The Dell Lounge (NYC) and Inspiron™ Product Launch

We were handed the new color samples for the Dell Inspiron™ product line, and asked to create a graphic system to reinforce the brand, as well as integrate the product into a lounge intended for installation in the Macy’s Herald Square location in Manhattan. Yes, the Macy’s. So, 8 color samples, the “yours is here” tagline, and the Dell logo.

We started first by attempting to generate some interest from the 8 color sample dots that formed the Dell graphic for the campaign. While fine as a supporting image for a tagline, we were under-whelmed by how to use them in a graphic campaign, much less in site specific art. A dot is a closed form, therefore we changed it to a ring, an open form, and thus available to receive information. The premise being, the dots and rings are users. From there, we extended the ring to another ring; users sharing information. This system can then be extended into a user group, with users sharing information with other groups, and from there a multiplicity of users and groups (read: ‘Dell community’).

Broad abstraction—not a deep intellectual premise—but a place to start.

The ring pattern became the foundation of silkscreened fabric patterns, which were later sewn into pillows—on site—by Ia Iliyadi.


We then set the user in motion. Setting up at our studio, we took 3’ by 9’ sheets of mylar, and did a number of fast gestural studies in india ink with brushes. (I wanted to be sure this stayed a human process, that in the face of all this technology we kept our eye on the end user, the human, not on the technology). These pieces, once dry were then pulled and contorted into new shapes and photographed from tight angles. We wanted to create a sense of space and depth of field without having to actually create one that would be distracting to the product. This is a deferential type of abstract expressionism.

The images we captured were then taken into the computer, and redrawn to create vector pieces more easy to work with. Note: though Adobe Live Trace has its place, we did not use it here. It does not deliver the level of accuracy we were after, and thus the art was digitized manually rather than traced.
Once all the art was in the computer, the original images were discarded, and the process began anew. The ink studies were a place to start, and the manipulation of forms in Illustrator became a rigorous and exotic exercise in implying depth, motion, and diversity of forms within a system.

The ring pattern was worked back in to create texture and a distance, and a few key ‘users’ and bits of ‘data’ were activated. Completed, these illustrations became the nine site specific panels for the lounge. Some gestures were pulled from the illustration and rendered in die cut vinyl back mounted to the glass of the frames to further express the depth of the pieces, and to create visual movement as you move past the art.

From there, it was a matter of proliferating the ideas. We asked model Lauren Hagy to stand for us, wrapped her in yellow trace paper, and worked out the gestural forms from the illustrations on her body. These graphic moves from the panels were modified and scaled, then reproduced in sheets of die cut vinyl. Prior to launch, they were applied by hand to mannequins we had painted to match the Inspiron™ product line.

From there, buttons and t-shirts, of course. Then to Manhattan to oversee and participate in the construction of the lounge, installation of art, fabrication of pillows, application of the vinyl to the mannequins (which took 16 hours straight, all-nighter).



Credit where it is due: though many people contributed to making this product launch happen, we were aided by David Gentry at Gentry Frames (who made the frames obviously), Meredith Terrel at Accugraphics, they produced the prints, die cut vinyl, and acyrlic, and last but not least, Billy Bishop at Obsolete for silkscreening the fabric and getting the colors right. Cheers.

Thank you Dell for supporting local artists and designers.