| EVENT REPORT 08.02.06 12:00 AM |
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| Tech Media Reception Has Feminine Touches |
| Wireless headset company Plantronics' interactive lounge featured large-scale photography of the human form and live models as visual reminders of its design inspiration. |
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| At Plantronics' media event to introduce its new fall line of wireless headsets, event producers created high-tech demo stations with graceful elements like flowing curtains, artsy photography, and female models, to promote the company's goal of designing aesthetically appealing, yet high-tech products. Jennifer Shanks, Plantronics' public relations manager, worked with Barkley Kalpak Associates event producer Burchie Benton and production designer Edward Hodge to coordinate the event. |
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PHOTO GALLERY |
 | | Robert Olding's large-scale photos featuring Plantronics headsets on the human form hung on the walls throughout Sky Studio. |
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 | | Barkley Kalpak Associates designed a lighting scheme that morphed from pinks to blues, but was still dim enough to view the large flat-screen monitors and laptops placed throughout the lounge. |
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 | | Gamers from the all-female Frag Dolls team demonstrated the wireless gaming equipment and competed against the mostly male audience of media professionals. |
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 | | Editors could try out wireless stereo headsets, part of Plantronics' new fall line, from glowing white cube displays. |
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 | | All-white furniture from Props for Today provided a solid backdrop for the ever-changing lighting scheme. |
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 | | Darrin Caddes, Plantronic's vice president of corporate design, led a multimedia presentation in the upstairs screening room that outlined the company's design strategy of using the human form as inspiration. |
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 | | The presentation culminated with well-oiled Amazon-type models, wearing Bluetooth headsets and skimpy dresses, descending down the center staircase and posing robotically for the assembled editors. |
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The team transformed the lower level of Sky Studios into an interactive lounge, where members of Frag Dolls—a group of female gamers who promote the presence of women in the video game industry—demonstrated the new headsets at gaming stations. Robert Olding's large-scale photos of the company's headsets resting on nude models (think more art-house, less Penthouse) hung between the flowing curtains. Props for Today's glowing white cube listening stations lined one side of the room, and Drape Kings' long curtains darkened the otherwise sun-filled space to create a soothing environment that contrasted the tech-heavy displays. The lighting gradually changed between pink, blue, purple, and green as media professionals chatted with Plantronics reps and nibbled on Taste Caterers' hearty hors d'oeuvres.
Darrin Caddes, Plantronics' vice president of corporate design, gave a multimedia presentation upstairs in the small glass-encased (and un-air-conditioned) screening room. The presentation culminated with well-oiled Amazon-type models, wearing Bluetooth headsets and skimpy dresses, descending down the center staircase and posing robotically for the assembled editors. Though temperatures were rising by the minute, the mostly male audience seemed more than happy to stay a few extra moments to take a few close-range photographs of the models—and, perhaps incidentally, the products.
—Sara Neuffer
Posted 08.02.06
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