Vanity plates are the ultimate nonessential car accessory used by owners to highlight their status, wealth, humour, desires, beliefs or superstitions – and in Hong Kong they can be seen everywhere. Each plate is like a line of poetry racing through the bustling streets of the city. It is poetry in motion.
This gave me the idea to collect images of the thousands of vanity plates so they can be mixed and matched into poems. I then encouraged poets and people passionate about poetry to take part.
This project presents an exhaustive image collection of vanity plates, a gallery of poems by Hong Kong and international artists as well as a rap song made by DOUGH-BOY, and a game where you can compose and share your own Hong Kong vanity poems.
IG: hkvanit1es
The HKVANIT1ES project has been mentioned in the book “Poetry in Pedagogy Intersections Across and Between the Disciplines” Edited By Dean A. F. Gui, Jason S. Polley, and the web platform described as a good tool for educators and students to engage with poetry.
Typography and website design: Think Work Observe ~ Website developer: David Diaz
Coke completes any meal. To show this, I turned the iconic Coke ribbon into a graphical steam effect above different types of food – clearly communicating the message in any language or location.
(Poster campaign produced in 2021)
GCD: Mike Pearson ~ CD and AD: Michele Salati ~ CW: Asela Marcellinem ~ Food Icon design: N&MS
Client: Charlotte Sng, Creative Director, Greater China ~ Steve Llewellyn, Design & Production Excellence Director, Greater China
Pizza hut Hong Kong and IKEA have collaborated on a new pizza that uses IKEA’s famous meatballs as a topping on top of their signature Pan Pizza. We were tasked to sell the Pizza Hut x IKEA pizza... So we created the Säva - a flat-pack pizza table inspired by the pizza saver as part of a wider social campaign. (Campaign produced in 2020)
Credits. Agency: Ogilvy Hong Kong Reed Collins ~ CCO , John Koay - ECD ~ Matthew Nisbet - ECD ~ Michele Salati – CD/ Head of Art ~ Ollie Davis – ACD, Amy Cheng ~ ACD, Soenar Santoso – Senior AD ~ Lucy McNally – Photographer
“Thieves. An Auction of Stolen Invisible Art”
How can a small, resourceless Art space stand out during the ArtBasel HK 2024 art fair? We stole famous artworks all over the world: the invisible ones. Easy to steal, easy to sell during a special auction.
Our victims? Andy Warhol, Yves Klein, Tom Friedman, Maurizio Cattelan, James Lee Byars, Rubén Gutiérrez, Salvatore Garau, Ying Bo.
This hybrid project, combining elements of a communication campaign and immersive art performance, gained Thy Lab the attention of major collectors and drove funds during Art Basel. (Campaign produced in 2024)
Client: THY LAB Hong Kong ~ CD/AD: Michele Salati ~ CD/CW: Cristiano Tonnarelli ~ Photographer: Nikita Shchukin ~ Performer: Alberto Gerosa ~ Sound: Yiannis Loukos ~ Typography: Formulatype
For Valentine’s Day 2020, IKEA Taiwan wanted to shine a spotlight on some of their least loved items – according to sales data. Introducing ‘The Love Collection’, a multi-platform social commerce campaign featuring lonely IKEA products – with the rest left open to interpretation. Fans were invited to share other IKEA items to add to the collection and were retargeted with ads featuring their chosen products – all stimulating excitement and sales at ikea.com.tw. (Campaign produced in 2020)
"WITH" is a bookazine I have made for "Connecting Spaces Hong Kong - Zurich", a platform for transcultural collaboration initiated by the Zurich University of the Arts.
The visual language, manifests a fine line between a book and a magazine, celebrating its diversity, not only in the layout, but in the multiple uses of different typefaces, from sans serif, serif, monospace, display, alongside highlighted text in comic bubbles.
For the launch of the bookazine I made a campaign that illustrates collaboration between cultures, art forms and disciplines. (Book design, print/poster and digital campaign produced in 2018)
Photographer: Robert Bartholot ~ Graphic Design: Cordova Canillas
“Instagrampier” by Pierfrancesco Celada is a photographic project and final tribute to Instagram Pier, the no-longer-accessible place in Hong Kong and its Instagram account Instagrampier. I collaborated as a curator for the exhibition and Creative for the communications campaign and digital platform.
Digital Exhibition. I came up with the idea of creating a digital exhibition for the project – an online reconstruction of Instagram Pier for people to visit and experience while exploring the work of Pierfrancesco Celada from Instagrampier. www.instagrampier.com
Communication. For the launch of "Instagrampier”, we designed a visual identity inspired by and created on Instagram stories.
