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OLD NAVY SELFIEBRATION by Deeplocal
This project by Deeplocal, a firm based in Pittsburgh, helped Old Navy celebrate their birthday by rendering fans’ selfies on a massive display made of 1,000 balloon “pixels”. I specifically choose this project because of the way people interact with the display. It is really cool how your face gets to literally be part of the display, while using balloons to extenuate that this is, in fact, a celebration. In addition the size of the display makes it disruptive in a way that even if it’s not your face projected, you still interact with the display. Also, the idea of using “selfies” in to attract an audience is very smart due to the large presence of selfies in media today. All in all, they knew their audience, the message was clear, the interaction was easy, and most importantly it was pleasant and fun for all parties involved.
Adding to that, even though it seems like a simple idea in concept, the project is highly innovative in the sense that they invented custom-engineered balloons for this specific project. In my opinion, executing simplicity in a design is harder than complexity.
The balloons, divided among 16 identical “balloon boxes,” inflated simultaneously with each capture, thanks to almost five miles of wiring and a pneumatic valving system built by Deeplocal engineers, explains CEO Nathan Martin.
The device is capable of showing two selfies a minute. Concept through creation to going live took just eight weeks.
The team consisted of a mix of about 20 artists, engineers, and designers.
Links:
https://www.deeplocal.com/projects/selfiebration.html
DeepLocal machine turns selfies into 15-foot balloon portraits