The ADC Annual Award is awarded by the Art Director Club of New York. Founded in 1920, the club is the world’s premier cross-media design society and the world’s first art direction association, with the purpose of changing the world by collecting, sparkling, and enhancing creativity. The ADC Annual Award is the oldest and one of the world's top art design awards, insisting on establishing the highest standard of craftsmanship, design, and innovation in the field of commercial creativity.
The 97th ADC Annual Award themed as "Where Craft Will Take Us", where a total of 514 works from 34 countries were shortlisted. “Mixc World with Art project” planned by KAI is the only commercial space branding project that has won this award.
The art project “Mixc World with Art” planned by KAI is a creation platform for Mixc World to meet artists. The project is planning to invite artists from diversified fields of the world every year to create and share through commercial space, hoping to make art as a part of the consumer’s daily life. As the invited artist of 2017, Victo Ngai takes the Elephant·Hug - the art landmark of Mixc World as the theme, creating for the opening of Mixc World, the Christmas, and the Spring Festival. Three wonderlands are thereby derived in the commercial space.
After the awards were announced, KAI inspired Mixc World to invite Victo and young art lovers to share the award-winning feelings and their creating experience online. Now, it’s time to review the award-winning works and their creating journey together, and re-experience the fun and joy given by art.
Victo Ngai's first work was created for the opening of Shenzhen Mixc World, telling the story of "Mixc World" happening between a person and a space.
Victo recalled: "The name ‘Mixc World’(万象天地/WanXiangTianDi) could produce a rich visual sense. ‘WanXiang’(万象) has all-encompassing and full of variety meaning, and it can also be taken literally that WAN/万 (ten thousand) means ‘almighty’, and XIANG/象 means the ‘elephant’. The elephant is the animal of luck and wisdom in many cultures, so the starting point of this creation is a God who goes up to the sky and down to the earth, and takes over the universe - the Almighty Elephant. "
The group buildings in the entire opening painting are created from the actual architectural group of Mixc World merged with fantasy elements. In the cheerful vibe of the amusement park, people can experience the spirit and creativity of the entire Mixc World from the painting, everyone could play like a kid with full curiosity regardless of gender and age.
Victo Ngai created the “Mixc World Christmas Workshop” as the Christmas work for Mixc World, promoting the unique intimate relationship between individual and space inspired by the core theme of “Giving” at Christmas.
In the painting, the Almighty Elephant took the little girl to visit around, and explored the behind-the-scenes of Christmas production, showing the process of gift making and the love when selecting gifts. The tailor-made items are the most amazing gifts, while the little girl's wonderful Christmas trip is the gift prepared by the Almighty Elephant for her, as its exclusive amusement park.
"The cold air is indispensable to the fantastic atmosphere of Christmas, and the blue represents innocence and purity, just like the world after the heavy snowfall overnight. In this festival, the elk pulls a sleigh full of gifts across the night sky, and the round Santa Claus squeezes into the chimney of every house to give gifts, all just like a chapter in a fairy tale. " Victo Ngai took blue as the keynote, cleverly used the concept of box-in-box, to bring out the magical feeling of Christmas’s infinite possibilities.
“Celebrate the Spring Festival and share good luck” is the main idea for creating this illustration of the Chinese Spring Festival, suggesting that people are gathering here and welcoming the blessings brought by the Almighty Elephant excitedly.
"Slight deep wine-red with a little blue, is reminiscent of the cool chill in the air during the Spring Festival, resonating with the previous Christmas works, when the dark wine-red could bring out the fireworks, jewelry and stars more clearly compared to traditional new year’s red, getting the icons of luck brighter and lighter.”
Fireworks, jewelry, and stars shot from the Almighty Elephant’s nose represent Luck, Wealth, and Knowledge. Meanwhile, Victo Ngai even infused elements about the Spring Festival in her works. 2018 is the year of the Dog, so 18 lovely doggies show up in this work, where even Victo's little mixed-breed and her friend’s Doberman also come to congratulate.
To further narrow the distance between art and life, KAI has expanded the presentation channels of artworks, allowing the three colorful worlds hidden to come into the public's vision and daily life more often than ever.
About More
“Mixc World with Art” Season 1 achieved great success at the ADC annual awards. KAI will encourage Mixc World to collaborate with more artists, and will continue the idea of making art a part of daily life. The collaborated artists of Mixc World with Art Season 2 in 2018 will be announced soon.
Stay tuned for more surprises!
