WORD-OF-MOUTH Archives - Arts & Labour

06/
03/
18

Time to Trade Booths
for Space Installations

In the age of social media, it’s become a thing of the past for brands to use trade shows to unveil new products. Gone are the days when attendees and exhibitors alike would go to a trade show expecting to get a first glimpse at the newest an industry has to offer. But if all that’s needed these days is a strategically planned Instagram, Facebook and Twitter post, are trade shows still relevant? Are trade shows needed at all?

Tokujin Yoshioka x LG light up Milano design week 2017

We’d suggest that they still are, but that the point of a trade show has evolved. Attending one is no longer about staying abreast of the latest product launches or the “booth hopping” approach of the past. Today, it’s more about savouring the whole fair experience. An amalgam of checking out a handful of breathtaking space installations, rubbing elbows with like-minded patrons, listening to one or two international celebrity speakers and sampling a few high-profile food vendors. It’s safe to say, trade show organizers have had to rethink their strategies to ensure their fairs stay well attended.

For example, attracting brands that not only want to show their products, but tell a relevant story to attendees, or even better, sponsor one, has become one of the critical strategies trade show organizers have been considering. Encouraging brands to show up with unorthodox booth designs worthy of social media attention, or inviting them to collaborate with artist collectives to help them design exceptional spaces where attendees can get fully inspired and rewarded have become the new holy grail. For trade show organizers, the idea of people leaving the show with nothing but memorable spectacles and unique experiences to share with their followers is now one of the biggest accomplishments that can be imagined.

Prototype Research_Series 02 Garment Dyed Dyneema by Stoneisland, 2017

Decode/Recode by Luca Nichetto & Ben Gorham for Salviati, 2017

Furthering the evolution of the trade show is the belief among those in the know that attendees are more likely remember a noteworthy space than a brand’s latest gadget. Norm Lehman of Syke Inc, a consulting firm for small businesses, suggested while looking at Swedish car maker Volvo’s booth during the latest Interior Design Show in Toronto, “Instead of showing off one of their shiny cars, why not sponsor the public area sitting next to their booth? Why not become part of something larger, a space with an experience that will stand out and be remembered?”

It’s not lost on brands or organizers that trade shows offer many expanding possibilities that need to be tapped into in order to get the best possible return on investment. Partnering with like-minded brands or creative professionals to design spaces worthy of collective awareness is just one of the many alternatives we’re starting to see. After all, trade shows have never been simply about launching new products, but new ideas, perspectives and experiences.

16/
05/
17

The Top 3
Art Collaboration Myths

Even though the marketplace is as saturated as ever and marketing budgets have been shrinking regularly, relatively few Canadian brands have taken advantage of the bountiful opportunities art collaborations provide, despite their success globally. At Arts & Labour, we’ve been talking to brand managers and have uncovered a few obstacles that seem to come up time and again when making the decision whether or not to collaborate with an artist on their product. What we’ve discovered is not that Canadian brands have a different set of concerns than international brands who are more willing to embrace the approach – instead, we found their top concerns were often based on lack of exposure to art collaborations and even more often, out and out myths. Naturally, we’d to take the opportunity to discuss those. Here are the top three.

Frank Gehry’s Crosscheck series of Bentwood furniture for Knoll

Myth No. 1: Art collaborations are costly.
Just as Frank Gehry, the celebrated Canadian architect once said, “You can do great architecture for the same cost as crappy buildings,” collaborating with an artist is not about having deep pockets, it’s about having vision.

To illustrate Gehry’s theory, consider that manufacturing a limited-edition run of art-inspired watering cans designed by a buzz-worthy artist will most likely cost the same as manufacturing a series of conventional watering cans. But as you can imagine, the social media leverage and resulting sales would be far from similar.

Keeping costs manageable comes down to conceiving the right art collaboration idea to achieve the most beneficial effect within brand’s given budget and requirements. Just as Mr. Gehry advises working with the right architect for a building, we’d recommend working with the right creative director for an art collaboration. In both cases, you’re hiring a creative professional who is capable of guiding one through the complexities of the process from start to finish effectively, successfully and fiscally responsibly.

