An emotive ad voiced by rapper AJ Tracey that captures the hopes and dreams of young people from the estate surrounding Grenfell Tower is being released today, as its creators call for the ad industry to buy shirts and help keep the dreams of these young people alive.
Dream Carriers is an 85” spot advertising the new Nike kit for Grenfell Athletic FC, the football team set up for the survivors, bereaved and wider community of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire. It includes an inspiring voiceover from AJ Tracey, the rapper, songwriter and producer who grew up in nearby Ladbroke Grove. It will run on digital channels from today, Monday.
The shirt, which will be worn by Grenfell Athletic men’s and women’s teams, carries drawings of the dreams and ambitions of the community’s young people.
In the film, created by Brothers and Sisters - who also designed the shirt - and directed, animated and produced by Electric Studios, the same young people express their big dreams and aspirations, in the face of the insight that young people from less privileged backgrounds tend to see their dreams fade quicker than those from wealthier communities.
To learn more, we spoke to Andy Fowler, Founder and ECD at Brothers & Sisters.
What was the brief?
To design and launch the new Grenfell Athletic x Nike kit with an idea that benefits the Grenfell community.
What was the process behind the initial idea and then ideating that concept?
To be honest I had this idea pretty much straight off. I was thinking about how we use the shirt to elevate the talented young people in the community.
I started off thinking it could be a canvas for their art. But that felt small. So then I thought, well maybe it could be a canvas for their dreams.
And then I was thinking about the act of wearing the shirt and thought what if everyone who wears the shirt was a dream carrier for the dreams of the young people of Grenfell.
I believe in the idea that if you manifest and visualise something, then you can will it into being. And the idea of carrying the dreams of these traumatised young people on our chests felt really emotional.
What was the production process like?
It was a dream because we had an A list of incredible makers all giving their blood, sweat and love. We started off by gathering the dreams of the local young people at a community festival in June 2022, using sharpie pens and A3 sketch pads.
Our Brothers & Sisters design team took their scribble and sketches and beautifully crafted them into the shirt design. Our friends at Kitlocker then took us through the printing and crafting of the shirt.
I wrote the film script and wanted it to feel really inspiring with this backdrop of the Tower juxtaposed against the fragile dreams of these talented young people.
We were looking for a powerful local voice to tell the story.
Grenfell Athletic’s founder Rupert Taylor knows the rapper AJ Tracey - who himself is from Ladbroke Grove - and asked him if he would voice the film.
He was totally up for it and the words you hear on the film were AJ’s own words. We gave him a brief and it’s his own words you can hear, which I love.
Seb Barros, the photographer, has been following the team for a couple of years and he totally gets it. He started off by photographing the kids who gave their dreams wearing the new shirt in front of Grenfell Tower.
From there it’s all down to the amazing skills and craft of Electric Studios. Their passion and skill level blew me away really.
And the guys at Factory who did an awesome job with the sound design and mix.
What was the biggest challenge during production? How did you overcome it?
Having no cash is always challenging but not when you have the love and enthusiasm of a team like Electric Studios, Factory and SixtyFour Music.
What is one funny or notable thing that happened during production?
We were trying to get AJ Tracey to a sound session so he could record his voice but we couldn’t make diaries sync. So he wrote his words and sent us a voice note with his recording.
I could barely bring myself to open the file for excitement/fear as to what he had recorded. I was overwhelmed with happiness after I listened.
What kit/tools/software were used to create the project?
I’ll let Electric Studios answer this one!
“At Electric Studios we used pretty much the whole suite of software to create the film. From shoot we ingested and edited in Adobe Premiere and alongside this created designs in Photoshop and animation tests in TV Paint. Everything was put together in Adobe After Effects then went through our grading process in Baselight. For audio we synced clips and tracks in Premiere which was shared with the sound engineers to take things to the next stage of production.”
What’s the main message of this project and why does it matter?
The dreams of young people from less privileged backgrounds tend to fade away sooner than those from privileged backgrounds. But it doesn’t have to be that way. And we want to keep those dreams alive and help them to flourish.
How long did it take from inception to delivery?
9 months. It might seem like a crazy long time, but when everyone is giving their time for free you have to be respectful and keep the intensity up but not take the piss.
We gathered the dreams of the young people in the Grenfell community in June 2022.
Then it took 2-3 months going through the shirt design process and various stages of printing and manufacturing.
We started talking to Electric Studios about the script back in October 2022 and they were unbelievably keen and brought so many amazing ideas from day one.
The project just sprouted so much energy and wings with their involvement.
The AJ Tracey involvement was quite last minute thanks to Rupert, the Grenfell Athletic founder, who knows AJ from when he was a young lad in the community.
What do you hope it achieves for the brand?
For Nike it fits perfectly with their spirit of enabling communities to become better versions of themselves, which perfectly overlaps the values of Grenfell Athletic FC.
Credit list for the work?
Clients: Calum Hosier (Nike), Rupert Taylor (Grenfell Athletic FC)
Writer/ECD: Andy Fowler
Shirt design: Ren Reed and Hetty Blair at Brothers and Sisters
Voice: AJ Tracey
Music: 'I wonder' by Nines
Agency Producers: Betsy Kelly and Gill Loftus
Photographer: Seb Barros
Direction, Animation & Design: Electric Studios
Producer: Ben Honour
Grade: ETC Colour
Colourist: Megan Lee
Audio Post: Factory
Sound design & mix: James Utting
Audio Producer: Ciara Wakley
Music supervision: SixtyFour Music
Rob Ryan July 15th, 2023, at noon
Lovely work as usual from Andy Fowler and the Brothers & Sisters team. Realising a ‘young’ Rupert’s dream for Grenfell FC would have been a nice end to the piece