The World of Mitsubishi Electric

Aesthetic, fascinating and easy to understand – the brand exhibition by the Japanese technology company presents its full range of products.

The challenge

We were given the task of designing and producing a brand exhibition for the new german headquarters of Mitsubishi Electric in Ratingen, which was to highlight the company’s highly diverse portfolio.

The idea

Many people all over the world encounter Mitsubishi Electric products every day. This is why we took a slice of the real world and placed it in the exhibition. This slice transforms first from an abstract landscape representing 'transportation' to a city standing for 'building', before pixel up to visualize 'communication' and ultimately coming to the workbench of the world for 'energy' and 'automation'.

The dramatic composition

Visitors can gain a general overview of all of the fields of business in just 10 to 15 minutes and dive into more details at any time. We are presenting the complex technology in a simple, exciting way by telling little stories and combining them with extraordinary interactive experiences. It works so well that, shortly after opening, a new team was set up to coordinate the many exhibition tours.

ARCHITECTURE

"A Slice of the World."

The central object guides visitors through the entire exhibition and complements the architecture of the building - an elongated, glazed main road - perfectly. With its extraordinary shape, its influence is not limited to the inside of the exhibition area as it also catches the eye from outside. In terms of the materials, we deliberately selected a high-quality wooden surface to stand in visual and emotional contrast to the world of technology.

The best thing for me:
Elastique. developed an exhibition design that does not look out of place within the building architecture we drafted, but rather harmonises with it.

_{Stefan Fuchs, Architect
Kresings Architekten}

Illusorily real

In the drafting process, we use innovative rendering technology that can generate absolutely realistic previews pretty quick. This means that we can make the best possible design decisions with customers and in the team.

See for yourself – a comparison between renderings and photos of the finished exhibition.

INTERACTIVE EXHIBITS

Easy

We used a wide range of technology including Unity, vvvv and Google Tango to optimise the way in which the content of each interactive exhibit was brought across.
All of the exhibits are extremely easy and fun to use. Universal interface elements and similar usage paradigms make the applications easily accessible – meaning that users can focus on the content.
The digital exhibits are available in multiple languages and can be updated from the central in-house content management system.

How do you explain products that you are not allowed to show?

For reasons relating to development, automotive and transportation products cannot be shown. However, the abstraction featuring a car and a train as ‘toys’ combined with a real-time application provides an overview of the many fields in which Mitsubishi Electric operates.
When one of the objects is placed on the screen, it starts to drive through various landscapes representing the fields of application of the sensors, control systems, software and motors manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric. Furthermore touching the screen displays a wide range of additional information.

Illuminating examples of construction engineering

Touching a button on the exhibit – which is deliberately both analogue and elegant – illuminates various glass cubes in which laser-engraved product symbols appear. They denote the varying application fields of Mitsubishi Electric’s construction engineering technology.

Next-level Augmented Reality with Google Tango

The field of communications is largely dominated by tiny chips that look more or less identical to the untrained eye. With Google Tango, we created Augmented Reality above the exhibits objects, transforming the products’ different fields of application into a fascinating experience.

Google Tango creates
fantastic opportunities:
we can easily integrate digital content into the exhibition wherever we want and without markers.

_{Andreas Schimmelpfennig,
Creative Director
Elastique.}

Robots

THREEBOTS

The robot exhibit in the field of 'automation' is the highlight of the exhibition. Featuring three industrial robots, the installation encapsulates all disciplines of factory automation: 90% of the components used in the installation were manufactured internally including the displays, servomotors, controllers and the robots themselves.
Within the interactive mode the robots provide further information about the products displayed on the exhibition table.

The exhibit breaks with technical movement patterns of robots and shows them with agile, almost human movements. Elastique. not only provided the idea for this, but also coordinated all the teams smoothly.

_{Jan-Philipp Liersch,
Product Manager Robot
Mitsubishi Electric}

Microsites

Information backbone

Touchscreens with microsites can be found in every part of the exhibition. They allow visitors to call up more detailed information and application examples. With the collecting tool, visitors can select interesting content and email it to themselves. As with all digital exhibits, the microsites are maintained and updated by a central in-house content management system.

Control system and graphic art

Friendly and clear

While designing the exhibition we added a stringent set of icons and different elements to Mitsubishi Electric’s corporate design. As a result, the control system for the entire building was developed alongside various print publications.

The expanded graphical language designed by Elastique. received excellent internal feedback. In no time at all, the team also developed a holistic communication strategy for internal and external use.

_{Barbara Sutter,
Head of Corporate Communications
Mitsubishi Electric}

Making-Of

A lot of work

It took almost one year of work, productive workshops, drafts aplenty, coordination meetings and tests. In the grand finale, it was finally pieced together and went into operation to an overwhelmingly positive response. One of our best team projects – it was fun!

Awards

ADC Award, 3x Bronze, 1x Auszeichnung

Silver
Digital Media

Silver Cannes Lions