marquardt+ (work performed as Design Collaboratives), in partnership with Miller-Zell Atlanta, was selected
by Cirque du Soleil to create a completely new Front of House/Retail
experience. This is the complete interior public entry experience of the
event space and/or tents and contains retail, food concessions, corporate
sponsorship information and way finding to the performance space.
After 25 years of creating their own Front of House presentation internally,
Cirque du Soleil came to the conclusion that they needed to source creative
assistance with expertise in retail environments, product display and
information presentation to overhaul the experience. As well, the Front of
House solution had to be designed to allow set up and take down in one day,
be mountable within the restrictions of the existing tent structure and
engineering, and pack tightly into their transport semi-trucks.
After being short listed through a competitive Request for Proposal process, our
team was selected by Cirque du Soleil to become the first outside creative
group in Cirque's 25-year history to provide design services to the
organization. We developed three alternative ideas based on the abstraction
of a perceived cultural experience; one that is not specific to any country
or culture, (much like Cirque du Soleil performance experiences
themselves). This idea allowed for the development and application of the
selected design to be incorporated into any present and upcoming shows
touring the world and in permanent locations without specific customizations
other than projection.
Our team completed the finalized design and development package at the
beginning of 2009. Miller Zell proceeded with fabrication resolution,
production and installation of the first new Front of Space for the tent
performance debut Cirque du Soleil's newest show, OVO premiering in May 2009
in Montreal.
The following images profile the complete presentation of the selected
design direction including ideation and concept development, documentation
photography and narrative shots of the first installation in use. The
documentation photography was graciously provided by Miller Zell and the
narrative photography was taken by Mary Beth Rampolla while attending the OVO
Montreal premiere and debut of our design!