Curatorial Approach. Instead of showcasing a limited number of pictures from Instagrampier, I wanted to create a more unrestricted and immersive experience. I displayed over 1500 photographs in different formats, enabling viewers to understand the vastness of the project while getting a greater sense of the place and everything that happened there.
Graphic Design: N&MS ~ Website developer: David Diaz ~ Sound Design: Yiannis Loukos
“Surreal is real in dementia” is an awareness campaign designed for Enable Foundation Hong Kong, an NGO creating a cultural model for better understanding of dementia symptoms.
The campaign visualizes common dementia symptoms besides the most well-known symptom of memory loss. It comprises videos, animated icons, print and posters. (Campaign produced in 2018)
Photographer: Robert Bartholot - 3D Artist: Serial Cut - Sound Design: Yiannis Loukos - Graphic Design: Think Work Observe
This project is an invitation to reflect on the relationship between animals and humans, specifically looking into the intrusive and damaging impact humans are having on the living environments of most species on Earth.
In April 2023 a human was killed by a bear in northern Italy while running in Val di Sole, Trentino. This tragic event, together with the most recent shooting of the bear Amarena in Abruzzo National Park, is highlighting once more the need for new and improved regulations for interspecies cohabitation. It is the animals’ turn to implement new solutions.
‚Amarena, Human Repellent for Animals’ is a newborn organisation that designs and distributes products to improve livability in the forest by keeping humans away.
Meet the first product. Amarena, Human Repellent for Bears.
‚Amarena, Human Repellent for Bears‘ is presented in a single channel video in “animal instinct/ instinct animal” a group exhibition on show at MBAL Museum of Fine Arts in Le Locle (Switzerland)
The collective: Michele Salati, Nuria Krämer, N&MS, Pierfrancesco Celada, Yiannis Loukos, Edu Torres
2023, single channel video
Foundry 852. A new branding for HK's creative community.
To spark interest in Foundry 852 - A WPP Campus, I collaborated with designers from Hong Kong and around the world to create typographic posters that brought our 'Space to Create' campus launch idea to life. Each poster featured traditional Chinese characters that had been playfully reinterpreted using dynamic, colourful illustrations that reflected the meaning of each headline. We also created digital animations of the illustrations, including an interactive installation where the Chinese characters would respond to the movements of people in the new campus in real-time.
The posters are included in the permanent collection of the POSTER HOUSE, the first museum in the United States dedicated exclusively to the art and the history of posters.
Designers: Daniel Brokstad, Edu Torres, Mark Bohle, Gianluca Crudele, Fabian Fohrer, Nam Huynh, Raffael Kormann, Charlene Man. Sound Design: Yiannis Loukos
(Produced in 2020)
Every year 100 Million girls are missing. They're neglected, aborted, murdered. Simply because they are girls. To aid Unicef in creating awareness of this injustice I developed a visual concept, which represents the gravity of this issue. The campaign reached 6 millions viewers, 2.4% of those visited the website, 3.3% of those where converted into donators (4.752 people). The campaign, produced in 2014, incorporated print, poster, TV-viral and a brochure.
The posters are included in the permanent collection of the POSTER HOUSE, the first museum in the United States dedicated exclusively to the art and the history of posters.
Director: Roger Guardia ~ Photographer: Robert Bartholot ~ Production House: Canada
A bold and vibrant visual identity and campaign for the 30th Southeast Asia Games 2019, hosted by the Philippines. The colourful campaign takes inspiration from the eclectic culture and collective spirit of the Philippines and Southeast Asia. By combining different colours and patterns we showcased how sport acts as a unifying force across this incredibly diverse region. As part of the overarching brand identity of the 2019 SEA Games, we created the logo, the mascot and different collaterals for the game. (Produced in 2019)
Illustrator: Karan Singh ~ Director: Rogelio ~ Production House: Canada
Rent a Mamma is a social network and online platform developed by me, which on the one hand offers Italian mammas around the world the possibility to share their cooking knowledge, and on the other hand gives Italian cuisine lovers the chance to have a unique experience with original Italian cuisine.
