ING: OUR HEROES ARE BACK [video]

Credits & Description:

Advertiser: ING
Client: Ing Nederland
Agency: JWT
Category: Financial Products & Servcies
Advertising campaign: OUR HEROES ARE BACK
The Next Rembrandt
Production Company: (Brenninkmeijer & Isaacs)
Executive Creative Director: Bas Korsten (JWT Amsterdam)
Creative: Rik Eysink Smeets (JWT Amsterdam)
Creative: Nick van Beijnen (JWT Amsterdam)
Art Director: Guney Soykan / Robert Nelk
Deputy Managing Director: Edgar Molenaars (JWT Amsterdam)
Producer: Linda Jansen (JWT Amsterdam)
Strategy: Marcel de Jonge (JWT Amsterdam)
Business Director: Natalie Verhoeff (JWT Amsterdam)
Director: Coen Stroeve (Brenninkmeijer & Isaacs)
Website URL: https://www.nextrembrandt.com/
The Campaign
347 years after his death, one of the greatest Masters of all time is brought back to life to create one more masterpiece. But this time, data is the painter and technology the brush: The Next Rembrandt.
The Next Rembrandt is a 3D printed painting made out of Rembrandt-data. All of his 346 paintings were analysed using hi-res 3D scans and digital files upscaled by a deep learning algorithm for maximum resolution.
Facial recognition and machine learning software was designed that could understand Rembrandt’s style and could use those learnings to generate new facial features, which were assembled based on his use of geometrical proportions.
Once the 2D image was complete, a height map was created to mimic the brushstrokes used by Rembrandt. The file was brought to life through an advanced 3D printer.
On the 5th April 2016, The Next Rembrandt was unveiled in Amsterdam and nextrembrandt.com went live.
Creative Execution
On nextrembrandt.com people from all over the world were invited to dive deeper into the process of creating this 3D printed painting made out of zero’s and ones.
In designing the UX for the story about ‘The Next Rembrandt’, we have placed the initial emphasis of the experience on the artwork itself (the final painting). From this point we can branch into the different steps that make the story of creating ‘The Next Rembrandt’.
By first presenting the final result of the project (the artwork) and then presenting the steps that brought us to the final result (thus deliberately reversing the story), we created a user journey that sets gaining interest and emotional engagement prior to offering deeper information behind each step. Both the experience and the absorption of detailed information are being optimised by this specific journey that includes rich visual stimulation and intuitive interactivity.
We used the main subject (the artwork) as our common thread while guiding the users through the story. Regions of interest of the artwork are being used to present the steps, one by one. Upon scrolling, the experience dynamically zooms in on sections of the artwork and adjusts the camera position accordingly to the step of concern. From these regions of interest, users can delve into selected steps of the story of creating ‘The Next Rembrandt’. The in depth information shows rich visuals and animations correlating to the active chapters, which are, again, responsive to the user’s scrolling behavior.
And so, nextrembrandt.com played a pivotal role in getting the world to know more about what made Rembrandt Rembrandt and join the conversation about ING’s innovative sponsorship defying imagination.