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Mutable Futures
2023 | A Hirsch & Mann design for H&M's illuminated window displays
A window display project for H&M, creating a geode-like structure with bespoke LED displays in some of the facets.
Designed to be modular, the triangular tiles were used to create four distinct window designs in Barcelona, then dismantled and rebuilt in the Middle East in new arrangements.
Each display tile had 888 RGB LEDs, running abstract colourful content we created specifically to match the chosen clothing campaigns.
My role was to design the technology architecture, working with the 3D designers, art director and a PCB engineer to design a standardised electronics system that could be installed in four different configurations per triangular tile.
The main challenge of this project was designing a system to exist within a physical cavity of (on average) 12mm, which reduced down to 9mm at the steepest corners between tiles.
This included a lot of physical prototyping to determine the best solution to cable the whole system, not only within the limited apertures, but also with cables reasonable to expect the team to install in a short overnight shift.
To run the RS485 data bus throughout the structure, my solution was to use assemblies of twisted pair RJ11 cables, for an affordable, reliable and small form factor connector that could be installed throughout the structure.
Each LED PCB could draw a max of 65W, so I designed a system that used a 48V power bus throughout the body to minimise the thickness of the cable that needed to be run between triangular tiles.
I then specified DC->DC step-downs within each LED tile to feed the power-greedy LEDs at 5V.
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