1 Manhattan West
Fifty-five feet of Interactive New York History
Digital Experience Design
2020
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— Working with one of the world’s largest innovation consultancies, I led the concept, design, and technical creative direction for a 55′ interactive wall at 1 Manhattan West with Britelite Immersive. Over six months, I pushed creative and strategic boundaries to deliver a meaningful experience that blended art, technology, and storytelling during the Covid-19 pandemic.
With a space designed to feel like an extension of New York City itself, it was important to evoke a sense of belonging for the audience. Our client had dual purposes for this activation—celebrate the city's energy and subconsciously weave in their brands global footprint of 500,000 employees. The team developed two interactive experiences powered by seven seamlessly connected Kinect cameras—we called them City Stream and Harmony Wall.
RESPONSIBILITIES
CREATIVE STRATEGY | CREATIVE DIRECTION | DIGITAL DESIGN | INTERACTIVE DESIGN
CITY STREAM
Concept
Inspired by the rich history that permeates New York City— City Stream takes visitors on a journey through the city’s past and present. As the creative lead, it was my responsibility to uncover/turn insights into a feasible and compelling experience. Along the way discovering new techniques to combat processing lag time.
What we created was an experience that truly amplified a local’s sense of city pride. Comprised of several layers, each with their unique story and challenges—City Steam not only mesmerized, it created a platform for diverse historical narratives about the unsung parts of the five boroughs.
While the experience automatically cycled and evolved to feel evergreen when idle, visitors could also dwell to trigger specific interaction layers.
FUN FACT
I researched, illustrated, and created the initial data set for 142 individual neighborhoods. Sourcing content from the New York Public Library —this experience was infused with immense substance and diversity.
Harmony Wall
CONCEPT
Inspired by nature, the Harmony Wall celebrates our client’s half-million employees moving together in unison. We envisioned this experience as a “murmuration” of people, places, and ideas—and designed it to move organically while to envoke a sense of harmony. It featured a question and answer system that allowed employees to submit a reply to a weekly question. Beyond the visual specifics—we created a strategy to keep the particle system fresh by changing the color and shape of the particles over time. Each day the system would cycle through time-mapped color families—and each season the particle shapes would change, ensuring that no two days ever felt the same.
Particles slightly changed through the time of day and year, never remaining the same for more than 1 hour.
