Hermés Sydney
During mid September in 2008, we were commissioned to digitally typeset a series of printed cards as well as a number of window lettering for the Hermés Sydney city store.
The theme for that particular visual merchandise display was an approach on stage performances, based on a short story line which was created by the client and their designer. Each main window and vitrine of the store featured a set design along with a piece of printed card which were printed with text, displaying one chapter of the full story. The following is the original story:
1. The Story begins
One a train traveling somewhere through Europe……
2. Aperitif
Arelette loved a triple at 5 o’clock on the dot. François would often say ‘ Well it is past midday in Bombay - why not?’ But that night Arlette had more than drinks on her mind.
3. Dining alone
As the snow begin to fall outside, Arlette sat down to a light supper for one in her private compartment plotting the night ahead. Her mind was spinning, she needed money quickly.
4. Thief
For the clever Arlette stealing jewels had become a tedious bore. Dear old François didn’t have a penny to his name and he was growing suspicious. There was only one thing left to do.
5. Murder at Midnight
The following morning the train was abuzz with nervous chatter. In the dead of night a murder had been committed.
6. Blackmail
Just as Arlette began to relax, there was a knock on the door. It was François. He had seen everything. Unless Arlette gave him half the money he would go straight to the police.
7. The Plot Thickens
Too smart to be outdone by François, Arlette was one step ahead. François had no proof and there was nothing to link Arlette to the murder of Madame La Comtesse. Who would believe such a story?
8. Escape
With her bags packed and a new stolen identity, Arlette vanished into thin air, resurfacing as Madame La Comtesse’s only surviving long lost relative.
9. Evidence
The police never solved the “Murder at Midnight” case as it became known in the press.
10. It’s a wrap
Why did Arlette do it? ”I’d kill for that Kelly bag”, she whispered to no one in particular.
There were altogether ten window spaces for the visual merchandiser to work on and within each space, a card will be displayed to realise the story line. Five of the spaces were actually vitrine, with the same height but varying widths, running in between the other five main windows on the wall facing the street. Each card within those vitrines measure 80×120mm, containing both the titles and the lines of a chapter of the full story. Here is one of the mock-up we have:
The other five main windows were then being allocated with bigger cards which measure 148.5×210mm, containing only the lines of each chapter. The titles were being cut out on white vinyl, became the window lettering displaying at the bottom right hand corner of each window spaces. The following are two other mock-ups we have got and the scale became visible:
Shown in the following is a mock-up drawing of the five main window spaces of the store. What we are trying to illustrate in the drawings are the window lettering, in white. All other elements (such as the brand’s products and manikins) have been striped away as to efficiently present the titles at each bottom right hand corner. Every title echos the content of the card placed within each set design.
For this digital typesetting assignment, the typeface Prestige Elite Std by Creative Alliance has been chosen by the client and their designer to reflect the overall visual presentation of the set design. However, we did have a little more input on the details of typography as we wanted to create a more indepth layer of logical relationship within each typographic elements.
By introducing the basic Fibonacci sequence for all the type sizes, we were hoping that the type can become a part of the spatial environment, referencing the golden section as a model of proportion, in a natural way. The chosen type sizes for this assignment were 13pt for the vitrine cards, 21pt for the main windows’ cards and 377pt for the window lettering.
As we did not managed the print production for this project, according our memories, these cards were ink-jet printed on a type of slightly textured ivory card produced by Fabriano in Italy.
Commissioned by Sydney based interior designer Chen Lu for Hermés Sydney.