2017 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

Art is often relegated to a gallery or exhibit, the goal with the Awards was to bring this same gallery experience to the public sphere by breaking down the walls that often confine it. Using modular, pod-like design our creative team was able to literally imbed the art within the community and elicit a strong response by those who engaged with it. The event itself became a type of installation, utilizing angular shapes which were designed to be connected together through light and distorted lines of a pixelated logo. In many sense project used the city as its promotional canvas, projecting on to buildings and placing art in locations that it traditionally didn’t belong. For the thousands of artist who enter the contest the idea was to disrupt the expected and put their art in front of the eyes of millions.

Creative Execution

Our biggest challenge was to create a cohesive and modular exhibition design - one that would visually standout while resisting weather conditions. After extensive prototyping a geometric dodecahedron shape was selected and to incorporate Fine Art, Digital Photography, Multimedia, Design and Architecture, we sliced the dodecahedron into five separate pieces to subvert the expected; replacing the idea of standardized structures with more eccentric, playful forms. Regardless of weather, the areas could be 're-configured’, putting modular pieces back together to create the perfect dodecahedron base shape as shelter for the exhibits. To help tie all aspects of the brand together, a tight monochrome palette was used across much of the deliverables but was disrupted by hits of vivid oranges and eventually a full spectrum of colors for the Award Ceremony. The exhaustive list of deliverables allowed us to really play with the identity's potential.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

The initiative resonated across the entire nation and across the levant. Covered extensively by local media, the event created a buzz which kept artists eagerly awaiting the next iteration of the competition. The overall campaign increased the submissions by 4 times in comparison to the previous year. With over 1700 submissions, the final 100 contestants were represented by 26 countries globally. The overall reach of the exhibition was increased by manifolds. In the prime location of the City Walk, the week long exhibition saw a footfall of more than 45000 and as a consequence, the overall conversations of the brand and initiative were dramatically increased. The Winning art pieces were then displayed onto the Burj Khalifa reaching approximately 10,000 at its busiest point. Out of the 100 finalists represented by 26 countries, the finalists were spread across 14 different countries.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

The Sheikha Manal Young Artist Award gives youth a chance to present their works to the local and international art scene and the support we provide will help them grow and develop their skills tremendously. In 2016, the competition was in it's 10th edition. It was imperative to create an overall experience that best showcased it's forward thinking approach, delineating itself from all it's past exhibitions and creating a benchmark across the nation visually and conceptually. The objectives of the award is to increase the visibility of arts and culture throughout the region while fostering more innovative approaches to presenting,

City Walk was a landscape to play with, we interweaved the exhibitors across the alleyways and around the massive gantry - one of the focal points of the experience, that enabled visitors to serendipitously be inspired and intrigued not only by the submissions but by the modular exhibits. Further, we embellished the entire exhibition with digital content across the space. The gallery required the identity to be flexible and able to evolve over the coming years and so we proposed the aesthetic that would adapt in the future by way of changing using the geometric shape. Using the design, the project is able to extend its engagement strategy over multiple years. To extend the reach of the target audience, Dubai citizens, winners were revealed via a physical showcase for the guests via a two-way reflective screen and by using the Burj Khalifa, showcasing winners across the entire emirate.