Ted Baker Launches Digital Fashion Portrait Service With Top Illustrators

 

 

To celebrate the in-store launch of Ted Baker’s SS12 campaign The Great Exhibitionist and his Private Views, Ted is collaborating with a host of acclaimed illustrators to create a digital fashion portrait service called Ted’s Drawing Room. Launching on 17 March 2012, the initiative, devised by Guided Collective, will see over 100 lucky customers receive a signed and framed, original, one-off fashion portrait created by one of 11 top illustrators.

 

Shoppers will be invited to pop into store, try on pieces from the new collection and pose for a photo in one of Ted’s ‘Exhibitionist’ photo booths. An image of their Ted look will be taken using Instagram and the photograph will be automatically beamed straight into the artist’s studio – Ted’s Drawing Room, situated in Ted's London HQ – to be re-created by one of the illustrators as an original piece of artwork.

 

The illustrators involved range from the more fashion oriented Jacqueline Bissett and Niki Pilkington; to Michael Frith – one of the finest water colourists working today; right through to the lo-fi, quirky caricature of Harry Malt to the intense detail of Matthew Green. Output will be a mixture of accurate, fashion-led portrayals, beautifully showcasing Ted’s SS12 collections right through to completely comedic and abstract interpretations of the subjects dressed ‘Ted to toe’.

 

The artists will ‘choose their muse’ from the photos sent through to Ted’s Drawing Room and draw the looks that inspire them most. Ted will send those that have their portrait done a digital copy to share and show off and then a signed, framed original version soon after. The finished portraits and the photos that inspired them will be exhibited in a gallery on Ted’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/tedbaker

 

A film crew will be on hand to capture the illustrators hard at work and will broadcast live footage back into participating stores and to Ted’s Facebook page, allowing the public to watch the masters at work. A selection of lucky customers will receive a time-lapse film of their portrait being created which can then be shared with friends on social networks.

 

Craig Smith, Brand Communication Director at Ted Baker said “There are many socially driven, fashion oriented initiatives out there to compete with, but we feel this one from Ted has something pretty special to offer: a real one off, meaningful and with a genuine personal value. Ted's Drawing Room in some ways sums up why, as a brand, we’re developing so strongly: attention to detail and putting the customer first - the simple things done well”.

 

Sam Reid, MD of Guided Collective said “The SS12 theme of ‘Exhibitionism’ provided a great spring board and demanded a brave and interesting idea to drive the brand's digital ambitions – we wanted make the reward tangible and meaningful so the idea of getting an original, framed portrait by a talented illustrator for us ticks the boxes."

 

In the lead up to the campaign, to demonstrate the variety of illustration styles on offer, Ted has commissioned Niki Pilkington (YCN) to re-draw a women’s wear image from the season’s lookbook and Matthew Green (YCN) to re-create a menswear shot, whilst Harry Malt (Debut Art) has re-created an image of the elusive Mr Ted Baker himself.

 

For more information on the initiative, the illustrators involved and a list of participating Ted Baker stores please visit: http://www.tedbaker.com/selected/ted's_drawing_room/intro.aspx