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Helsinki Fashion Week

TYPE & TECH Virtual Fashion, Wellness Experience

CLIENT Helsinki Fashion Week

OVERVIEW

Helsinki Fashion Week (HFW) approached us in 2020 to work with an incredible array of artists and innovative companies to bring their first fully virtual, sustainable cyber Fashion Week to life and of course we jumped at the chance.

THE DIGITAL VILLAGE CONCEPT

One challenge the fashion industry is dealing with is burnout, the working schedules for everyone involved are intense and mental restoration is often overlooked in typical fashion week schedules. Evelyn Mora, the mastermind behind this project wanted to create a personalised, natural-looking space that would allow users to have a mental break, restore, reflect take some time to do nothing but be still for a moment.

DEVELOPING THE SANCTUARY

Working closely with the architectural geniuses at DaeWha Kang Design, we developed a beautiful audio-reactive floating orb, contextualized amidst a calming forest environment. Each sanctuary environment was slightly personalised for each guest, and open to everyone not just the attendees for the shows. Both mobile & desktop versions were able to take input from your microphone which altered the physical movement of the orb, making it both engaging and add to the feeling of being alive. By using real-time refraction mapping the orb was able to have a glass-like look, whilst simplex noise and wave functions made the surface of the orb ripple in response to the user.

Nature's influence

We considered nature as a reference throughout our development, even the complex movement of the Orb is inspired by how bees move to communicate. Using the figure-eight waggle dance of bees added a subtle effect that added to the overall feeling of being immersed in nature. The ambisonic soundscape developed by the incredible The Mono Company creates a sense of hypnotic tranquillity. You can use your mouse or screen to navigate around the orb, take a moment for yourself to explore it real-time here.

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