Come as You Are

With a neo-kitch, maximalist aesthetic, this campaign for the revamped Young Barbican membership scheme uses the medium of youth culture to break down barriers and invite participation. The hero film, A day at the Barbican, demystifies the centre and invites the viewer to see themselves creating culture at the centre. With analogue-inspired filming and layered voiceover, it’s a meditative, warm and textural piece.

The centre’s iconic brutalist architecture is a main character, its bold forms and heavy materiality framing young people moving through the complex as living portraits. The Barbican itself was treated as an instrument, recording tones to layer in composition. Chimes from striking brass handrails; door slams and creaks; glitches of chatter from the terrace; the sound of the waterfalls; and an audio snapshot of the Barbican Hall imprints its famous acoustics into the piece. Modular synth brings rising modular sweeps to mark changes in the film, while a Moog theremin brings subtle textures.

Raw still photography anchors and reiterates the message in a way that is spontaneous and fun. Shot on digicam with unpolished realism, it embraces the visual language of personal archives rather than commercial photography. FLUORO® cast from young people interested in the arts, and delved into their likes, dislikes and what subcultures they belong to, to inform the work. The idea of cultural fingerprints came to the fore, with ID cards used as a graphic device to represent Young Barbican members and their interests.

The campaign is underpinned by one powerful statement: Come as You Are. There’s no need to be more literate, more cool, more anything. The campaign translates the Barbican’s cultural credibility, in a language and medium that the youth audience can recognise, understand and respond to, transmitting openness, creativity and belonging.