Services: Design, Fabrication, CNC Machining, Vacuum Forming, Metalwork, Custom LED System Design Location: Niketown London, Oxford Circus. Our client briefed us to design and build a series of large-format illuminated cloud sculptures for their Oxford Street flagship store. The brief called for something that would stop people on the floor. Oversized, internally lit display pieces that could anchor a retail space and communicate the brand without a single word of copy. The clouds needed to look seamless, hold up to close inspection, and perform reliably in a high-footfall retail environment over an extended period.
Niketown London on Oxford Circus is one of Nike’s most prominent retail environments in Europe. Display installations here need to perform at the highest standard. The store blends physical and digital retail experiences across multiple floors, with visual merchandising that shifts seasonally to reflect new product launches and campaigns. The brief for the cloud sculptures sat within a wider seasonal campaign and needed to integrate into the store’s existing visual identity while creating a distinct centrepiece moment. Scale, finish and lighting quality were all non-negotiable.
We designed and fabricated a series of 2.5-metre illuminated cloud sculptures, built around welded steel frames and clad in bespoke vacuum formed panels. The vacuum forming process allowed us to achieve the smooth, organic surface required for the cloud form across panels that needed to fit together. Each panel was produced in-house, formed over CNC-machined tooling, trimmed and finished before assembly onto the steel armature. The internal LED lighting system was designed and built in-house. Getting the light distribution right across a sculptural form of this size required careful diffusion work so the pieces glowed evenly without hot spots visible through the skin. Every cloud was test-lit in the studio before dispatch to confirm the effect matched what had been agreed. The result was a series of display pieces that held their own in one of the most competitive retail environments in London, executed from brief to production by a single studio with no hand-offs.
