Project Walkthrough: Spring Installation for Broadway Shopping Centre

We worked with the team at Studio Noir to bring a special Spring makeover to Broadway Shopping Centre, which saw us making hundreds of intricate paper-craft flowers, saturated cardboard cacti and giant retro props to deck out the venue.

Here’s a look at the entire project!

THE BRIEF

We’re no strangers to crafting papercraft flowers and trees here at Kitiya Palaskas Studio, and our installation for Broadway Shopping Centre’s Spring 2023 campaign really made the most of this, by utilising our favourite floral papercraft techniques to create a stunning shopping centre centerpiece.

We were commissioned by our client Mirvac to design a multi-layered installation that would incorporate a mix of large-scale structures, finer papercraft details and overall, be visually striking with a creative mix of shapes and textures - all while championing sustainability in our materials choices.

The travelators at Broadway’s main entrance received a full Spring makeover with our bespoke, custom-made props decorating the landing between the walkways with a wash of bring colour and floral designs.

The installation was commissioned to welcome customers into the retail space and celebrate the start of Spring.

THE DESIGN PROCESS

There were so many moving parts to this build, and a great big making process to craft everything together!

We landed on 4 different custom-cacti designs, which were then printed in a saturated colour palette and fabricated by our friends at Liter and Penny. Don’t you love how vibrant they turned out? We were excited to utilise Reboard as our material of choice for this cardboard construction. This rigid paperboard with a uniquely engineered, fluted core has the perfect surface for digital printing (so we could achieve such vibrant colours), while also being strong and sturdy enough to hold a sculptural shape. The results were so impactful and allowed for an exposed edge texture which truly celebrated cardboard as the hero material of this installation.

To complete our cardboard cacti garden, we designed 6 cacti flowers in an assortment of colours and shapes. It was SO satisfying gluing these on to the finished life-sized cardboard constructions.

Each individual flower was entirely cut and assembled by hand. As with most large-scale construction projects, we work in an assembly line process, with each stage of the making process completed en masse before moving on to the next step. We find this approach helps to streamline our production workflow and increase efficiency, especially on projects with short timelines like this one.

Next, it was on to our collection of oversized props that would decorate the giant metal spring structure throughout the middle of the installation. The props were inspired by Mirvac’s national spring campaign creative, designed by our friends at Banter. We took cues from the colourful motifs to create a giant watermelon, phone, lipstick, sunglasses and a bundle of composition books in our signature prop design style.

But wait, there’s more! Accompanying our giant props were handcrafted flowers that would add a final pop of floral colour to the installation. We designed 6 flower styles, from daffodils, to lilies, daisies and more.

As always, we made sure that all of our pieces were constructed from sustainably sourced materials, and able to be recycled at the end of the cycle.

THE INSTALLATION

This was one of the most detailed and labour-intensive installs that we’ve done to date, with many moving parts and a full team required to pull it all off. We joined forces with Studio Noir to facilitate this, and worked ahead of time with them on an installation plan to make sure that we could hit the ground running. Completed overnight after center closure, each installation component was loaded in, set up and styled, ready to surprise customers when the center opened in the morning.

THE FINAL RESULT

We’re absolutely stoked with the final result. Seeing all of the “spring” components come together was a true highlight of this job, and we couldn’t have had a better team to work with!

We loved the colour it brought to Broadway and seeing customers transfixed by all of the details as they travelled up the moving walkways. It was a great way to celebrate the power of papercraft and bring in the spring season.

Are you a brand, business, organisation, institution or creative agency looking to commission some giant novelty props for an upcoming project, event or campaign? Here at Kitiya Palaskas Studio we produce props, installations and design work for clients all over the world! If you're interested in finding out more, please get in touch. We'd love to collaborate with you!

Photo credits: Sophie Joyce Art and Kitiya Palaskas Studio