David Hockney's Bigger Christmas Trees
iPad app tooling and bespoke export feature for large-scale projection
Client: David Hockney and Studio
Public release: Apple Newsroom article
In a sentence
We helped enable David Hockney's iPad-created artwork to be projected at building scale by adding a bespoke export feature, so brush strokes and layers could be extracted in the required format with transparency intact.
In December 2023, David Hockney's Bigger Christmas Trees lit up Battersea Power Station, home to Apple's UK headquarters. The artwork was created on an iPad Pro with Apple Pencil, then projected onto the landmark at a scale you simply cannot ignore.
Our role was focused but critical: extending the custom iPad app we maintain for David Hockney, enabling the artwork to leave the iPad in a projection-ready format, with layer structure and transparency preserved for downstream compositing and projection workflows.
Credits
Reflex Arc supported David Hockney and his studio with bespoke iPad tooling and export workflows. Projection design and technical delivery were led by specialist production partners (including 59).
Battersea Power Station projection of David Hockney Christmas trees - 2023 - © David Hockney
The challenge
The artwork existed beautifully inside the iPad app, but the projection workflow needed something very specific: a way to export the work at high resolution, by layer, with transparency preserved, so it could be reassembled and replayed at building scale.
What we did
We implemented a bespoke export feature within the custom iPad app we maintain for David Hockney and his studio. The focus was on making the output usable for the downstream playback and projection workflow, while keeping the tool as simple as possible for studio use.
- Bespoke export feature to extract brush strokes and artwork layers in the required format
- Layer-aware output with transparency preserved for clean compositing at scale
- High-resolution pipeline suitable for projection onto a 100-metre surface
- Workflow friendly so the studio could export quickly and reliably, without disrupting the artist's normal process
Scale and production
Bigger Christmas Trees ran every evening from December 1st until Christmas Day 2023, looping from 5.00pm to 10.30pm. A pair of iPad-drawn Christmas trees illuminated Battersea Power Station's iconic north watchtowers, reaching a height of around 100 metres.
Projection details and credits via 59.
Press reaction
"It's an astonishing merging of technology and art. Not just in that it's a beautiful drawing, made on an iPad, but also that it's a wonderfully bright projection. At 100 metres high, it's a bright and grand tribute to the wonder of Hockney, Battersea Power Station (and the iPad), all in one."
— The Independent (★★★★★)
More details
Apple's write-up includes background on the installation and context around the piece: Artist David Hockney brings Christmas cheer to Battersea Power Station .
There's more about our ongoing support work with David Hockney and his studio on the Reflex Arc site: David Hockney – Hockney Brushes / Hockney AR.
In situ at Battersea Power Station
Aerial view of Bigger Christmas Trees projected onto Battersea Power Station, London. (This was originally shared by Tim Cook in December 2023.)
Aerial footage of the projection at Battersea Power Station. Original post: https://x.com/tim_cook/status/1731761610195361973.
Follow-on tradition
Since 2023, Apple has continued the Battersea Christmas projection tradition with other projects and collaborations. We were not involved in those later productions, but it has been great to see the idea expand.
David Hockney drawing Bigger Christmas Trees on his iPad, November 2023. © David Hockney. Photo credit: Jonathan Wilkinson.
David Hockney drawing Bigger Christmas Trees on his iPad, November 2023. © David Hockney. Photo credit: Jonathan Wilkinson.
