Will you rise to fight this ‘wrong’? This VM story poses a relevant question

Ocean pollution is a grave concern today, and one of the many reflections of how mankind is causing damage to Nature. Brand Wrogn came up with this innovative VM story-telling to drive home the issue of ocean pollution and how it impacts marine life. It was displayed as part of the tradeshow held from January 17th - 3rd February at the brand’s Bangalore office to showcase their AW23 range. The installation themed ‘Submerged’ sought to bring alive the beautiful mysteries of the deep ocean and how they are viciously trapped by our indifferent dumping of plastic on the seas. 

A call for action 

Akanksha Waleski, Visual Merchandise Head, Universal Sportsbiz Pvt Ltd, says, speaking about the installation and the theme, “Submerged is a prominent collection that will be launched in AW23. The mystery of underwater is explored in the story and the whole collection is inspired by it, right from the prints, and textures to the graphics. This story was chosen as a highlight since it had an important message to convey - a dialogue on ocean pollution and how it is affecting marine life and how we should take a conscious decision to lead a more sustainable life and be more woke of our lifestyle.” 

As Akanksha informs, the inspiration for this theme was derived from a picture of a turtle entangled with plastic wire. So the whole display highlights how plastic waste is affecting marine life, and more importantly, urges us to take a stand with the tagline “the ocean is rising, will you?”

The making of a visual story 

“A lot of attention to detail can be seen, right from the tentacles of the octopus to a message in the bottle. There is a whole story that is translated through this display, and one gets submerged in the mood of the theme while observing it,” explains Akanksha, talking about the execution and the efforts that went into creating these displays. 

Talking about the materials used for the installation, Akansha informs that the underwater current was created by rolling up paper into cones and dyeing them into different hues of blue. These were then inserted on mesh stands to create a beautiful ombre effect.

The sea creatures were made by hand by the brand’s in-house team by using EPE foam sheet, aluminium & metal wire, hose, washing machine & pvc pipes, wall putty, paper cups & tissue paper to name a few. These were then meticulously hand painted to perfection with spray & acrylic paints, shares Akansha.

Further, plastic bags & bottles were scattered on the floor as well as depicted floating in the sea or entangled with the sea creatures to showcase ocean pollution, while mannequin legs were suspended from the ceiling to depict a diver in for a swim with his gear.

“The blue lights played a major role in setting the mood of the display and created an underwater ambience. Fluorescent paint under the blue light really lit up the entire display and made it come alive,” Akansha adds. 

Challenges 

Execution of this kind comes with many challenges. One of the challenges for the VM team here was to choose between vinyl with print as a backdrop, or a manually created paint & paper option. “We went ahead with the latter and hand painted the walls with a sponge and acrylic paint and used dyed paper cones to depict the water current. For the floor we used actual sand and painted ripples on it with fluorescent paint,” says Akansha adds, “The other challenge was that the display looked too bright with the available lights, so we covered them with blue crepe paper and then added blue focus lights. With only the blue lights on, fluorescent paint was used to highlight the creatures and plants which in turn truly elevated the entire installation.”

She further explains, “Since 80 per cent of the elements were hand-made, there was a lot of trial and error that happened while developing them in terms of material, texture, colour etc. Also, we tried using mostly recyclable materials in keeping with the theme of the display.” Well, all that effort has paid off. The installation stands as a fitting example of the evocative power of VM, particularly to convey a socially and environmentally relevant cause of our times.