Ogilvy Hong Kong Creative Director + Head of Art Michele Salati tells LIA about his latest project

As a visual storyteller, Michele Salati has worked across different media formats by forging interdisciplinary collaborations with creatives from the arts, developers and roboticists – incubating work that transcends a single type of expertise. Here he tells the London International Awards about his latest project.

In my 20 years+, I have worked as Art Director and Creative Director, in-house and freelance, for small and big agencies and directly with clients all across the globe. I have developed branding and communication campaigns for a variety of clients, from startups to leading global brands. Influenced by my experience in various European and Asian cities, I have developed a special interest in projects that are sensitive to local cultures and at the same time extends beyond national boundaries.

My work has been recognized by publications and awarded by numerous international awards shows, including Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show, ADC, among others – and exhibited at art spaces in Barcelona, Zurich, London, Paris, New York, Venice, Moscow, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong.

Poetry in Motion and Hong Kong City. Creating Poems With Novelty Car Plates.
Hong Kong is an extremely bustling city, where people swarm through streets surrounded by skyscrapers, which are covered by shiny signs with catchy messages.

It became world-famous for its colorful, impressing neon lights, the crazy amount of advertising messages and its futuristic verticality.

There is more to it. Hong Kong is a city in constant change – hopeful, proud, fearless, blunt, hungry, superstitious, smooth, nice, delirious, supreme, fun, in love, totally crazy!!!

When I first discovered the vanity plates, it just made sense that a city with this extraordinary visual density would use vanity plates to make personal statements circulate through the city.

That’s how the idea for my latest project “HKVANIT1ES – poetry in motion” came along.

I’m an Italian artist and creative director in advertising living and working in Hong Kong. Since I first moved to this fascinating city in 2014, I’ve never stopped exploring its many facets and dynamics, and a considerable number of personal projects resulted out of these explorations, very diverse in media, and mostly in collaboration with people from manifold backgrounds.

The vanity plates captured my attention a few years ago. I discovered a few hilarious ones nearby where I live, and first, I started sharing them with friends for fun. That’s when I got the idea for the project and when I started collecting them nearly obsessively. I researched the use of vanity plates in Hong Kong and figured out that also other people have been collecting pictures of Hong Kong vanity plates and even have started building up an impressive database of plates. I got in contact with them (Scott Purkiss – FB Hong Kong Vanity plates – and Edward – IG hk_vanity_plates) and we decided to merge the collections for this project (currently 2500 plates are featured on the platform), giving access to everyone through HKVANITIES.com

The vanity plates are highly individual and therefore, the nature of the statements varies. Some are superstitious and wish for protection, some want to show humour or express their love for someone, and others just want to be special. In general one could say that vanity plates are the ultimate nonessential car accessory used by owners to highlight their status, wealth, humour, desires, beliefs or superstitions – and in Hong Kong, they can be seen everywhere.

To me, HKVANIT1ES is a timeless project such as the never-ending wish of Hong Kongers to find forms of expression in their city. Each plate is like a line of poetry racing through the bustling streets of the city. It is poetry in motion.

HKVANIT1ES invites to a poetic and playful exploration and discovery of Hong Kong. An exhaustive image collection of vanity plates allows people to mix and match them into personal poems, which then can be shared on social media, making them circulate in the digital space.

Furthermore, HKVANIT1ES includes a gallery of poems by Hong Kong and international artists as well as a rap song made by DOUGH-BOY.

Head to the HKVANIT1ES website to write and share your own #HKVANIT1ES poems!

www.hkvanites.com
IG: hkvanit1es

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