October 01, 2020
As a Producer at Hook, I work with clients and internal teams to make sure projects run smoothly, meet our standards, and achieve clients’ objectives. Like many of our projects, this one required a lot of collaboration between our design, creative, technology, and motion teams.
Hook is a creative production agency organized around the idea that diverse, and versatile teams create better work, faster. Our teams of 20 are formed from an interdisciplinary mix of artists, creatives, engineers, and producers. Everyone is equally invested in thinking through complex ideas and creating experiences around them. Most importantly, we like to support other creative businesses, so we jumped at the opportunity to work with Design Core during the Detroit Month of Design.
Creating these interactive AR decals for the Detroit Month of Design gave our team an outlet to explore ways in which we could incorporate our agency’s capabilities into a project that excites the team and supports our community. Since this project lives in the digital space, it can live beyond the Detroit Month of Design as a virtual memento to the ten-year anniversary and Design Core’s first AR installation.
Hook is well versed in AR projects. In 2019, our team built Dino Runner for Google I/O, a multiplayer game based on an 8-bit easter egg hidden in Google Chrome. However, this was the first time I’ve gotten to work on an AR project. Hook’s original pitch was to virtually animate painted murals within the city, however, due to the pandemic, we pivoted to integrate AR technology into Design Core’s decals.
The idea was to highlight various design trends, ranging from Futurism to Renaissance, while celebrating Detroit Month of Design’s 10th anniversary. Hook also wanted to create a safe, fun way for people to engage the intersection of design and technology.
Hook’s Art Director, Carly Ouellette conceptualized most of the project with the help of our visual designers Michael Crawford, Tomi Rosanwo, and Cat Thielen. Once the concepts were established, they were rendered in a 3D space and animated. That’s where our Creative Technologist Brad Nawrocki came in along with our Motion Designer Shaun Walsh, and Retoucher Josh Manore.
We began conceptualizing in early June and worked daily until the Detroit Month of Design kicked off in September. We had to think through how the designs could be translated from 2D to 3D space, how they would animate and how people would interact with them.
Once the Detroit Month of Design kicked off we were ecstatic to see people sharing their interactions with the decals via #DetroitMonthofDesign.
Written by Let’s Detroit Ambassador Alter Jackson of Hook Studio and designer of Detroit Month of Design Living Decals sponsored by Let’s Detroit.
