The Selfridges Christmas window displays were brought to life by an innovative piece of interactive design. Condiment Junkie turned all 12 Oxford street windows into wind up music boxes.
The visual theme of ‘white’ was heightened by using cross-modally designed sound. High pitch and hammered instruments elicit ‘frosty’ tones that made the white design brighter.
Music boxes generate those frosty tones. They are also traditionally associated with memories, both in cinema and literature. And they are often found alongside precious objects - used in jewellery boxes for instance. These associations were in line with the ideas of tradition, memory and familiarity that the Selfridges creative team wished to convey with their visual displays.
To give the sound a familiar but contemporary edge, we created pieces based on the melodies and structures of traditional carols and wassailing songs, but with a modern twist.
We used state of the art exciters to turn the actual the glass into speakers. Using this medium to convey the sound added an extra crystal clear tone, which further enhanced the whiteness of the visual design.
Decals on the window instructed passers by to wind up music box pieces. By touching the window you could control the sound. Each piece was made out of three stems which looped and overlapped in perfect time and tune.
Footfall increased over the Christmas period compared to the previous year. Anecdotal evidence showed the interactive windows drew people towards the store and increased dwell time.
The windows generated more press coverage for the department store than they have ever received for their Christmas window schemes.
Companies
Selfridges
- Fashion and Textiles