Late this summer I went to see The Dark Knight Rises with my two eldest Eliza and Randall in the local multiplex. Amongst the commercials preceding the feature, Bombay Sapphire – Infused with Imagination jumped out for the quality of its art, music, and typography. This short for Bombay Sapphire is built around a stunning, opulent art installation designed by Yehrin Tong, and is beautifully photographed by Richard Foster. It is part of an ad campaign created, written and directed in 2011 by London-based creative agency RKCR Y&R, self-professed "UK's most creative agency".

Bombay Sapphire – Infused with Imagination. from ilikethis… on Vimeo.

Made with over 70,000 jewels, and hung from the ceiling in different levels to create an optical illusion, the suspended panels only reveal the complete picture when you view it from the bottle. The elaborate three-dimensional illustration aims to tell the story of the brand which stands for tradition and exclusivity. I found two versions of the commercial online. The one below is delightfully narrated by Sir Michael Gambon, CBE, one of Britain's most revered stage performers. In the other one shown above however the narration is visualised with typography inspired by the label on the Bombay Sapphire bottle (see bottom) – the copperplate script Kuenstler Script, the vintage-looking engraved serif caps face Chevalier (both the hatched and a filled-in version), and a slender geometric sans serif which I have a hard time identifying due to the not-so-good image quality of the videos I found online. Shame about the typo halfway the film ("Possibilty").

Yatzer presents The making of BOMBAY SAPPHIRE Imagination Installation from Yatzer on Vimeo.

The website for fine and applied arts Yatzer takes a more in-depth look into the installation by Yehrin Tong. A graduate from Central Saint Martins, Yehrin designed artwork for independent music labels, working with artists she met while regularly haunting the underground club scene of London. Her main interests lie in creating illusory, eye-boggling patterns and typographical illustration. Work has encompassed billboards, taxi cabs, elaborate repeat patterns and embroidery prints for fashion, as well as typographic cover and editorial illustrations. Yehrin's work is complex and intricate; simple and minimal rarely come into her vocabulary.