By now, most individuals within the Philadelphia space have in all probability seen a minimum of one billboard that includes the Independence Blue Cross (IBX) 2024 advert marketing campaign, that includes individuals posed on or beside giant, blue, three-dimensional IBX letters.
These letters should not a digital design — they’re actual. In our adverts, the individuals are interacting with precise bodily IBX letters. We’ve additionally despatched the IBX letters to numerous occasions, the place the general public can work together with them, too.
And once they’re not in use, they reside in our foyer and elsewhere at our 1901 Market Road headquarters.
The letters themselves are already fairly spectacular. However Calvin Tan and Marie Thresher from the IBX Inventive Providers crew have discovered a complete new software for the letters. They’ve labored out the best way to challenge photos or movies onto them in three dimensions utilizing a way referred to as “projection mapping.” Right here’s how that occurred.
The Concept
Projection mapping has been round for a while. It has been used to create the whole lot from the singing busts at Disney’s Haunted Mansion to the beloved vacation mild present at Philadelphia’s Metropolis Corridor.
Calvin Tan, a lead web communication coordinator on the IBX Inventive Providers crew (in addition to an achieved magician), had seen projection mapping being utilized in numerous contexts, and questioned if there was a means for IBX to make the most of this know-how.
He approached his colleague Marie Thresher, Inventive Providers’ senior movement graphics designer, with the concept of projecting video onto the three-dimensional IBX letters for the 2023 IBX Well being Care Discussion board. “I noticed I’d want somebody like Marie to assist me with this,” says Tan. “I began speaking to her about it, and he or she acquired actually excited.”
The Course of
Tan researched what software program can be required; Thresher created the animation. Then, the 2 associates pitched the concept to the Inventive Providers management crew.
Marc Balara, director of Inventive Providers, embraced the concept and authorized the acquisition of the software program. “Marc was actually giving us the inexperienced mild to be taught it and take a look at it and see if it really works,” Tan famous. “His help on buying the software program and permitting us to be taught it was big.” The price of the software program was an funding, however dealing with the projection mapping in-house was far cheaper than hiring an out of doors firm to do it.
Chris Counter, supervisor of digital and graphic design at IBX, commented, “All of us acquired tremendous excited as a result of it’s a enjoyable, immersive means of storytelling and it captivates individuals.” He added, “We’ve actually good management that acknowledges new know-how, or simply helps issues we’re enthusiastic about doing. They’re prepared to place the funding into it.”
The letters had been 5.5 ft excessive by 11.6 ft huge. It was vital to map the projection to their actual measurements or else the animation wouldn’t be efficient.
Tan and Thresher elicited assist from a number of departments at IBX, particularly the audiovisual and constructing amenities groups. “Collaborating with different groups was important; we needed to lean on one another for lots,” Tan commented. “Everybody was actually enthusiastic about it from the start. Different departments had been prepared to assist.”
The Outcomes
