Charged with the brief to reignite Nike's Presto brand in Asia, Wieden + Kennedy, Tokyo, recently teamed with Santa Monica-based Motion Theory to create a striking campaign that blends urban graffiti with contemporary culture.

Two :30 spots - "Ribbons" and "Rootz" - plus one 2:00 piece, "Urban Canvas", are airing in a dozen countries including Korea, China, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam. Each fuses graffiti art with live-action footage - a style dubbed 'Instant Go' that first saw daylight in Nike's previous Presto campaign six months earlier.

'Instant Go' is an expression of active urban youth culture, explains W+K Tokyo's Eric Cruz, who acted as art director, co-director, print designer/director and photographer on the campaign. "The Presto line embodies that culture [with] simple, easy, instant-go products that instantly conform to your body."

Just four seasons old, Presto is Nike's most experimental brand to date: a refreshingly non sports-centric line of shoes, clothing and wristwear that's focused on urban culture and movement. Nevertheless, "we had to make Presto vibrant again," says Cruz.

The desired vibrancy was added through colorful vignettes of painted images gyrating within an Eastern megalopolis. Graffiti graphics permeate an industrious city as fluid grooves fill the ear - supplied by Asian music maestro DJ Uppercut. An orange kung-fu character struts within a Shanghai crowd; catfish swim swiftly underneath Tokyo's Rainbow Bridge; and stereo speakers fuse with the cityscape as beats reverberate across the skyline.

Cruz brainstormed with John Jay, exec CD of W+K, Tokyo, and copywriter Barton Corley to come up with the idea of an urban canvas. "It was all based on the idea of layers, making flat art come to life with artists synthesizing an urban orchestra of their art."

The first part of the project entailed capturing a template of live-action footage in Asia on digibeta. A troupe of artists - David Ellis (a.k.a. "Skwerm"), Sasu, Frek & Motion Theory - then created the graffiti effects at Motion Theory's headquarters in LA. After that, Motion Theory integrated its artwork within the original shot footage to create the commercials.

Matthew Cullen, Motion Theory's art director, co-directed the 10-day live shoot in Asia. Cullen and Cruz have been "friends, collaborators and colleagues" since the late '90s, when they hooked up at Hollywood-based design and production company Imaginary Forces. "We have worked together on the last three jobs I had at W+K, Tokyo," says Cruz. "When I collaborate with Motion Theory, I mean it in every sense of the word. I am there designing frames for TV spots, physically setting type, designing actual layouts for print."

Cullen says the two directors worked with cast and crew in Shanghai and Tokyo to film cityscapes that were emblematic of urban Asia. "We shot footage from five in the morning to midnight," he says. "We brainstormed ideas and responded to things on the fly. Nike took a leap of faith and trusted that we knew what we were doing." Quite the leap considering the crew had no permits, so they shot footage on the run to create a hybrid pan-Asian city. "It was a guerilla shoot," adds Cruz bluntly.