Prettybird Launches Creative Collective the Collaborators

Prettybird has unleashed the Collaborators, a joint force of creative polymaths who are shaping work at the intersection of arts and cutting-edge technologies. The collective offers new forms of engagement for clients seeking to interact with consumers in new and exciting ways. The Collaborators consists of Memo Akten, Marcelo Coelho, Katy England, Field, Anita Fontaine, Ruth Hogben, Interlude, Nick Knight, Alister Mackie, Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF), Aaron Meyers, M.I.A, RES and Specular.

Recent work by MLF includes sculpting the sound of a car engine for Castrol MAGNATEC, an innovative oil using layers of intelligent molecules to reduce engine wear. MLF worked closely with Ogilvy&Mather. Shanghai to create a cylindrical sculpture purely out of light, changing and reacting in real time to visually render the sounds emitted from a car engine. The ambitious project saw an incredible light painting come to life, captured in real time after combining a complex balance of elements including mekatronics, robotics and sound design to finally create the striking commercial. 

MLF also created a landmark production that opened the 22nd Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors’ Showcase, an intricate air dance featuring sixteen interactive illuminated flying robots making an awe-inspiring performance via mirrors and reflecting and tracking intelligent light beams on stage.

Filmmaker and photographer Ruth Hogben is also in the mix, recognized for creating award-winning films for world famous designers such as Fendi, Louis Vuitton and Dior. Her unique approach captures details and textures of clothing for designers in unexpected, dynamic ways. Her work for Scottish fashion designer Gareth Pugh is an excellent case in point – an unforgettable blend of vibrant colors, hypnotic sounds and exquisite movement seemingly inspired by timeless, mythical themes with the aggressive soundtrack inspired by football fans before a match.

Other Collaborators inventing experiences outside the boundaries of traditional advertising techniques include FIELD. The collective's work on “Force of Nature” for NIKE displays an ability to create branded art that simultaneously embraces design, fashion and music. Created for the 2015 Nike Innovation Summit “Force of Nature” featured a treadmill fitted with custom sensors that allowed joggers to traverse through a journey of immersive visual effects that amplified their experiences while exercising on foot.

"We need to create opportunities that connect emotionally, immersively and experientially to get a client brand's message out there in compelling ways with global reaching innovation,” overviews Juliette Larthe, executive producer at PRETTYBIRD on the raison d’etre behind the Collaborators. "We take a futurist approach entering these interdisciplinary fields as new needs emerge for brands, and we wanted to embrace this exciting era with transcending disciplines with the COLLABORATORS."

Larthe brings valuable experience to the burgeoning technological space,  producing Saatchi & Saatchi’s New Directors’ Showcase at Cannes Lions for the past number of years. In 2014 she oversaw the implementation of a new Emotional Technology Platform by Studio XO allowing an audience of 2,300 people wearing specially designed wristbands to witness emotional data projected back to them in real time during the screening of the highly anticipated event.

“This is a core group of talent working together in a common enterprise that illustrate the depth and breadth of work that PRETTYBIRD is prepared to create," wraps Larthe on the road ahead. "It’s time for us to apply appropriate uses of technology to create experiences for clients that help solidify their brand’s identity and stand out in an age of exhaustive and excessive media specialization.”

“These are the new mythmakers of our times,” echoes PRETTYBIRD head of production Margo Mars on the creative potential afoot with the Collaborators. “It is an absolute priority for us to be groundbreaking today. This is a very unique collection of artists who are busy breaking all the rules. It is imperative for us to take advantage of new technologies and experiment with different forms of storytelling that will help brands score audience engagement in a world already saturated noise and clamor, with unique and interesting takes on world enterprise.”