High Five: Experience Design Indistinguishable from Magic
Experience design. The design of experiences - but, don't we experience everything? Then is everything experience design? Yep, absolutely. 'Experience design' has become one of those ubiquitous industry terms, said so much about such a broad range of work it ceases to have a sharp universally agreed upon definition...which makes it sort of fun to explore. The best in experience design (XD) grows from a place of careful brand expression. Brand experience design creates a place for customers, fans and totally oblivious alike to step into a brand’s values. Either literally, digitally or metaphorically. At worst, branded XD is a burdensome chore; self-aggrandising and hollow. At best though, it can be indistinguishable from magic. XD is a transcendent way to momentarily live inside or interact with a concept or cherished brand. Here’s a quick look at five experiences I feel fall in the latter category...
Vogue - Bode’s New Los Angeles Store
Fashion and spatial design: Emily Adams Bode
Furniture design and craftsmanship: Aaron Aujla
Fashion designer Emily Adams Bode and her husband Aaron Aujla crafted an artful dialogue about overconsumption through their new, stunning LA store. The pair have created a beautiful demonstration of the Bode brand, a brand world you can step into, sniff, touch, walk through and buy to take home. The experience smells amazing, associates greet you with sparkling water and effortlessly explain the concept. There's even a dodo bird as a looming warning.
Nosaj Thing - 'Continua' Album Website
Artwork and experience design: Eric Hu
Website: Bureau Cool
Noasj Thing’s site for the album 'Continua' shows us how beautiful modern visual AI and ML programs can be when wrapped in a thoughtful story. Much has been made of the impact generative image creation platforms will have but rarely are we shown what all the stink means. In this experience, as the user, you're engaged emotionally which generates an image, then this image is added to the experience. The result is your actions creating and growing the site for future visitors.
adidas - 'Oz World'
Agency: Jam3
When faced with positioning adidas as an innovator in the web3 space, Jam3 created the world’s first personality-based AI-generated cross-platform avatars. Innovation and genera bending sometimes requires a few hyphens. adidas had an opportunity to provide a means for self-expression in the metaverse that actually lived up to the much hyped movement. The experience is the first generative avatar platform based on personality, built on blockchain, and completely owned by its users. But what's more, it expressed adidas values of innovation and artfully nested a product in the conversation.
Moncler - 'The Extraordinary Expedition'
Agency: Modem
Scenography and light design: Matière Noire
CGI film: Kühl & Han
Sound design: Kamal El Aoufi
Scent design: Magique
Photography: Benoit Florençon
Videography: Charles Lanceplaine
A sculptural, sonic, olfactic and cinematic expedition through Moncler’s past, present and future. Moncler had a tricky brand line to walk, appealing to a fickle ‘expedition’ outdoor market while also maintaining a pinnacle position in the fashion space. They found this balance by tucking product moments into interactive, museum-quality installation and filmic art.
Universal Everything Exhibitions - 'Lifeforms'
Exhibition: 180 Studios
Design: Ab Rogers Design
Creative director: Matt Pyke
Executive producer: Claire Spencer Cook
Graphic design: Universal Everything x Asuka Kawabata x Ab Rogers Design
Lighting design: Beam Lighting Design Ltd
Exhibition installation: Sam Forster Associates Ltd
Media installation: London Audio Visual and Fold Sound
Boasting nine rooms of immersive, interactive, and generative video art, 'Universal Everything' encourages folks to discover characterful digital lifeforms. What’s not to love about art you get to participate in? “Constantly unique, Lifeforms is an amalgam of installations that mirror and shift with time and the public’s interactions. No visitor will see the same show twice.” A generative parade, this exhibit pulls on threads of futurism, self-perception and the natural world.
