NO. 07, 2013
NO. 07, 2013
eg EXPERIENTIAL GRAPHICS MAGAZINE
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GRAPHIC EDITION NPR HEADQUARTERS
ANDREAS UEBELE ADIDAS LACES
EGD PIONEER SKETCHBOOK JANE DAVIS DOGGETT
DAVID HARVEY
Society for Experiential Graphic Design A multidisciplinary community creating experiences that connect people to place
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D IN OSAUR HA LL, N AT URA L H I STORY M US E UM OF LOS A N G ELES CO U N TY
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In the pages of this magazine over the past 10 years, we’ve watched the evolution of a field that has its roots in architectural signage, but has grown to encompass a broad and diverse swath of design disciplines: graphic and interior design, exhibition design, brand development and strategy, interaction design, and user experience design to name just a few. In more recent years, we’ve seen the steady and inexorable integration of technology into the environments our members design. Today, environmental graphic design projects are as likely to include interactive elements as they are static ones and increasingly, digital technologies are delivering benefits and creating experiences that enhance and bring rich context to these environments. When SEGD was established in 1973, much debate was devoted to the name of the organization, and Society for Environmental Graphic Design was finally selected as an inclusive moniker for an association and design discipline devoted to providing people a sense of place and direction in the built environment. As we are all well aware, the word “environmental” has taken on a very different context today as compared to how it was perceived prior to the sustainability movement. In addition, the scope of EGD work has expanded greatly over the decades, now encompassing ever-more complex projects and integrating new digital technologies that—in addition to communicating in space—create rich, engaging experiences for people. Thanks to digital technologies and the Internet, designers can add layers of content and enhanced information to spaces, connecting people with the specific location and its history and ambience as well as creating a sense of place and helping them find their way. In this new era, both are possible and more often than not, demanded by clients. For years, SEGD members and SEGD’s Board of Directors have debated our association’s name within this context. Many members of the board and profession have wanted to change the name to express the much-expanded scope of work that EGD professionals have been doing for the past 10 to 15 years already. In October, the SEGD Board of Directors proposed and voted on a new descriptor for SEGD:
NO. 07, 2013
EXPERIENTIAL GRAPHICS MAGAZINE
eg magazine is the international journal of SEGD, the Society for Experiential Graphic Design. Opinions expressed editorially and by contributors are not necessarily those of SEGD. Advertisements appearing in eg magazine do not constitute or imply endorsement by SEGD or eg magazine. Material in this magazine is copyrighted. Photocopying for academic purposes is permissible, with appropriate credit. eg magazine is published four times a year by SEGD Services Corp. Periodical postage paid at York, Penn., USA, and additional mailing offices.
Isn’t It?
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Editorial, Subscriptions, Reprints, Back Issues 202.638.5555 segd@segd.org
Experience,
NO. 07, 2013
Advertising Sales Kathleen Turner kathleen@segd.org 202.638.5555
It’s the
GRAPHIC EDITION NPR HEADQUARTERS
ANDREAS UEBELE ADIDAS LACES
EGD PIONEER SKETCHBOOK JANE DAVIS DOGGETT
DAVID HARVEY
On the cover: An exhibition and dynamic “Media Mosaic” are part of the EGD program Poulin + Morris created for the new NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C. See story, page 38
Society for Experiential Graphic Design Our official name remains SEGD. But with the replacement of one word, we face ourselves forward and look toward an exciting future. The word “graphic” remains in our name because it is graphic communication that holds all of the practitioners in this field together. And it is the creation of experiences—more than just communication in spaces— that sets our members apart from print communication or website designers. This is an important moment for a vital and growing field, and for our organization. Welcome to the next exciting phase of the evolution of SEGD! Clive Roux CEO
eg magazine — 3
CONTENTS
1 UP FRONT (10)
Found
Motor City mojo, Montreal’s Megaphone, and social justice in Portland (14)
Review
Per Mollerup revisits his seminal work with Wayshowing > Wayfinding. (16)
Out There
Soft Light, soft signage, and softening sound with Kirei EchoPanels
4 — eg magazine
3 INSPIRATION (46)
Jane Davis Doggett
2 FEATURES (22)
Design to the Rescue In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Pentagram builds a stronger-than-ever identity for New York City’s public beaches. (26)
On the Move
At Adidas’ new research and design building, Büro Uebele uses turbocharged typography to express the essence of sports. (32)
Hands-On High Tech At Monsanto’s biotech research center, Spagnola & Associates marries digital storytelling and farming in a dramatic interactive exhibit. (38)
Graphic Edition
Poulin + Morris uses typography and dramatic scale to express NPR’s unique brand of journalism.
