Popping over to Paris last week ‘i-am’ couldn’t resist the David Lachapelle showcase. Love him or hate
him you just cant ignore him; David Lachapelle’s catalogue of work is enormous and diverse and this is the first time you can see a retrospective of over 200 pieces all in one place.
The Monnaie de Paris plays host to the exhibition, which houses works ranging from his latest distopian ‘anti-commodity art’ to some of his better known celebrity portraits including the renowned ‘Hi Bitch, Bye Bitch’ Paris Hilton portrait.
Films documenting the installation play throughout taking us on a journey from his earlier poppier pieces
to the latest distopian commentary works such as ‘Holy War; a post-apocalyptic,homo-erotic
mashup…no really! The retrospective runs till June and its one experience not to miss…
As the economic downturn takes its toll, one of the major industries hit has been the mortgage industry. Platform is the intermediary mortgage lender of Britannia Building Society and have bucked the trend, seeing the current climate as an opportunity. Platform engaged ‘i-am’ to help create a more powerful brand position .
Platform wanted to bring the brand to life in a way that was more than just a logo and strapline ‘i-am’ created a series of max energy, highly engaging sessions which enabled honest and open conversations between frontline employees and the Leadership team thus helping to identify and design ‘Platform Moments’
the key moments of truth, where opportunities exist to delight their customer and to differentiate themselves from the competition. The summits also paid attention to the Platform Brand Promise, to identify what differentiates Platform in this competitive environment.
Lee Gladwell, Sales & Marketing Director of Platform has described the difference that ‘i-am’ approach has made. “When refreshing their brand, most companies use what I describe as a ‘Fire, Ready, Aim’ approach.Where the Marketing Department decide what the brand should be and then tell employees and customers. With the help of ‘i-am’ we have done ‘Ready, Aim, Fire’. We made sure that our Brand Promise was something that all our people genuinely bought into and that it was also a promise to our customers that we could keep”. For more information about ‘i-am’ people and culture visit www.i-amonline.com
Recently discovered on the ‘i-am’ travels was the Farmers Daughters Hotel in LA, a beautiful critically acclaimed and unique boutique hotel in central L.A. an original icon of L.A. that has been transformed into a unique urban Oasis. The rooms are apparently designed to harken back to comforts of your gramdma’s spare room adding a little bit of hi-tec convenience to bring it up to date. At very reasonable prices it will be the cheapest “chic” you will find in L.A. www.farmersdaughterhotel.com
Yours truly was recently in Hong Kong to watch the World Cup Rugby Sevens as well as experience the sites, sounds and smells of one of the worlds best city’s. I was in town for little more than a week to take in the original 7’s tournament which lasted 3 days getting to see some of the most skilful and quickest rugby on the planet, ending up with Fiji taking the title. Amongst all the markets, delicious food and post match drinks, I even managed to fit in a trip to Disney Land Hong Kong (no I didn’t know it existed either) and the big Buddha which supplied some great photographic opportunity’s, an amazing place and I even brought back some strange sweets for the studio some of which I think are still sitting here untouched, Preserved Plum anyone?
Lauren one of our interiors experts has recently returned from shredding the pow in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc en France, taking some time to perfect her snowboarding skills whilst also enjoying the delights of Brevant and Grand Montets where sadly her sister broke her arm and had to be air lifted to hospital (Ouch!!). Altogether sunny weather apart from the 2ft of powder which fell on the Tuesday night which in her words was “great fun, lot of effort but easier to fall on!”. Check out the pics and we hope your sister makes a speedy recovery.
Contrary to popular belief the Protein forum has Nothing to do with your 5 a day, but is in-fact a series of talks about digital design and innovation. The 2nd protein forum was held in association with Grok which is a new-format event featuring forward thinking digital art, light installations, video and music which has just run in and around Carnaby. The night itself consisted of talks from Andreas Muller of Nanika, Marc Kremers of Digital Club and Mitch Stratten. The night was a geeks delight ranging from the wholly scripted Flower creations of Andreas Muller thats right no bitmaps , the introduction of as-found.net from the guys at Digital Club and the hightlight of the evening for me from Mitch Stratten who has just created the new Toshiba advert from a completely new filming style called Timesculpture which brings a 4th dimension to filming, 200 digital camcorders and 20,000gb of data later brings us this magical advert. For more information about the Protein Forum visit grokinstitute.com
London fashion week has once again come and gone and as usual have left us all a bit excited, intrigued and to be honest a bit exhausted. The week also brought with it the launch of Autumn / Winter 2009/10 collection for ‘i-am’s friends over at Beyond the Valley. The launch also introduced the debut of the Beyond the Valley capsule collection in collaboration with the Broken Hearts, the party saw 500+ guests join to celebrate the launch of the upcoming collaboration. The carnival themed event complete with circus performers, drag queens, Illamasqua make-up parlour, Dermalogica skin-booths, a live performance from NYC band New Look and a special film screening from Emma. To read more about ‘i-am’s work with Beyond the Valley read the case study here.
Recently spotted by one of our wide eyed reporters on the street, is the amazing 3D billboard advert from Levis, just down the road from us off Shoreditch High Street the massive wave advert could be found complete with real jeans. The ad however has disappeared in last week, maybe because all the jeans had also disappeared, we dont know. Good while it lasted…
When someone mutters the words Switzerland and Hotel you can image what we expected, chalet, snow, lakes beautiful views. Well quickly did our ideas change when we were introduced to the Null Stern (no star) Hotel, a Swiss hotel built within a disused Nuclear Bunker, disappointed? Well no! The new Null Stern Hotel was conceived when artist brothers, Frank and Patrick Riklin were asked by the town to take on the conversion of the bunker with the only exception that it should be available for use within 24 hours notice!! The pair have converted the bunker into a stylish and simple Hotel consisting of dorm rooms with rustic, wooden country beds, stainless steel communal bathrooms and even complimentary slippers to walk through the cold concrete hallways. Although there are the obvious reminders of the building original purpose such as stark concrete walls & the constant humm of stainless steel ventilation system the bunker has been transformed into a working Hotel the brothers have created a truly unique experience. They aim to open 12 others of this type in Switzerland, their concept is to offer simplicity to a society drunk with conspicuous consumption and I have to say I like it. for more information visit www.null-stern-hotel.ch
The Double Club is no ordinary pub / club / restaurant / bbq / Western and Congolese art project if there is such a thing. The Double club opened up in November for a limited period of 6 months and consists of three main spaces the bar, the restaurant and the club each area is divided into equally sized Western and Congolese parts on both a decorative and functional level. They are serious about this as the main bar area has both garden style plastic tables and chairs right next to a rather smart and expensive looking cocktail bar the room has quite literally been split in two, you are equally happy sipping a beer or a martini not feeling out of place with either. The project is fundamentally experimental and with 50% of the profit going to City of Joy / UNICEF you can also feel good about paying for your round even though you head may not the next day. A realy unique bar that is not to be missed, open till June. www.thedoubleclub.co.uk
‘i-am’ create and deliver great brand experiences that exceed expectations, deliver competitive advantage and inspire both consumers and employees.
We specialise in the creation of great brand experiences that exceed expectations, deliver competitive advantage and change consumer behaviour. We smash conventional wisdom through strong brand identities, compelling environments and lasting cultural change.
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