AYGO X BY UNDERCOVER JUN TAKAHASHI

How Spring London brought the world of Toyota’s UNDERCOVER Jun Takahashi cross-industry collaboration to life

Duncan Woods, Creative Director
Interviewed by Ben Perdue, Head of Content and Editorial

8-minute read

---

Expressing what happens when two like-minded, yet unlikely partners come together was the challenge that Spring London faced when approached to create a campaign for Toyota’s first ever collaboration project, a limited edition Aygo X designed by UNDERCOVER designer Jun Takahashi. It was also the perfect opportunity to explore new forms of filmmaking and immersive technology, working with our in-house CGI team and partners from the worlds of virtual reality, digital art, and Unreal Engine. 

Here, Creative Director and Head of Innovation at Spring London, Duncan Woods, takes us on the creative journey that brought our concept of Paris, Tokyo to life, from subverting the tradition car advert, to shooting all night in an underground carpark. 




BEN PERDUE:
Hi Duncan! How did the collab between Toyota and Jun Takahashi inspire your approach to filmmaking?

---

DUNCAN WOODS:
We wanted to keep the eclectic, multimedia feel of Jun Takahashi’s work, so we used a collaged approach, mixing real footage with CGI, changing up perspectives and the type of capture, like using the car’s parking assist camera. Also, UNDERCOVER is known as a subversive fashion brand, so we liked the idea of doing an anti-car ad almost, messing with familiar car ad tropes to create this underground city for a community of fashion hypebeasts to explore.


BP:
What techniques were you excited about bringing together?

---

DW:
It was a great opportunity for Spring to really dive into the capabilities of Unreal Engine and explore what we could do in there. That led us to working with 3D scanning, creating avatars, and importantly we got to hide all these Easter eggs for fans of Takahashi to find in this world we were creating around his brand. 


“We got to hide all of these Easter eggs for fans of Takahashi to find in this world we were creating around his brand.” 

— Duncan Woods



BP:
What was the most challenging aspect of the shoot?

---

DW:
The hardest thing was working with a secret car that was still under embargo, which meant that whatever we did had to be out of sight of the public. Spring’s in-house producers had to solve that one, but they did an amazing job, even if it did mean spending all night in an underground Paris carpark. 


BP:
Can you describe the process of creating the immersive experience?

---

DW:
I think what stuck with me was discovering how restricted you are when you create these virtual worlds. It takes a lot of work to achieve something that really works, especially when it’s a short term hosted experience that you’re trying to create. I didn’t fully realise quite how complicated virtual reality is, and how rudimentary some of the technology is.