LINCOLN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
NEW YORK , NY
Concept Design
Branded Merchandising Program
Visual Merchandising
Retail Mobile Unit Design
Staff Building & Operations
Revenue Strategy
“Each consumer touch-point embodied the creative power of a Lincoln Center lifestyle – one where an appreciation for the performing arts has a lifespan long after the lights go dark on the theatre stage. The product invited them to experience how the performing arts can breathe life into the many mementos we surround ourselves with on a daily basis.”
The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) complex is home to eleven resident arts organizations that represent the highest standards of excellence in symphony, opera, chamber music, theater, dance, film, and arts education. In preparation for their 2017 Summer Programming launch, LCPA leadership approached Lakeside Collaborative (Lakeside) to explore the value of a mobile retail Pop Up on the Lincoln Center campus that would embrace the various missions of their constituents and their diverse audiences in one single harmonious retail expression.
We undertook the development of a proof-of-concept experience and set out to design and produce a capsule collection of twenty LCPA branded-identity products and a Retail Mobile Unit Pop Up, where the products would be presented and sold during the summer months.
To this end, Lakeside handpicked a creative team that could create a brand identity inspired by the iconic architecture of the Lincoln Center campus and cultural vibrancy of the performing arts. Created in partnership with NYC-based design studio Small Stuff, the line adapted the Lincoln Center experience in inventive and unexpected ways on items from totes to onesies to a conductor’s baton.
In conceiving the products, the creative team visited Lincoln Center's archives, where it discovered a rich history of visual design reflective of the varied and vibrant performing arts on campus.
To design the Mobile Unit, Lakeside enlisted LAMAS , a Toronto based architecture firm. The Pop Up design needed to be impactful enough to demand attention on the immense Josie Robertson Plaza during the day and yet flexible enough to move around the site for evening programming, capitalizing on visitor enthusiasm wherever it resided on the sprawling campus. It created a “call to action” to purchase, inviting visitors to further engage with a particular programming event or campus experience and showcased a “Best of Breed” product assortment that celebrated the unique the greater LCPA mission.
Inspired by the arches of the Metropolitan Opera facade and the white bright transparency of the Lincoln Center graphic identity, the Pop Up created a glowing entry point through which to explore the Lincoln Center charter in a fun, approachable and interactive way.
