Data Print

Rapha collaborate with Convivial Project for London and Tokyo Cycle Club interactive installations

Premium cycling brand Rapha has joined forces with London-based design studio Convivial Project to produce a generative interactive window display for their Cycle Clubs in London and Tokyo, as part of a multi-platform promotion for its SS15 Pro Team Data Print range.   

The window’s visuals use fragmentations of the Data Print, a deconstructed chevron pattern created by London design firm Accept and Proceed. "The graphic is an abstracted interpretation of data created from the physical effort of a professional cyclist – its shape is a direct product of movement,” says Jack Saunders, art director at Rapha. “With the Cycle Club window installation we wanted to communicate this concept by reanimating the graphic, which is used in a static form across the product range, using the motion of people to bring it back to life.” 

Individual tracking devices record passing cyclists and pedestrians, whose actions are then analysed, filtered and re-projected onto the window. “As passers-by walk in front of the window, the movement is captured as raw data and converted into an angled monochrome graphic which is similarly styled to the original,” explains Saunders. “This window serves as both a visually striking display and, most importantly, as a means of retelling the story behind the data print graphic itself."

In a similar vein, using macro and micro views of data, Discovery Wall is a digital artwork created from 2,800 independently controllable LCD screens and lenses, with the potential to show infinite collections of dynamically changing content at street level. The interactive display locks into a wider trend that's seen brands push for more and more sophisticated form of brand theatre, which for Rapha ultimately means getting pedestrians off the highstreet and onto the road.