How ESI Design Captured Bill Cunningham’s Relentless Discovery

Hey Bill! All images: Sean Airhart/NBBJ Design

The Biria bicycle, the bright blue French workman's jacket—Bill Cunningham stood out on the streets of New York City, becoming as much of a social fixture as the well-dressed people he photographed over his six decades of work (though he never seemed to like the attention).

Now his story has been brought to life in the new immersive installation, Experience the Times of Bill Cunningham at the South Street Seaport. It captures the beloved documentarian’s career and keen eye to life with a range of dynamic experiences—from a grand staircase where guests’ outfits will be digitally transformed into a fashion statement worthy of a Cunningham snap to an ever-changing gallery revealing the surprising links between the sartorial trends captured by Cunningham and today’s street styles. 

Layne Braunstein, Leader, Creative, at ESI Design, NBBJ's New York experience design studio, oversaw the creative effort behind the experience. (ESI Design’s in-house team of designers, storytellers, and artists collaborate to seamlessly weave the physical and digital world together to create immersive experiences that excite and inspire. Recent clients include the Statue of Liberty Museum and The Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration.) Here, Braunstein shares how they took elements of Bill’s life and designed an experience with them, how the constraints of the space (a former Abercrombie & Fitch store) led to new bursts of creativity, and what most surprised him about Bill Cunningham.

Layne Braunstein says a compelling interactive experience must create an emotional connection, engage the sense and follow a narrative arc.

How do you end up bringing Bill’s life to life?

I used to run Fake Love, which was purchased by the New York Times. During the merger, I walked into the Times building and saw Bill downstairs checking in. I introduced myself and we talked briefly. He passed away not too long after. 

Fast forward to now. I'm over working for ESI Design, which is part of NBBJ, and our founder has had a 35-year relationship with Mark Bozek, the director of The Times of Bill Cunningham. Over the past few decades, Mark put the pieces together for the film. It launched in February 2020 and was planned to be released to 70+ theaters around the world, just as the world shut down. Mark thought about what else he could do with the content and that’s how this project came into play through Mark’s company Live Rocket Studios.

What was your starting point to take Bill’s story and turn it into a physical experience? 

The starting point was the documentary. We watched it 30 times. Then we watched it again with Mark commenting on it. The movie was great with guardrails about what we could and couldn’t do, but it's a movie and that's difficult to make an experience from. 

Once Mark gave his comments, we realized this exhibition wasn't going to be a straight timeline of Bill was born here, then he passed away here. We realized that the film is non-linear and we could create an experience that was non-linear. The film was more about his growth as a photographer rather than a timeline of his life. Once we grabbed onto that we had the vision for the experience—the idea of relentless discovery. Bill was always riding his bike around NYC, and trying to capture whatever he could. 

We wanted the experience to feel dynamic just like Bill. We didn’t want the same six images to show up on the projection. We wanted to allow visitors to discover Bill’s work through a rotating series of different elements—video clips, drafts, notes, sketches, and photos.

The bike pathreaches itsfinal destinationat theresting place of a replica ofBill’s bicycle, providing another photo opportunity.

When guests ascend a grand staircase theiroutfits will be digitally transformed into a fashion statement worthy of a Cunningham snap.

How did the physical space impact your design? 

The space was a constraint. It was a vacant Abercrombie & Fitch store located in the South Street Seaport. When we first saw it, it was empty and had clothing hangers and other remnants of retail store everywhere. It still smelled like cologne. But there was this grand staircase. So we worked with what we had. We painted the space all black and built the staircase into the story because grand staircases were part of the early fashion shows Bill photographed.

We love when people use constraints as inspiration to try something new. 

There are moments in the film from wealthy people’s houses in the 1950s and 1960s where women walked down these grand staircases. For one of the staircases, we created an interactive experience called ‘The Met Stairs’ where we took classic patterns from clothes throughout the 50 or 60 years that Bill took photos—let’s say it’s a floral or pinstripe pattern—and we project those on the visitors as they walk up the staircase. When they look down they’re wearing this projected, almost electric, pattern on their clothes. 

A series of audio-visual elements and artifacts evoke the feeling of entering Bill’s studio apartment at the famed Carnegie Hall with cameras, art books filing cabinets, and his famed blue workers jacket.

Was there another symbol from his life that sparked other interactive moments? 

Bill lived in the Carnegie Hall Studios for almost all his life. It was dorm living with a shared bathroom down the hall. His place was filled with filing cabinets of negatives. He slept on milk crates and a foam mattress with a blue blanket. 

We loved the idea of elevating these details to art throughout the space. All the benches that you sit on throughout the space are milk crates and a foam mattress. There are file cabinets throughout the space where we put artifacts like cameras and art books to evoke the feeling of being in his studio.

Bill rode his bicycle pretty much everywhere, so there’s a bike path that flows throughout the entire experience. On entry it begins on the floor, and then flows across the ceiling across the second floor. It comes back down to ground for the final moments of the experience. There we have the Half-Frame Room a reflective, mirrored room which focuses on the future of fashion. Using AI, we pair Bill’s photos with those from current photographers. The bike path ends there on Bill’s Biria bicycle and it’s a nice moment where you kind of see Bill passing the baton. 

What elements are key to creating a compelling interactive experience? 

Before you think about the tech or interactive stuff, you need to first create an emotional connection. That could be a memory, something nostalgic to you. Something that cuts deep.

The next key to creating a compelling interactive experience  is making it multi-sensory. Visuals are not enough. You need to layer in good audio—in this experience we have three layers of audio, the soundtrack of the film spread throughout the space, then another layer of sound effects, and then Bill’s voice from raw clips. 

The last thing is that there needs to be a journey, a path with a beginning, middle, and end. Storytelling isn’t the right word, but there needs to be a narrative. The experience shouldn’t feel random. I love closure. 

Bill was a very familiar face in New York City. What did you learn about him that you didn’t know before?

I was able to look at Bill not just as a fashion historian, but as a deeply complex person. He shot a lot of photography he never shared, including every gay rights pride parade in New York City during the time he was alive and many homeless people. He gave millions of dollars to AIDS foundations and to the church. He really cared about people and the world, and it’s an honor to use the Experience the Times of Bill Cunningham as a way for more people to get to know him. 

If you’d like to read more from The Creative Factor—such as Morten Bonde’s story about reinventing himself as a LEGO Art Director while losing his sight or Edése Doret: Inside the Mind-Boggling World of Private Jet Design—sign up for our newsletter.