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In October 2015, West Hollywood began revising its policies to enable more creative and technologically advanced billboards. In response to the city’s invitation for design submissions for the area’s famous Sunset Strip, teams of designers, advertising agencies, museums and architecture firms came together for a total of nine entries.
The top four original designs put forth by Zaha Hadid Architects with JCDecaux, Gensler with OUTFRONT media and MAK, Orange Barrel Media with Tom Wiscombe Architecture and the Museum of Contemporary Art, and TAIT Towers Inc., the billboards represent each company’s take on futuristic advertising and demonstrate ”innovative schemes that brought a ‘unique presence’ to the site” on one of Los Angeles’s busiest streets. Each design is judged for creative programming, kinetic signage, viewer participation via social media, and future strategy for an adjacent multi-use public square. Which one of these billboard designs do you think the city should choose?
The Prism by Zaha Hadid x JCDecaux
Intended as a civic gateway, Zaha Hadid’s design dubbed “The Prism” is hailed as an “innovative, captivating hybrid environment” that functions as an information hub. Its sculptural design made of brushed aluminum would face a plaza with integrated lighting and shaded seating.
Our Design by Orange Barrel Media x MoCA x Tom Wiscombe
This billboard would screen cultural, commercial and social media content on a high-resolution LED screen built onto a custom-patterned perforated metal skin with theatrical lighting in a design that the team calls “a vertically-oriented, three-dimensional media monolith, in contrast to the ubiquitous flat, horizontal billboards of the strip.” It would also support multimedia art curated by the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) as well as a live feed. 75% of this screen would be dedicated for non-commercial content.
Unfolding Sunset by OUTFRONT media x Gensler x MAK
“Unfolding Sunset” would provide a physical and digital experience, bringing visual effects to an urban space. Multiple flexible panels displaying commercial ads, art content, social media and performances would also merge into a single image that would treat viewers to optical illusions as they moved distances.
The Spectacular by TAIT Towers
This dynamic bow-tie design takes inspiration from old Hollywood glamour of the Sunset strip’s renowned black-tie clubs of the ’30s and ’40s that celebrities and gangsters would frequent regularly.