It started with a simple-enough goal: Stop people in their tracks. We were asked to install a sculpture in the lobby of Lenovo’s US headquarters for International Women’s Day, and we knew it had to be something as phenomenal as the people it would honor. Delivering something exceptional was the endgame. More than just an opportunity to build a beautiful tribute, this was a chance to create a meaningful moment for everyone who would pass by.
Lenovo wanted to celebrate a range of female inventors who shaped life as we know it. So, we came up with an idea to make a sculpture out of those inventions. But that concept still wasn’t bold enough for an agency anchored in a mission to “UnThink Everything.” We knew how powerful it would be if we could design the sculpture to actually resemble a woman, so we found a way to do just that by turning things like Kevlar and windshield wipers—inventions by women—into a work of art: an anamorphic sculpture that when viewed from the right angle, reveals a woman’s face.
Engineered at the Mill, the anamorphic sculpture took eight weeks to finalize. After two months of trial and error, and thousands of elements tested in various positions, our content engineering team got the sculpture exactly right. And thanks to the rail system they’d come up with—the system that let them hang each element in the correct place on movable rails—the team was able to transport the art to its final destination. And assemble it there in just three hours.
A successful project on all accounts, Lenovo’s Women’s Day sculpture was decidedly captivating. Inviting everybody who caught a glimpse to consider the life-changing achievements of women—and maybe adopt a new perspective in the process.
