I worked with the in-house production team at London’s leading immersive venue, Frameless - providing creative direction and ideation for their client, Rolex. Rolex wanted to take over four of Frameless’s enormous immersive galleries (including the 360 degree Gallery 3) - filling them with spectacular branded experiences for their guestlist of stakeholders and premier clients. Each of the three galleries needed to offer guests something different and enticing to explore, while re-enforcing Rolex’s commitment to the arts, the environment, and highlighting the brand’s legendary history.
Agency/Venue: Frameless Client: Rolex
I took Rolex’s existing creative assets and used them to define three clear themes for each the three galleries. These thematic concepts made best use of each gallery’s strengths, taking care to align with the venue’s guidelines in order to give the audience the best immersive experience. Gallery 1 (a mirrored space used for the champagne reception and product showcase) would show off the product - using adapted and optimised versions of Rolex’s existing imagery and hero films to fill the space with impressive renders of watch mechanisms and giant, high-res product shots.
Galleries 2 and 4 would take guests on an immersive journey through the brand’s history - taking them from Rolex’s inception, right up to the present day, highlighting milestones, showcasing impressive statistics and looking to the brand’s future.
Gallery 2 (a space with 5-wall protection) would act as a giant lift platform - “lifting” guests from the burning fires of Earth’s core, through the deepest oceans, up treacherous mountaintops, before taking to the sky, the outer atmosphere and finally out into the furthest reaches of space. Treated and adapted stock footage was used to create each of these environments and then images and titles showing the brand’s historic milestones were overlaid to highlight the brand’s connection to each extreme environment. The looping sequence ended in the constellations of outer space - with isolated watch mechanisms and components floating amongst the stars.
Gallery 4 (an intimate space featuring 15 gauze panels that guest walk amongst) would host large format product imagery and video mosaics alongside facts and figures highlighting Rolex worldwide presence and global initiatives. Light level and spill was a key consideration here, owing to the translucent nature of the gauzes and the necessary cross-projection. By using bright, crisp text and dark/no backgrounds, the mechanisms of the gallery would remain concealed and the content legible and atmospheric.
Gallery 3 (a huge 360 degree projectable space) would be used for the evening’s meal and speeches. Key considerations here were creating a visually impressive backdrop that was suitable for dining in and wouldn’t be distracting or cause motion sickness. Here, the solution was to highlight Rolex’s arts and environmental initiatives by transforming the entire space into a lavish opera house for the welcome and speeches, with a Rolex-green velvet curtain revealing the space. This space then transitioned to a calm, underwater environment for the main dining experience, bathing the guests in refracted light and calming green/blue hues.
