ZAHA HADID – JEWELLERY DISPLAY

The Story

To celebrate the 2016 Designer collaboration between Georg Jensen & world-renowned architect Zaha Hadid, we created a series of razor-fin backdrops. The backdrops needed to speak the same design language as the powerful jewellery pieces and somehow bind them to the buildings that originally inspired the Lamellae collection (The Wangjing Soho shopping center).

The Design Process

I wanted to create a series of deconstructed architectural forms, by stripping the concept down to the bare bones, focusing on 3 design features:

The fine-toothed lamellar, which add an almost cold and threatening beauty; a bold contrast to the inherent warmth of the dancing curves
The sweeping lines where the lamellar meet the body of the jewellery
The geometric shadows created by the lameller

The Displays

The Window Display

The sculpture artwork was taken out of Rhino 3d and further manipulated in Photoshop 3d, to produce window foil fins for the front of the glass and the back wall pannels. The large format foil adds a degree of perspective to the display and an eye-catching first impression. By slightly overlapping the display cabinet with the front visual we force the customer to seek out the products and enforce a sense of expectation.

The Production Process

The fins were formed by cutting and rolling aluminium into the desired shapes. I wanted the sculptures to be as visually pleasing from the back as they are from the front: so as to maximize their functionality. This rolling technique also allows the shapes to stand unsupported.

The fins were then powder coated and cooked.

A foil logo was added to the front fin and signage cut from white acrylic.

We initially toyed with the idea of shaping acrylic around mdf moulds. We did not pursue this technique, but I have included the images of the moulds because they look awesome!