Financed and produced by Intel and Vice, The Creator’s Project has been amongst the most ambitious and creative marketing initiatives in America since it’s launch in 2010. In a similar capacity to Scion’s Audio Visual, the new Levi’s Film Workshops, and Converse’s coming recording studio Rubber Tracks, it attempts to give unique user experiences by aligning with the forefront of the creative industry.
So far, it has done very well. Constructed as a multi-year program and working across multiple platforms of technology and interactive media, The Creator’s Project is a program that is truly dedicated to showcasing creativity at the highest level. It doesn’t just identify leading artists across various media and formats, but also enables them to showcase their works in a way that is truly inspiring and appealing to a wide range of people.
One good example of this was seen at this year’s Coachella, where the presence of The Creators Project literally couldn’t be missed. Amongst many projects, some of their most significant installations included Interpol Under Surveillance for Interpol’s concert on the festival’s first night. Here, The Creators Project brought together a collaboration between the band, David Lynch, Andi Watson, HPX, and Wieden+Kennedy to present a “visual juxtaposition of the seen and unseen”. Through live manipulation by HPX and animation of Lynch’s “I Touch a Red Button” and track “Lights”, the audience was given an incredible live experience.
Another one of my favorite works was the light and sound installation Untitled by Jonathan Glazer and J. Spaceman, which was created as a physical manifestation for Spiritualized’s legendary track Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating in Space. Throughout the festival, the anonymous looking tent had gathered queues of several hundred metres long, of people who actually no idea of what was waiting them. Curious to see what it was, I asked one visitor who said it was ‘like taking a journey through the unknown´. Intrigued, I wanted to see what was inside this massive tent and arranged to meet up with the installation’s architects, Bryan Flaig and Alejandra Lillo of Undisclosable on the festval’s last day. They explained “The sound of the installation centers around Ladies And Gentleman We Are Floating In Space, which has been broken into five different tracks. Some are vocally driven, some are instrumentally driven. As the tracks go through the narrow dispersion speakers, the sound is focused into these beams of light.”
At the end of the interview, Bryan took me for a short walk through the tent, which you can see here. When watching, try to note how the noise of the festival calmly transcends into silence, before the sound of the installation takes over and the music then changes as you enter the different areas of light.
In addition to that, the Creators Project consisted of collaborations between between Animal Collective and legendary noise rock band Black Dice, booking the festival’s first ever bands from China, Brazil and Korea, and a special Creator’s Project Tent with works by Feng Mengbo, Mark Essen, Hujong Song, Lumpens, Miles Regis, Brian Quandt, and Aldebaran Robtotics. Besides the work at Coachella, the program has included The Studio, an international event series, a TV documentary series, multi-disciplinary collaborative projects and the video website, TheCreatorsProject.com
Although this year’s lineup didn’t match the likes of previous year’s according to many festival goers, Coachella still managed to sell out within a few days and draw a crowd of 70,000+.
Produced by Goldenvoice (part of AEG Live), it was organized in the Empire Polo Fields in the Coachella Valley, idyllically surrounded by mountains and palm trees, a half-hour drive from Palm Springs and a few hours from Los Angeles. In scorching heat and on beautifully kept lawns, it must be the most vacation-like and tasteful looking festival in the world.
Besides the immense lineup (more than 60 acts during three days), the festival also included an impressive display of huge art installations mainly pioneered by the Creators Project; an honorable contribution to Record Store Day with nearly the complete lineup (!) signing records at the ZIA Records Tent; and a chance to spot anyone from Los Angeles celebrity scene, whether it be Kirsten Dunst mingling at parties, Usher hanging out poolside or Danny DeVito singing and dancing (!!) backstage to Robyn’s performance.
As for the brand perspective, Coachella’s location among vacation homes and chic hotels gave rise to numerous offsite-events; this being why Coachella has become just as much about what goes on outside the festival, as inside. Each day was packed with countless parties and most people went through the whole weekend without having to spend a dime. For the brands this meant competing about doing the best event, having the most notable guests, and booking the coolest talent. For some brands this meant hosting over-crowded parties of pumped up people nervously posing by a pool, and dishing out an abundance of (useless) free products, or, for others, trying to achieve the most excellent experience and perfect brand event, where the branding was subtle yet creative, and the production was so professional that anyone and everyone walked away as a huge brand ambassador.
More specifically on how to get this right, this often meant teaming up with the right creative partner and to give them as much creative freedom as possible, as in the case of Adidas partnering with Jeremy Scott, The Ace Hotel and their collaborations with various labels and creatives, and the Stones Throw x Brainfeeder x Badu day party with DipDive and BlackBerry , which easily brought in better performers, unexpected guests and general good times than any of the two brands could have done on their own.
By Eric Welles Nyström, member of the Heartbeats Movement
Eric Welles Nyström, member of the Heartbeats Movement and our man at this year’s Coachella, gives you his ‘Top Lists’ in regards to bands and brands performing at the music festival in California.
Best Brand Investments
Adidas & Jeremy Scott… Following last year’s success at Frank Sinatra’s old house in Palm Springs, this year’s party was by far the most anticipated and desired of all offsite events. Starting with a secret shuttle transportation from Palm Spring’s Museum of Art (another renown piece of architecture in the city) the party was hosted at Elvis Presley’s old estate (!!!), the night went down with Robyn DJing, Kanon Organic Vodka drinks and an installation of Jeremy Scott’s Teddy Bears that made people go nuts at the end. In short, the perfect brand event, put together by LA agency People’s Revolution.
The Creator’s Project, sponsored by Vice and Intel… By far the biggest and most complex initiative of any brand-related events at Coachella, it was executed just as well onsite as it is communicated online. Besides numerous impressive art installations across the festival grounds, the initiative also featured onstage collaborations with Animal Collective, Interpol and Arcade Fire, and incredible visual work beside the stages. On top of that, they even booked a number of young and yet equally cool bands from China and Brazil.
3 Best Performances
Robyn and her non-stop, breathtaking live performance… robyn.com
Nosaj Thing and his incredible visual show… nosjathing.com
Magnetic Man, who’s tight video and audio performance blew everyone’s mind away (including bystanders), in similar style to Nosaj Thing. myspace.com/magneticman
3 Best artist styles
The one and only Erykah Badu…
Twin Shadow’s George Lewis Jr…
Chromeo and their backup singers, in wonderful Robert Palmer tradition…
3 most interesting new products
IMakeMyCase and their futuristic, on-demand case-making robot… custom.case-mate.com
Mutewatch and their touchscreen watch, which saw love from a number of DJs, stage engineers and artists stylists… mutewatch.com
Native shoes and their perfect festival shoe, which was as light and comfortable as the so hated Croc, but as elegant as any sneaker… nativeshoes.com
3 not-so-surprising surprises
Kanye West and his ego, which harshly cancelled all rumours of Coachella finishing in an epic manner of guest appearances by Daft Punk, Jay-Z and Rhianna. Alone onstage for almost the whole performance, Kanye’s show also lacked live instruments and live back-up vocals
Ariel Pink and his mental state, which lead to a break down at the end of his set…
Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig popping in on Chromeo’s show, to perform their great new track ‘ Wouldn’t It Be Nice’
