China Duty Free: Surreal Island

Macau thrives on spectacle, and when China Duty Free launched its flagship luxury destination inside the Grand Lisboa Palace, the challenge was to create something that could match the city’s bold, larger-than-life spirit. I directed the animation for an immersive digital experience across nine monumental screens, from 20-meter ceilings to towering LED walls designed to awe and inspire.

Under the concept of Surreal Island, we worked closely with surrealist illustrator Paolo Torres and the CDF team to craft a dreamlike world where products became living characters—a tiger tote prowling through rainforests, a Venus sculpted from lipstick emerging from a lake, porcelain whales drifting through the sky. Every detail, from motion design to cinematic pacing, was carefully orchestrated to make the screens feel alive, shifting through cycles of day and night so visitors constantly discover new moments. The result is a poetic, surreal spectacle that transforms luxury retail into an unforgettable sensory journey.