Whimsies
noun /ˈwɪmzi/
a philosophically unconventional person, especially one who has an affinity for wonder.
On a Monday in May, in a rinky-dink village hall in Flushing, an unlikely assemblage are slicing red velvet cake, testing the softbox flash, adding songs to an ethereal-meets-electronica playlist, and waiting for The Whimsies to arrive on set. Real people, found folk and friends, with uniqueness baked into their bones.
Made for — and by — the homebodies, the rascals, the eccentrics, the elders, and all such stewards of nonconformity, The Whimsies campaign is anchored in our appreciation of the unique. A celebration of individuality through a collective lens, created by a brand who knows that it takes unique people to make unique places. Minimal, monochromatic, and riddled with meaning, this is a brand campaign with soul.
Selvedge denim’d and Breton striped, with a camera glued to the end of an arm illustrated with ink pears and fine line wine, the campaign was shot by internationally exhibited photographer, book publisher, and Head of Photography for Falmouth University, Oli Udy. With his signature documentarian approach, Udy shepherded the campaign from the philosophical to the photoreal; in fact, it is primarily the “test shots”, where the subjects were at their most candid, chitchatting about spectacles or gazing through windows, that made the final cut.
The creative copy that accompanies each of the campaign's subjects plays with ideas of poetry, riddles, and wildlife documentary-style observations. Each its own capsule story, and a window into a unique internal world, we took a tongue-in-cheek approach to biography; amusing narratives that doubled down on the campaign's ethos... the more authentic, the better. The inclusion of Bionic Reading, a reading system that aids reading flow by bolding the first few characters of words, was utilised for the benefit of our neurodivergent audience, in order to present a campaign that is fully inclusive in spirit, not just name.
The campaign was featured by the World Brand Design Society, a professional community that benchmarks and awards creatives and creative businesses in the fields of corporate and consumer brand design. It also earned our Lead Copywriter a place on the shortlist of the Global Women in Marketing Awards 2023 in the Copywriting category, judged by Vikki Ross.
Nine adverts will appear on the London Underground, running from September throughout December. To see The Whimsies in the wild, The Elder and The Wunderkinder are on display in Belsize Park and Hampstead Heath, respectively.
Campaign: The Whimsies
