Power Hungry: Factory Design labs

Interpret the power of orange.’ For a director that’s a unique and unusual request. But since that’s Factory Design Labs’ brand colour, it makes perfect sense that their brief was simply asking me to ram together orange and power. Right from the very beginning, they said they wanted to really push the envelope.

It was an extremely thought-provoking challenge and it became a great art direction and design challenge. I enjoyed figuring out how to weave humanity into this whole idea. There were also real challenges, such as finding a creative way to give each spot a unique feel, while also keeping enough of a common thread to keep them connected. In the end, ‘the power of orange’ really ties these two very different executions together, as sort of variations on the theme.

We spent a lot of time looking for just the right locations. We wanted them to add character. For Powder, we started by thinking of different cafés. But in the end, we started to look at diners. A diner location also allowed us to make it more of a believable family environment. And it’s certainly that much weirder and just plain wrong to see people playfully snorting orange lines and joyously licking orange powder off a plate with their kids.

Once we decided to go in that direction, we wanted a diner that, on the surface, looks very ordinary, but once you peel away the façade you discover it’s a world of orange-induced happiness and excitement.

One of the interesting but odd questions that came up was: what happens when people snort the orange powder? We ultimately decided that it made the most sense that everyone’s experience should be different. Everyone experiences power differently and snorting ‘the orange’ should unlock and tap into some different and more individual manifestation of power.

Casting for people snorting an orange powder was… interesting. Maybe even a bit revealing, as some of the actors seemed to really pick up ‘snorting the orange’ quicker than others.

For Leader, we whittled the story down to: a man uses ‘orange’ to gravitationally pull the world in his direction; bolstering his confidence, sexual prowess and overall aura, especially to incredibly sexy women. His orange Speedo is basically a power suit that’s part aphrodisiac and part Viagra.

We wanted a location that indicated not just wealth, but also taste and a strong sense of individualism. This hillside location helped us create a world of perfection. It is the perfect backdrop to create this story of leisure where everyone – both men and women – lust after ‘orange’.

There’s no dialogue, so it’s really story and music-driven. So visually, I know it might sound a bit clichéd, but we wanted every single frame to look and feel like a painting. So we focused quite a bit on the art direction and compositions.

I’m pleased with how it feels quite geometric and how that creates a sense of order in our hero’s world, a world he completely owns.

If, as Henry Kissinger said, “Power is the greatest aphrodisiac,” then ‘orange power’ is off the freaking charts.

Jason Zada
Director, Tool of North America, Los Angeles