Experiental Design
From the perspective of an art director, custom builds in live brand activations, retail environments, and pop-ups play a pivotal role in translating brand strategy into tangible, immersive experiences. These builds serve as the physical embodiment of a brand's identity, narrative, and emotional appeal, making them central to audience engagement and perception. Here's a breakdown of their role:
Brand Storytelling Through Environment Design
Custom builds are not just structures; they’re narrative tools. As an art director, you shape these elements to:
Reflect the brand’s ethos visually and spatially.
Build a cohesive story arc through color, materials, texture, and form.
Use spatial flow and sensory touchpoints to guide user experience intuitively.
In a live activation, for example, a custom-built installation might mirror a campaign's theme (e.g., sustainability) through organic shapes, recycled materials, and calming earth tones — all curated to deepen the storytelling.
Visual Impact & Differentiation
Custom builds provide a distinctive, ownable visual signature that off-the-shelf solutions rarely offer. From an art director’s lens:
They help the brand stand out in crowded environments like festivals, trade shows, or urban pop-ups.
Enable a "stop-and-stare" effect, crucial for foot traffic and social media capture.
Allow high levels of customization to align with specific campaign goals (e.g., launch, celebration, education).
Cohesion Between Digital and Physical Worlds
Modern brand activations often blend physical and digital touchpoints. Art directors ensure that:
Custom builds are designed to support content capture (photo ops, AR filters, livestream-friendly angles).
Materials and lighting work harmoniously with camera lenses as much as with the naked eye.
Interactivity (screens, RFID, gamification elements) is seamlessly integrated, not an afterthought.
The activation pictured above featured audio as well as olfactory elements paired with the visual of the “Vancouver Forest”
Materiality and Craft
Material choices in a custom build aren’t purely aesthetic — they’re communicative. As an art director:
You choose materials that reinforce the brand's values (e.g., luxe vs. sustainable).
You oversee craftsmanship and fabrication detailing to ensure brand alignment down to the tactile experience.
You balance visual appeal with durability and scalability, particularly in traveling pop-ups or touring activations.
For this project, we used replicas of native plants found in a typical Vancouver Forest.
Audience Journey & Emotional Design
From the first sightline to the exit point, art directors map out emotional beats within a build:
Creating moments of awe, discovery, or intimacy through lighting, reveals, or scale.
Using design cues to orchestrate movement and focus (e.g., focal installations, interactive stations).
Building multi-sensory experiences that create lasting impressions — scent, sound, light, and texture all contribute.
Collaboration & Execution Oversight
The art director plays a central role in the collaborative orchestration of a custom build:
Works closely with fabricators, set designers, producers, and clients to bring sketches to scale.
Ensures brand consistency across physical assets, graphic treatments, and signage.
Provides creative oversight during installation and staging, adjusting elements for real-world variables like lighting or crowd flow.
Conclusion
In the hands of an art director, custom builds become more than functional spaces — they’re curated experiences designed to evoke emotion, enhance storytelling, and leave a lasting brand imprint. Whether it’s a 3-day pop-up or a long-term retail display, the success of these builds hinges on strategic, creative vision grounded in the brand’s essence and audience expectations. This experiential event was at LA Live for 21 days and had to be installed and dismantled on a daily basis, which provided several challenges.