The Skinny

Maybe you’ve read the rest of the the project write-ups in our portfolio and you’re thinking, “These guys just don’t seem to take this stuff seriously. Everything is one big joke and nearly buzzword-free.” We’ll this one is for you good sir. Buzz Wordsmith has arrived, so tighten your tie, sit back, and enjoy. The rest of you probably wont make it past the first paragraph.

Challenge

Scion, a division of the Toyota Motor Corporation, wanted to create an interactive experience that would bring their brand to life. Working collaboratively, George P. Johnson and SilkTricky came to Scion with the idea for “Mix It Up”. “Mix It Up” is a large-scale interactive installation that engages users with the Scion brand and immerses them in the process of customization which is central to the car’s identity.

Scion developed a brand that targets primarily Gen-Y consumers. The brand aims to be hip and edgy, but straightforward and expressive of individuality. A central aspect of the process of purchasing a Scion is a high level of customization. Unlike most vehicles, Scion accessories aren’t sold in packages but are available a la carte for clearly set prices. Consumers can customize the exact combination of features that suits their individual style.

The challenge was to further enhance the customization of the kiosk concept and promote a compelling and lasting interaction with the brand. From a design perspective, this involved combining motion graphics with a usable interface so that users would be stimulated and engaged but not overwhelmed.

Solution

For Mix It Up, our two teams created an interactive experience using two 50” plasma screens – a touch screen below and a display screen above. Using the touch screen to make choices, the visitor creates a customized virtual Scion car on the display in real time – selecting model, color, wheels, body accessories, applied graphics, and even details about the environment the virtual car is in. Staying inline with Scion’s brand identity, the overall visual treatment is dynamic, active, with a hip hop feel, full of vibrant colors and extensive movement. The unique large-scale display system we developed truly immerses the user in the experience.

With each element chosen, the user is also laying down musical tracks – bass, drum, melody – to create a custom audio composition. By the end of the process, each user has created a unique seven-track song that plays through the integrated speakers.

We developed the Mix It Up Experience so that it could be set up to deliver the finished content to users in two different ways:

01. Customized T-Shirt
Once the user completes their customized car, the kiosk sends the information to a print server which in turn prints the car out on iron-on transfer paper. Those print outs are then fused onto a t-shirt using a hot press. Users walk away with their own custom scion t-shirt. This creates an ongoing interaction with the brand and turns each user into a walking billboard for Scion’s customizable and expressive identity.

02. Email
Once the user completes their customized car and enters their information, the kiosk emails them a screenshot of their creation that they can then use to decorate their desktop, cell phone or anything else with.

SilkTricky built the user interface using Flash, Flash Video using After Effects, and AJAX. They used the ViewPoint 3D plug-in to animate the virtual car in the display screen, and to create the street environment. The back-end ran on ColdFusion.

Gallery