There are plenty of dream projects floating around in our heads, but our favorites are the ones that actually come true. And our client ARCA made it happen.
ARCA is a global operation specializing in automated cash processing. Think cash machines in self-checkout lines or automated cash dispensers for tellers at banks. (Now think cash dispensers at nearly every bank in the world.) You get the idea.
ARCA recently acquired an Italian group of companies founded by former Olivetti employees. Yeah - THE Olivetti. You've probably come across some of their commissioned posters from the 60's and 70's at some point in your life. Throughout its history, Olivetti commissioned 100's of writers, designers, architects and artists: from BBPR, Louis Kahn and Le Corbusier, to Gae Aulenti, Walter Ballmer, and Milton Glaser. To honor Olivetti and make them feel welcomed, the good people at ARCA decided to commission art posters celebrating ARCA in the same fashion. We had the honor of being the ones commissioned.
The challenge: capture something about ARCA (could be their business model, their mission statement, their groundbreaking technology, ANYTHING) in the form of an art poster that would be distributed and hung in their various offices around the world. Stylistically we could pay tribute to the Olivetti aesthetic from 40 years ago, or we could break new ground - it was up to us.
After hundreds of sketches and hours of ideation, we presented 8 different poster concepts that we felt struck a stylistic balance between ARCA's contemporary aesthetics and Olivetti's vintage posters.
Since then we've continued to partner with ARCA on additional projects including an immense one-hundred page guide to their flagship cash automation product.