NARS POWER PLAYERS SEPHORiA EXPERIENCE
New York, USA - 2023
For the first time ever, the NARS trio of virtual ambassadors had real-time conversations and interactions with guests at SEPHORiA House of Beauty, Sephora's biggest event of the year. Through a dynamic Metaverse portal, the Power Players helped guests find their new favorite shade of Powermatte High-Intensity Lip Pencil, shared beauty tips and even took selfies.
The characters were made in partnership with Dimension Studio, using Epic Games’s 3D software Unreal Engine. To bring the interactions to life, a trained actor wore a motion capture suit in a hidden area behind the booth. The actor could see and hear the visitors via a camera, and because of the motion capture technology, their responses and movements were instantly translated into the character’s on-screen body. So, while the ambassadors’ images and characters are fictional, the real-time, animated conversations were human-led.
BOOTH DESIGN
My vision for the design of the booth was to bring the virtual environment surrounding the Power Players to life, making the experience even more immersive. The red illuminated grid was the main design element, which extended from the floor to other parts of the booth. All fixtures were extruded from the grid, adding both dimensionality and pops of color that were matched to shades from the Powermatte collection.
At the event, guests were initially drawn to the booth by its design, thinking they would witness a precorded video from a virtual ambassador. To everyone's shock, stepping into an IRL version of the Power Players world led to a very unique experience, filled with surprise, delight, outfit compliments, product recommendations, and a good amount photos and videos to capture the blurring lines of the physical and digital.
ROLE: Concept Development, Booth Design, Creative Direction, Oversee Production