Hij studeerde af in scheikunde, maar wist een succesvolle carrière na te streven als brandadviseur van G-STAR RAW. Shubhankar Ray weet alle ins-and-outs. Hij wordt door GQ Magazine geïnterviewd. Hieronder lees je een deel van dit vraaggesprek:
A science graduate and one-time British club kid, Shubhankar Ray has forged a successful career by injecting cool into a wide variety of brands.
I did chemistry at university and at night I worked for New Order at their Manchester club, The Haçienda. It was the mid-80s and I was 18.
Manchester was producing the world’s pop music – The Smiths, Buzzcocks… It was a vibrant time in the city but a serious recession was happening, too; industry had closed down and it was grim, everybody was unemployed.
But all this established the right conditions for creativity because you’re completely fucked and it’s raining all the time, so you’re staying inside writing songs or whatever.
On graduating, I went out to save the world.
I’d specialised in environmental chemistry and thought I’d work for a company like Greenpeace. But the research institute I ended up at was bankrolled by Nestlé.
I found myself interested in branding and advertising, after being seconded into Nestlé’s marketing department. While there, I fell into a job at Levi’s – who were looking for young people to work on image and product design throughout Europe.
This gave me a grounding in how to make youth-culture brands [relevant] because the only two doing so were Levi’s and Nike. I was the most junior in the team, but I had an understanding of music – The Haçienda had a huge impact on me, it was a mecca for alternative counter-culture, and it inspired work on Levi’s TV commercials.
I was then approached by [machinery company] Caterpillar – to reinvent their image. They had expanded their multibillion dollar company into clothing and boots and didn’t know what they were doing. I went counter-intuitive to the Levi’s approach, shooting in the streets, roadtripping around in a Winnebago and doing ad layouts on hotel-room walls. It ended up being an award-winning campaign.
I didn’t have children at that point – 1996 to 2000 – so life was more wild.
And that helped me take risks. My view was that without a lot of money, you had to be clever and win against the big guys – outsmart them if you couldn’t outspend them.
If a client wants me to remake a brand, I need insight, then I have to go through an immersion. In G-Star’s case, the owner had a successful business with a $400m turnover in Northern Europe, but wanted to reframe the brand to expand globally.
My first move was to bring in [Dutch photographer and director] Anton Corbijn. He had a particular style so it was easily recognisable, and his black and white, grainy, blown-out film matched well with the idea of G-Star ‘Raw’.
Engaging people like Liv Tyler and Dennis Hopper was strategic.
Liv did it because Anton was shooting, and she made us look bigger than we were. Dennis Hopper helped us cut through at New York Fashion Week [in 2008], when we asked him to read some poetry in this amazing denim outfit.
Denim brands were meant to be young, cool and cutting edge, not represented by a 71-year-old. But it was successful as it created impact as well as lots of energy.
Making a brand is like chemistry. It’s about pouring in energy, and that in itself allows you to achieve momentum. You know there may be a natural reaction by mixing two things in the test tube. And a catalyst will make that reaction go faster. Then, there’ll be output – things will happen.
I try to have a slow life, not a fast life – what, on paper, perhaps looks boring or safe.
For me, it means being with the same woman for 20 years. I try not to stay too long or get wasted at parties because, at my age, I like my sleep. And I have balancing mechanisms like yoga, back exercises, breathing and meditation.
Via GQ.com