Fashion brands are increasingly embracing media technology in their retail environments to launch new marketing campaigns, attract customers’ attention, and build up their image. I was commissioned by Uniqlo, the Japanese fashion brand, to create an installation that will re-launch an existing product line in their stores in New York, Paris, and London. In a concerted effort to break out of the typical traditional approach to retail environment, I proposed a bolder and high-impact spatial experience that communicates the innovation of this product and that which implements a forward-thinking approach to visual merchandising.
Conceived to have a consistent visual identity in these three cities, the installations combined media technology, motion graphics, and products, to shape a bold visual experience that resonates with the public. The experience was mostly shaped by one-hundred customized and synchronized LED monitors playing motion graphics that connect visually to the products' and Uniqlo’s identity.
The overall design, selected technology, and the media shown on the screens, dialogue with the interior architecture of the store, creating a visual coherency.
This project exemplifies the shifting trend within fashion brands to embrace technology in order to transform their spaces, and also to recognize its potentials in creating a general cross-platform branding effort. The new category "experience design" is a testament that technology continues to open up new frontiers and applications, and that there is a higher demand for non-static, interactive and sensorial branding experience.
Basic Credits:
Client: Uniqlo
Invited Artist/Director: Mona Kim
Technology: Traxon Technologies
Metalworks: Caliper Studios (New York)
Fabrication (Paris, London): Elemental Design
