Fabrica, Benetton’s communication research centre, has launched a new website, www.fabrica.it. The website will showcase an extraordinary range of creative work developed at the research centre.
Fabrica is a creative powerhouse, constantly producing new ideas, new designs, new music and new works of art. The website uses a content management system designed and implemented by Fabrica Interactive to facilitate the uploading of new work on to the website, keeping the site up to date and ensuring it reflects the creative energy which is Fabrica.
“Fabrica supports the hidden creativity of young artists and researchers from all over the world. The website allows us to expand our imagination and use new communication tools other than conventional advertising,” said Ajai Dayal, General Manager, Retail and Marketing, Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group- sole distributor for Benetton in the UAE.
“The launch of this website will be extremely useful, allowing young minds to explore new ideas and use other communication mediums such as: design, music, cinema, photography, publishing, and the internet.”
Fabrica has developed an international reputation for innovative and high quality interaction design, since its launch in 1994. Some of Fabrica’s recent interactive projects include:
United People is an innovative interactive marketing project that connects Benetton mega stores to the internet and gives a face - and a voice - to Benetton customers from London to Bombay to Lisbon to Osaka. Customers use a Macintosh computer to record a seven second video and send it to benetton.com. The videos are also displayed on large plasma screens in Benetton stores worldwide.
10x10 ('ten by ten') is an artwork and website created by Jon Harris at Fabrica which displays the top 100 words and pictures on the hour, every hour. It is a moving, sometimes shocking, occasionally frivolous, but always fitting snapshot of our world. Every hour, 10x10 collects the 100 words and pictures that matter most on a global scale, and presents them as a single image, taken to encapsulate that moment in time. Over the course of days, months, and years, 10x10 leaves a trail of these hourly statements which, stitched together side by side, forms a continuous patchwork tapestry of human life. 10x10 runs with no human intervention, autonomously observing what a handful of leading international news sources are saying and showing (www.tenbyten.org).
Hong Kong Self Portrait - the interactive shop window - is a prototype interactive installation at the Benetton mega-store in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Using a new sensor technology developed in London, Fabrica has turned the shop window into an interface which people outside the store can touch and interact with. When the window is touched, a camera inside takes a picture - each new picture is saved and added to a growing sequence of pictures. The project has proved highly popular with over 1000 people adding their image each day.
Notes to the Editor
The Benetton Group is present in 120 countries around the world. Its core business is clothing with a strong Italian character. The Group produces over 110 million garments every year, 90 per cent of which are manufactured in Europe. The group’s retail network of 5,000 stores around the world, offering high quality customer services, generates an annual turnover of Euros 1.9 billion.
United Colors of Benetton in the UAE has been part of the Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group since 1989. The network spans three shops in Dubai: Deira City Centre, Jumeirah Centre, and Lamcy Plaza, one in Abu Dhabi in Abu Dhabi Mall, and a factory outlet on Zabeel Road in Dubai.
