Seen+Noted: Design Army uses AI to create Georgetown Optician ‘Adventures in A-EYE’ campaign
Adventures in A-EYE, created with AI technology, is Design Army’s latest inventive social campaign for Georgetown Optician, a Washington DC-based optician with a 40+ year family legacy at the forefront of ocular science and fashionable frames. The super-fresh experimental campaign takes a sci-fi movie bent, a fictional planet rife with extra-terrestrial eyeball life. A cheeky wink to all things ocular, Adventures In A-Eye was made with AI from talent to wardrobe, locations and landscapes – while the (very real) eyewear was added in post-production to complete this super surreal, unearthly world.
By the late ’50s (though in precisely which century is unclear) space tourism had become all the rage among the fashionable set, with the more avant-garde venturing to far-flung uncharted locales. Adventures in A-EYE recounts the story of one such group of visionary travelers on their epic, and optic, journey to an unknown planet – where reality itself is often artificial, but emotions are real.
Adventures In A-EYE is inspired by the endless quest to see something wholly new – the mind and the eyes must travel! With that in mind, globally-awarded design studio Design Army invented a supernatural story where travelers visit a planet to no man’s land. Meet the peeping pioneers who probe the land, including the “Eyelien” who keeps a watchful eye on the planet.
Mashing old-school 1950s sci-fi movie vibes and future-forward hues, the visuals and typography blur past and present to create an otherworldly era.
Taking a cue from space odyssey films/novels, each episode (like “Return of the Dry Eye”) over-the-top thrills, chills, entertains, and educates – complete with eye-popping 3D titles.
Pum Lefebure, Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder, Design Army, said: “We wanted to bring a sense of romance to the story, traveling into the future that feels like the past. With that in mind, we were inspired to mix past and present to create a surrealist, retro-future mashup where you can’t quite place the era”.
“The visuals and typography take inspiration from 1950s classic movie posters, the early days of web 1.0 and even the 1990s. We added in 1960s sci-fi sound design and future-forward hues (2024’s pastel fuchsia color trend) to make this world comes to life. The result is a totally weird, neon-cool, futuristic vibe.”
Adventures In A-EYE launches its first social campaign season in Spring 2023. And will continue throughout the year, introducing new characters, imaginary lands, and the season’s must-haves in prescription and fashion eyewear.
AI on its own can feel soulless and stiff, requiring the human touch, and Design Army brought the campaign’s eerie eyeballs to life and even made them lovable through photo manipulation, animation, sound design, and typography.
Lefebure added: “While I love the speed. I hate AI’s stubbornness. At Design Army, our art direction is super tight. But working with AI, you must be willing to get lost in the journey to get the desired result. To really know how to create the prompts, be super specific, articulate exactly your vision to get the response you want. We experimented endlessly until it learned the art direction we liked.”
