UrbanDaddy & Herradura invited us to create an installation that highlighted the level of craft and artistry that goes into making a cocktail. A skilled mixologist balances notes of sweet, bitter, sour and spicy, like an artist uses complementary elements in a visual composition. Our installation invited this comparison between artists and mixologists by using drink ingredients as inspiration for both a handmade cocktail and a projection of art and animation.

Guests were invited to choose any 2 ingredients on a special bar surface and watch as both a custom cocktail and unique visual art piece was made for them. The bar was adorned with jars filled to the brim with exotic cocktail ingredients. A quick touch of either the jars or the ingredients themselves would cause the jar to illuminate from below through the laser-cut surface of the bar. As the drink was being created, a large projection behind the mixologist started to animate and mix custom artwork based on each ingredient.

As a finishing touch, we fitted the cocktail shaker with a wireless sensor, and when the mixologist finished a drink with a vigorous shake, the art responded in kind. Swirling bits of graphics based on traditional mexican masks would animate out of the mixing ingredients on the large projection, thus finishing an original work of art that guests admired in person, or swiped an RFID card to share with friends. Four cities and hundreds of unique pieces of artwork later, there is no doubt that these artists can create, and drink with the best of them.

Made with Red Paper Heart