Cuban Artist Danilo Vinardell - multimedia CD

We've just completed an interesting multimedia project for a client. It's a multimedia CD showcasing the abstract paintings of Cuban painter Danilo Vinardell. He is represented in Europe by a Scotsman and an Irishman who came across the artist by chance during a holiday to Havana (La Habana).

A multimedia CD is a great way to promote your business or help sell products. You can hand them out at tradeshows and exhibitions, post them to potential clients as part of a mailshot or as a follow-up to an enquiry. It provides a visual and audible sell to your clients that words alone cannot convey. And it can be played over and over if the content is interesting.

If you make it interactive, then it can be even more powerful, because your client will play the bits they like over again, reinforcing your messages to them. These days you can make them in all sorts of shapes and sizes from business card size upwards to standard CD size. Professional artwork on the CD surface makes it look professional and worthwhile and the CD itself gives you another chance to put you selling messages and contact information.

Anyway, back to the Danilo Vinardell CD! Picture the scene. Two weary travellers, semi-lost in the backstreets of Havana, glance up an alleyway and see there is something going on there. Apprehensively they advance up the alley and are amazed what they find. It's Danilo Vinardell's gallery/studio and the two are blown away when they see his work.

The recurring theme in much of Danilo's work is the architectural disintegration of Havana and he captures this in an astonishing way. In many ways, Havana's buildings are still stuck in the 1950's. The plaster is crumbling, the tiles falling and the paint flaking. Danilo Vinardell has documented this decline in a way that emphasises the sadness of something that will be lost forever. Indeed, one of his most successful exhibitions showed his "Perdidas Irreparables" (Irreparably Lost) collection. He has held around 25 exhibitions in Cuba, USA and Canada.

Paintings from his collection are included on the CD, along with two videos showing the artist at work, with decaying city scenes merging with his paintings. There is also a sequence of photographs showing some amazing pictures of the city and it's architecture including one where it is hard to believe the road could be supported by its pillars for much longer! The CD has been built using Macromedia Flash that allows plenty of interactivity such as pausing the videos, replaying the painting gallery or skipping to your favourite part of the presentation.

You can see some of Danilo's paintings by playing this extract from the CD.

If you would like to find out more about the artist and perhaps get a copy of the CD you can contact Stuart (the Scotsman) on +44 (0) 131 446 3822, or Robert (the Irishman) on +353 (0) 1285 2198, or email at rramsay@eircom.net.