Mall of Emirates Hologram Podium
Retail & Exhibition Design
2022

For Thaely’s Mall of the Emirates podium, I designed and creative directed a large scale display that turned the construction of a Thaely shoe into a visual story. Built from brushed stainless steel and glass, the structure presented three pairs of shoes alongside exploded views of their components, with three distinct layers showing the raw waste material, the recycled fabric and the final product. At the centre was a custom built hologram fan, specially manufactured in China for the installation. At 6 ft in diameter, it was one of the largest hologram fans of its kind. Instead of combining four smaller fans to create the illusion of a larger display, I wanted one continuous fan to create a more seamless holographic effect. 

The hologram was challenging to film because the camera’s frame rate did not align with the fan’s refresh rate, creating visible flickering on camera. In person, however, the illusion was remarkably convincing, even under the bright lighting of the mall.