Italy is world renowned for its gastronomic qualities and, as we know, all Italians believe that their Mammas cook the best food on earth. Italian MAMMAS embody the ancient culinary knowledge passed on from grannies to grandchildren for countless generations. Every Mamma has her own special recipe, a 5 star dish for her loved ones. So why not share this privilege with everybody? By offering a service where people can "rent" a real Italian Mamma, finally everyone has the opportunity to learn some of the secrets of real Made-in-Italy cuisine. www.rentamamma.com
Start up, Social network (on going project)
Illuminated for the freedom of speech is a photographic series that I’ve created in Hong Kong. Freedom of Speech is what illuminates the young protesters in Hong Kong. Through their mobile phones they are able to give shape to their freedom of expression. Each illuminated face becomes a symbol of the desire to share the protest with the rest of the world. Communication is a powerful tool for democracy. The phone is no longer just a mere object for communication, or worse, a simple status symbol, instead it becomes a weapon which allows people to share their opinions and thoughts across a country, such as China, where freedom of speech is often limited. The exhibition: “ILLUMINATED for the freedom of speech” was an exhibition, which was taking place in Admiralty, one of the centres of the protest. All around the occupied area in Admiralty you can found thousands of messages of solidarity for the protesters from the rest of the population of Hong Kong. The exhibition was placed right at the heart of Admiralty’s occupied area, where all the students and supporting people of Hong Kong pass by. It integrated the “illuminated” photo series with the messages written on post-its placed on the walls. While going up the stairs, the visitors can found themselves on a virtual bridge, which conceptually links the two hemispheres of communication, the offline messages written on Post-its and the online messages from the mobile phones. (Produced in 2015)
Integrated campaign promoting Pfister furniture's top care service.
The Top Care service from Pfister ensures that your sofa stays free of stains and dirt.
So now there is no excuse for not having a dog. The big idea was to encourage people to adopt shelter dogs without having to worry about dirt and stains on their sofas. In other words: Adopt a dog and let Pfister take care of your sofa.
(Campaign produced in 2011)
Event identity for the tech and art symposium “Connections” at OGR Torino.
The symposium explored the possible future of a world where data, connections and algorithms play a crucial role in shaping our experience of life and reality.
Five renowned speakers shared their visions on the challenges we will face, from privacy to public health, from the sovereignty of data to the evolution of the idea of citizenship.
Featuring talks and performances by Francesco Bonfiglio & Vittoria Colizza & Elena Diamanti & Massimo Temporelli & Jer Thorp
Designers: N&MS
Tropical Mountains Coffee
The Tropical Mountains coffee capsules follow an innovative concept grounded in the idea of respecting the coffee trees, the local farmers and the environment. The design is influenced by the rich flora and fauna of tropics. And in keeping with the brand’s ethical and sustainable ethos, we developed bespoke packaging made from fully recyclable and compostable materials. Included under the lid is a coffee bean ready to plant so that environmentally responsible coffee lovers can complete the cycle and plant their own tree.
Agency: Wälker Zurich - CCO: Pius Walker - CD: Stefanie Huber - Photographer: Robert Bartholot
(Designed in 2019)
Fiej Beer
Fiej beer is a brewery in Italy, located on an hilltop village in the Cilento National park. The brewery was built in a field where people used to buy and sell livestock – in the local dialect, this practice is called “Fiej”. The brand identity and label series was inspired by the animals that were sold at the market.
Illustrator: Yehteh
(Designed in 2014)
A seasonal campaign promoting City of Dreams, a high-end luxury resort and mall. The campaign needed to excite, rouse intrigue and lure Macau’s extravagant and style conscious visitors to City of Dreams – over the fashion retail destinations in the city. We wanted to capture the imagination and competitive side of these fashion-seekers in a way they could identify with, so that City of Dreams would become their destination of choice.
Each robot is designed in 3D, blending high tech with high fashion, integrating luxurious materials and stylish accessories to create an air of ultramodern sophistication.
The posters are included in the permanent collection of the POSTER HOUSE, the first museum in the United States dedicated exclusively to the art and the history of posters.
(Poster and digital campaign produced in 2018)
Depression amongst Hong Kong youth is on the rise – even though on social media these same people may appear ‘happy’. So, for The Samaritans 24-hour suicide hotline we created outdoor posters to let people know there was someone there to listen. Each illustration was crafted out of embroidery using 1.2 million threads. On one side, the posters featured a typical selfie. The other side showed the same image in reverse, with loose threads unravelling off it, representing the real ‘hidden’ depressed side of our subjects – plus the number to call for help. (Produced in 2018)
The first ever global brand platform for Sprite – 'Heat Happens' is an acknowledgement that physical, emotional and mental heat is inevitable in our daily lives. Although there’s nothing you can do to avoid ‘heat’, what you can do is not lose your cool. We brought this to life as humorous films and bite-sized social content showcasing different ‘heated’ situations and dramatizing how they can escalate quickly – Sprite helping everyone stay cool.
