Marketing Concept: Herman Miller
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After the recent completion of a corporate interiors project using Herman Miller office furnishings, Starr segued a longstanding relationship with the furniture manufacturer into an opportunity to develop a pictorial marketing concept.
Utilizing a fundamental office space as a backdrop, the environment is transformed through colored lighting and photographic technique. The horizontal and vertical planes of basic workstations and wall panels serve as a foil for the uncanny, life-sized mannequins. There is subtle ambiguity in the role of the robot-like forms: Have they replaced the humans? Transparent and opaque surfaces suggest a hierarchy; strangely, the “automated office” still requires public versus private spaces.
Perceived as ironic, whimsical, or somewhat other-worldly, the series of images elevates the ordinary to a stratum worthy of imagination and celebration. In addition to conceiving, executing, and directing the photo shoot, Starr also managed the marketing of the images and support literature in presentations to international media.
