Neiman Marcus Window — Nader Sadoughi

Window Display

Sponsored by Neiman Marcus

My class had the privilege of designing & installing a window display at the luxury department store Neiman Marcus.As the class-elected creative director, my role was to lead the design process, prepare it for assembly, and direct its assembly, all in 2 weeks.

Role: Creative Director Team Size: 16 Project Length: 2 Weeks Installation Location: Neiman Marcus, Austin, TX Workflow: AutoCAD, Adobe Illustrator, Laser Cutter

Problem: Only one site visit allowed.
Solution: Recreate the site—inch by inch.
In tight collaboration with our technical director Allie Fitzgerald, we used AutoCAD to create true-to-scale models of the space, and Illustrator for sketches.
We rapidly & flexibly iterated with changes in our calculations of butterfly placement, ensuring precise measurements for module creation and later achieving design intent.

Achieving Design Intent ModularlyOur main challenge was finding a way to place a large quantity of individual butterflies both precisely and quickly.The laser cutter solved this. With the measurements from the initial site visit, wood was cut to a size small enough to fit through the ceiling grate but large enough to stand stably with just gravity. With individual modules, the work could be pre-made. The prepared measurements were shared with the team, with modules assigned & complete by installation day, ensuring we achieved our design intent with a bulls-eye.