Australians have always punched well above their weight. Whether it’s leading the Olympic medal tally, or providing support in global humanitarian crises, our ability to stand equal amongst the largest and most sophisticated international players has instilled a sense of pride and expectation across the country. This was on full display recently, when a small (by global standards) Melbourne-based business, Grafico, began making news for its unique and ground-breaking in-store design work for global fashion heavyweight Louis Vuitton at its new “Virgil Abloh” tribute residency.

During one of the 2021 Victorian lockdowns, Grafico worked closely with Louis Vuitton and its domestic architects on a very large (over 700m2) oval hoarding wallpaper for the Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport. This project instilled confidence and enthusiasm with the Paris-based organisation, as shortly after Grafico was re-engaged for a much larger and arguably more sentimental project. 

In 2021, Virgil Abloh passed away from cardiac angiosarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer. Up until then, Abloh had been on a meteoric trajectory unseen before in the fashion industry. In 2009, Abloh began an internship at fashion label Fendi along with rap-icon Kanye West. Working closely West over the preceding years, Abloh begins padding out his resume with items such as; art director of Jay-Z and West’s Watch the Throne, Creative Director at West’s creative agency Donda, founder of fashion label Off-White, and a slew of collaborative partnerships with exhibitions around the world. Achieving one of these endeavors would be a lifetime accomplishment for many, yet Abloh had managed to reach the pinnacles of his industry in eight years. It was in 2018 that his greatest accomplishment came, when Louis Vuitton made him its menswear artistic director, becoming the first African American to be artistic director at a French luxury fashion house. Having occupied the role for three short years, the legacy Abloh has left behind has only grown with each passing day. With this in mind, Louis Vuitton has been on an endeavor to promote the works of Abloh around the globe and chose Sydney to complete a unique pop up ‘residency’ at its new building on the corner of Pitt and King Streets in Sydney CBD. 

As founder and creative director of Grafico, Damian Corney puts it, “Virgil Abloh is such an iconic designer. Grafico is honored to work with Louis Vuitton to create a fitting tribute for this iconic man”.

Up to the challenge, Grafico worked collaboratively with Louis Vuitton on designing an immersive experience for customers of its Sydney residency, who will find themselves sinking into a space surrounded by an ombre rainbow color across both floors and walls. 

Totalling 600 lineal meters of Grafico’s popular custom print self-adhesive wallpaper, and 500m of a special PVC free custom print floor wallpaper, the over 1.1km worth of printing was a gargantuan job for the most seasoned of designers and printers. To put this into perspective a standard bedroom wallpaper feature wall may use 8  lineal meters of wallpaper, and this residency used over 600 on the walls alone.   

Its remarkableness was only heightened with the fashion house’s desire for the rainbow ombre design to seamlessly match on the walls and floors as if there was no distinguishing feature between the two. Compounding this challenge, 360° of the walls and floors are visible from each level due to the large oval void in the centre of the floor. So there was very little margin for error! This void also allowed an enormous 8m high 3D printed statue of Virgil to sit proudly in the centre of the residency complemented by the burst of color on the walls and floors by Grafico.

To achieve a seamless installation between the floors and walls, a huge amount of technical design preparation was required by Grafico before any production could be done. Taking place in its headquarters in North Melbourne, Victoria. and overseen by Louis Vuitton via zoom in Paris and Hong Kong.

Secondly, once the design and printing had taken place, the actual installation in Sydney was on par in terms of technical difficulty, and innovatively unique. Compounding the challenge being a heritage building, all walls were not ‘square’ and jutted in and out so trying to achieve an ombre gradient around walls that are not flat also added to the complexity!

Damian Corney emphasizes that not only was the inside challenging, but that “moving to the outdoors - being a heritage listed building there were varying restrictions from town planning to of course flammability ratings. "We were able to continue the ombre look throughout the glass using special stained-glass effect film on the ground level (light orange) while moving through the levels from amber, to magenta and finishing with purple. The 'cherry on the top' came in the form of a specially produced "LV" branded flag that flies high on the turret of the building” additionally visible from the VIP rooftop event space which was also treated to the same ombre walls and floor as the other levels of the residency," adds Damian.

The team’s incredible work was made all the more impressive by the sheer fact it was done collaboratively with an international client in the age of COVID. With Australia’s unforgiving global time zones, many late nights were had by the team, as they harnessed the ubiquitous video streaming platforms, we have all come to love and hate, to achieve an outcome all parties could proudly embrace. 

Since its unveiling, the positive coverage has been wall to wall, as media outlets from Vogue and GQ to Australian legacy media have all weighed in on the uniqueness of the project and its place in the fashion world zeitgeist. Once again proving Australians’ ability to lead and deliver on the world stage. 

The Louis Vuitton “Virgil” Residency will take place from December 15, 2021 to March 15th, 2022 at 138 Pitt Street, Sydney.