“Art of hygiene”

Yoyo Ferro x Kimberly Clark

Kimberly Clark reached out to ABV Agency loooking for unique designs for a line of premium & customizable paper towel dispensers. For this project, ABV commissioned Yoyo Ferro to create a series of original work that would emody Kimberly Clark’s mission to promote hygiene to consumers.

This collaboration yielded 4 unique designs, Ferro explains:

“For the project “Art of Hygiene” I have created a series of artworks that explore the underlying emotional meanings around the theme of cleanliness, self-care, and hygiene, in a cool and visually appealing way.

The abstract works take place in a multitude of colorful worlds where every piece portrays the protagonists' interactions – with the different abstract landscapes, each other, and their own feelings. Each artwork is inspired by our escalated need to socialize and be outside – outside our homes, outside our minds. It’s an invitation to explore, to gain perspective, and remain open to seeing positivity as we’re forced to welcome a new reality.

Rather than taking the obvious literal approach by illustrating scenes of characters washing and drying their hands, although this would describe the function of the product well, I decided to use a more meaningful and artistic take which addresses the emotional reason behind the product, which is that the real point of the Art of Hygiene is so WE CAN BE TOGETHER.

“In this chapter, we explore the scene of a character – who represents all of us – being surrounded by an overwhelming number of feelings. These feelings can be interpreted in many different ways as the audience perceives the piece, but in our current pandemic context I see this chapter as an illustration of the overwhelming amount of information through social media, TV, and real life while we all try to balance between staying clean and healthy, and continuing our lives as normal as possible. These feelings often drive us to two different roads: you either feel stuck and frozen, or you take Action… which brings us to our next chapter.”

- Yoyo Ferro

CHAPTER 1: FEELING

“This chapter represents one of the most important aspects in our lives, the initiave of taking action and breaking from what’s holding you back, especially your own mind. Action can be applied and interpreted in many ways by the audience. In this work it represents feelings like, “taking the first step is always the hardest part,” or “progress happens one step at a time”. The character in this scene has a planetary ring with stars moving around its head to represent us putting our minds to work or a mindset change that will help us climb out of stagnation towards your goal and dreams you would like to achieve. The character is looking up towards an abstract mountain top that is ahead of them, representing the long path towards joy, but that will never happen if you don’t take the first step.”

- Yoyo Ferro

CHAPTER 2: Action

“After taking the first step you then face our next chapter: Meaning. It represents us acting with purpose, trying to understand what we really want to accomplish, or what is the key to our happiness? In this scene we have two distant characters split by a far gap between each other. The character at the bottom is holding a lock and the character at the top is holding the key to our “Art of Hygiene” journey.
This moment is when we realize the meaning of it all: happiness is only real when shared and that you are the key to unlock my Joy.”

- Yoyo Ferro

CHAPTER 3: MEANing

CHAPTER 4: JOY

“Welcome to our grand finale: Joy – which brings you a loving picture of our two characters hugging. Something that we might have taken for granted in the past but that reveals itself to be very powerful today. The hug represents pure joy, like a recharge of our emotional battery. It reveals that the real meaning of the “Art of Hygiene” is so WE CAN BE TOGETHER. Lastly, we have a character in the background holding a heart. It represents the idea that your journey can inspire others to start their own and that the “Art of Hygiene” is universal to all of us.”

- Yoyo Ferro

Artist Involved:

Artist Curation
Project Management
Creative Direction

Services Included:

Yoyo Ferro