Project Overview

In 2019, after a competitive tender process, Chas Clarkson was engaged by Brisbane Marketing to deliver their innovative 'PLAY SPACE' concept for Queen Street Mall. A hyper-real, immersive ‘Merry Christmas’ decoration program that was designed to fuse together physical and augmented decorations. A Summer Christmas celebration that was uniquely Brisbane and a ‘must-see experience’ in the annual Brisbane Christmas calendar.

Visitors of all ages - local, interstate and international - were captivated by this vivid Christmas wonderland. Every turn, pathway and intersection along the mall became part of an adventure of surprise and delight.

Organisation

Brisbane Economic Development Agency

Team

Tim Clarkson (Managing Director), Andreas Zehntner (Creative Director), Karl Grassl (Design Manager), Jialing Mew (Designer), Mikayla Austin (Designer), Georgie Corkett (Industrial Designer), Ainslie Asher (Industrial Designer), Gerard Ryan (Production Director), Gary Lucey (Bespoke Production Manager), Tracy Martins (Core Production Manager), Aleena Castanos (Production Coordinator), Simon Quinn (State Manager), Jeanette Ward (QLD Account & Project Manager), Sean Murtagh (QLD Account Manager), Toni-Ann Roehrig (QLD Project Manager), Melodie Marsh (Project Manager), Adam Walker (Supply Chain Manager), Andrew Thant Zin Oo (Logistics manager)

Project Brief

Brisbane Marketing's brief clearly stipulated that they wanted to completely reinvent how 750,000 visitors to Queen Street Mall would experience and engage with the city’s Christmas decorations. They were looking for an original, non-traditional approach to the festive decorations in the mall - with a key focus on the ability to enrich visitors' experiences, spark user-generated content and integrate activation programs along the mall for all to enjoy.

Brisbane Marketing set very specific criteria for the decorations program: aesthetic value; day and night time presence; have a 5 year lifespan; quality of design; value for money; and proven capability to deliver with exemplary WHS practices.

The decoration program was required to integrate seamlessly into the Brisbane Christmas program thus it needed to embody its brand values and adopt its visual language.

Project Innovation/Need

Innovation was abundant in both the design and delivery approach for the Brisbane Marketing project.

With the design, the team of cross-discipline designers and engineers chose to approach the suite of decorations using new and inventive techniques to meet the needs and challenges of the brief and to innovate within the industry.

The decoration suite was manufactured using either the latest 3D printing technology or recyclable stainless steel to be more ecological and sustainable than traditional production practices. Using this method of engineering and construction also allowed the decorations to withstand 5 years of Queensland’s extreme heat and high winds.

This method also allowed us to produce the decorations as a ‘kit of parts’, fashioned to have the ability to be re-skinned or recoloured to last the 5-year life span of the project. The parts were designed to fit together like giant-sized Kinder Surprise toys that can be placed into position with ease and simplicity, providing the capacity to assemble and install them over 2 nights.

Design Challenge

The ‘Merry Christmas Brisbane’ campaign was Chas Clarkson’s most socially shared project to date and was a resounding success. However, there were a number of challenges that had to be overcome during the project.

The majority of these were in relation to production due to the new, innovative methods that we were going to employ.

40% of the decorations were to be produced using 3D printing which was an unproven material for large public pieces in Brisbane. Therefore, there was a lengthy period of due diligence and benefit justification that was required before production could commence.

As we wanted this to be an immersive and interactive experience for visitors without barriers or supervision, we had to comply with and adapt the design to stringent health and safety codes specified by Brisbane council.

As there was a history of graffiti, vandalism and weather damage with previous installations within the Queen Street Mall precinct, we had to go through a vast amount of experimentation with the production materials in order to deliver decorations that would be hyper resilient for the duration of the 5 year life span of the campaign.

Sustainability

The Brisbane Marketing Christmas decoration program, delivered by Chas Clarkson, was produced by a local and international network of suppliers who are all striving to lower their carbon footprint and ethically source their manufacturing materials. All the decorations within the suite can be broken down and stripped into their various base materials (such as PVC, aluminium, plastic, etc.) and be recycled.

The progressively minded Brisbane Marketing Team supported Chas Clarkson’s recommendation to produce 40% of their decorative installations via an Australian 3D printing technology company which prints with a PVC composite which once cleaned from it’s coating can be chipped down and reused in the 3D printing process.