Strukt Design Studio was comissioned by Jung von Matt/relations GmbH from Cologne, Germany, to create visual installations for their Mercedes-Benz “The :place” event in Stuttgart, which functioned as the showcase of “The design:project” - inspired by the Mercedes-Benz GLK. This event featured the works of six leading design schools from all over Europe, which were challenged to create design pieces inspired by the brand new GLK. The overall theme to this competition was “the game of form and content”, which we also took as an inspiration for our work. |
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Welcome Area
We created 15 animated clips in full HD to welcome the guests to the event, presenting design quotes we picked, and set them in relation to design elements of the new Mercedes-Benz GLK. We used the element of a pencil drawing construction lines and the typeface building the quotes. For this purpose we custom-made the typeface based on the corporate font of Mercedes-Benz.
Exhibition Visuals
With the node-based programming language VVVV we built a letter-universe which functioned as a soothing ambient visual but also created type-matrix pictures and fonts to feature the participants of “The design:project”. The real-time animation was screened on a 20 meter wide 3x-HD projection using only one computer to create the output signals. This system was later on also used to screen content during the award ceremony. For convenience we enabled OSC commands to control the letter-universe with the help of an iPod Touch.
Party Visuals
To heat up the party after the award ceremony we created a sound-reactive visual application, also based on VVVV and shown with the 3x-HD-projection. The controls for the visuals were handled with a 15-inch Stantum multi-touch screen running a custom made interface.
Tagtool
Additionally we worked together with O.M.A. International, who supported us with live-drawings done with their award winning Tagtool.
Since the event in Stuttgart in September 2008 was received very well, we were invited to also bring our work to Milan, Italy, where “The design:project” was also featured in a similar set-up in the beginning of October 2008.