“#faceless
A co-creation platform for Maison Martin Margiela.”
Final Master Thesis Project
Crowdsourcing is a relatively new topic and it presents a number of potential applications, open to future developments. The number of brands (especially luxury ones) using crowdsourcing is still low, however some recent examples include fundraising, new product development, customization and customer service management.
Born from the collaborative principles of the Sharing Economy, it affects a generation of people who is willing to re-elaborate the huge amount of free materials on the Web to produce a customized content to be part of
the story of that creation.
Moreover as a reaction to the great exposure of new medias and the inevitable loss of one’s own privacy, people decide to cover their faces as a cultural critique. These two opposite trends - overexposed presumers and “faceless” users - outline one of the main issue that Luxury exclusive companies are living: the democratization of fashion vs. the preservation of their exclusivity.
#faceless, whose name come from a recent exhibition in Wien, is a co-creative platform where the brand devoted customers is asked to participate by uploading his perception of the brand DNA and values in form of images, texts, keywords, audio and video files and to associate them to already uploaded contents. At the end of the activity the brand gains a macro-moodboard made of all its online lovers contributions that will be translated into a final (real) exhibition.
Macro moodboard main idea comes from the image of the desk of a designer and from his creative process made of scissors and paper. Starting his creation, a designer needs to find inspirations in what surrounds him and express them through images. These images, scattered on the table, create a bond with the others acquiring a new aesthetic meaning according to their position in the space. Their placement is determined by the creator mental associations; not the single representation but the connection between images produce an added value to
the process.
Trying to apply this concept and to create an online tool to involve the crowd, I developed an ideal space where people can move freely, following the flow of images linked to each other not according a rigid categorization but on free associations. A platform where users can navigate in a new way, entering in the image (zoom in), but also being conscious of the collective contributions (zoom out), where the brand has its predominant role in finding the pattern connecting the images. The website and its image overlay reproduce the layering effect create by the interaction of each member of the community who want to take part to the creative conversation the brand has established.
Co-Creation Platform Upload and Macro moodboard pages screenshots.
If you are interested in the topic feel free to contact me.
I will be available to provide you more information.
