Client: KMS
Architect: Ingenhoven Overdiek und Partner
Concept: KMS Consulting
Integrator: Mixed Pixels
Product: Versa TILE

Background:
When British Telecom (BT) decided to de-merge its wireless business from the parent company in 2001, they needed a new name and identity for the separately quoted business. o2 was born in 2002, a relaunch of the former BT Cellnet. The o2 brand stands as symbol for ‘oxygen’ - essential for life – which draws a parallel to the indispensability of a mobile phone in today’s society.

o2’s strong consistent visual identity is centred on the use of water ‘bubbles’ (in technology often implemented through the use of pixel-based display products) to depict oxygen. The bubbles, which over the past few years have become the central visual element of o2’s brand identity, are used in different shapes, sizes and colours in everything from the company’s television ads to its annual report, its product literature to the design of its booths on major exhibitions.

At CEBIT 2005, o2 first translated its bubbles theme to LED technology with the legendary Versa® PIXEL ‘Media cloud’ - single dots that grouped together produced over 28,000 points of moving light. The display consisted of Element Labs’ Versa PIXELs placed at the end of plastic tubes suspended from the ceiling. The varying tube lengths and spacing created distinct colorized pixels that merged into waves of images, giving visitors the impression of moving beneath a three dimensional "Media Cloud" with images wafting across it.

The Challenge:
When o2 decided to go in search of a new, appropriate location for its German headquarters, it quickly decided upon the new ultra-modern 38-story “Hochhaus Uptown München” building in Munich. The signature tower of the Uptown complex, which is designed by Christoph Ingenhoven, is completely leased to o2 for the coming 15 years. It features a sheer glass façade and an internal central ‘services column’ around which all offices are located, offering million-dollar views and a sophisticated platform for the telecommunications firm in which to house its flagship corporate offices.

The challenge for o2 lay in integrating the signatory ‘bubbles’ into the interior design of the building so that visitors would be aware of entering ‘the home of o2’ from the minute they stepped through the building’s front doors. o2 wanted all aspects of the building’s interior design, from the furniture to the cups and saucers in the visitors’ rooms to the walls of the entrance hall to reinforce the well-known ‘bubbles’ theme around which its brand identity is centred.

The solution:
Corporate identity consultant KMS, in charge of developing the overall concept and implementing o2’s visual identity into the interior of the tower, approached Element Labs to find a technology that would help make their vision of the space a reality.

Their goal: to transform the impressive foyer of the Uptown building into a dynamic colourful environment that exudes o2’s brand identity. Their dream: to convert the four walls of the central services column in the entrance hall into a dynamic display that would form the main focal point of the impressive, light-filled space.

Element Labs suggested using its renowned VersaTILE product to simulate the bubbles on the façade of the column. Each VersaTILE is edge-lit by LEDs to give smooth light output. Like building blocks, the tiles can be placed together in any configuration. Proven LED video display technology lets VersaTILE produce patterns and moving images in a broad spectrum of rich, saturated colours—as well as flesh tones, browns, greys and other colours not possible with conventional lighting technology. In order to complete the ‘bubbles’ effect, Element Labs developed a round polymer bevel to give each tile the look of a separate pixel.

The façade of the central column consists of two separate walls that flank the entrance to the building lifts. Together, the walls measure 113 square meters. Each 6 meter high and 9 meter wide wall is covered entirely in VersaTILE.

The remaining three walls of the central services column mimic the LED covered façade through the use of backlit lighting fixtures – opaque white panels with circular holes and a diffuser behind which fluorescent neon lights are located imitate the VersaTILE LED display on the façade.

“The visual result achieved with the VersaTILE LED wall was spectacular,” says Claas Ernst of Element Labs. “The VersaTILE display offers a vivid pixelated backdrop that perfectly translates o2’s bubbles into the pixelated look KMS wanted to achieve. Now o2 can show whatever they want on the display – from the signatory bubbles to customized texts or images – and the display is so bright that it’s visible even from outside the building!”

Claas Ernst concludes: “KMS wanted every element of the lobby to exude the o2 brand - from the lighting fixtures to the uniforms of the reception staff. Nothing was left to chance, nothing was deemed insignificant. That is how KMS aims to bring a brand into the heart of the consumer: by making sure all elements form a holistic entirety that envelops the visitor in a subtle, sensory manner. We wanted to rise to their challenge, so we even customized the standard VersaTILE module to make the LED wall possible. The VersaTILE display is now a breath-taking part of the lobby and together with all the other elements, it ensures that the o2 brand is presented in the way that KMS wanted it to be.”