Responses by Charlie Tolmos, chief creative officer, Circus Grey.
Background: Nikon has an important commitment to all the photographers in the world, who, with their talent and art, let us enjoy the most beautiful, amazing images, which is why it was so important for us to take the initiative and support what has always given Nikon a purpose as a brand: photography. Our audience is photographers, the people who love photography and all image creators.
Design thinking: Our thinking was simple: all the most incredible and surreal things you can imagine can also be found in nature. So, we wanted to tell people not to give up on the real world.
The idea was to use the typical prompts used in artificial intelligence to create surreal images but resulting in amazing images of the real world captured by incredible photographers with Nikon cameras. When you see the entire campaign, you see a beautiful photography exhibition with a very original, fresh idea that captures the audience’s attention and makes them think and reflect. I think the timing also makes it very relevant.
Challenges: As always, when an interesting idea appears, the most challenging part of the project was the craft. The images, the copy, the layout and everything else had to be simple, beautiful and impressive. We needed our audience to feel emotion within the two seconds they would be in front of our visuals, and achieving that is always challenging.
Favorite details: The impact that the idea has had. Many photographers from all over the world liked the campaign. Many people shared it because they feel it has a relevant message. We have received many very positive messages from photographers from different countries congratulating Nikon for standing up and supporting them, and we love that.
New lessons: We learned a lot about artificial intelligence and about the importance of keeping in mind that although all the amazing technological tools will continue to evolve rapidly, human talent, judgement and creativity will continue to be the most important thing.
Visual influences: We reviewed so much stunning photographers that inspired us greatly. The talent of photographers around the world is limitless. Nature photography is beautiful and mindblowing.
Time constraints: In this case, reacting at the right moment was key. So, the time constraints ended up being a positive thing for us; what we wanted most was to run as fast as possible.
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