Italian Brand Blackfin has been around for quite some time, upping their game in the Eyewear landscape as years go by. Mainly focused on making high quality Titanium frames look great on everybody’s faces, the brand is also keen on combining their material of choice with the emotional spectrum their country of origin has to offer. In order to do so, the team doesn’t hesitate to go that extra mile, and that’s especially true when it comes to the imagery and moods that accompany their collections. Hitting another milestone in terms of incredible aesthetics is the TIMELESS MEMORIES CAMPAIGN shot in a very special location… Senior Marketing Manager at Blackfin, Simone Favero took some time out to tell us more.
1. Hello Simone – what is your position at Blackfin and how long have you been working for the company?
I’ve been at Blackfin since June 2018 and I’m the Senior Marketing Manager.
2. You saw the campaigns and eyewear models evolve over time, each of them being unique. But the Timeless Memories Campaign really is something else, tell us why!
Yes, it really is something! If not different then unlike anything else. The aim was to link the campaign to the brand’s two other pillars: titanium and neomadeinitaly. The connection we decided on creating was based on values, even before aesthetics and mood communication came into play. The goal was to do something to link trade marketing and corporate communication, whilst being something steeped in strong values, also connected to Corporate Social Responsibility.
3. How did the idea to shoot at „Grande Cretto“ in Sicily come about?
We were on our way back from the shooting we’d just done on the white beaches of Porto Pino, Sicily in Autumn 2018 and had a stop-over in Rome. Whilst we were waiting to board, I said wouldn’t it be great to go to the “Great Cretto” in Gibellina? For a brand that creates objects of design, I thought that the Cretto could be a really strong narrative. Not just for what its material form represents, but more for what it represents on an artistic, value-related and emotional level.
4. Why is this place located in the Province of Trapani so special to the people of Sicily?
The Cretto is the largest piece of Land Art in the world whilst at the same time the most unknown. Alberto Burri wanted to cement the ruins of the city of Gibellina, which was completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1969. Given the chance to create something in a new city, he preferred turning those ruins into a work of art with a deep meaning: a white veil punctuated with deep slanted slashes that appears almost violent in the context of the landscape it inhabits. It’s a work that envelops memory even physically – children’s toys, furniture from old houses. It’s a treasure chest of memories from a past that is impossible to open, that you need to walk across, preferably barefoot, to fully understand its meaning.
5. What makes it the perfect location for this collection shoot?
It’s the perfect place as we are increasingly aware that a future cannot exist if we don’t anchor our roots to our past and link them to our daily actions. The value of a place metaphorically connected to a concept of value which is, in short, ethical and sincere, in every action. And no one could give a photographic vision of our idea better than Giovanni De Sandre: Giovanni is a real professional, there are few like him, and he has also known Blackfin for ten years. He knew how to translate our feeling in a natural way.
6. Explain the term Neomadeinitaly and why it is so important for Blackfin.
Neomadeinitaly represents one of our company’s three pillars. It’s a term that encompasses many concepts, but I can also use it to mean respect. Respect for one’s land, which above all is the place of your origins (or roots) and then respect for your Country, Italy. Respect for the people you are surrounded by, those who work with you and those who buy your glasses, respect for the product you produce and how you produce it. We want to be completely transparent and share our values, which are authentic, with whomever wishes to do so. And this honesty, I believe, transpires in all our actions. And this, in a word, is neomadeinitaly.
7. What were the challenges you had to overcome for this shooting?
The change in the seasonal lookbook from A5 to A4. By doubling the size, the lookbook has almost become a magazine. The photos had to have a bigger perspective. So Nicola De Pellegrini decided on a different layout compared to the past, with images that are divided in an apparently random way to form a clear whole picture. A game of aerial shots from a drone and macro or close-ups of the frames, an important play on the design of our products and the location’s material nature. His idea for the nocturnal shots was perhaps the most difficult to do.
8. Do you consider the frames of the Titanium collection to be as timeless as this location? Why?
That’s not easy to answer. I believe a design that has been ascribed to certain types of product over time could be considered timeless, even outside of the eyewear sector. The challenge is to continue evolving our design, as we are doing, creating each of our frames starting with sheets of extra-pure Japanese titanium. We do everything here in our building, every phase of production is carried out by men and women we drink coffee with every day. If we are capable of turning our daily work, which tends to result in excellence in every detail, into timelessness and pass this tradition on to new colleagues, then our collections will be timeless too. These foundations of strong values, timeless in certain respects, will allow us to continue on the path that will be at the forefront of design and robust in substance. We will never give up titanium, it’s our soul.
9. How is Blackfin going to top this mood and aesthetics in the campaigns to come?! Any insights of what is to come?
Our next move comes quite naturally. An intuition that takes its starting point from the same project that we have just finished and contemplation of where we are in our company’s journey. Not seeing the horizon as a limit and seeing every arrival as a new start is part of our very essence. We even recall this in the pay-off looking beyond, always.
We’ve already got a few ideas, nothing definite for the moment. For sure the biggest challenge won’t be outdoing our expectations, neither aesthetical nor conceptual, but keeping that strong level of involvement with our partners who with this campaign got to understand the profound value that guides the company Blackfin.
Thank you so much Simone! Looking forward to seeing more in the near future!
Find out more: https://www.blackfin.eu/
Brand Profile at FAVR.