In my first year of university one of my first branded projects was to create a pop up that would showcase a brand of your choice. The reasoning for my choice on Dior is that they have a prestige background and legacy, of being this refined, luxurious company. I had an opportunity to visit Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition in 2019 and I can easily state it was one of the most memorising set designs I have ever witnessed. I could easily write pages upon pages about the event but in order to keep this post on track I will refine so.
Unfortunately last year the time when the pandemic had us all social distancing at home my old laptop decided it was time for it to go along with all my old files and projects. Luckily all my work had been uploaded, but sadly I will never be ever to recover my develop and the original files. If anything that I had taught me not just to save on my laptop - they can't always be trusted.
Back to the project - The ideas was to promote the brand of our choice latest product whether it be a new fashion line or limited edition item. For me I chose to promote Dior was to take the running theme of the pearl white and gold and the star decoration and place them into a new collection named 'Dior Planetarium'.
For those who might not be aware of what a planetarium is a domed building in which images of stars, planets, and constellations are projected. It does have a second definition which is a clockwork model of the solar system, or of just the sun, earth, and moon which is more commonly called orrery.
They serve a educational purpose that has aged into a more vintage aesthetic appeal with the use of bronze metals. It was with this idea I decided I wanted to create a solar orrery that displayed the new collection of Dior Planetarium as the planets that orbit, that would be scaled up version almost like a massive toy.
As I didn't have the original file I did not have any measurements to go on, but I remember it being at least over 3 meters as it exceeded the average height easily but it was a struggle for those who wished to add a second floor to their projects. Luckily I did have a clear memory of the design I was going for and manage to recreate based on the memory alone.
This is still in working process - my original idea was with a box, as the space giving was a square shape and I liked the theme of a toy box. I am having issues with creating good lighting for the renders - it's proving more difficult then I would have imagined. I did want the collection pieces to emit a soft glow so they would attract attention, but adding lighting to showcase the installation is proving rather tedious. To really highlight the solar installation the stars are meant to be projected on the back walls so they're needs to be light so the guest can see but not be too bright that the projection can't appear.
The materiality is still a working progress for the renders, I am still switching between smooth inky black or a cool reflective silver for the orrery.
There will be changes coming along to this project, there is definitely a huge ground for improvement. It still is one of my favourite brand projects so I will try to do it the justice it deserved on the first try.