Soul Paint – Lincoln Center, NYC
Soul Paint is an immersive experience operating in the health + wellness space that visualises emotions as animated, abstract avatars. This campaign was created to coincide with its run at the Lincoln Center in NYC, the project aimed to bring inner feelings into the open, turning something private and internal into something visible, collective, and beautifully human.
Soul Paint needed to translate complex, internal emotional states into a visual language that felt poetic rather than clinical. The work had to live comfortably in a monumental public space while remaining intimate and personal. It also needed to balance artistry with accessibility for a broad audience.
We developed a series of abstract humanoid avatars based off of real in-world drawn avatars done by real people, each embodying a different emotional state through movement, colour, and energy systems rather than facial expression. The creative direction focused on restraint, subtle animation, delicate line work, and slow, human shifts in posture, allowing the feelings to breathe without becoming spectacle.
Strategically, we anchored the work in recognisable public spaces (Grand Central) contrasting everyday commuter life with visible emotional presence. This grounded and made feel both surreal and relatable.
Pre-production: Concept development of emotional archetypes; visual language exploration; motion tests to define restraint vs spectacle; spatial planning for large-scale display.
Production: Creation of abstract 3D avatars with intentionally imperfect, hand-formed qualities; development of animated “feeling systems” (ribbons, sparkles, electrical traces, internal patterns); scene integration within NYC architectural environments.
Post-production: Refinement of animation pacing to achieve extreme slow motion; balancing of colour, motion graphics and text for large-format clarity; final renders optimised for immersive and billboard-scale presentation.
Soul Paint officially launched at Lincoln Center, NYC, inviting the public to experience emotion as something shared rather than hidden. The work resonated for its calm, poetic presence, striking a balance between technological innovation and human vulnerability. Feedback has been wholly positive with this in from co-creator Sarah Ticho ‘We are OVER THE MOON!! So many people have remarked on it and we’re so happy to have the artworks to help contextualise the work.’
The project worked as a brilliant example of AI-assisted 3D design and careful diligent attention to detail in prompt writing and choices, to whittle down a clear and specific vision. A visual stunner, made to cause intrigue and curiosity, pulling people into the experience with an open mind.
