Coca Cola Magnificent 5 - MK12 North America

According to Matt Fraction, one of MK12's founders, the assignment was "too good to be true."

"Coke was a sponsor, really: they made it all happen and left everyone alone to do the work. No product placement, no credit, etc. They didn't want a Coke commercial. They wanted to commission a piece of work from us," he wrote on his blog.

MK12 was allowed to show the work in public this summer, but was asked not to reveal Coke's involvement. "They're looking, I think, into becoming patrons of work like this, the way they once did for Warhol & co. And so that's M5 and that's why we did it," Fraction wrote.

Bottle: (Not Named)

“Birds and flowers swirl in, out, and around a modern color scheme punctuated by unexpected bursts of red. The bottle is instantly recognizable but profoundly re-imagined.”

Coca Cola Magnificent 5 LoBo South America

Synopsis

In 2005 the Coca-Cola company launched a project called Magnificent 5, 

or M5 for short, inviting five design studios from five continents to create “visions of optimism”. 

Each of the studios, Caviar (Japan), The Designers Republic (U.K.), MK12 (U.S.A.), 

Rex & Tennant McKay (South Africa), and Lobo (that’s us) was commissioned to create

 an exclusive aluminum Coke bottle design and a short film set to a song by a rising group. 

We were assigned the song “You Gotta Hold On” by The Flaming Lips, and set about

 to conceive a script inspired by it. Not an easy task, since Coke granted us complete freedom

 to create everything, from story to visual direction – one of the most daunting and 

yet enticing aspects of the project.

We wanted to tell a tale of optimism that didn’t look away from the gritty side of reality; 

one that showed how hope can emerge even out of dire situations. 

Eventually we arrived at a plot in which creatures made of discarded bits and pieces get together 

and, through mutual help and joint action, manage to improve their conditions and fill their bleak surroundings with color.

It was only natural that we chose the stop-motion animation technique to bring this tale to life. 

We went out and rummaged through junkyards and swap meets, searching for old toys, 

electrical appliances and everything else containing interesting parts. 

Back in the studio, we started playing around and combining those finds in order to 

create the characters for our film, ending up with over a dozen different creatures.

 From then on it was the stop-motion animation team’s job to assemble articulated models

 from the character designs, sometimes using those same found parts, 

in other cases casting more practical substitutes using lighter materials.

The stop-motion footage was shot in a chroma-key set, and the takes were then composed in 

After Effects over a digital scenario, made of textures and patterns taken from actual 

photographs of the streets of our hometown São Paulo.

Credits

• Creative Director: Mateus de Paula Santos
• Head of Production: Loic Francois Marie Dubois
• Producer: João Tenório
• Design/Animation: Carlos Bêla, Raquel Falkenbach, Diogo Kalil, Roger Marmo
• Screenplay: Michael Arms, Guilherme Marcondes, João Tenório
• Storyboard: Cadu Macedo
• Editing: João Tenório, Carlos Bêla
• Flame Post Production: Daniel Mattos
• Sound Effects: Paulo Beto
• Lead Stop Motion Animator: Michael Arms
• Animation Assistant: Marcelo A M Pereira
• Puppet Construction: Gustavo de Magalhães
• Technician: Iara Furuse Abigalil
• Set Production: Ana Paula Garroux
• Set Cinematographer: Paulo De Tarso

Coca Cola Magnificent 5 - Caviar Towa Tei Asia

This was the promo video directed by Caviar for the Coke M5 series. 
Music: "Milky Way" by Towa Tei.

The Conception of the bottle design
Coke requested that the bottle design should have some connection with the M5 short film.
Therefore we took design motifs from the story of our film Milky Way, the special 
elements, and then reworked them for the final bottle design.

Milky Way
The title of our film is Milky Way. We had total creative freedom apart from the overall theme
for the short film, which was " to make a better world". The characters of our short film
each have a letter from the English alphabet on their heads. Like a crossword puzzle,
the characters change their positions within the story, in formations that start to make 
words or messages. At the end, the group joins together and a visual image of the celestial swan
is formed. We think that the same thing is seen in our everyday relationships. A person
meet a new person, and starts communicating. Then a network spreads out, and the new 
relationship makes something creatively new.

The idea came to me when i visited the Grand Canyon in the USA around four years ago,
At sunset, people of various races  were taking photos, one after another. This was a
moving sight and made me feel peaceful. When i developed the story for our short film,
that feeling of peace inspired me a lot.

Cool & Fresh
I could meet with the other M5 members in Paris and Atlanta. All the other creators
were gentle and friendly. and love drinking. Like me, everyone loved design. I could
feel that we were able to communicate with visual expression, going beyond borders
and the difference of languages. It has been really encouraging to me as it emphasizes
the purpose of creating visual.