Myth No. 2: Art collaborations are gamble.
For many brands who are accustomed to using marketing to stimulate sales, collaborating with an artist seems too filled with unknowns to provide a reliable return on investment.

What they may not realize is that developing an effective art collaboration, like all good business, is based on a solid strategy that’s followed through with great ideas and strong execution. Using ourselves as an example, Arts & Labour looks to art collaboration successes worldwide as a guide and employs proven techniques to achieve a great result; we use what we call “modules” to break down the process and help guide brand managers and product designers. While our tactical modules help uncover a brand’s needs and wants, our creative modules help define a collaborative strategy to inject a product with the most inherent newsworthiness and appeal. With the right process, creativity does not have to equate to risk.

Myth No. 3: Art collaborations are for luxury brands only.
Perhaps it’s because the most celebrated and memorable art collaborations of late have come from luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Comme des Garcons, but many brands assume the approach is too avant-garde for them, or even “out of their league.”

illy art cup collection x Gillo Dorfless

Nonsense. Developing an art collaboration is an essential way for brands of all kinds to ensure consumers see their product with fresh eyes. For instance, Illy, the Italian coffee company, uses art collaboration as a way to help them de-commodify their offering. Whether it’s a coffee cup, a can of beans or a trade booth, Illy is a brand that takes full advantage of collaborating with artists as a way to stay relevant, top of mind and most of all, inspiring.

As Rachel Somers Miles wrote in her Huffington Post article called “Collaboration Validation,” “Focusing on culture, by developing brand-artist collaborations, is a way of building authentic relationships with audiences that may be hard to connect with. Brands need to work with artists, whose relationships with consumers come from consumers’ genuine excitement.” Indeed.

We wish you plenty of courage to crush each obstacle that stands between your brand and your next art-fusion collaboration.

07/
06/
16

Salone del Mobile: The Bottom Line

Salone Milano and Milan Design week are exceptional design showcases, primarily thanks to their top-notch organizers. But each and every participating brand, small and large, national and international had something extraordinary to add. Salone Milano seems to magically bring out the best of everyone who wants to play. Whether it was a large brand exhibiting a full new collection or a small brand launching a single product, the sensitivities and sensibilities of each brand could be seen and felt quite intensely.

Undoubtedly, the majority of products launched during the Salone Milano and Milan Design Week had already undergone scrupulous testing before being exposed to the discriminating public eye at the show. As we know, there is a whole gamut of details a successful product needs to embody in order to become aesthetically and functionally desirable. The brands we saw seemed to consider this not once or twice, but endless times before bringing their latest to this international trade exhibition of such enormous reputation and magnitude. In other words, the successful brands, small and large, did their homework with uncompromising diligence. Everything needed to and did go a step beyond to make it there.

It’s a quality that seems to be lacking from numerous other trade shows, including our own Interior Design Show (IDS) or IIDEX hosted annually in Toronto. Most of the trade booths there are short on imagination, while the products themselves lack newness and desirability. The ethos seems to be about being just good enough, rather than being exceptional. Could it be that for the brands participating at Salone Milano, it is more about pride and joy, whereas here it’s about obligation and responsibility?

What drives crowds and generates well-deserved attention is thoughtful artistry, not only when applied to products, but also when applied to the booths themselves. Every item, even the promotional literature, needs to be infused with the power of invisible yet fully present design to withstand the fierce heat of scrutiny that a trade show and design week will generate. Ultimately, that’s the acid test that produces a show that will make people from around the world come year-after-year to experience it. And as the brands at Salone Milano proved, it’s not about deep pockets, but the willingness to stand out – through thoughtfulness, confidence and exceptional creativity.

Let’s be open to learning from them.

