Communication from generosity
At Immagina, advertisements are created right in the middle of a vineyard in Mendrisiotto
At Immagina, advertising is created in the middle of a vineyard in MendrisiottoBy Luca Aloisi Three years ago, former photo reporter Adriano Heitmann founded the small agency Immagina in the Ticino town of Stabio. Thanks to its large network and high level of image expertise, the small agency has already achieved notable successes.
Probably no small agency would allow itself to be described with the often pejoratively loaded label of forest-and-meadows agency. Adriano Heitmann, founder of the three-person Immagina team, has no problems with the location of his agency and at most clarifies the description. After all, his office is actually located in a Ticino vineyard: "We work in a converted winegrower's house above Stabio," he says and immediately opens a parenthesis: "Not only are our large photo studio and atelier located there, the attic is also the venue for cultural activities such as concerts, tastings, meetings, exhibitions and workshops."
From photo reporter to sedentary advertising concept developer
As unconventional as this Ticino networking concept may seem from a Zurich perspective, it explains Heitmann's generous approach to communication most aptly. For him, communication must have an attitude of generosity. This should be conveyed both internally and externally for the client. If you focus too much on the return on investment, you are unlikely to attract new customers, let alone find new sources of inspiration. Especially not here, in remote Stabio. Although the nearby airports of Agno and Milan mean that you can be on the northern side of the Alps or anywhere else in the world within a short space of time, he is not trying to minimize the distances, but to make a virtue of necessity.
Formerly a self-employed photojournalist who raced around the globe and found his way into advertising as a career changer, only clients and large agencies who are convinced by Heitmann's work come to him. There are quite a few of them and, something the Ticino native is particularly proud of, hardly any two from the same industry. Adriano Heitmann, who until the 1990s did photo reportages and portraits for magazines and newspapers such as Geo, Merian, Stern, Schweizer Illustrierte, NZZ, Die Zeit or the Italian Airone, now looks after a completely different clientele: from the noble Chianti wine estate Castello di Ama or the international horse race St. Moritz White Turf in 2000 to the Ticino fashion house chain Monn and the world's leading precision tweezers manufacturer Rubis.
Rubis in particular is doing well in the portfolio, as the company is led by CEO Fides Baldesberger. She was named the first female "Entrepreneur of the Year" by the auditing and consulting firm Ernst & Young in 2001.
The 51-year-old Heitmann interprets his mandate broadly. Much of what goes beyond his core competence - the visual conception and implementation stage - he hands over to freelancers, most of whom he finds in his huge international network of contacts, which he established while still a much-traveled journalist.
Artistic vein shapes form of communication
It is not uncommon for him to succeed in bringing his visions into an astonishing and coherent form with a melange of ideas from various independent fields. Take Rubis, for example: he was awarded the German Design Prize 2001 in Frankfurt for his product packaging - a transparent, slit piece of plastic tube in which the innovative aluminum tweezers are neatly stored and yet still visible.
His harmonious combination of fashion and art was equally successful: in the sophisticated catalog trilogy, which made waves beyond the cantonal borders, he wove together Ticino architecture, then the expressionist Marianne Werefkin and finally Rolf Gérard, costume designer and set designer of the Metropolitan Opera New York, with the clothes of the Monn fashion store. Heitmann's exemplary visualization of his clients' intentions is also demonstrated by the brochure designed by GGK, Zurich, for Ticino Turismo in 1999, in which Heitmann's photos went into a huge print run.
It was not only his marriage to the famous Mexican art photographer Flor Garduño ("Witnesses of Time") or his collaboration with star architect Mario Botta, for whom he produced an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, that shaped Heitmann's versatile way of approaching commissions. His family life with two children, which took him away from the fascinating profession of photojournalist and tied him more closely to his Ticino roots, also influenced his work.
Probably no small agency would allow itself to be described with the often pejoratively loaded label of forest-and-meadows agency. Adriano Heitmann, founder of the three-person Immagina team, has no problems with the location of his agency and at most clarifies the description. After all, his office is actually located in a Ticino vineyard: "We work in a converted winegrower's house above Stabio," he says and immediately opens a parenthesis: "Not only are our large photo studio and atelier located there, the attic is also the venue for cultural activities such as concerts, tastings, meetings, exhibitions and workshops."
From photo reporter to sedentary advertising concept developer
As unconventional as this Ticino networking concept may seem from a Zurich perspective, it explains Heitmann's generous approach to communication most aptly. For him, communication must have an attitude of generosity. This should be conveyed both internally and externally for the client. If you focus too much on the return on investment, you are unlikely to attract new customers, let alone find new sources of inspiration. Especially not here, in remote Stabio. Although the nearby airports of Agno and Milan mean that you can be on the northern side of the Alps or anywhere else in the world within a short space of time, he is not trying to minimize the distances, but to make a virtue of necessity.
Formerly a self-employed photojournalist who raced around the globe and found his way into advertising as a career changer, only clients and large agencies who are convinced by Heitmann's work come to him. There are quite a few of them and, something the Ticino native is particularly proud of, hardly any two from the same industry. Adriano Heitmann, who until the 1990s did photo reportages and portraits for magazines and newspapers such as Geo, Merian, Stern, Schweizer Illustrierte, NZZ, Die Zeit or the Italian Airone, now looks after a completely different clientele: from the noble Chianti wine estate Castello di Ama or the international horse race St. Moritz White Turf in 2000 to the Ticino fashion house chain Monn and the world's leading precision tweezers manufacturer Rubis.
Rubis in particular is doing well in the portfolio, as the company is led by CEO Fides Baldesberger. She was named the first female "Entrepreneur of the Year" by the auditing and consulting firm Ernst & Young in 2001.
The 51-year-old Heitmann interprets his mandate broadly. Much of what goes beyond his core competence - the visual conception and implementation stage - he hands over to freelancers, most of whom he finds in his huge international network of contacts, which he established while still a much-traveled journalist.
Artistic vein shapes form of communication
It is not uncommon for him to succeed in bringing his visions into an astonishing and coherent form with a melange of ideas from various independent fields. Take Rubis, for example: he was awarded the German Design Prize 2001 in Frankfurt for his product packaging - a transparent, slit piece of plastic tube in which the innovative aluminum tweezers are neatly stored and yet still visible.
His harmonious combination of fashion and art was equally successful: in the sophisticated catalog trilogy, which made waves beyond the cantonal borders, he wove together Ticino architecture, then the expressionist Marianne Werefkin and finally Rolf Gérard, costume designer and set designer of the Metropolitan Opera New York, with the clothes of the Monn fashion store. Heitmann's exemplary visualization of his clients' intentions is also demonstrated by the brochure designed by GGK, Zurich, for Ticino Turismo in 1999, in which Heitmann's photos went into a huge print run.
It was not only his marriage to the famous Mexican art photographer Flor Garduño ("Witnesses of Time") or his collaboration with star architect Mario Botta, for whom he produced an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, that shaped Heitmann's versatile way of approaching commissions. His family life with two children, which took him away from the fascinating profession of photojournalist and tied him more closely to his Ticino roots, also influenced his work.
