Photomanipulations: FD Strategy Summit 2008

Het Financieele Dagblad, a Dutch financial newspaper, will be sponsoring the FD Strategy Summit 2008. They will be inviting the chief executives of the leading companies in China, India and Russia to discuss these developments at the FD Strategy Summit 2008. Together with Europe's political leaders and other top business people, these CEOs will share and discuss their ideas for the future. As part of the promotions for this event, they partnered with Worth1000, a site specializing in all kinds of photomanipulation techniques to come up with ideas for promotion images. Here's a description of the event's theme:

"The powerful ascendancy of countries like China, India and Russia is causing a seismic shift in the world's economic and political balances of power. The global dominance of the West is in decline, while new economies – built on centuries-old cultures – are pushing themselves to the forefront of the world stage. China, for instance, is attracting excess international capital, India is swallowing up high-quality jobs while Russia is grappling with its new role as the world's oil and gas baron. As part of this dramatic realignment of the world economy, the allocation of money, jobs and commodities is undergoing a fundamental change. The way companies compete is being reinvented by household names and lesser known companies and their governments from the new economic powers. They are changing the rules of the game of global competition."

They wanted images representing how India, China and Russia "changed the rules of the game".

I started with China, with the idea of a dragon eating up some chess pieces…

I personally liked this, and even if they didn't pick this, this would still be something I'll be proud to look at. Here's the final photomanipulated image (I used actual pictures of a dragon sculpture, chess board, pieces and numerous patterns), and you can quite see how the idea on paper proceeded to the final image. I wanted to achieve an illustration-style look rather than photorealism. Somehow, I like the hand-drawn image better.

I made images also for Russia, which is described as monopolizing Europe's gas and oil market. I thought of using an oil barge filled up with cargo ala "Tetris style". The image is quite weak, and I wasn't completely satisfied with the finished product.

But the one that Het Financieele Dagblad chose among my proposals was my image entitled simply as "Job Race" for the India part. The idea behind the image was a standard horse race with an Indian elephant leading it… "India leads the job race... by brute, size and brawn!" With numerous industries worldwide being outsourced to India, one can't deny that they are indeed making huge strides economically. Remember the call center agent in Transformers: "Sir, have you heard about our Premium Plus full service call package?" NO I DON'T WANT A PREMIUM PACKAGE! Here is the series of images showing how numerous layers are added, leading to the final image.

Source image, stretched both sides to fit elements that will be added. Note cloning artifacts on the right side (Didn't have enough time to refine it. Besides, it will be unnoticeable later.)

I looked for a royalty-free stock photo of a running elephant, and placed it appropriately at the back of the horse pack. Shadow and blur effects (more noticeable at the leg area) added.

The elephant has to look Indian, so I borrowed gold decorations from images of elephants from Hindi festivals and parades.

Of course, the elephant can't run on its own. Add the four little Indians (one with an umbrella)!

Naturally, the client would like to see it with sample texts.

Watch out for this image when it comes out in 2008.

And while we're talking about photomanipulations, here's one I did for fun ("Kidney Outside Your Body"… Yes, that's the slogan of the water drink! Makes me wonder what the hell they are trying to say. It doesn't exactly make me want to drink the water more than before.):

I'm thirsty...