Glitch
Glitch is a virtual reality experience that transforms your reality into your wildest fantasy. Through state of the art technology, Glitch glasses sync with an app interface to superimpose art into your environment — littering a map with hidden places to explore and unique experiences to find.
Overview
How do you build an authentic brand identity? We were challenged to study the iconic fashion doll company, Barbie, and create a new company that reimagined the brand in the transportation industry.
How might we translate core Barbie values to innovate the transportation industry?
Roles
Project management, research, interviews, concept ideation, materials and manufacturing analysis, prototyping
I. Discover
We conducted extensive research to understand the historical and present brand presence of Barbie, from their design system to our own immersive experience with the brand in store and online.
Distilling the Barbie brand
We created a brief survey to democratize our understanding of Barbie, asking others to share their own memories and feelings about the brand.
Survey
Frameworks
We used a framework to demonstrate our creative interpretation of transportation as movement from one state to another.
II. Define
We did structured brainstorming and a voting exercise to identify our scope of the transportation industry.
Brainstorms
III. Develop
In consideration of the Barbie brand, and our focus on transporting to a fantasy world, we began to conceptualize our brand. We ideated around names, values, products, and brand colors, curating a mood board of our brand experience.
Concept, ideate, evaluate 🔁
IV. Deliver
Immersive Experience
We believe the best way to understand a brand is through experience. We invite you to grab your pair of Glitch glasses and watch a dreary day ⬅️ become your wildest fantasy ⬇️.
We curated four pillars of Glitch built from key tensions discovered while conducting brand research on Barbie.
Brand Principles
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by Mattel designed to fit in the palm of a child. But who Barbie becomes once in a child's’ hands is an untold story. Barbie is an invitation to play, to dream, to live your greatest fantasy.
Glitch glasses are a physical lens through which you can perceive a new world. Technology enhanced VR capabilities synch with artists’ work designed to animate the city around you.
The sheer physical space Barbie consumes is so unavoidable that users recall storage bins and suitcases filled with items. The brand expansion to multiple mediums is an example and a product of Barbie’s growth from an ordinary toy to a global cultural icon.
Glitch lives as both a physical and digital product. The Glitch glasses have a wireless connection to a new experience of cities digitally designed by local artists. Each city has a unique theme enticing users to travel, explore, and start a collection of their own.
Nearly all users we spoke to began their answers with “I remember…” sharing detailed sentiments. Part of the nostalgic experience is the convoluted unboxing process. Barbie, in an effort to retain its millennial customers, is equally contemporary with an instagram account that touts social advocacy and many brand partnerships, including fashion.
Glitch also draws a seamless connection between the past and present. The futuristic technology is embedded in a physical object reminiscent of those classic, plasticy ‘90’s toys. The VR art work is designed by rising pop culture artists, but expressed in a simple, cartoon-like language of childhood familiarity.
It would be remiss to not address Barbie controversy. The brand has become a symbol of the strong gender bias towards femininity and social exclusivity. The brand has also suffered criticism for the unrealistic body standards and one dimensional representation of women.
Still, Barbie managed to maintain global success and along the way refined itself as a community-focused company that takes informed and actionable stances on social issues. Notably, all users we interviewed only mentioned playing with Barbies in a social context with friends or family. Play is inherently social in nature and the Barbie brand is woven into that fabric.
Glitch faces a similar dilemma as a personal wearable with community-building features. Our gamified, interactive integration with social media is akin to the massive success of Pokemon Go - where thousands of people gathered to catch, trade, train, and battle their collections.
We admit that Glitch faces pertinent issues in the tech industry: how much is too much? Does the line between reality and fantasy become blurred, and what are the social consequences?
Stakeholder Feedback
“You both did a great job with a loaded topic. Great work!”
“Fantastic work. Well done to you both.”
V. Debrief
Key Learnings
Authentic brands tell a cohesive story from design choices to the way they are experienced.
Complications in the design thinking process might be intimidating, but can lead to rich outcomes when thought through. Tensions are pivotal to understanding context.
Creating an immersive experience is an exciting way to engage the audience in a pitch, especially when demonstrated in the beginning.
The team, the team, the team
Thank you to Liying Peng for entertaining my penchant for pushing projects to absurdity and for meeting an incredibly hard design prompt with excitement and childlike curiousity.