The London Design Festival provided its own unique nod to the importance of mcommerce.
This year marked the 10th annual London Design Festival, and it featured an important recognition of the growing influence of mcommerce through a sculpture that formed QR codes made entirely out of chocolate.
The sculpture was the result of a collaborative effort between an international chocolatier and a designer.
Hotel Chocolat, an international chocolatier based in the United Kingdom, but that has store locations throughout the U.K, across Europe, and in both Boston and New York, worked with Paul Cocksedge, a designer, in order to develop this piece featuring QR codes. The goal was to create a sculpture that was completely constructed out of 1,000 individual pieces of chocolate.
The QR codes may have been made out of sweet treats, but they were fully functional.
Although the QR codes were a part of a sculpture that was meant for visual appeal, they also had a functional quality. Those who viewed the sculpture were able to use their smartphones to scan the barcode.
Individuals who did actually take the opportunity to scan the QR codes were provided with a voucher that could be used in order to obtain a free box of chocolates. The complimentary gift was made available at the Covent Garden store location in London, and was a limited edition box of chocolates from Hotel Chocolat.
This feature helped to explain the name of the sculpture, which was “Gift”. It was not only available through the sculpture itself during the Festival, but the QR codes it represented were also previewed at the Victoria and Albert museum on September 14. Following that date, the barcodes could be found on display at 344 Ladbroke Grove, at the Dock, Portobello Dock, in London.
This is not the first time that QR codes and chocolate have worked together for mcommerce and marketing purposes. There have been a number of different kinds of mobile barcodes already created, including one made out of unwrapped chocolate treats. This, however, is the first sculpture that was specifically designed for scanning purposes for smartphone owners.
