If you didn't know, Lavazza of Italy produces a calendar that celebrates their brand and their product (espresso) every year. And it's no ordinary 'corporate calendar'. This is always a piece of stunning photographic art. Every year.
They've used an impressive stable of photographers. Coincidentally, the past three years happen to have used three of my personal favorites; Eugenio Recuenco, Erwin Olaf and Ellen Von Unwerth, which is how I even discovered Lavazza and their calendars in the first place.
The infamous Helmut Newton shot the first calendar in 1993 for them. And well-known photographers David LaChapelle and Albert Watson have also shot the Lavazza calendar in the past.
This year's calendar theme is "The Most Majestic Experience". Models posing as aristocratic regal "queens' amongst luxury and animals. Shot by Finlay Mackay
Above: Photographer Finlay Mackay
The 2008 Calendar:
Above: the Cover, January~February
Above: March~April
Above: May~June
Above: July~August
Above: September~October
Above: November~December
In addition to creating a pretty piece of functional art, Lavazza's flash site for this year's calendar is a sight to see- and hear. Beautifully designed and easy to navigate, it's filled with goodies. Both a written and narrated story introduces you to each of the "queens" in the calendar:
And you get peek at the actual shoot, both in stills (as seen below) and a video (seen at the end of this post).
And they even have an online contest, Majestic Mahong, you can play and be automatically entered to win a 2008 Calendar or more.
So be sure to check it out when you have some time, because there's so much to see on their site.
In Lavazza's own words, The 16th edition of the Lavazza Calendar, is dedicated to important, aristocratic and determined women, women who feel like queens - in other words, all women. It shows an enchanted and precious world in which queens are surrounded by jewellery, silk, velvet and freely roaming animals proudly reign.
See the new 2008 calendar for yourself here.
Below is Finlay Mackays's tv spot for Lavazza 2008. Please be patient while it loads.
The Most Majestic Experience.
I want to credit all the right people for this wonderful work, and luckily for me, the fabulous client director at Armando Testa has furnished me with a list of the talented people involved on this project.
CREDITS 2008 LAVAZZA CALENDAR / THE MOST MAJESTIC ESPRESSO EXPERIENCE
Supervision & coordination: Luigi Lavazza S.p.A.
Creative project: Armando Testa
Creative directors: Michele Mariani, Germán Silva, Haitz Mendibil, Ekhi Mendibil
Art director: Andrea Lantelme
Copywriter: Cristiano Nardò
Photographer: Finlay MacKay
Assistant photographer: Christopher George, Alick Crossley
Agent: Marco Santucci Photography
Production Company: The Box Films
Set designer: Robin Brown
Costume designer: Moritz Junge
Stylist: Hannah Teare
Hair stylist: James Rowe
Make-up artist: Hiromi Ueda
Post production: Core Digital
Models/animals/etc:
Cover: Sofie Nielander
Queen Vanalika II: Maria Dvirnik
Davidina (Monkey, trained by Daniel Berquinì)
Queen Bao: Xiuli Gao (Queen)
Katsuya Tatsumoto (Painter)
Queen Sophie Margot: Sofie Nielander (Queen)
Massimo Viafora, Fabio Zerba (Servants)
Evija Petuhova (Harlequin)
Queen Yasmine: Anna Sjoberg (Queen)
Men: Silvio Biolcati, Luca Andolfo, Attila Fernec Csiszler
Women: Evija Petuhova, Paula Ludwig
Queen Kuk Grethel: Cicely Telman (Queen)
Falcon from Zoo Grunwalt s.r.l.
Queen Melissa III: Awoi Mac Bullen Geu (Queen)
Men: Luca Andolfo, Attila Fernec Csiszler, Niklas Erik Daniel Crlsson, Andrew Demarsh, Morgan Pieter, Augustin Grunefeld Lance Brolin Wuchterl, Trevor Pedrowski, Milan Gogora, Silvio Biolcati, Manuele Barbaglio, Fabio Rizzo, Giovanni Fortunato
Giorgio Colnaghi, Daniele D’Andrea
Special thanks to: Damiani jewels & Vivienne Westwood
To buy a calendar, you'll have to check ebay- they don't sell them to the public!