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blind photographer features in Nokia N8 campaign

The Nokia N8 features the best smartphone camera you can buy. In order to demonstrate this, we created a campaign featuring a blind photographer.

 
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The Nokia N8 features the best smartphone camera you can buy. In order to demonstrate this, we created a campaign featuring a blind photographer.

Following the ‘It's not the technology, it's what you do with it’ campaign last year we needed to continue to support the Nokia N8 smartphone. The N8 has recently won a load of awards around its imaging capabilities so we produced a campaign to demonstrate its brilliant camera quality. Great brief from Nokia UK but for the TV we only had two and a half weeks to turn it around from briefing to going on air on Monday night.
 
Through TV and print we wanted to show that everyone can take a great shot on the N8. This might be an incredible wide landscape shot, a low-light portrait or simply spontaneous snapshots made possible by having the phone in your pocket at all times.
 
The TV ad features Gary Waite, a photographer from Croydon. Gary’s not only a great photographer, he’s also blind. He learned his photographic techniques on a course with PhotoVoice, a London-based charity who use photography to build skills within disadvantaged and marginalized communities.
 
We joined Gary on a trip to Blackpool and showcased a handful of his shots in this 30” film. Guided by sounds alone, the images Gary creates show his interpretation of his world.

The music is "Deep Blue Day" by Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois & Roger Eno from the album Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks.

A range of photographs (taken by Gary, photography students and members of the agency team) also appear in a nationwide poster campaign which feature shots taken on the N8. Actual shots taken on the phone have been blown up and used on huge poster sites. You can see a few examples below.
Nokia westfield Nokia merry go round

N8 rollercoaster

Nokia roller2
Nokia wave
 

Wieden + Kennedy makes Fast Company’s ’50 most innovative companies’ list 2011

Every year Fast Company magazine publishes a list of what they believe to be the most innovative companies in the world. This year W+K is on the list, in with a bullet at number 25.

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Every year Fast Company magazine publishes a list of what they believe to be the most innovative companies in the world. This year W+K is on the list at number 25.

They say:

The 50 companies on our 2011 list have chosen a unique path. Today's business landscape is littered with heritage companies whose CEOs battle their industry's broken model with inertia, layoffs, lawsuits — anything that squeezes pennies and delays the inevitable. How many of these companies will be dominant in 2025? Few.

That world will be ruled by the kinds of companies on this list. They're nondogmatic, willing to scrap conventional ideas. (A mere 30-second TV ad? Let's do 200 online videos in two days, say the creatives at Wieden+Kennedy.)

It's a real honour to be included to be on this list, which mentions no other ad agencies and includes the likes of Apple, Google, Nike, ESPN and Amazon.

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