North Kingdom

THE MAKING OF A DIESEL COMMERCIAL

How do you find a way to make a TV commercial about watches feel unique for an equivoque and bold brand like Diesel? A brand that always goes up on the barricades to challenge the perception of normal? What angle can you possibly take to encourage the brands provocative philosophy and message of ‘Be Stupid’?

Well. Here is one take on it.

North Kingdom was appointed to create a series of films for Diesel that communicated their line of watches autumn 2010.

At an early stage the team thought that the very production of the films should be a statement itself. Like a manifesto of Diesels message of ‘Be Stupid’, which essentially means liberating yourself from society’s conformity. A new way of rebelliousness, if you will.

Instead of defining the final outcome, we moved away from storyboards, animatics and scripts just to set the creative process free. The goal was just to curate the main message and see what happens. A very different approach to how we usually work.

While exploring various avenues – together with our close creative companion Kalle Gadd – we found a group of uprising artists based in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic with an original style that felt perfect to make this happen. The goal was to collaborate with them – Rita Indiana (musician) and Noelia Quintero (Director) and let them keep their naïve visual style that they skillfully use in their own artwork.

It was also important to us not to exploit the style of the artists when expressing the message of ‘Be Stupid’. We wanted to get to know them as individuals; their perspective on the world and the work they do, to tackle the project right.

“To me it’s so honest and amazing that you go straight to the artist and say we want to do this how you did it, and communicate it with your aesthetic; to me that’s a breakthrough; that’s really original.”, said Rita Indiana.

At the end, stepping out of your comfort zone is crucial to do something that can move people’s minds.

This film by lead art director Jakob Nylund gives an insight into that process and the way we worked together on this assignment. All behind the scenes footage and images are taken by Jakob. More from Santa Domingo here.