Santa Monica-based multicultural agency Orcí and Mexican street artist Farid Rueda have partnered with Honda Latino to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month through mid-October. The collaboration, consisting of short format videos for @HondaLatino’s Instagram and Twitter channels, showcases Farid’s traditional motifs of Latin American flora and fauna in a bright kaleidoscope of color.
For Juan José Quintana, Executive Creative Director at Orcí, this joint effort with Rueda was the perfect opportunity to celebrate his heritage, and that of millions of Hispanic Americans: “At Orcí, we understand that real connection with your audience goes beyond language—to include cultural connection and trust. This collaboration with Rueda was a natural fit.”
Similarly, for Orcí’s Creative Director, Javier Güemes, the concept behind this videos is a meaningful allegory that celebrates the growing Latino influence in the U.S. economy: “In these videos, Rueda’s art goes from covering walls to taking over the streets via the cars themselves, until they’re completely camouflaged with vibrant colors and vivid shapes. That’s exactly how we Latinos have expanded our relevance as a consumer force in the U.S. market—and our cultural and economic impact just keeps on growing.”
To date, Rueda has collaborated with various international street art collectives and hotel brands to create site-specific works worldwide, including Russia, The Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, France, and Portugal. His work has been featured by NBC News, BBC, Street Art Today, and Culture Trip, among others.
Tell us about your role in the creation of this work.
My role was to lead my creative and production teams in the process of conceptualization as well as production.
It’s very common for brands all over the country to do something every year for Hispanic Heritage Month. In an effort to stay away from any cliches, our client asked us to create something that was both authentic and meaningful. We decided to celebrate Hispanic culture by developing an impactful campaign integrating our client’s brand. We came up with the idea of a Civic parked next to a wall with a colorful mural. Suddenly, the painting leaves the wall and moves to the Civic, wraps up the car and creates a colorful and artistic take-over.
Tell us about the creative brief, what did it ask?
It was about creating three digital videos showing Honda proudly celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month in a authentic and original way.
Which insight led to the creation of this piece of work?
Hispanic culture is full of colorful art. We take pride in our unique artistic expressions, so it was very important to convey that in these videos.
Can you share with us any alternative ideas (if any) for this campaign? Why was this idea chosen?
After extensive research by our social media team, we decided to reach out to artist Farid Rueda because of the quality of his work. We also took into consideration the way he engages with his followers. In addition, Civic drivers are really into self-expression, so it didn’t take much for us to realize that this was a winning idea.
How did the client initially react to this idea?
They loved it from the very beginning and saw the potential behind this idea. It’s important to mention that our friends at Fellow LA, the production house that partnered with us to create the animation in these videos, supported us with really cool visualization that our client loved.
What was the greatest challenge that you and your team faced during development.
Honestly, this process went very smooth thanks to all the people we partnered with—from our client to Farid Rueda, from Fellow LA to our internal teams.
What did you enjoy most about seeing this campaign through? Did you learn anything new from the experience?
I really believe that when something is meant to be, everything flows naturally. I’ve learned that when you apply art to convey what a brand authentically cares about, the results speak for themselves.
Where do you see this campaign going in the future?
This was a unique campaign, but based on the reaction and engagement that we got on social media, I’d like to continue exploring and supporting Hispanic artists through this kind of projects.