cologne, Germany
