Exploring the space between inverted and mainstream.
Language is a shared agreement between a select majority to associate concepts¹ with concepts², communicated through concepts³. Literally, objects with words, communicated through audio is one form, emotions with facial cues, communicated through vision is another; the variation of this relation can be endless, with particular combinations being more effective for different demographics.
Innovation is born through a perpetual line of questioning that seems to have taken various forms through time, but it in essence asks,
Why is anything anything – and what does anything mean?
Communication remains one of the most iterated technologies or systems actively influenced by humans. Over time, through the development of communication, technology and general societal norms, things that previously had defined meanings have changed to be fluid and open to various levels of interpretation.
This mechanic historically bred the concept of subversion, posing the questions of ‘why?’ and ‘what if?’, superseding as the rational for innovation. Communication became the vehicle of evolutionary growth, iterative expression and humanistic development.
To subvert a notion is to ‘do’ the action – to naturally question ‘why’ ⁴; to provide the subversion is to generate a result – to answer ‘what if’ ⁵; to be subversive is to describe or execute that outcome, in a way that is truly innovative ⁶.
From Tibor Kalman, for Benetton’s ‘Colors’, brashly and heroically revealing the depths of literal and blatant subversive photography & design. The North Face x Gucci’s more subliminal and targeted subversion of high-fashion luxury in the social portion of their varied collaboration. To the broader welcoming of the subvert during pivotal periods known as the ‘renaissance’ and the ‘enlightenment’.
Transformation across industries is regularly born through the processes of iteration, the idea of anything existing, exists to have its existence constantly re-evaluated. For instance in tech, mobile phone designers shifted towards built-in biometric security measures after they had iterated on and subverted the traditional pin-code lock. This led to developments in the capabilities of mobile devices, massively affecting methods of payments, digital security and the management of virtual keys, plus more.
The effects born from subversion can be immensely vast and undeniable. We found this with The North Face x Gucci’s more subliminal and targeted subversion of high-fashion luxury in the social portion of their varied collaboration. Through interrogating the idea of what luxury is and how it can intersect with TNF’s outdoor explorative energy, a strategic platform of “eccentric exploration” was crafted. This led to creative that confidently subverted the idea of who, what & where luxury was for, as well as what outdoors exploration looks like. From this we experienced seemingly mismatched collaborations with Francis Bourgeois in ‘Trainspotting’, ‘In the Garden’ with Gerald Stratford as the ‘Veg King’ and ‘Birdwatching’ with an educational aviary collective known as ‘Flock Together’. All misaligned with the values of luxury, through subversion these collaborations still became a resounding success with global engagement.