Gap: Sound of Color

What do black and white sound like?

To promote their colorful spring and summer collections, Gap enlisted Chris Do and the Blind team to create a video for Danish post-punk duo Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo, better known as The Raveonettes. With only three weeks to conceive and complete the project, the team executed an edgy and elegant exploration of the contradictory forces that black and white represent.

“Black and White” utilizes light and shadow to convey the opposing themes of the piece, including love/hate, life/death, young/old, daydream/nightmare, and ugliness/beauty. The narrative unfolds through an innovative mix of shadow puppetry and animation, as two-dimensional characters come alive in a colorless world, underscored by The Raveonettes’ haunting vocals. A majority of the elements used in the video were shot in-camera, and puppeteers’ hands and rigging are often left in the shots to create a more spontaneous and organic aesthetic. The piece retains its whimsy through unexpected visuals, references to the beloved Danish fairy tales of Sune’s youth, and a richly textured physical and emotional landscape that can only be fully experienced after multiple viewings.