For Immediate Release:  June 7, 2012 Media Contact:  Sally Cohen, 585-749-1795, sally@sallycohenpr.com, @PR4Arts

AIRIGAMI AT CANNES LIONS FESTIVAL OF CREATIVITY

Rochester artists work with Aardman & LEGO at “Play, Make, Master”

Rochester, NY – Brighton artists Larry Moss and Kelly Cheatle of Airigami, LLC (airigami.com) will participate in the world’s largest ad festival, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (http://www.canneslions.com/), in Cannes, France, this June 17-23. Invited by international branding agencies, The Brand Union and Lambie-Nairn, and sponsored by Qualatex balloons, Airigami will engage advertising professionals in a creativity-promoting activity:  building a giant Henri Rousseau-inspired jungle installation out of balloons. Under the Cannes Also (Canneslions.com/also) 30-by-30-foot “Make, Play, Master” tent, they’ll work alongside – and possibly in collaboration with – fellow invitees from several very high-profile creative companies:  certified LEGO® artists, Bright Bricks; and world leaders in stop-frame animation, Aardman Animations (Wallace and Gromit, The Pirates:  Band of Misfits). They’ll also conduct master-class sessions as well as squeeze in as much networking as humanly possible.

“This is very exciting for us,” says Moss. “We’ve been on the world stage before, but not in a commercial context like this, and we’re looking forward to continuing our evolution.”

Part of that evolution included winning a Silver Abby Award (based on the ADDY® Awards) this past April in South Goa, India.  Airigami’s illustrations were part of an advertising campaign for the Celebrate Bandra festival in Mumbai that was created by Ogilvy & Mather for Vodafone, the third-largest mobile network operator in India.  Airigami’s award-winning images combined balloon sculpture, photography and illustration – much like their Master Works and Once Upon a Time fine art series.

For the past few years, Moss and Cheatle have been experimenting with applying their three-dimensional balloon sculpture – a temporary medium – to permanent, two-dimensional illustration.  While continuing to build incredible installations like their four Balloon Manors and Fantastic Flying Octopus (world’s first piloted balloon sculpture), they published a children’s picture book called Artist Eyes last year and are working on a second.  Their images have been featured in media all over the world, from Smithsonian, Cabinet and ASK magazines, to Italy’s Arte Mondadori, The Netherlands Esta and UK’s The Sun and The Times. In addition, the Master Works images (tributes to iconic masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa and Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Can) have gone viral on the Internet, most recently on Yahoo! Games (http://games.yahoo.com/photos/stunning-balloon-art-slideshow/) and Huffington Post Arts (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/30/larry-moss-kelly-cheatles_n_1554200.html).

“We get so many requests to use our eye-catching images editorially,” says Cheatle.  “Now, advertising agencies see our commercial possibilities, and Cannes could be our ‘big break!’”

Media please note:  High-resolution photos and broadcast-quality footage are available, and interviews and photo/footage opportunities can be arranged.

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