Es Devlin's Library of Light, a ring of lit shelves in the Brera courtyard at night

ES DEVLIN INSTALLATION DESIGN

Why Es Devlin keeps designing libraries

Es Devlin has built two libraries in six months. The structural principle: a library-shaped activation doesn’t impose content on the visitor; it offers content the visitor self-selects. The curation is the brand argument.

A white exhibition hall with a red McDonald's booth and display plinths

Brand Activations

McDonald's spent Milan Design Week arguing about Damien Hirst. The lesson isn't the ball pit.

McDonald's debuted at Milan Design Week 2026 with a 100,000-ball pit referencing Damien Hirst, plus an AI room that generated personal memories for visitors. For brand activation teams, the takeaway isn't the pit itself. It's that McDonald's built one…

Translucent tarp-wrapped structures between the stone columns of a church

Exhibitions

Aesop put 10,826 fragrance bottles in a 15th-century church. The quiet activation is back.

Aesop's 2026 Milan Design Week installation, Factory of Light, used 10,826 salvaged fragrance bottles and reclaimed Milanese scaffolding tarps inside a 15th-century church to launch the brand's first lighting collection. Last year's installation drew…

A receptionist at a pink desk in OLAY's all-pink Skinsurance Office

Pop-Ups

OLAY built a fake insurance office to sell face serum. The concept did what most activation budgets can't.

OLAY built the "Skinsurance Office," a one-day all-pink pop-up at 45 Grand Street in New York that drew roughly 900 guests and reimagined a corporate insurance office to launch its Super Collection. The activation works because a single sharp concept…