Produced and installed on a tight three-week schedule, the project began in late December when Andrew Armstrong, Lancome’s director of visual merchandising, contacted GlassFilm’s president, Jay Frolick. “Andrew had a very specific, complex design in mind,” says Frolick, “and our initial discussions focused on the technical challenges posed by his imagination.” Armstrong was already aware of Lumisty’s unusual optical properties—that the film’s appearance literally changes with shifts in the viewer’s angle. His goal was to display the new Hypnose logo in letterforms cut from two different Lumisty films to create an intriguing visual experience.

“I wanted to play with the idea of hypnotizing,” he says, “and push the use of the film to perhaps, a new level. First, horizontally--as one walks by the window, I wanted an obvious break, a translucent section, which we created by cutting the logo out of a solid sheet of film--in effect, frosting the glass. We wanted all the rest of the logos to surprise, mystify, and hopefully delight the passerby.”

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“The windows catch people’s eyes as they both wonder about what they’re seeing and then try to figure out how the effect was created,” says Armstrong. “The film picks up interesting and beautiful light in the windows that changes with the time of day. The letters almost glow; they have an ethereal quality.”

Reaction to the windows in all three locations—The Mall at Short Hills in New Jersey, Northpark Mall in Dallas, and The Mall at Valley Fair in Santa Clara, California--has been extremely positive. “We’ve had phenomenal feedback at all levels—customers, employees, and mall management are universally excited by the windows,” says Armstrong. “They’ve definitely brought more people into the stores, which is what it’s all about.”