We developed a disruptive media plan that used targeted ‘heatmapping’ to identify triggers, landing our key message at the most heated moments. Surge prices on Uber, annoying pre-rolls, and heated Twitter feuds all became stages for our brand, and intervention points where we incentivised people to stay cool with Sprite.
CREDITS
OpenX from WPP
Reed Collins – CCO (Ogilvy APAC), Matt Nisbet – ECD (Ogilvy HK), Ariel Chiesa – ECD (Santo Buenos Aires), Richard Sorensen – CD (Ogilvy HK), Michele Salati – CD (Ogilvy HK), Ollie Davis – ACD (Ogilvy HK), Soenar Santoso – ACD (Ogilvy HK) , Stratos Efstathiou – ACD (Ogilvy HK), Adrienne Andaya – SAD (Ogilvy HK), Alexandra Colgan – SCW (Ogilvy HK), Tim MacLehose – Global Client Lead (WPP), Ngoni Gudo – Program Director (WPP) Javier Campopiano – CCO (Grey Global), Arvind Srivastava – CSO (Ogilvy APAC), Eric Lai – Head of TV (Ogilvy SH), Jessie Lai – Producer (Ogilvy SH), Katherine Zhang – Senior account director (Ogilvy SH), Lily Li – Project Director (Ogilvy SH), Lili Guo – Senior Project Manager (Ogilvy SH), Antony Hung – GAD (Ogilvy HK)
Production Company: Sweetshop, Director: Damien Shatford, Executive Chairman: Paul Prince, Global Director of Production: Fiona King, Managing Director / Executive Producer: Laura Geagea, Producer: Katie Kempe, Director of Photography: James Brown, Production Manager: Monique Maree Tourelle, Casting Producer: Guy Campbell, Director Assistant: Scott James White, Production Designer: Michael Iacano, Offline Editor: Luke Haigh, Editor Assistant: Hayden James Weal, Bidding Producer / Post Producer: Stu Giles, Post Producer: Thiti Wongtikul (Fai), Office Manager: Montakarn Kawkome (Ann), Accounting Manager: Nuanlaor Rattanawattanathorn (Kimmy), Post Production: Heckler, Singapore, Managing Director: Richard Mayo-Smith, Executive Producer: Vanessa Thomas, VFX Supervisor: Cody Amos, Fernando Canevaro, Colourist: Billy Wychgel, Online Artist: Fernando Canevaro, Patrick Firmansyah, Sebastien Gombeaud-Saintonge, Keith Seah, Kitson Ong, Abi Santos, Brad Wood, Azreena Ahmad, Music Production, Sound Design & Audio Post: MassiveMusic
For Heydude - Crocs I have created a series of visuals and social videos for their seasonal product campaigns. Heydude shoes are flexible, breathable, comfortable, made with water-resistant material and environmentally friendly. (Campaigns produced in 2021-2022)
Photographer: Robert Bartholot ~ 3D: Edu Torres
I am one of the founders of the OrangeVest Movement.
We were born from the idea of transforming the life jacket from a piece of equipment into a symbol of humanity and of fighting indifference, against the absurd campaign of criminalization of those who save lives in the Central Mediterranean.
Follow us on Facebook and show us your support through our AR filter OrangeVest
Honda Spare Parts - Monsters
Print and calendar campaign for Honda spare parts. If one does not use original Honda parts for their motorbike, it is likely to become something other than a real motorbike. Possibly it becomes a kind of a monster. (Campaign produced in 2007)
Honda Spare Parts - Costumes
Calendar and Print campaign for Honda spare parts. When you do not use original parts for your motorbike it becomes something else but not a motorbike. It is like dressing up the bike in a fancy way.(Campaign produced in 2006)
Honda Spare Parts - Machines
Ambient, calendar and print campaign for Honda spare parts. If you don't use original spare parts, the original specifications of the motorbike change and it will never be the same again. The idea was also brought to life by physically placing cut-outs of parts not belonging on motorbikes on real bikes in major cities all around Spain. (Campaign produced in 2005)
TV, print and poster campaign for the Nike Spanish National team, Euro 2008.
