It’s not every day that a brand and the language of that brand constitute a seamless marriage. It’s not every night either. Indeed such a marriage is anything but obvious. TNIGHT, not unlike the brand it honours, is just that. A seamless marriage. A polysensorial, real-life-and-time event of artistic discovery and design.
An event where the crossroads of time and technology, concept and creativity intersect, to deliver the ultimate interactive brand experience. The TUDOR experience. Edgy, urban, elegant. When New York artist Ron Ferri was commissioned to help create the TUDOR campaign in 2007, he turned a design-devoted public on its head with his black ink reworked photographs of models that became a blank slate on which those inspired by TUDOR could project their own unfettered identity.
In so doing, he created a visual metaphor for the spirit of the brand: freedom of expression. Now, noteworthy architecture in Milan, Madrid, Paris and Berlin, Europe’s art and design capitals, will become Ferri’s canvas for yet another exercise in identity and artistic endeavour via projection technology and audio and visual pyrotechnics. These live performances are certain to bring the TUDOR brand to life at yet another level, where audience and art, time and technology become one. For a night. TNIGHT.
PRODUCTS
Speed is not just for men. The TUDOR Classic collection has created a new chronograph with a feminine touch, designed for ladies who seek to express their own desire for adventure. Colour, colour, colour… yet the TUDOR Lady Chrono compromises neither performance nor reliability. With a 41 mm case set with 101 diamonds, it is available on a leather or rubber strap in a range of exquisite colours. The dials come in a range of colours to match the bracelets. The case, waterproof to a depth of 150 metres (500 feet), protects the remarkably precise self-winding mechanical movement. An expression of individuality, the TUDOR Lady Chrono is a watch that marries audacity with sensuous charm.
The TUDOR Sport collection introduces a new model designed for those who are passionate about design, daring and performance. Calculate average speeds with the TUDOR Iconaut’s chronograph function; or use the graduated bezel and the 24-hour hand to read the time in two different time zones. Life is exhilarating, enjoy it to the fullest. Its 43 mm case, waterproof to a depth of 150 metres (500 feet), ensures robustness, and the precise self-winding mechanical movement guarantees the outstanding reliability of the watch. The TUDOR Iconaut, with its inventive graphic design, a fusion of form and colour, brings energy to time.
RON FERRI – LIGHT YEARS AHEAD
Ron Ferri is a master at making the ordinary extraordinary; the invisible visible. His visual take on the everyday is what truly sets him apart. Pioneer in the use of neon tubes in the 1970s, his work is actively imitated by artists inspired by the work of a visionary, light years ahead of his time. Both creatively and conceptually.
Ferri occupies a spacious apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in a mansion built by Lilly Bliss in the early 1900s. His studio is located in what was once Lilly Bliss’ music room. Mrs Bliss was a prestigious patron of the arts and co-founder of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.
Ever the minimalist, Ferri defines his three artistic “periods” in few words: NEON. SUMO. PAPER.
NEON, the earliest period, won him the critical acclaim he enjoys today. His works included steel and plexiglas, while others were a mix of neon and canvas, neon, water and sand, or neon and precious wood.
The NEON period, which ended in 1983, was followed by the SUMO. During a trip to Japan with Hubert de Givenchy and Audrey Hepburn, Issey Miyake invited the threesome to a sumo match, then got permission for Ferri to live with them for a month. Hence the inspiration.
Ferri’s current phase is what he aptly calls the PAPER phase. Using sombre colours, principally black, he paints portraits largely by applying paint and ink to photographs culled from all manner of sources. Even direct mail brochures and catalogues. The portraits are figurative, not unlike his nature-inspired work in the form of trees. The result is… anything but obvious.
Andy Warhol was one of Ferri’s best friends and clearly had an impact on his work. He appreciates Matisse’s use of colour and has collaborated with textile artist Sheila Hicks. But he is convinced he truly wasn’t “influenced” by anyone. He does his own thing and always has.
TUDOR – TNIGHT
PROJ ECTION TECHNOLOGY
The video projection show designed for Tudor features two different and equally innovative techniques.
The first, based on customized software created for the event, projects “augmented painting” onto the facade or interior surfaces of a building. This software enables the artist to paint in a live digital performance, with, in lieu of a traditional palette, a 40-inch infrared touch screen and a very special canvas – the building itself. The colours and brushstrokes the artist “paints” on the touch screen are projected in real time, by a video system, onto the different architectural features of the building, allowing the public to watch a work of art in progress – a work of art as impressive as it is unusual.
The software is designed to allow artists to create their works on a digital interface. The tool recognises the artist’s strokes, perfectly rendering shape and shades, and recreating both the density of the brushstrokes and the intensity of colour. In addition, the interface allows the artist to view the surface onto which the video is to be projected, so that the design created will be truly site-specific.
The effects become even more striking in the second part of the show through unique “architectural tracing”. Fascinating, complex 3D animation hugs the curves and contours of the building dressing it up in a textured multi-coloured coat at one with the architecture.
Multimedia Production: Emenem
Communication Agency: JWT
“ BE ANYTHING BUT OBVIOUS”
Assert yourself, break the mould… This is the concept at the heart of the new TUDOR advertising campaign.
It is part of a radically new groundbreaking communications programme for a watch brand. It invents a story and a style unique to TUDOR without drawing on the ploys of identifying with icons and trite familiar themes.
It is a vision focused on creativity and the future that comes to us from the work of contemporary NewYork artist, Ron Ferri.
By reworking photographs of models with black ink of his own making, Ron Ferri has collaborated with TUDOR to design a new form of expression: a surprising encounter between art and commercial communication.
Strokes of black ink reinterpret each image, transforming it into a distinctive work of art.
The campaign addresses people who like to express their creativity and originality and who are ready to make individual choices. It is targeted to people who want to be noticed by their selection of a watch that combines high-level technology and a passion for style.
The artist’s form of expression enhances this new identity that plays on all the facets of a bold and creative personality.
The great novelty of this campaign is its role in an unusual type of relationship between a brand and its public. Far from dictating an identity, the works allow each person to project himself into the images and create his own story.
This style and tone are ever-present in all of the brand’s communication: from the complete integration of the advertising, to the innovative media, to the point of sale.
Created in Paris, the campaign presents eight female and male images to illustrate the Classic and Sport collection models, for women and men.
This totally innovative treatment of the image is in perfect harmony with the two aspects of the brand: the exceptional quality of TUDOR watches and the dynamism of those who wear them.
Ferri’s work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA, New York), the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, DC), the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), the Musée d’Art Moderne (Saint-Etienne, France).
ABOUT TUDOR
The TUDOR brand was created in Switzerland in 1926.
From its inception, it benefited from two well-known Rolex inventions, the waterproof Oyster case and the self-winding movement with the Perpetual rotor.
In the 1950s, the concept of the Oyster gave rise to the Tudor Oyster Prince and Princess, especially prized on the Chinese market for their reliability and robustness.
In the 1990s, TUDOR developed models that, while continuing to take advantage of the technologies, know-how and quality of the parent company, asserted their own identity.
Today, the TUDOR brand enjoys unprecedented autonomy in terms of its image, its products and its communication strategy. The new campaign clearly positions the identity of TUDOR watches to appeal to self-confident men and women committed to the same values of quality and precision as the world-renowned brand.
The TUDOR brand belongs to the Rolex group and benefits from its distribution and after-sales service network.
It is distributed in Switzerland, Hong Kong, China, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, Singapore, India, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Canada, the Caribbean, the Philippines, Taiwan, Benelux and Greece.
Source: Tudor
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