In our next post we’ll look at what sparks an idea. See you in September.

marni ballhaus

Raw Edges x 5VIE Art + Design

maybe blue Would have been better, site installation

La Triennale di Milano ‘Women in Italian Design’

equilibri, trade booth

La Triennale di Milano ‘Women in Italian Design’

08/
03/
16

Art fusion: Mistakes to Avoid

Jun Takahashi, the founder and designer behind the Japanese avant-garde label Undercover and known for his rather original tagline “We Make Noise, Not Clothes”, has become wary of art collaborations. For Takahashi, many of the collaborations he sees are mere marketing gimmicks. Consequently, the ones he chooses to engage his brand with must go deeper: “What all [our] collaborations have in common is that they make it possible to do something that we cannot do as Undercover. It’s more like friendships and shared interests, and taking advantage of each other’s resources,” he says.

Clearly for Undercover, it’s not about collaborating for ‘collaboration’s sake’. But how many art or design collaborations happen for exactly that reason? How many take something that is meant to be genuine and relevant and perhaps inadvertently, cause it to become insincere and uninspiring instead? Unfortunately, the number of less-than-original, less-than-relevant and alas, less-than-desirable art collaborations has been on the rise. Sadly, it’s a misused opportunity not only for the brands, but also for the artists and designers involved.

Normally, we like to focus our attention on dynamic and desirable art-fusion collaborations that work well. However this time, we’d like to turn our eye to a few collaborations we thought didn’t quite make it.

1800 TEQUILA & KEITH HARING: ESSENTIAL ARTIST BOTTLE SERIES
For the limited-edition capsule collection of six collaborative bottles, 1800 Tequila partnered with the Keith Haring Foundation to give a new platform to Haring’s revered socio-political work. It followed their previous release of Jean Michael Basquiat’s capsule collection. The extent of each collaboration was to wrap 1800 Tequila bottles, quite predictably, in different kinds of artwork. No wonder some of the comments posted on social media were unenthused: “I love Basquiat and Haring as much as the next guy, but can we stop using their art on the most ridiculous products? In fact, let’s stop using it on clothing while we’re at it… “ And to add to the project’s lack of originality, the 1800 Tequila press releases announced each new artist’s bottle series by only replacing the participating artist’s name with the next. Taking a too simplistic approach to an art-fusion collaboration can often result in cynicism – something to avoid we say.

ETSY & WHOLE FOODS MARKET: INGREDIENTS FOR CREATIVITY
The reusable grocery bag produced in collaboration by Whole Foods and Etsy was to promote ‘ingredients & creativity.’ Yet instead, it ended up promoting ‘staleness and predictability’, so to speak. Why not truly collaborate and rather than simply printing on a conventional grocery bag, why not reinvent a bag from scratch, or deconstruct the existing one and turn the expected into the unexpected instead? A bag with a shape that’s less traditional and with art that’s less predictable; a bag that’s double-sided, with art on the inside as well as on the outside; a bag that’s ready to go places beyond a grocery store. Wouldn’t we all have loved it?

SECOND CUP COFFEE ARTIST SERIES: CREATIVITY, OPTIMISM & COLLABORATION
The series of three artist coffee cups was a collaboration that unfortunately started with an already predictable idea. By using a conventional, all-too-familiar paper cup, the collaboration had very little room left to play with newness and originality. Instead of “holding an original” which was the series theme, it was rather about holding ‘the same old’ only in different wrapping. We’re big fans of the Second Cup brand and feel optimistic their next art collaboration will push the boundaries further.

The lesson learned? Art collaborations are not about re-packaging. No matter how attractive, it’s still just wrapping. The key ingredient to a successful art-fusion collaboration is having a strong desire to challenge conventions to promote newness and desire. No small task, we say. Art collaborations have been around for a long time now, and the most memorable ones seem so effortless – what we have to remember is that the process behind each is filled with herculean efforts to achieve originality. And it’s that sort of effort that produces a product that’s so rewarding at the end.

