Barcelona Design Week '17 | Graphic & strategic communication by Folch

Year: 2017
Tags: Art Direction and Design, Brand Narrative, Digital Activation, Strategy and Design Thinking

In the notion of transformation

Barcelona Design Week 2017 is dedicated to the notion of transformation – a concept divided into six stages unveiled weekly. Treating design as a process of bringing an idea to life, evoking evolution and encouraging change in the world. We decided to create a homage circulating six pioneers of our time, who passed away recently and whose legacy has been driven by the evolution and change of mindset within different fields; starting with sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, artist David Bowie, writer Harper Lee, boxer Muhammad Ali, architect Zaha Hadid and finally art critic John Berger.

Explaining transformation through people who have managed to transform society from their respective fields allowed us to universalise the concept and make it more identifiable and understandable.

Celebrating the notion of creativity

During the week of the 6th to the 14th of June, Barcelona will transform to a platform where different design practices are set in light. The annual event, organised by BCD Barcelona Design Centre, is a meeting point for companies, entrepreneurs and professionals from the sector, and an opportunity for the universal assembly interested in the notion of creativity to discover more of the process behind each design practice of professionals.

“We needed a design team with experience on extensive city projects that could understand and help us to address the communication of BDW’17 beyond an applied graphics solution. That’s why we believed Folch to be the right ally.” Maria Baxauli, Promotion Manager BDW’17

Reassess the idea of design

The previous editions of the festival has been mostly aimed to designers. By opening the audience segmentation we believe in reaching beyond the obvious target and generate visual impact to a larger assembly. Earlier campaigns have been focused on the design itself, not in its power or value – this time the urge lied in the reassess of the idea of design, and associating it with its potential values. The campaign reached over six weeks –each week a new portrayed sculpture was revealed– across several media, such as short audiovisual pieces, magazine ads and street banners.

“According to the new paradigm on business and communication, I think that we have some responsibility in understanding that design is not something accessory, but crucial for organisations, institutions and brands. We don’t do only design graphics, but design thinking. To think strategically or design ideas is to be involved in the process from the very beginning. So, that is what we aimed for with the concept of TRANSFORMATION for Barcelona Design Week 2017.” Rafa Martínez, COO, Partner & Brand Strategist, Folch

Impactful production with small resources

Due to limited resources we had to find an efficient way to add motion to the campaign. By the simple 360º spin of the clay sculptures we could reach a desired effect to a minimum cost. The videos are produced by White Horse, production and activation company by Folch with music from the local music group Desert.

By conducting the message towards the values and meaning of design, we could find a concept directive aiming for a more
global and developed idea of creation; transformation.

Vision to purpose

The pioneers were selected due to their influence within different fields and vision to use introduce a new mindset in society. They all left important marks in the history within their diverse disciplines and changed the way we look on the society through their work, achievements and being.

Vision to purpose

The copy line “Transformation is…” emphasises again the idea of design as a process, a creation from idea to statement, belief to action, concept to words and vision to purpose. Directing the end of the sentence to the impact of the profiles practice, through clever metaphorical statements, we added another layer of interpretation to the campaign and the testimony of a society in transformation.

From idea to defined form

We commissioned sculptor Wilfrid Wood to create these selected profiles in clay – using the material as a recall of transformation. We carefully defined the important features of the characters – a decision of whether portrait David Bowie as The Thin White Duke or Ziggy Stardust or any other of his iconic alter egos. A young Harper Lee, or the later and find the flaws and charisma.

Wildfrid’s genuinely hand shaped clay totems followed by these distinct characteristics. A series that came to arouse the endless possibilities of creating and reshaping any material, from idea to defined form. The sculptures were finally photographed by the sharp lens of Luke Stephenson.

Designing a universal system

Each sculpture is followed by a colour carefully selected to add a lucid vision to the campaign. The colours are recalled in all applications across social media and street level assets. Agipo Regular Extended from RP Digital Type Foundry in its curious characters works with its unlimited possibilities as the main typography of the designed system across all applications.

Applying the system across different formats

We designed the first landing page of BDW’17 following the concept of the campaign through a user friendly experience while they developed their own website based upon their own design. The completely campaign oriented landing gave the user possibility to watch the audiovisual pieces and follow the graphic system and random colour application.

The big format foldable programme took its shape through a tidy grid, colour blocks and legible structure in two languages, Catalan and English, highlighting the main events and information.