Fivestone Studios has won the Clear Concept Awards for its innovative use of a Planar® LookThru™ OLED transparent display. (All Photos Courtesy of Planar)

Planar, a Leyard company and global leader in display and digital signage technology, today announced that Fivestone Studios has won the Clear Concept Awards for its innovative use of a Planar® LookThru™ OLED transparent display, which makes it possible to create truly see-through installations that allow consumers to view physical products or spaces behind a display.

The Clear Concept Awards competition, co-sponsored by the Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD) and Digital Signage Expo (DSE) along with Planar, is designed to encourage inspiring, new applications for transparent installations, which represent the next wave of digital signage.

The display utilizes OLED technology to eliminate the need for a backlight or enclosure.

Fivestone Studios, a creative services agency based in Nashville, Tenn., was recognized for its captivating design concept, which uses a Planar LookThru OLED transparent display to encourage users to explore specific features of a luxury vehicle stationed behind the tiled display wall. The concept allows consumers to interact via a touch screen to learn about the vehicle, while capitalizing on the display’s transparency to show the vehicle in the background.

“Building on the growth of video walls and digital displays in dealerships and showrooms, we are already seeing interest in see-through displays for vehicle showrooms and other luxury retail applications, and the winning submission from Fivestone Studios demonstrates the quality of design that is now possible,” said Jennifer Davis, vice president of marketing and product strategy at Planar Systems and chief marketing officer at Leyard. “Overall, the quality of submissions was superb. The range of applications, the creativity and innovation that were displayed and the inspiring ideas for transparent display exceeded our expectations.”

A New Category of See-Through Displays

Announced in late 2015, the Planar LookThru OLED transparent display is a breakthrough product that creates a new category for see-through displays. The display utilizes cutting-edge Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) technology to eliminate the need for a backlight or enclosure. Users can view content on a glass video screen while still being able to see through it, enabling users to overlay digital images onto real objects that sit behind the glass. The display, which can be tiled into custom fixtures with Planar processing solutions to create a larger display canvas, is ideal for a broad range of applications including retail, museums and corporate settings.

The Clear Concept Awards was designed to spur creative uses of this display, giving designers and customers a better understanding of its groundbreaking uses in digital signage. Entrants in the contest were required to submit a sketch or rendering that demonstrates a specific use of an OLED transparent display that is both technically feasible and illustrates creative innovation.

A “Beautiful and Thoughtful” Design

Planar received dozens of submissions from participants who designed innovative concepts to show how various industries can take advantage of the unique qualities that the Planar LookThru OLED transparent display offers. The winning submission was selected by a six-judge panel that included Nathan Moody, design director at Stimulant; Christopher Hall, editor at Digital Signage Today; Brian James, design director at Downstream; Anthony Vitagliano, director of experience design at Digital Kitchen; Dan Moalli, senior vice president at Technomedia; and Robert Pinon, vice president at MHTN Architects. The judges chose Fivestone Studios, commenting on the creative agency’s “beautiful and thoughtful submission” that “takes advantage of the technology to overlay varied and complex information over a physical component beyond.”

“We’re honored to win this award,” said Traylor Woodall, executive creative director and founder of Fivestone Studios. “The Planar LookThru OLED has a futuristic aesthetic that will appeal to many of our customers, and we’re thrilled to be leading the way by demonstrating both its usefulness and its awe factor.”

Fivestone Studios will join Davis on a March 17 panel at DSE 2016 that will discuss the winning design as well as trends in digital signage. To see the winning submission and for more information about the Clear Concept Awards, please visit the award page at www.planar.com/ClearConcept.

The Planar LookThru OLED transparent display is available through Planar’s global network of authorized resellers. Watch a video to learn more about the Planar LookThru OLED transparent display or visit http://www.planar.com/LookThruOLED.