In our next post we’ll take a look at refreshingly different city guides. We’ll see you then.

JUN TAKAHASHI’S UNDERCOVER

JUN TAKAHASHI’S UNDERCOVE

UNDERCOVER x UNIQlO

UNDERCOVER x NIKE

1800 Tequila x Jean Michael Basquiat

Second Cup Coffee Artist Series

Etsy x Whole Foods Market

05/
01/
16

Space, The New Art-Fusion Frontier

Public and private spaces where people intermingle – train stations, hotel lobbies, department stores, coffee shops and libraries – have started to become recognized as blank canvases, yearning to be transformed into something more significant. Spaces that are merely pleasant are often not enough for certain brands to get by anymore, that generic pleasantness quickly disappearing from customers’ memories without enthusiasm, admiration, or attention.

Converting spaces into inviting and intriguing art installations has become something brands of all stripes and sizes have begun to pay attention to and put their money on—and rightly so. Art installations, while capable of transforming physical walls, floors and ceilings into spaces full of imagination and inspiration, are also capable of shifting an audience’s perception of a brand, from forgettable to intriguing overnight.

One thing that holds true of both little-known and household-name brands alike, is that while size doesn’t matter, ideas do. Even a very small scale art installation– if it has a genuine and relevant artistic concept that is well executed – can easily become known far and wide, thanks to social media’s amplified word of mouth. Toronto’s own Sam James Coffee Bar (SJCB) is a perfect example. This small local chain of coffee shops has become recognized not only for its powerful coffee, but also for its powerful dark and grainy wallpaper installations. No matter how ultra-compact the five SJCB spaces are, there’s always room for the dark and beautifully distorted imagery. With each installation, one can introspectively look deeper into the art or curiously stare to find one’s own story. Either way, you know you’ve arrived at a SJCB shop, as soon as you see the dark and grainy looking wall made of distorted wheat-pasted imagery. Sam James, the brand’s founder, collaborated with his friend Jeremy Jansen, a Toronto-based artist represented by Cooper Cole Gallery in Toronto.

So what’s so effective about their collaboration? A key is that when it was developed at SJCB’s original Harbord Street location, it was allowed the time and artistic license it needed to create a trademark look. Harbord’s wallpaper installation represents a chronology of pastes, one layered over a previous one, again and again over the past 6 years. A pastiche of unusual looking imagery is continuously plastered over the wall, allowing it to become an icon of strangeness and magnificence at the same time.

As Sam James explains, “There is generally a correlating theme with the images and the space, or an inside reference. For example, the pastes at PATH are scans of film negatives with double sided tape laid in a way to represent a skyline of office towers, scarred with dust and lint from the studio. It’s meant to look ominous and larger than human scale. I want it to feel slightly intimidating, as if something was watching you, but you’re unaware of its presence or its reference at least. To the viewer, it should appear to be snowy and textured, more than it is graphic or figurative.” It is a piece not only to be looked at, but also to be talked about and wondered about – just as we’ve been doing for a few years here at Arts & Labour.

For this strategically minded young brand, in a competitive category full of hipper-than-thou boutique coffee shops, the space they inhabit is a crucial opportunity to engage the consumer, excite them and be remembered for it. The wheat-pasted black imagery has become their trademark – visual DNA that’s easily transplantable into any SJCB location. They have skillfully, yet unpretentiously, fused the brand with art by adding another level to their already desirable experience, good coffee. It’s a combination that’s hard to resist and makes them a competitor that’s hard to beat.

In our next post we’ll take a look at a somehow unusual art-fusion collaboration from the latest Feature Art Fair in Toronto. Happy 2016!

