Background
Richard Edelman, CEO of the world’s largest private PR firm Edelman, reached out and asked Phil to contribute to the design and technology of the lobby for Edelman’s new headquarters at 250 Hudson St, New York. Richard knew that Phil had started college as an architecture major and had a growing reputation for integrating technology, experience, and design into physical spaces.
Objective
The challenge was to:
- Create a highly functional and efficient lobby that conveyed the Edelman brand
- Design in an experience that conveyed innovation and leading-edge
- Create a WOW for the visitors when entering the lobby
Description
The centerpiece of the lobby was the first generation of a display ‘wall’ or smart wall. It is not one giant screen, but six—a cluster of Micro-Bezel digital displays. This would allow the use of off-the-shelf technology with ease of maintenance and repair.
Each one has 1366x768px resolution; and in their 3×2 configuration, they offer a combined “ultra-high resolution” of 4098x1536px. Together, the wall supports 32 simultaneous touchpoints and is protected by 2mm-thick Gorilla Glass to prevent those with unusually heavy fingers from breaking it all too easily.
The media displayed on the wall is handled by a workstation using standard tools (Adobe, Microsoft, etc). We designed it to not require special custom tools/solutions to ensure it had a long “shelf life” — future proof.
Current Status
The Edelman prototype, designed by Phil, was turned into a product that HP shipped under the brand VantagePoint. They later sold it to a partner who markets it as a “digital signage” solution.