In the spring of 2015 I led the creative team at RadicalMedia in the concept and creation of an immersive experience that evoked the beauty and romantic mystique of one of Chanel's most iconic brands — No5 Eau Première.
Exterior Expereince:
Responsive LED Wall Installation /
Ambient Animations
To house the installation we designed and built a large glowing structure in an empty gallery space under the HighLine in New York City's Meatpacking District — an intriguing and luminous box with facetted edges that echoed the design of iconic No5 crystal bottle.
The LED covered façade of the structure served as an elegant canvas for a series of beautiful, looping ambient films and animated textures.
Each day a new visual theme was revealed, artfully rendering the intrinsic elements that make No5 Eau Première magical.
A series of artistic interpretations, 3D renderings and beautiful photographic elements that dynamically animated — periodically coalescing into the iconic No5 bottle shape – transforming the entire structure into a highly visible and artful experiential attraction.
Interior Art Installations /
Immersive Experience
Inside visitors discovered a dark and mysterious space where they encountered a series of interactive art installations.
These installations were organized into five experiential chapters — CREATION, CULTIVATION, COMPOSITION, ABSTRACTION, and REVELATION — each one coresponding to a specific part of the CHANEL No5 creation story and brand heritage.
Working closely with the talented scenic designer Mike Brown and our partners at CHANEL F&B, my team at RadicalMedia concepted, designed, and led our vendor team in the execution, fabrication and installation of the interior experience.
Installation 01:
Context & Creation
➔ Ambient Soundscape /
➔ Immersive Audio Installation
Working closely with talented electronic music composer and sound designer Joseph Fraoli, we created a series of audio-collages and spatially choreographed ambient soundscapes that evolved and changed as visitors moved through the interior experience.
As both an orientation and a prelude to the immersive experience, visitors passed through a dark entrance tunnel with a series of directional audio collages that acted as a sensory pallette-cleanser from the cacophoney of the city outside.
The first audio collage established the context for the creation of the iconic fragrance — sonically transporting visitors through time to the busy streets, cafes and avant garde salons of 1921 Paris.
As the visitor emerged from the entrance tunnel they moved through the second audio collage, an ethereal sonic tapestry of interweaving whispers, quotes from Madammoiselle Chanel in both French and English on the subjects of creation, inspiration, beauty and fragrance.
Installation 02:
Cultivation
➔ Responsive Reflecting Pools
➔ Spatial Sound Design Installation
Two interactive reflecting pools set into the floor of the space abstractly illustrated the two main floral ingredients in Chanel No5 (Jasmine & May Rose).
Through mesmerizing responsive petal animations and enveloping ambient/directional sound design visitors became immersed in the provincial origin story of the fragrance.
As visitors waved their hands over the water, the animations under the surface reacted, the ehtereal floating flower petals naturally drifted apart, revealing different story points about the cultivation of the ingredients.
As they leaned in over the water, visitors were surprised as they entered invisible cones of focussed directional audio eminating from above — hearing custom sound design colalges that transported them to fields outside of Grasse during an early morning harvest.
Beautiful responsive 4k animations of May Rose and Jasmine petals slowly drifted and moved with life-like fluid physics — creating the illusion that they were floating on or just below the surface of the physical water.
These infinity pools were housed within two minimal black steel boxes that seamed to magically rise out of the floor. A thin shear sheet of water continually flowed over the edges down into a recess in the floor. Giving the installation a physical elemental quality that subdued the technology within.
Installation 03:
Composition
➔ Interactive Musical Instrument
➔ Responsive Sound/Light Installation
To illustrate the complex fragrance composition of No5 we created ethereal musical instrument, a 'Light Organ' with 13 strings. In the center of the space these 13 vibrating 'strings' of light were projected from above — terminating on small glass discs arranged on the floor below.
By breaking the 13 beams of light, visitors were able to play musical notes that coresponded to the 13 primary fragrance notes in No5. As the notes were 'played' the beams of light changed in hue and triggered subtle typographic animations to appear on the adjacent walls.
Installation 04:
Abstraction
➔ 3-Dimensional Anomorphic Sculpture
➔ Responsive Light Installation
this suspended grouping formed the silhouette of the iconic No5 Bottle from a straight-on point-of-view, but transformed into an abstract assemblage of cut glass floating in the middle of the room, as if an shattering bottle was captured frozen in mid explosion.
Ethereal crystaline and liquid patterns of light were projection mapped onto the glass surfaces from two sides, creating the illusion of movement and sparkling within this sculptural centerpiece.
Installation 05:
Revelation
As a finale to the interior immersive experience, visitors encountered an etheral light installation in the shape of the iconic No5 bottle. Layers of lighting design created sublty shifting light hues and a shadowless space that made it difficult to perceive the depth of the bottle shaped window — Creating the illusion that there was a bottle made of light floating within the space before them.
As visitors approached the glowing bottle-shaped void, motion sensors triggered the subtle release of the fragrance into the space as almost invisible animations seemed to magically appear — fading up slowly within the evolving light.
No5 Brand Space
Social Lounge
As visitors exited the Immersive Experience they entered a pure white, flower and sunlight-filled No5 Social Lounge. In this space visitors engaged with the brand history via projected animated films and were able to sample or purchase the product first hand.
Visitors were invited to create their own Chanel No5 postcards with custom/branded ink stamps at a long central white table and then mail them from black and white vintage Parisian letterboxes.
No5 in a New Light
Event Branding & Promotion
Creative Development:
Experience Structure /
LED Wall Installation
To display the ambient animated content a 9K+ resolution LED screen was constructed within the gallery space to serve as the outer wall of the the experience structure.
In planview the LED walls were designed to evoke the recognizable form of the chamferred crystal eight-sided No5 Bottlecap which was modelled after the iconic shape of the Place Vendome in Paris.
Creative Development:
Interior Art Installations /
Immersive Experience
