Fellowes
Design & Experience Center
PORTRAY
Chicago, IL
"
PORTRAY not only helped us see our vision come to life, but it gave us confidence that our rep and her team understood our vision as well.
Rahvy R. Murray
State Farm Insurance
Leveraging a 27-foot-wide curved projection display and driven by a pair of 55-inch interactive screen tables, PORTRAY is an immersive and captivating project visualization experience built for Fellowes, a global leader in workspace solutions. A permanent installation in its brand new showroom, PORTRAY blends the physical and digital to help dealers, designers, and clients visualize the possibilities of an interior design project in moments – brought to life instantly by the striking realism of the Unreal Engine’s state-of-the-art real-time ray tracing technology. From assembling products to choosing tactile materials to populating a space, clients and designers alike can use PORTRAY's intuitive token system to create and design as fast as they can think, seeing their interior spaces take shape right before their eyes. Without having to wait for lengthy CAD renders or even having a passing knowledge of design software, prospective clients can have a meaningful conversation, verbally and visually, with their team to make their project a reality.
About
The Project
Insight
The initial stages of interior design projects were fraught with friction. Translating visionary ideas into tangible plans was a slow, iterative process, choked by the limitations of traditional CAD software and prolonged discussions.
Challenge
Unraveling the core issue led us through a labyrinth of conversations within the Fellowes ecosystem. Amidst this complex web of needs and perspectives emerged a crucial insight: the genesis of a project was where we could make the most impact.
Idea
Our solution was a groundbreaking experiential installation in Fellowes' Chicago showroom. This immersive tool transformed the conceptualization phase, enabling real-time visualization and collaboration, thus reducing weeks of negotiations to moments of creative convergence.
We leveraged the superior 3D capabilities of Unreal Engine for PORTRAY to create an immersive experience that surpasses conventional applications. This added complexities to the back end since every step of the experience worked against the grain of what Unreal was built for: gaming. Even simply clicking a button on our touchscreen UI required us to hack the Unreal system and custom-build a solution. We embraced this challenge head-on because we understood that in finding a solution, we'd give the user complete creative control through an intuitive hands-on experience with peerless real-time visual fidelity.
