In Snickers’ "President," out of BBDO New York, a series of wild coincidences that start with the eating of the candy bar lead a regular guy to become president of the United States. In "Pony," for Ikea via Crispin Porter+Bogusky (CP+B), Miami, a living room undergoes decorating changes before our eyes, as different price figures are cited (at the most expensive price, you can even include a pony). And Renault’s "Couple," out of Publicis Paris, finds a city street populated with people who have flower buds as heads; a man with a opened flower head scoops up a bud-headed woman and takes her into his Renault, causing her bud to open up into a flower too.
Bizarre and amusing, the three spot are the product of one mind—StyleWar, a Swedish directing collective represented stateside via bicoastal Smuggler, and in Europe by their own eponymous company, located in Stockholm. The group has also helmed high-profile ads for Blue Cross, MasterCard and Dunkin’ Donuts, but it was their music video for Moby’s "In This World" that led to their inclusion in the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase at the 2003 Cannes International Advertising Festival. StyleWar’s rise—the group was featured in the fall ’03 SHOOT directors issue as up-and-coming helmers—has been as speedy as its client list is eclectic.
That comes as no surprise to Filip Engström, a member of the group, which formed four years ago after a number of its current collaborators worked together on a television title sequence. "Certainly it’s a shock when your life changes and things go from shooting in a basement for the Swedish market to shooting huge international spots for a lot of money," says Engström. "But if I was a creative in an agency, I would probably hire us. Certain creatives have a similar mind to your own that try to do things in a slightly different way that catches attention."
Dirty Dozen
The Stockholm-based StyleWar boasts 11 members—all with expertise in a range of areas, including graphics, 3-D and 2-D animation, and other post and effects work. The members are: Engström, Jakob Dahlström, Gustav Dejert, Kristin Dejert, Kalle Haglund, Oskar Holmedal, Petra Jendermyr, Nico Knudsen, Yulian Sanchez, Henry Moore Selder and Martin Sjöström. The name StyleWar is derived from Style Wars, an ’83 documentary about the graffiti artists Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant.
Holmedal notes that with a background in graphic design and a diverse set of skills and talents, the team has an advantage. "You do it together," he explains of the StyleWar approach. "Everyone can be involved on a project at some point. The [person handling the] 3-D technical part can be as important as the guy directing the actors. We felt it was odd to break it down [to live action director or animator]. That is why we chose to [direct] under one name—we are fighting against that [categorization].
"The whole idea is that it is important to do things together," he continues, "to share parts of directing something means that more than one person thinks about it. On Ikea, we needed someone technical, and also someone looking at the faces of actors to make sure they were getting it right. So we have two directors there. We do things very much together; we are all a big bunch of creatives."
"There is a broad range of styles, but what ties it all together is everyone has a huge interest in doing something different," adds Engström. "To have something different is what’s driving a lot of us."
StyleWar’s video and spotwork often employs an effortless blending of motion graphics and live action, a style that can be traced to the group’s background in graphic design. Four members of StyleWar studied graphic design at Forsbergs, Stockholm, during the mid- to late-’90s, and the rest brought backgrounds in 3-D and 2-D animation, computer programming and other similar fields.
"It all came naturally," recalls Engström, who has a background in film editing. "When we started to do some title sequences, both animation and film were involved. Then the music videos we started to do took us to commercialwork because people wanted just as cool-looking commercials."
StyleWar is drawn to spots that are technically challenging and allow for creative freedom. "Pony," for instance, had a brief that simply said: "The room changes." It was up to StyleWar to make that happen. "[The agency] left us a lot of space to deliver technique and style," says Engström. "We could do that on our own. If we are left to play around with their ideas, that is fantastic."
The "Snickers" spots—"President" was part of a three-spot package—were highly technical, and had a quick turnaround; the ads needed to be shot in just eight days, after a month of pre-production.
The group divvies up the spotwork based on expertise, availability and interest. "We can see from the beginning what kind of project it is and who would be suitable," Engström notes. "Maybe we do a collaboration and put styles together. Most of the time we can choose from scripts that come in. It’s not that you have eleven hungry wolves at the mailbox."
In the end, says Engström, "what’s most important is not that all of us come from different backgrounds, but that everyone is extremely interested and has a lot of energy to try to get different things to happen. That’s way more important than their background. You need to be very interested, like a kid, and see stuff from different angles, and not have a narrow mind."Z
