Merit Award
Hollywood & Highland Retail
Hollywood, CA
Sussman/Prejza & Co., Culver City, CA
Deborah Sussman, Paul Prezja (Principals in Charge); Randy Walker, Joe McGuire, Erik Levine (Project Managers); John Johnston, Holly Hampton (Senior Designers); Hsin Hsien, Miles Mazzie, Tad Hara, Jeeun Kim (Designers)
Vomar Products
TrizecHahn Development Corporation
The Hollywood & Highland retail/entertainment complex emerged as the cornerstone of one of the most celebrated boulevards in the world. The obvious challenge was to create a fresh, conceptual, graphic statement for a project whose subject matter had repeatedly overused every cliché in the book. The design approach was to create a comprehensive system of unified identification and wayfinding elements to be used as navigational tools within the build environment, directing visitors as they circulate through the impossibly complex nine-level architectural maze. Conceptually, the project-related graphics are a virtual representation of 3-D typography and iconography – inspired by the cinematic interplay between light and shadow on a flat surface. The end result is a series of clues that provide visitors a navigational system as if seen through the lens of a camera. The system uses only black and white to brand and identify this part of Hollywood. Classic film icons such as searchlights, extreme perspective, and cropped images are made "real" by the eye of the camera-inspired identity.
"The iconography inspired by the cinematic interplay between light and shadow on the flat surface is exceptional. The consistency to which this central idea is developed throughout the wayfinding results in a strong branding of the environment. The use of materials and restraints of color is wonderful – this is one of my favorite entries!"