Dive Brief:
- Forever 21 has teamed with custom hardware specialist Breakfast to create a 2,000-lb. screen that uses colored spools of fabric to create mosaics out of customers’ Instagram pictures.
- Instagram photos tagged #Forever21ThreadScreen are sent to the thread screen and Breakfast creates a video of each transition, notifying users when photos have been rendered.
- Requiring continuous monitoring, the huge thread screen is housed at the Breakfast offices in Brooklyn.
Dive Insight:
Leading retailer Forever 21 and Brooklyn custom hardware makers Breakfast have created a customized Instagram experience for fans who share pictures. After hashtagging a photo #Forever21ThreadScreen, Instagram users will soon see their photos turned into fabric mosaics by a 2,000-lb. “thread screen” made up of rotating, multicolored spools of fabric.
The massive mosaic machine couldn’t be housed at a Forever21 location, as the retailer had originally hoped. Instead, the thread screen lives at Breakfast’s offices, where staffers videotape the transitions from photo to fabric and issue users notifications when their images are converted, guaranteeing each contributor the same experience.