COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COMSPECIAL REPORT
A production mistake
by 72U (left) led to an
unexpected solution
(right) via the
Japanese art
of kintsukuroi.positive outcomes. California-based consultant
Maria Scileppi offers an example.
72U, the creative residency Scileppi founded
inside the LA ad agency 72andSunny, had decided
to brew beer as a novel gift for its guest speakers.
“We wanted the bottles to be works of art that
represented our values and spirit,” she says. But
things didn’t quite go according to plan. “We
spent a lot of time coming up with a concept for
the bottles, but not enough on planning their
actual design and production. As a result, they
turned out looking like an ugly, sixth-grade
splatter paint project.”
Rather than giving up, though, 72U found a
way of turning the problem on its head. “One of
our team members told us about the Japanese
art of kintsukuroi, which literally means golden
repair,” Scileppi says. “The technique involves
repairing broken pottery by filling in the cracks
with gold; celebrating the mistake and calling
attention to it.” Inspired by this notion, 72U
sanded the bottles down to a point where the
paint was still visible, and stencilled over them.
Not only did the finished product look stunning,
but it came with a great back story, too.THINKING ON YOUR FEET
Another example of how a mistake can be
turned from a negative into a positive comes from
Jade Trott, art director at London marketing and‘We spent a lot of
time coming up with
a concept, but not
enough on planning
their design and
production’ MARIA SCILEPPI
advertising agency Oliver, who once pitched a
campaign for Selfridges with Beattie McGuinness
Bungay. “Because it’s a fashion brand, we assumed
that there would be a photo shoot, with big, glossy
pictures of models wearing their clothes,” she
says. “But we figured that pictures on their own
wouldn’t brand it; we needed something different,
something inherently Selfridges.”
The team came up with an inventive solution.
“On the bottom of every picture, we’d have the
logo with the letters ‘SELF’ picked out,” Trott says.
“The logo would become the headline. We’d have
lines like: ‘Love Thy SELF’, ‘Mama’s got herSELF
a brand new bag’, ‘Me, mySELF & I’ and so on. We
did about 20 of them, to show how it would work
with the photography.”
It was a great idea, but Trott had made one
big mistake: making unchecked assumptions
about what the client’s budget would stretch to.
“It turned out it couldn’t afford photography,” she
explains. “Whoops!”
Rather than give up, though, Trott thought on
her feet. “We kept the logo and headline idea, andJUNE 2019