SJCB Harbord Shop, Toronto (photography by Revelateur Studio)

SJCB Ossington Shop, Toronto (photography by Revelateur Studio)

SJCB Ossington Shop,Toronto (photography by Revelateur Studio)

SJCB Harbord Shop, Toronto (photography by Revelateur Studio)

SJCB Ossington Shop, Toronto (photography by Revelateur Studio)

03/
11/
15

Branding Lessons from the Venice Art Biennale

Venice Art Biennale, the internationally renowned, biannual art event that takes over Venice, Italy from May to November is not only of great social, cultural and political stature, it’s also a powerful marketing platform – for countries. It’s a place where Canada for instance, can be seen as a global brand and visitors can be made into global brand ambassadors. Perhaps the oldest and most prestigious contemporary art fair in the world has something to teach us about branding as well as art.

Each country participating in the Venice Art Biennale, selects its finest contemporary artist to represent the country in originality, innovation and relevance on the global art scene. It’s a task with many parallels to marketing that will seem familiar to brand managers of all kinds; the task of making a country or brand as desirable and irresistible as possible. Still, despite the Biennale delivering many stimulating experiences and plenty of valuable lessons on creative strategy, it has yet to become a destination for companies to send brand managers to glean what art professionals have been doing for years.

One brand, however, that can boast taking full advantage of everything the biennale has to offer is Italy’s very own Illycaffè. A prominent Italian coffee company, Illy has been one of the key sponsors of this famed art event for many years. Simply put, the Italian-based brand has made art and the search for beauty, central to how they do business. They’ve harnessed the emotional appeal of art by becoming one of the first coffee brands to use art collaborations to help elevate its brand’s core proposition and expand its soul.

According to Illy, “… the search for beauty isn’t merely a nice thing to do, or a marketing exercise, but a cornerstone of corporate culture and decision-making.” The coffee brand considers their coffee cup collaborations with prominent artists “Illy’s highest profile, ongoing cultural project”.

Their collaborations, just like art, are not about just seeing, but fully experiencing them, visually and emotionally. Illy has managed to build all the necessary sensory components to transform basic coffee consumption into a full aesthetic experience. At Arts & Labour, we say “bravi Illy!” while sipping their delicious espresso, proudly back in Canada.

In our next post, we’ll be exploring space, the new art-fusion frontier. Until then.

Venice art biennale 2015

Illymind at the Venice art Biennale 2015

The optical art Illy Biennale Cafe x Tobias Rehberger at the Venice Art Biennale 2015

illymind at the Venice Art Biennale e 2015

illy cafe shipping container (closed) at the Venice Art Biennale 2015

illy cafe shipping container (open)at the Venice Art Biennale 2015

Illy Cafe bar x jeff koons, 2002

Illy Cafe bar x Tobias Rehberger at the london design week 2015

Illy Cafe x Robert Wilson art performance, 2014

06/
10/
15

The Death of a Gift Shop

In recent years, museum gift shops’ artsy t-shirts, mugs and scarves have been greeted with a diminishing sense of enthusiasm. However, more progressive art organizations like the Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis and the New Museum in New York have started to reinvent the role of their gift stores. At Arts & Labour, we say it’s about time.

In the recent New York Times article “For the Walker Art Center, a Shop That Peddles Evanescence,” Melena Ryzik examines the changing responsibility of artists and museum shops. A new conceptual art pop-up store at the Walker aims to change the traditional notion of the gift shop. As Emmet Byrne, the Walker’s Museum’s design director explains, “it’s more about a digital bazaar with pieces priced to sell, an exhibition of sorts, with curated original artworks”. Michele Tobin, the gift shop’s retail director explains further, “the priority isn’t ‘get as much as you can’ for that item in the marketplace.”

This is great news. Many so-called cultural brands like museums and art institutes have been lagging behind commercial brands like Converse, H&M and Evian among many others who’ve been redefining the meaning of products and art much faster than most art organizations. With their innovative art integration, they’ve become effective in creating a new breed of merchandise widely recognized as artist collaborations or ‘art collabs’. Blurring boundaries between art and commerce, the French fashion house Louis Vuitton has become one of the front-runners in this movement and have quite imaginatively diminished the divide between art and merchandise. The unprecedented popularity of their sold-out collaborations with avant-garde artists like Takashi Murakami, Richard Prince and Yayoi Kusama have spoken for themselves.

