How Design

Sometimes a simple change can have a big impact. Take the world of color, for instance. To create a dramatic experience for the HOW Conference, OTTO turned to a powerful theatrical technique. In the 1920s, a British theater technician named Adrian Samoiloff developed the use of a color phenomenon to create a special effect. It is known as the Samoiloff Effect—the red filter reduces the visible green and blue lights; the green filter reduces the visible blue and red lights; the blue filter reduces the visible red and green lights. By manipulating the color of lighting in conjunction with the color of the backdrops, the appearance of objects is radically transformed. A seemingly one-dimensional image suddenly transforms, revealing hidden images and elements.

In collaboration with illustrator Sean Mosher-Smith and dcc, we used the Samoiloff effect to create a suite of materials as well as an interactive experience. With lighting, we created an immersive environment that reveals hidden messages as the visitor travels through it. In the print marketing materials, we included colored lenses so the reader can explore the pieces and discover how IP not only understands designers’ worries and needs, but can help them overcome any obstacles that may have limited them in the past.

For the content of the design, we built upon the theme “What keeps you up at night?” — a theme that was sure to resonate with the conference’s audience of design professionals. From a design perspective, we highlighted designers’ worst creative fears. Then we combined their concerns with a focus on how International Paper’s investment in paper science obliterates the production worries of printing.

By utilizing the colors red, green, and blue, we reveal different stories depending on the color lenses you are looking through or, in the case of the exhibit, the color of the lights that flood the tunnel. As the colors change, the experience transforms what you see, highlighting product strengths and designers’ fears through deep storytelling. Conceived as an experience to engage designers and showcase International Paper’s products, the exhibit became the heart of the conference.

The editor from HOW kicked off her social media coverage of the event by broadcasting from IP’s exhibit exclaiming “I could spend the whole week in here.” Designers lined up for materials. Neenah paper contacted us a week later to congratulate us on a fantastic job!

We wanted to compete on performance and, through it all, we never had to “advertise” that IP is also the best value in the market. We gave that slam dunk to the salespeople for their one-on-one interactions.