How do you encourage discerning, design-conscious luxury car consumers to drop their guard and get playful at an auto show? That was the challenge Hearst Media put to HUSH Studios when it asked the New York-based multidisciplinary production company to conceive a cutting-edge interactive showpiece for automaker Infiniti at the Classic Car Show in Pebble Beach, California.
Along with architecture firm Third Eye Studios and technology directors Flightphase, HUSH's team directed a three-part installation that provided consumers with a compelling and immediately tangible demonstration of the brand's dedication to technological innovation.
Based on the three key brand pillars of design, performance and luxury, the displays also offered attendees an engaging way to explore Infiniti's core values. "You have a lot of uncontrollable variables, so what we tried to do was to create an open, accessible experience that involves the audience whether they are 65 or 15," said HUSH Partner/CD David Schwarz. "Both should walk away with the same sort of understanding of the brand."
The first installation invited users to pick up a custom-designed paintbrush and virtually animate brushstrokes on a screen in a manner inspired by Infiniti's classic "Shodo" calligraphy stroke. The second piece was based on layered footage that revealed itself in narrow windows as users walked closer to the screen. For the third, HUSH created a geometric collage of product design details that leapt out at viewers depending on their movements.
"We wanted to create something like the surface of the ocean based on peaks and valleys," Partner/CD Erik Karasyk said of the third piece.
HUSH's team built the installations using infrared cameras, motion-tracking software and a mix of existing and bespoke applications using the open source OpenFrameworks toolkit. In all, the project took about four months to complete from concept pitch to installation.
Both veterans of the commercial production world, Schwarz and Karasyk are increasingly being tapped for work in the realm of experiential exhibition media. "Over the past 12 to 18 months we've really invested highly in interactive," said Schwarz. "We're coming full circle in the studio by bringing our abilities to direct, art direct, design and animate to different spaces, from mobile to exhibition and online."