In contrast, the majority of museums have only managed to widen the gap. By somehow turning desirable art into undesirable merchandise, they’ve turned their gift shops into uninspiring souvenir outlets. But while they’ve languished, successful commercial brands, thriving on being seen as innovative and relevant, have been savvy enough to stay ahead of the mainstream curve. By staying connected to groundbreaking designers, artists, creative directors, writers and photographers, they’ve been able to capture the ‘next big things’ and have stayed engaged in the necessary cultural and social dialogue that translates into greater popularity and greater revenues for their brands.

In our next post we’ll report back from the Venice Biennale, highlighting the latest in art fusion. See you then.

Drawing Club at Walker Open Field: A Collaborative Coloring Book, The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A.

uniqlo sponsors FREE Friday nights at Moma, NY, U.S.A.

SMS # 5: Neil Jenny, Bucks Americana William Copley x Dmitri Petrov, new museum, NY, u.S.A.

SMS # 6: Bernar Venet, Astrophysics: William Copley x Dmitri Petrov, new museum, NY, u.S.A

Drawing Club at Walker Open Field: A Collaborative Coloring Book, The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A.

gift shop, Newseum, washington, D.C., u.s.a.

gift shop, toronto botanical gardens, toronto, ON, canada

14/
04/
15

Do limited editions create limitless desire?

It’s not a secret that over the last decade, the popularity of art-fusion collaborations has grown dramatically. While the most talked-about collaborations seem to come and go in a flash of white-hot attention, the less successful ones linger behind in social-media silence, in hopes of one day selling out.

One decision a brand embarking on an art-fusion collaboration must face is whether to make their product plentiful and part of their regular line, or to conceive it as a capsule collection (AKA, limited edition). Is the potential for higher demand worth sacrificing the potential of moving a higher volume of product?

Let’s look at some examples.
In Comme des Garçons’ multiple collaborations with New York fashion brand, Supreme, the brands chose to create capsule collections. They also chose to make consumers jump through quite a few hoops in order to even become eligible to make their ‘must-have’ purchase. The pre-requisite for each Comme des Garçons x Supreme collaboration is that every online shopper must first apply to buy. Second, the keen online shopper must then wait until his or her name is chosen and pre-qualified for an online purchase. Last, only on the day the collection launches, the selected shopper is notified by email about his or her eligibility to order online while the limited quantities last.

While this may sound discouraging to many consumers, it’s important to recognize that to these brands’ target consumer, it is irresistible.

Let’s look at the other side of the coin.
H&M engages regularly in collaborations – with Martin Margiela, Isabel Marant and Lanvin, to name a few. Usually, on the day the launch, H&M packs its selected worldwide locations with immense amounts of the collection, creating a sense of plenty rather than scarcity. If the collection doesn’t sell extremely well in the first few days, the unsold pieces from the collection often remain scattered across the stores, while many of the sold pieces quickly make their way to eBay resellers.

If eBay can be considered a value indicator, then CDG x Supreme pieces clearly outmuscle the H&M collaborations. Not only by their outstanding resale value, but also by their distinctive promise that the collection will be worn only by a limited number of people on the streets, bringing prestige not only to the brands themselves, but also to their highly sophisticated customers.

So do the benefits of a capsule collection outweigh their smaller profit potential you ask? If art-fusion collaborations are about infusing newness and relevance while consequently increasing desire and reducing need to sell, then ‘less is more’ is the preferable formula. Consider it an investment in brand equity. Even for brands with deep pockets, doing highly selective and perhaps less frequent capsule collections can bring a higher return on their investment in the long run. Building a reputation for creating irresistible art-fusion collaborations that come in small numbers accompanied by high-demand is a dream more brands will eventually find worth pursuing.

In our next post, we’ll take a closer look into the disappearance of store displays and mannequins. See you then.

