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Create Your Taste.

Here's a brand innovation challenge: you're a fast-food company sponsoring THE high-tech destination event for influencers worldwide. You're also not, shall we say, highly regarded by this demographic. McDonald's needed to show it understood the culture of SXSW, Austin's sense of place, and an organic embracing of technology.x

McDONALD'S
SXSW
2016
Interactive spaces
Never thought i'd say this but shoutout to the @McDonalds lounge for being the real mvp of sxsw this year
Selection of social sentiment (this one by @laurak8d)

We also wanted to make sure we messaged what McDonald's stands for: The idea of creating your own taste. We expanded on this, and allowed multi-user interactions with physical space to become part of the message: Interactive color-shifting LED sculptures and integrated VR showcases as part of our visual framework. Additionally, custom patterns, illustrations and branding materials called back to SXSW and Austin. The result: people loved it.

Building off of the architecture and purpose of both spaces and Austin, we designed cohesive sister experiences that would allow for users to experience each space differently on their own terms. The main space was in an old textile building, and we merged that feel with modern virtual 'textiles'. Layering color, pixels and VR together.

In order to facilitate movement through the space, which would be up throughout the entire festival and used as a music venue, we made the interactive installation passive and installed it on the ceiling.

Oversized pixels changed colors and reacted to audience interaction below. Fun fact: an earlier version of this pulled in hashtagged instagram photos, parsed them into individual color pixels and would have abstracted them back onto the crowd.

In the SXSW convention center, we created an elegant space that for panels, talks and hanging out that would use the limitations of the room to our advantage. The main wall was retractable into the ceiling, which no one would do because it removes a wall. Our solution: raise that wall, build a transparent colored wall that could be seen from the hall and bring people into the space. Build custom furniture, stock it with objects of art, and a classy yet subtle space is born.

The result was one of the top three spaces at SXSW (according to user sentiment and social share of voice), and incredulously

"I'm going to take Tylenol PM and pray I sleep til 2PM." Crap I say

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