The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2020–2022
Dentsu's UNLABELED prints anti-surveillance camouflage that hides wearers from AI
Dentsu Lab and Qosmo launch UNLABELED, fashion printed with patterns that make AI cameras fail to recognise the wearer — ADFEST 2022 Digital Craft Grande.
UNLABELED · NEXUSVII. · Dentsu Inc.
What it had to solve
AI-powered cameras and customer analytics increasingly label people by appearance — gender, age, even 'dangerous' — and use that data without consent. Dentsu Lab Tokyo and Qosmo wanted to question that world and give people a practical, everyday defence against machine labeling.
How it works
AI-powered surveillance cameras and customer analytics increasingly label people by appearance — gender, age, even 'dangerous' — and use that data without consent. Dentsu Lab Tokyo and Qosmo wanted to question that world, and they chose fashion as the medium.
They launched the textile label UNLABELED and developed camouflage patterns built on 'Adversarial Patch' techniques, which add a specific pattern to make AI recognition models mislabel or miss the wearer. With streetwear brand NEXUSVII. they printed the patterns onto hoodies, crew sweats, tote bags and skateboards, and opened a limited pop-up at Shibuya PARCO during DESIGNART TOKYO in October 2021, where visitors could stand in front of a camera and watch the AI stop recognising them.
The project turned a data-privacy argument into something people could wear and buy, and it won the Digital Craft Lotus Grande at ADFEST 2022, where it was praised for challenging endless surveillance and labeling through a fusion of creativity and technology.
Why it lands
- Fashion is worn every day, so the defence against AI labeling becomes part of everyday life rather than a protest poster.
- By making the anti-surveillance product real and wearable — prices, a pop-up store and a live demo — the idea proved itself instead of just arguing about privacy.
- The patterns came from genuine Adversarial Patch research with Keio University's Computational Creativity Lab, giving the product a real technical basis rather than a visual gimmick.
- The live demo — watch AI fail to see you — made an abstract threat concrete and memorable for visitors and juries alike.
What it did
The project put the surveillance debate on fashion's turf — limited products exhibited and sold at Shibuya PARCO — and won the Digital Craft Lotus Grande at ADFEST 2022, becoming one of the region's most cited demonstrations of design resisting AI labeling.
What you can take
To make an invisible problem tangible, turn the defence into the product: when the answer to AI surveillance is a wearable pattern, people experience the technology and the issue at once.
Since then
UNLABELED continued as Dentsu Lab's flagship statement on privacy and surveillance, with the project exhibited and covered internationally. The ADFEST 2022 Digital Craft Grande made 'Camouflage Against the Machines' a reference point in the region for creative resistance to AI labeling, and the collaboration with NEXUSVII. turned research into a sellable streetwear drop.
Sources
- ADFEST 2022 Lotus Awards winners announced
- UNLABELED — Camouflage Against the Machines
- ADFEST 2022 Grand Prix works (Camouflage Against The Machines)
- Camouflage Against the Machines — clothes to protect ourselves from AI (DESIGNART TOKYO 2021 exhibition)
- UNLABELED—Camouflage against the machines wins Grande at ADFEST 2022
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