Neil Young Supreme Poster

Supreme x Undercover

Chloë Sevigny for Supreme x Comme des Garçons

Supreme x Comme des Garçons

Supreme x comme des garçons

H&M x Maison Martin Margiela

H&M x Isabel Marant

17/
03/
15

A picture that’s worth a thousand words – And more for some

Like design or fashion products, art-fusion collaborations don’t come truly alive till fully digested by the greater public. To be fully legitimized, they too require their necessary components that will further validate their artistic, cultural and social relevance further. What kind of components you ask?

Today’s fashion and design brands, other than having pioneering products to begin with, require teams of experts to carry their meanings further. It’s professionals like photographers, journalists, magazine editors, models, agents, advertising agencies, distributors, storekeepers, buyers for department stores, salespersons, and museum curators who communicate vision of brands’ creative and production teams onto their consumers.

Naturally, it is a handful of creative experts who also help shaping and transmitting art-fusion collaborations to the greater public. It’s specially art-fusion collaborations’ specialists that are sensible to selecting and working with the most imaginative and unorthodox photographers and writers who can make it or break it. Whether through social media or word-of-mouth, it’s their creative content that’s capable of feeding all the relevant cultural and social channels. The more pioneering the visual and written content is, the faster and deeper it can penetrate and influence the consumers.

Art-fusion collaborations that lack, no matter how small of an oversight will easily manifest weaknesses that may not be noticeable to the naked eye at first, but perceivable immediately by other senses, like feelings. Since art-fusion collaborations are about making products or events irresistible, being aware of every possible detail that’s influencing people’s emotions, i.e. turning their desires ‘on’ and rather instantly is critical. If selecting the most suitable creative team of experts like art-collaborations specialists, photographer and writers, could be recognized as essential as selecting the most relevant artist or a designer to collaborate with, then for many brands increasing their success of art-fusion collaborations would be that much greater.

Unfortunately, at Arts & Labour we’ve noticed many art-fusion collaborations that had a considerable potential to start with, but were lacking just that – providing middle-of-the-road photography that’s too predictable, as well as narratives that simply neither inspired nor offered much to get excited about. In other words they were burying every effort the brand has put in in the first place.

That being said, our hat goes down to brands like of Kelly Weastler and Mjölk that are rather small but have managed to provide the blogosphere with captivating and innovative imagery that has fortified their already well-designed and developed art collaborations so much further. Of course, not to mention the continuous art-fusion collaborations of larger brands like the high-end Louis Vuitton or low-end Converse that constantly provide us with a spectacular feast we can at least indulge in, even if not purchase the product.

What are the pros and cons of art-fusion collaboration as a capsule collection? Do come back to our next post where we examine just that.

JUERGEN TELLER, PHOTOGRAPHER

JUERGEN TELLER FOR MARC JACOBS MEN

Hans Ulrich Obrist, art curator and writer

bill cunningham, style PHOTOGRAPHER for The New york TIMES

Lynn Yaeger, Fashion Journalist

Mathias Augustyniak & Michael Amzalag, Art Directors

Kelly Weastler x shantell Martin

Mjölk x Anderssen x Voll

13/
01/
15

5 fascinating things about art fusion that brands must know

For artists and brands alike, engaging in art-fusion collaborations has become the new norm. But still, well-executed collaborations are a phenomenon consumers can’t seem to get enough of. After all, they can breathe life into brands, give voice to artists, and at the same time, infuse our everyday lives with beauty and meaning that nourish our deeper longings. Which brings one to wonder, why have there have been so few ‘Made in Canada’ art-fusion collaborations?

At Arts & Labour, while cheering as much for Canadian artists as for Canadian brands, we wanted to provide some interesting facts for brand directors to consider when planning their next branding campaign. May this win them over? Our fingers remain crossed.

