Santa in The Elevator

Santa’s living room in the elevator of Aviapark shopping center. Moscow, 2019

The inspiration for the design was the famous illustrations by Thomas Nast, who first started drawing the life of Santa Claus in 1863. Framed copies of these illustrations were hung on the walls of our Santa’s living room.

The idea was to create a sense of confused reality, as if you had been transported into a fairy tale from your childhood — into the real house of Santa Claus. For this reason, everything had to look very realistic. Therefore, a huge box with walls, floor and ceiling was built into the elevator. Antique wallpapers were pasted onto the walls, linoleum was laid, skirtings were nailed — everything was real.

The space was divided into two zones: Santa’s living room and an entrance hall for guests. In the living room there was a fireplace, a stone mantel clock, a chair for Santa and, of course, a Christmas tree. In the hall there was an old-style dial telephone for the Santa Claus hotline, a long roll of paper for people to write their wishes and dreams and a table with mandarins, gingerbread cookies and other Christmas treats.

A lot of the elements were hand-made by Santa’s helpers — hand-sewn teddy bears, gilded cones on the Christmas tree, hand-stitched stockings on the fireplace and, of course, all the wooden signs, one of which contained the words of Slava Polunin “Do not grow up — it is a trap”. This was the main concept. Believe in miracles, and they will come true!

Sketch:

Realisation:

Do not grow up —

it is a trap!

Design / Art Direction: 

Tatyana Ludanik


Production:

TwoAgency


2019