London Design Festival activation
Inspire the digital design community to engage with Airbnb at a global fair that’s primarily recognized for physical design.
Background
As Airbnb continues to expand across its app–from Experiences to Homes, Transportation to print and untraditional spaces–it becomes increasingly important that our Design team blends digital and offline environments to create a more seamless travel journey. To bring the digital and physical design communities together, our focus at London Design Festival was on demonstrating how to blend both spectrums of the practice together in a way that feels cohesive, organic, and human instead of creepy, disconnected, and dystopian.
We hosted a “From Pixel to Place” experiential event that explored the role design plays in blending digital and offline environments in art, retail, and travel featuring thought leaders across both spectrums within design. To reinforce the narrative in the space, we staged the conversation within an immersive and participatory environment of blended digital and physical installations (inspired by stories from Airbnb Magazine). I selected five travel stories from different cities–Hong Kong, Capetown, Costa Rica, Copenhagen and New York–to bring to life in the space. From a Danish Karaoke booth and live-scored speaker panel to a Capetonian-inspired radical flavor quest accompanied by dim sum service, there was something playful and unexpected for every attendee to engage with derived from the pages of the magazine. Read the event case study I wrote for Airbnb.Design.
Panelists: Alex Bec, Co-Director of It’s Nice That (moderator), Adam Rodgers, Partner and Creative Director of International Magic, Mona Kim, Founder and Creative Director at Mona Kim Projects, Alex Schleifer, VP of Design at Airbnb and Corinna Gardner, Senior Curator of Design and Digital at the V&A Museum.
As Airbnb continues to expand across its app–from Experiences to Homes, Transportation to print and untraditional spaces–it becomes increasingly important that our Design team blends digital and offline environments to create a more seamless travel journey. To bring the digital and physical design communities together, our focus at London Design Festival was on demonstrating how to blend both spectrums of the practice together in a way that feels cohesive, organic, and human instead of creepy, disconnected, and dystopian.