30 +
Creatives engaged
13
Sessions organized
25000 +
People reached
300 +
Participants attended
THE CHALLENGE
In 2021, Apple was launching its first flagship store in Istanbul at Bağdat Caddesi, and approached ATÖLYE to support Today at Apple’s intention of re-energizing the Apple market in Türkiye. The scope of work centered around connecting with local independent creatives to design a bespoke program of creative sessions spanning over 6 weeks, driving engagement while promoting Apple’s products in unique and innovative ways. The program was called Perspektif İstanbul.
THE TRANSFORMATION APPROACH
The ATÖLYE team set out to map the creative landscape of Istanbul, gathering insights from local communities for relevant and inspiring programming themes to promote the launch of the store. Over the course of a few months, we curated and activated a full program as well as opportunities for collaboration.
Synthesis of the research resulted in four pillars for successful programming design: Community, Brand, Content, and Participants.
We designed the 2-week program with three themes in mind:
Creative Fluidity: Providing a playful look into multidisciplinary and ever-changing creative practices.
The City of Istanbul: Honoring the diversity and creativity of the city.
Tech for Good: Calling out novel practices in tech, and the positive social impact it can create.
It was important to be part of this community because in Turkey, under a visionary roof, establishing creative connections and building potential collaborations is not very easy, especially for independent artists; it's clear that we have infrastructure issues regarding this. Through this program, we have have made some beautiful friendships, gone on distant trips, and made other sweet plans for the future which are on the agenda for 2025.
"Perspektif İstanbul created an important, diverse space for creative communities."
"Perspektif İstanbul showed us how everyone perceives the same thing differently.
"The fact that people could produce such things in just 2 hours really blew us away."
"It was thrilling to see how people interacted in such a short amount of time."
THE IMPACT
The Perspektif Istanbul program was launched on 22 October in 2021, turning the Apple Store in Bağdat Caddesi into a buzzing creative hub. The 2-week program, which hosted 10+ sessions and attracted over 300+ participants, garnered new interest in Apple’s product and software offerings, while developing participants’ skills in sound design, podcast production, animation, to name a few.
Aside from the increased footfall and brand loyalty, the program also re-activated a community of local creatives — from a podcast producer to a visual artist, whose work and collaborative spirit was highlighted as a result of the sessions. In fact, the real impact of this project may lie in the ripple effect of ties and continued collaborations that we’ve observed since the program was launched.
THE COMMUNITY LENS
Approaching with a community-first perspective, we dove deep into the diverse user groups’ mindsets, and designed purposefully for spaces and interactions that would achieve the desired outcome of collaboration. More importantly, we hand-selected and engaged a community of creatives over a period of 3 months, curating a balanced group with similar interests but diverse outlooks. We were also very intentional about how we convene and collaborate together, in order to build trust and deepen newly formed relationships.
Since Perspektif İstanbul, many of our collaborators have continued to collaborate with one another. 3 individuals went on to co-produce programming for the Bozcaada Jazz Festival, others came together to form Post-Disaster response initiatives after the February 6th earthquake that hit Türkiye and Syria. Our work with Today at Apple set the foundations for a revived creative community in Istanbul, and in 2024, Apple approached ATÖLYE to curate and produce programming for their stores in Dubai and Abu Dhabi — a testament to our holistic approach to community building and brand activation.
Change your perspective
Project Team
Project Team:
Başak Aras, Burcu Yılmaz Deniz, Deniz Dönmez, Emel Pilavcı, Gülnaz Ör, Melissa Clissold, Oytun Elaçmaz, Sıla Eser
Community:
Göksu Kaçaroğlu (Design Researcher), Baran Somaklı (Developer), Tuğçe Akbulut (Master of Ceremonies), Yalçın Pembecioğlu (Master of Ceremonies), Meltem Şahin (Artist), Nurbanu Asena (Artist), Yusuf Akın Gülsayın (Visual Designer)
Project Lead:
Emre Erbirer
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