U.K.'s Wallpaper Magazine Makes Pictures Move on Page

LONDON (AdAge.com) -- British design magazine Wallpaper collaborated with Japanese ad giant Dentsu's London office to create an October issue that features a "moving" cover as well as animation within some of the editorial. The animation is created using a technique called ombro cinema. The reader slides a corrugated sheet of acetate -- which is provided in each issue of the magazine -- across the image to make it come to life. Wallpaper, owned by Time Inc's U.K. magazine division IPC Media, worked with Dentsu London to create this magazine-first after the agency demonstrated the technique at an innovation evening it held earlier this year to mark its relaunch in the U.K. Dentsu has used ombro cinema in Japan, transforming every ad in an issue of leading Japanese daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun into an animation. The October issue of Wallpaper also makes use of QR codes, which people can scan with their cellphone cameras to watch video portraits of Isabella Rossellini, Brad Pitt and more, accompanied by a soundtrack. The QR codes were also developed by Dentsu London. The issue was guest edited by film director David Lynch and stage director Robert Wilson, whose portraits are the subject of the ombro cinema treatment. Meirion Pritchard, art director at Wallpaper, said: "The guest editors come up with ideas and we have to find a way of executing them. With the nature of Robert's work, we felt that showing them in the magazine as stills lost some impact. Using ombro cinema reinforced the notion that they were a moving thing." Wallpaper has a tradition of incorporating advertisers into its innovative designs, most recently in an issue sponsored by Rolex that encouraged readers to design their own cover and featured a choice of nine different Rolex ads to go on the back. In this case, however, the turnaround for the issue wasn't long enough to apply the ombro cinema technique to any of the ads the way Dentsu did in Japan. Dentsu London is trying to position itself as an agency for creative innovation rather than just traditional ad campaigns. Japan's biggest agency has always struggled outside its home market. In an effort to grow in Europe, which was previously run from Dentsu's Tokyo headquarters, the agency hired Jim Kelly, one of the founders of Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/ Y&R, a year ago for the new position of director of Dentsu's European operations. The U.K. office, known for years by the name CDP, a U.K. agency Dentsu acquired many years ago, was rebranded Dentsu London.

U.K.'s Wallpaper Magazine Makes Pictures Move on Page

Featured Stories