Artmap

Turning your travel data into AI-generated art with Cathay Pacific.

For Cathay Pacific’s Artmap Year 3, we turned their passengers’ individual travel history into procedurally-generated and interactive 3D artworks.

The Artmap Project was first launched in 2016 as a personalised birthday gift for Cathay Pacific’s Marco Polo Club members. Each member’s travel history from the past year was turned into a unique digital painting they could display and share online.
We were tasked to update the experience to surprise and delight longtime Marco Polo Club members after two years of receiving the annual Artmap.
We took the familiar print-focused static Artmap and evolved it into a natively digital experience that was more dynamic, personal, and customisable.
This time, users were able to customise and interact with their Artmap inside a digital 3D space — moving the artwork around, changing its position, perspective, lighting and colour scheme — and truly make it their own.

Artmap 2019

Inspired by the artist Pawel Nolbert, we wanted the next phase of Artmap to be a clear evolution from previous years. His hyperrealistic 3D paint strokes brought the style into a new era of design that felt both tactile and intrinsically digital. By giving the strokes dimension, we were able to visually overlap, twist, and play with how the user’s routes crossed and overlapped over the year.

Phase I: Testing

Digital brushstroke tests: Experimented and tweaked the rendering engine to get the desired look & feel of the 3D object.

Test Data

To understand the possible shapes of the artwork, we first visualised all the test data on one map. This allowed us to see the average map, as well as identifying possible extremes.

Shape Debugging

Next we began initial brush tests and worked on debugging the shapes while testing how the strokes would bend and swirl.

Initial Color Tests

Once we got the curvature right, we moved on to colour tests, adjusting visually while referring back to our real- paint studies to create a realistic 3D brushstroke.

Volumetric Tests

To introduce a new level of realism to the paint, we experimented with different levels of density, thickness, and glossiness.

Phase II: Alpha

Phase III: Beta

Beta Maps.png — Creating the engine

Variable generated hundreds of map visualisations, searching for one right approach to turn all of our members’ flight data into beautiful artworks.

Phase IV: Final Artmaps

On their birthday, Marco Polo members would receive a link to explore their own Artmap and customise it as a 360º object. The colour of each brushstroke represented the airline carrier, and the curve, length, and thickness shared the flight itinerary of the member. After customisation, your Artmap could also be downloaded and shared as a static image or 360º GIF.