Artem’s ‘Beating Heart’ for Casio G-Shock

Artem, an award-winning physical special effects company, was recently commissioned to help create a lifelike “beating heart”, as part of an exciting collaborative campaign between CASIO G-SHOCK watches and the British musician Ghostpoet, to celebrate CASIO G-SHOCK’s 30th birthday.

Creative ambassadors from seven European cities – London, Milan, Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam, St Petersburg and Berlin – were given the task of producing an original G-SHOCK watch design along with the packaging and a presentation around it. London’s creative ambassador candidate, Ghostpoet, designed a presentation box with a realistic prosthetic human heart inside it, which beats in time with the tick of the G-SHOCK, to represent the stability and strength of the watch.  To create the heart, the team painted a silicone skin into a heart-shaped mould that was then wrapped around a custom built animatronic mechanism which created the beating effect of a human heart.

Colin Foster, who has just been nominated for Best Model Maker award in the British Arrow Awards for his work on Brian the Robot for the confused.com campaign, led the Artem team that made the heart. He said of working on the project, “The challenge was to make the heart as realistic as possible, including the beating effect – and the result is almost scarily lifelike! It was a really creative idea, and working with Ghostpoet was great – we’re really pleased with how it has turned out.”  

Sneak previews of each project will be available to view on the G-SESSIONS website and put to a public vote. Each will be presented at the closing party for the G-SESSIONS project in Berlin on 28 November, where the winner will be announced. The successful model will be produced in a limited edition run in 2014.