Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog

Imagine receiving a DNA collection kit in the mail with your name on it, swabbing the inside of your cheek, transferring the cells onto a piece of special paper, and mailing it back to the return address. In the lab, a technician extracts your DNA, runs it on a gel, and captures a raw digital image from that gel. Then, your DNA sample is destroyed. Convicted felon? Father of another child? Or just redecorating the condo with your unique DNA portrait?

This phenomenal example of entrepreneurship and arts marketing was brought to my attention this weekend by my should’ve-been-a-geneticist mother. It’s every marketer’s dream — the big idea — and together Web consultant Adrian Salamunovic and biotech imaging specialist Nazim Ahmed found it in a string of DNA. They started a company called DNA 11 that catapulted them into the media spotlight with personalized portraits of people’s DNA images. Clients first choose a color scheme, size and frame option. Several weeks after submitting their DNA sample, they receive an original, one-of-a-kind work of art.

Co-founders Salamunovic and Ahmed started their business in a small apartment with $2,000 and netted a $1 million the first year. They’ve received international press coverage and were featured on CSI:NY. They also sell their service in The Museum of Modern Art stores, in both New York and Tokyo. They’ve branched out into FingerPrint Portraits and KISS Portraits. I’m intrigued by the innovative idea, the comprehensive Web site (with blog) and DNA 11’s goodwill efforts which have accompanied its success.

Clearly, the popularity of DNA 11 comes from a new idea and the ability to execute it with state-of-the-art technology, but will a DNA Portrait from DNA 11 ever hang in the MoMa? Or is this just a novelty, a contemporary decorator’s dream? What if it were a DNA Portrait of the Dalai Lama or the Pope? Or another twist — how about a FingerPrint Portrait of O.J. Simpson? Would that elevate the status of this art to museum worthy or just increase the demand for reproductions of an even more novel product?

Note: The title of this post is a branding slogan by DNA 11.

• Tags: Design, DNA, FingerPrint Portrait, KISS Portrait, Marketing, media, MoMA, novelty, personalize

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 7:43 am and is filed under Design, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.