Emily Hawes Graphic and Media Design My 2nd DPS WOW post shares a selection of my discoveries of playful, interactive design experiences, particularly in retail. As I recently spent 6 weeks interning with an in-house creative team at Hobbs London, a women’s high street fashion brand. Reflecting on design’s purpose I have come to realise it can show the infinite possibilities, transport you to another world with alternative thoughts and feelings, where different rules apply that allow your perspective to widen. In an often unforgiving and inflexible reality, I believe in purpose of showing others a sense of optimism. Play, fun and fantasy. Words typically associated with youth. It is widely believed that gaining an adult status means leaving behind your child-ish behaviour. However, we should hold on to our child-like approach, especially in design. You retain wonderful attributes such as imagination, desire to explore, and curiosity. Additionally a child-like world is viewed with positivity, openness and enthusiasm. These traits are so often forgotten that many have to be reminded to adopt them by searching Pinterest quotes. A person who famously held on to their inner-child was Walt Disney. Reading his biography, I found his aspirations and resilience to provide everyone with nostalgic, enjoyable entertainment during a post- depression society remarkable and I can not deny that his enthusiasm was nothing short of contagious. It reminded me that we crave to be transported even for a moment to that sweet-spot feeling when responsibility meant ensuring that the fort built in your living room was well guarded from ‘pirates’ or that the ‘fairies’ received a prompt letter of reply at the bottom of the garden. During my research of retail environments and art I found I have not always appreciated these display as I hurrying through life. I would be so focussed on buying a particular item or walking as quickly as possible from A to B that these amazing designs become vapours of passing acknowledgment, lingering for a moment but quickly disperse and disappear. However there is a such variety of innovative experiences, all there in forms of “instgrammable” visuals, outrageously ostentatious installations on buildings, fantasy zoos in windows and even a window display vaguely resembling a giant ball pit on the moon. To start off, Fendi’s store in New Bond Street illuminated giant 3-D spheres remind me of a zero-gravity, giant ball-pit or of a hypnotic opening sequence of a spy film. It transports you to another place or possibility in time. As it is abstract, you’re invited to create your own context or simply embrace emotions and feelings felt from the mood lightning. This is beautifully translated on Fendi’s website as an interactive digital experience. As you move your curser the sphere’s respond by colliding and gently bouncing off surrounding spheres. The digital spheres were so memorising I quickly became addicted to popping back to play with the site. edit. Fedi’s store New Bond Street. Hawes, E (2019). and Fedi’s website homepage.Fendi frl (2019) A similar approach can be experimental digital artists like Neil Carpenter whose design , ‘Acii Trail’, produces clouds of code in response to moving the curser across the screen. New possibilities shown through design are not always physical, some require imagination. Selfridges floral window displays promoting Apple’s iWatch encapsulates passers-by with its hand painted and meticulesly sculpted grand-scale flowers instillation. I’m reminded of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in wonderland’, particularly the moment the recently shrunk Alice meets the enormous flowers. There is something about playing with the scale of an object that reminds me of the a child’s perspective in which world appears a much larger place and in that there is a respect for it. Selfridges’ elaborate window display promoting the release of the Apple iWatch. Klingelfuss, J. (2015) Some retail brands don’t rely on imagination but choose to actually recreate an experience.The Museum of Ice-cream aims for people to feel joy using through ice-cream. Most people have positive associations with ice-cream for a start, but It states on their website that the museum “transforms concepts and dreams into spaces that provoke imagination and creativity”. It is wonderfully refreshing to see design used this way, where it simply encourages you to revert to your youth and give you permission to have fun. Museum of Ice Cream ( 2020 ) Their Instagram page is worth an aesthetically satisfying scroll Continuing the ice theme, Canada Goose’s concept store in Toronto provide a multi-sensory immersive experience combining physical and digital. The Cold Room operates between 0° and -13° Fahrenheit with actual snow and a 360 degrees digital display of the snowy environment with aim to demonstrate the warmth factor of its jackets. All resulting in a physical and emotional connection to the brand. Could this be a glimpse into future of retail? Canada Goose’s concept store in Toronto. Gault, B. (2019) The divide between physical and digital worlds are increasingly disappearing with interactive displays utilising both to create enhanced experiences. Hermes’ collaboration with Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka in 2009 produced an installation expressing the natural beauty of the scarf using two videos where each person blows on scarfs in turn to make them flutter. It really demonstrates that entertainment can be wonderfully simple such as the joy felt as child when blowing on a paper windmill. Hermes collaboration with Tokujin Yoshioka stills taken form artist’s YouTube account tokujinyoshiokamovie (2009) Available at: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyNHJQzn3pw You can get lost in virtual world of ‘borderless art’ at the digital design museum in Japan. This vast, 10,000 square meter, 3-D world of immersive digital artworks created by ‘teamLab’. You could lose yourself in the ‘Forest of Lamps’, see flowers bloom inside tea cups, be invited to draw in aquarium and virtually feed the fish, or be part of the warp in space and time by jumping or sinking on flexible surface to attract stardust and witness the life cycle of star. I really see this being a great tool for learning, memory, and positively affecting mental health. Top Left: teamLab Borderless(2019)Flutter of Butterflies Beyond Borders, Transcending Space – Floating Nest Top Right: teamLab Borderless (2018) Multi Jumping Universe Bottom Left: teamLab Borderless (2018) Universe of Water Particles on a Rock where People Gather Bottom Right: teamLab Borderless (2016) Forest of Lamps There is much to take from our youth, but the great part of being an adult is you have the tools to visualise your wild imagination. I may have started by looking at retail, but I see so many other sectors benefitting such as education, health or even offices can adopt digital rooms to immerse and relax. The coming together of digital and physical platforms allows this are there are is some exciting interactive and emotionally engaging experiences that prove graphic design can have a meaningful purpose by creating ‘new worlds’ that project optimism, possibility and allows you to embrace your inner-child. Bibliography
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