5. Art-fusion builds social media & blogger talk-value.
A compelling art-fusion collaboration can easily outpace the awareness and buzz-value generated by a multi-million dollar advertising campaign. But ultimately, it comes down to a simple, old-fashioned principle: people talk when there’s something worth talking about. Social media is nothing more than word-of-mouth. In other words, creating art-fusion that’s socially, culturally, as well as aesthetically relevant is what it takes to turn the social media taps on. We can still hear the buzz created by Jeff Koons’ limited edition Balloon Dog handbag developed in collaboration with H&M last summer.

4. Art-fusion expands beyond the traditional model of advertising.
The beauty of art fusion is that both the artist and the brand are creating something of value and relevance to society, while the marketing benefit is simply a byproduct of the inherent interest the union creates. A well-engineered art-fusion collaboration can even surpass the most exhilarating and innovative advertising campaign. The most recent collaboration between German sporting brand Adidas and West Hollywood art gallery HVW8’s two inspiring minds Kevin Lyons and Jean André. The resulting work, All Day I Dream About Stripes, challenged every product launch strategy rule there is. Instead of a traditional storeroom launch of the four new shoes, the kick off took a place as a part of a show at the HVW8 art gallery, followed by a series of international events, including an installation at the Art Basel in Miami and a few pop-up gallery shows across Europe. Only after fully indulging the art crowds, the collaboration has become available for purchase at regular retailers, now dripping with integrity and ‘must-have’ credibility. The success of All Day I Dream About Stripes has been based on providing a design-savvy, sophisticated audience with equally sophisticated products, presented in a very sophisticated way.

3. Art-fusion increases desire and reduces the need to sell.
A few brands have built their reputations on creating irresistible art-fusion collaborations in small numbers – which in return have garnered enormous desire and high-demand. It’s a simple equation really; the more irresistible an art-fusion product is, the more desire it generates on its own, requiring less traditional marketing to ‘sell’ it to consumers. The Cambridge Satchel Company with its capsule collections has become a prime example of an overnight brand phenomenon celebrated just for that.

2. Art-fusion reaches new and wider audiences.
While art has always played the role of visual philosopher to stimulate thought, beliefs and emotion in our culture, art fusion is able to spread the experience of art more broadly, reaching a larger, more mainstream audience and imbuing everyday life with the art experience. The French luxury brand Louis Vuitton’s collaborations have been continuously zeroing in on new markets. Be it in the Asian or Russian market, Louis Vuitton with its playful, yet sophisticated approach to art collaborations has become the role model for many brands to follow. Last year’s collaboration with the six ‘iconoclasts’ interpreting the now iconic ‘LV’ Monogram has confirmed Louis Vuitton as the world’s most widely recognized and desired global luxury brand.

1. Art-fusion infuses a brand with innovation and originality.
For many brands, good product design brings innovation, product differentiation and meaningful consumer involvement. But design alone does not offer an emotionally transformative experience. Innovative art fusion brings newsiness and talk-value, creates a feeling of excitement and generates genuine interest. For Converse, the century-old shoemaker, originality and relevance go hand-in-hand with tradition. Creating art-fusion collaborations with culturally and politically engaged artists has helped Converse to be identified as the ‘rebel’ brand and to remain relevant and ‘cool’ to this day. No small feat.

In our next post, we’ll shine a spotlight the most striking art-fusion collaborations of 2014. See you then.

JEFF KOONS x H&M

LADY GAGA x JEFF KOONS x H&M

FROM THE GALA OPENING RECEPTION, JEFF KOONS x H&M

HVW8 X ADIDAS

HVW8 X JEAN ANDRÉ x ADIDAS

HVW8 X KEVIN LYONS x ADIDAS

Cambridge Satchel Company x FARROW & BALL

Cambridge Satchel Company x VIVIENNE WESTWOOD

LOUIS VUITTON MONOGRAM x CINDY SHERMAN

LOUIS VUITTON MONOGRAM x REI KAWAKUBO

LOUIS VUITTON MONOGRAM x KARL LAGERFELD

Futura x Hennessy x Converse Chuck Taylor

COLETTE x Converse Chuck Taylor