2020-03-01 AdNews

D

uringthelastcoupleofyears,
adland has recognised it has
a problem: d iversit y. Th is is a prob -
lem that two young creatives,
Ava Frawley and Jasmine Subrata,
are hoping to tackle with their
Changing the Face initiative.
For the AdNews March edition,
they brought the face of senior crea-
tives to life on the cover. AdNews
spoke with them to find out how
the face came together.

What were your initial
thoughts on the brief?
Diversity is on everyone's agenda,
but talking about it and changing
it are two very different things.
Changing the Face visualises
the problem and gives agencies the
tools to improve their workforce
for years to come.
We ( Frawley and Subrata) came
up with Changing The Face in 2017,
through a competition hosted by
D&AD and The Glue Society, and
brought it to l i fe w it h t he help of ou r
production and media partners.

Post first-brief chat, what
were the next steps you
took as a team?
While we know diversity is much
more than just gender, we wanted
to start where the issue is most pro-
nounced: in senior positions in the
creative department. So to start the
conversation we invited executive

creativedirectorsandchief crea-

tive officers to upload their head-

shots. By doing so, they were com-

mitting to change. We created a

composite image which became

"the face of advertising" — a power-

ful snapshot of the industry in 2019.

How did you know you’d

landed on the best concept?

We were overwhelmed by support

and it was evident this idea had

strength. We presented the concept

internally at Ogilvy, who jumped

on-board as our production

partner. Soon after, Microsoft and

AdNews became our tech

and media partners respectively.

It's one thing to have a good idea,

but another to make it happen.

What were the biggest

hurdles to making this

a reality?

Diversity is multifaceted and

while the issue is on everyone’s

agenda, Changing The Face

drives awareness, starts a conver-

sation and hopefully creates

change over time.

We have set a three-year goal,

and our hope is that during these

years we see a gradual difference in

the composition of the creative

industry. Although it’s important to

recognise where we are now, what

really matters is what the future of

our industry looks like.

How did the creation

techniques come together?

Our focus was to create a compo-

sition that was free from any bias

or preconceived ideas of what the

face of the industry should look

like. We also needed an approach

that could scale, working for two

faces or 200 faces.

We settled on a programmatic

approach, leveraging the power of

artificial intelligence to create the

face. The process involved analysing

the set of the 62 ECD portrait photos

for key facial landmarks, before

aligning the faces, morphing facial

structures to the average shape and

finally averaging the pixel colours at

each position. The result is a true,

average face of the industry.

Did any challenges ke ep you

up at night?

Our biggest challenge is yet to come.

We’ve opened up this initiative to

entire agencies so we can accurately

depict the current state of the indus-

try. Agencies can upload their data

at changingtheface.com.au and by

doing so are helping create a true

representation of your agency.

Best bit about the process?

As young creatives, it’s important to

know what the future of the indus-

try has in store for us. It’s amazing

to see so many agencies trying to

solve this complex issue.

Changing the face of advertising

The creative

contingent of adland

is the beating heart of

the industry. To fully

embrace this, and

with a mission to

create awesome

and inspiring covers,

each month AdNews

hand-picks an agency

to work its magic.

Credits

Co-founder & Creative: Jasmine Subrata

Co-founder & Creative: Ava Frawley

Executive Creative Director: Gavin McLeod

Creative Director: Jenny Mak

Group Account Director: Jennifer Gledhill

Business Operations Director:

Olivia Chamberlain

Senior Account Director: Lauren Barnes

Technical Director: Dan Adijans

Creative Designer: Chad Edwards

Technical Architect: Albert Tan

Senior Production Manager: Susie Macyong

Digital Art Director: Paola Pelligro

Art Director: Carl Robertson

Special thanks: D&AD, The Glue Society,

RARE, Microsoft and AdNews

PA I G E M U R P H Y

WORDS BY

WHATWILLTHE

FACEOFADVERTISING

LOOKLIKE?

2019 *

2020

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March 2020

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A limited edition

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Behind the Cover http://www.adnews.com.au | March 2020^8