Award-winning design and its makers: “The 2 Euro T-Shirt – A Social Experiment”
Once a year, the jury of the Red Dot Award: Communication Design honours projects of high design quality. Among the works which received a Red Dot: Best of the Best, the jury awards the Red Dot: Grand Prix. In 2016, the top individual award was granted to the project “The 2 Euro T-Shirt - A Social Experiment” designed by BBDO Berlin for Fashion Revolution.
Awakening pictures at Berlin Alexanderplatz
Thinking about the bad conditions of textile production while buying clothes: With this aim Michael Schachtner an his team from the agency BBDO Berlin built a turquoise-coloured T-shirt vending machine at Berlin Alexanderplatz in Germany. The teaser was a T-shirt for only two euros. On inserting the coin into the machine, the potentional constumers did not get a t-shirt but a 20 second video with nightmarish images showing the conditions under which textiles are often produced. Afterward the viewers could chose between “buy“ or “donate“. About 90 per cent of all people who had wanted to buy a T-shirt cheaply at the vending machine ended up deciding against the purchase. The results of the experiment were documented in a video, which sparked a big discussion amidst consumers and between consumers and producers.
Sustainability persuaded Red Dot jury
The jury judged: “This campaign manages to emotionally touch people, who at first only thought about grabbing a bargain, and then to make them reconsider. Particularly noteworthy is that the campaign did not stop there, but the video documentation was shared and thus contributed to the multiplication of the momentum via social media. Thus, this one-off campaign generated high awareness of a grave social concern.“ The outstanding design achievement was made by Michael Schachtner, Jessica Witt und Michail Paderin from BBDO Berlin. Red Dot talked to the award-winning makers.
Red Dot: What makes somebody a good designer?
BBDO: Besides ambition, passion and talent, a good designer has the ability to observe, take note about problems and most importantly find a solution for them.
Is there a designer you would like to meet personally?
To meet George Lois would definitely be a highlight. Great work, great view on the world, and he has some great advice.
What is your personal key to success?
Don’t take yourself too serious, surround yourself with great people from all creative fields and stay hungry.
» Further Information on the Red Dot Award: Communication Design 2017