The Spanish team had experienced a tough couple of years and received extensive criticism from both fans and the press. Building on the already existing international headline "take the game to the next level", this campaign demonstrates the teams commitment to succeed by featuring each football player personally vowing to address a specific criticism or expectation. (Campaign produced in 2008)
Every year 100 Million girls are missing. They're neglected, aborted, murdered. Simply because they are girls. To aid Unicef in raising awareness of this injustice I developed an idea in order to demonstrate the gravity of this issue and ultimately raise funds. According to Googletrends the names of female celebrities register as one of the highest Google searches. So we developed a set of unique Google ads, running on the day of human rights, which popped up whenever a specific popular female celebrity name was searched for. As an example, the copy on a banner read: "Your search - Beyonce - generated no search results. If she were born somewhere else, she may no longer exist. In some countries girls are murdered just because they're girls. Help Unicef fight this injustice.” The ads led directly to a microsite where the user could donate to specific Unicef projects that target abuse against girls. More than 5.200.000 people visited the webpage. The visitors were converted to donators at a rate of 5%, which means that 260.000 new donators started supporting Unicef. (Produced in 2014)
TV spot and print campaign for the new Seat TDI engine with selective pump injector technology. The concept shows how fuel is exploited in a new way thanks to the new technology. (Campaign produced in 2005)
An integrated global campaign for the Huawei Next-Image Awards 2018. The idea behind 'Never Stop Framing' was to inspire the audience by allowing them to see through the eyes of the world's greatest photographers. Photographers from different cities around the world took part in the project, using our specially designed red tape to frame objects and scenarios, turning their cities into open-air exhibitions. The stunt was accompanied with film and print executions.
Director: Roger Guardia Photographers: Pierfrancesco Celada, Dani Pujalte
TV campaign for the launch of the new Honda CR-V.
Distances are measured in km. So what happens if you count landscapes instead of kilometers? This is how the "Landscape odometer" was born. (Campaign produced in 2008)
Print campaign and calendar for the Spanish beer company Estrella Damm. The concept was based on the notion that when one drinks refreshing Estrella Damm, thery are immediately immersed into a Mediterranean world, and associated holiday mood. (Campaign produced in 2008)
Illustrator: Alex Trochut
The souvenir is one of the central topics of my artistic work. My last piece focuses on the city of Barcelona, whose image has changed a lot in recent years. I chose the Pakistani beer seller, a regular sight in the city, to be the emblematic figure of Barcelona. A statue of the Pakistani was created - a real size sculpture on the streets of Barcelona – as well as accompanying souvenirs – smaller versions of the statue. My aim with this piece was to open a dialogue about the life and integration of certain groups of immigrants in Barcelona and to encourage reflection on the evolution of cities and their image. Exhibited at: Base Elements Gallery, Barcelona, 2011 and Venice Biennale, 2011 (Intervention)
Zurich University of the Arts
This is a film I made for Zurich University of the Arts, in collaboration with artist Ferran Capo. We all leaped over confines and made our worlds collide, to remind ourselves that the whole is always bigger than the sum of its parts. (Online film produced in 2017)
Selected Film - Lürzer´s Archive, Vol. 1-2018 . Featured as "Ad of the Day" on Boooooom TV, Canada’s highest traffic art blog and #3 on Top 100 Art Blogs Every Artist Must Read.
Connecting Space Hong Kong
I collaborated as a creative director with Connecting Spaces Hong Kong - Zurich (www.connectingspaces.ch), a platform for artistic collaboration initiated by the Zurich University of the Arts. I took care of the corporate image, mainly for the communication of their art exhibitions. The core aim was to keep consistency across all the communication pieces. I decided to use part of the logotype, as a main visual element, which each time is newly interpreted by a different designer in a creative and different way.
Exorcism. Curating each other.
Connecting Space Hong Kong wanted a campaign to promote a series of lectures on the shifting roles of artists and curators called “Exorcise it. Curating each other”. In order to grab the attention of our target (collectors/artists) and entice them to join the talks/lectures, we created a collection of exorcism tools that had an artistic twist. The campaign included online videos/gifs on social, prints ads in art magazines and a microsite where we invited artists to create their own exorcism tools.
Boötes
Boötes is a Hong Kong based charitable organization for the advancement, development, cultivation and promotion of cultural activities. I was asked to develop their corporate identity and brand language. The main idea is to understand this cultural cooperative as a constellation, that aggregates a diverse array of actors to one another, institutions to individual artists, the teams works to another, in order to develop different projects.
‘HelpMeToRelax’ sells relaxation in the form of beautifully crafted audio clips. Conveniently downloadable through iTunes, the programs are tailored to familiar everyday situations and help listeners to find inner peace wherever they are.
I developed a brand design and advertising concept for this new meditation experience which branches away from traditional guru misconceptions. Simple illustrations and colourful character design add a layer of humour and a dose of healthy irony to the brand communication, which has always been a British recipe for relaxation. (Produced in 2013)
Illustrator: Yehteh
