Movies, video games, and literature have all provided ample inspiration for fan art. Commercials? Not so much, but then Aidan Zamiri’s film promoting Nike’s collaboration with Ambush isn’t your typical commercial; rather, it’s a would-be trailer for a witchy teen movie masquerading as one. “I saw people doing drawings of Gabbriette in the ad,” he says of the campaign star. “I’ve never had that for a commercial.”
Neither have most directors. “I think that so much of the success of it is owed to them being really open as a brand, because the clothes are obviously featured in it, but it’s more about communicating the feeling rather than trying to hammer home the product,” says Zamiri. It was significant on a personal level too in that it was a full-circle moment. The sports brand offered him one of his very first directing jobs a few years ago – before he became alternative pop’s go-to collaborator – when he was still shooting student fashion collections or music videos for friends for £100 a go.
In that time, his profile has blossomed. Collaborations with Charli XCX, FKA twigs, and Caroline Polachek, who all have a cult following, will have a part to play in that, but so too will his experimental approach to imagemaking.