New Hermès Flagship Store Geneva
East London-based design and agency Signal | Noise have combined their magic with the Swiss design agency Unit, to create two interactive experiences for the launch of the new Hermès flagship store in Geneva. Big brands, as mentioned in the recent AllSaints article, are looking at ways to connect to their consumers and the craft, or the process behind the final product, is currently the influencer marketing tactic du jour. Hermès have obviously been touched by this, but are bringing handcraft and technology together, to highlight the best of both worlds at Geneva’s Musee D’Art et D’Histoire.
The launch used both of the museum’s two exhibition halls and in the first, guests were invited to leave their hand print on the evening. When guests placed their hand on the specially created iPad app, a stylised animated sequence ‘scanned’ their hand and projected it as part of a composite Hermès logo on the end wall of the space.
In the second room, a six metre interactive, high-gloss, monolith was interwoven with ‘digital stitches’ – arrays of infra-red sensors and LEDs, allowing guests to create and control strips of light on the Habitat-looking block. In turn, users’ gestures also controlled large projections of iconic Hermès images projected across the room.
As we move into 2012 and brands try increasingly to keep consumers on their side with as little ‘selling’ as possible, this mixing of old and new technology will be ever more present in marketing budgets. I expect to see more videos in the factory and meeting the designers behind the product, pushing the lesser-known creative minds to the fore – allowing consumers to know where the product they are buying comes from and in turn, gives the brand a ‘human’ voice. There will of course also be a splattering of ambient media and the PR buzz words for 2011, QR codes and augmented reality, will actually be taken up by others outside of that field, for once.