Traveled through an airport lately? The graphic system standards you see today are the innovations of an EGD pioneer who harnessed color, scale, and the alphabet to humanize massive public spaces. (53)
SEGD Events Outlook The outlook for 2014 looks inspiring, thanks to SEGD’s packed calendar of professional development events. (58)
Workspace
In Minneapolis, Gensler uses environmental graphics and art to tell advertising agency Olson’s brand story. (60)
Sketchbook
“Thinking visually” with David Harvey, Senior Vice President for Exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History (64)
Vince Frost
The founder and creative director of Australian powerhouse studio Frost* on going home and “inspiring ideas to life.”
eg magazine — 5
2013 eg SPONSORS AND PATRONS
Our sincere thanks to these companies for their support of eg magazine.
Lead Sponsors Pentagram
Patrons C&G Partners Donovan/Green Infinite Scale JACQZ Co. Kate Keating Associates Tracy Turner Design
Sponsors Robert Probst APCO Graphics Applied Image Hunt Design Selbert Perkins Design fd2s
For information about sponsorship, contact sara@segd.org
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28.10.2013 15:38:12 Uhr
UP FRONT (10)
Found
Motor City mojo, Montreal’s Megaphone, and social justice in Portland (14)
Review
Per Mollerup revisits his seminal work with Wayshowing > Wayfinding. (16)
Out There
Soft Light, soft signage, and softening sound with Kirei EchoPanels
FOUND
SECTION TITLE
10 — eg magazine
Word Up Like its counterparts the world over, Montreal is always looking for new ways to bring its streets and urban spaces to life. Inspired by the city’s early 20th-century history of popular assemblies and the 19th-century British tradition of the Speaker’s Corner, Moment Factory (Montreal) created Megaphone, a temporary installation that energizes Montreal’s Promenade des Artistes. As participants speak into the megaphone, their voices are transformed, in real time, into images projected onto the façade of the University of Quebec in Montreal’s President Kennedy Building. The result is a collective stream of consciousness rendered on the urban landscape. (Client: National Film Board of Canada and Partenariat Quartier des Spectacles. Concept, design, and production: Moment Factory. Voice recognition software: Computer Research Institute of Montreal. Photos: Moment Factory)
Times are bleak for Detroit, but as the Motor City searches for footholds in its renaissance, a series of landmark towers designed by Calori & VandenEynden Design Consultants may help light the way. C&VE was originally retained to design a signage and wayfinding program along Woodward Avenue, one of the most historical roadways in the U.S. Along its length, the American auto industry boomed, tech innovation flourished, groundbreaking music and art was incubated, and the labor and civil rights movements emerged. The intent of the original sign system was to promote Woodward Avenue and thereby increase revenue. Instead of signs that would add to an alreadycluttered urban landscape, C&VE proposed a series of 20+ landmark columns along the road, themed to honor its many treasures. Four of the 30-foot-tall Tribute Towers have been constructed so far and three are scheduled for the near future. Atop castconcrete bases, cylinders of backlighted laminated glass bear black-and-white images that depict past glories and hopefully, light the way to a bright future. (Client:Â Woodward Heritage Team and Woodward Avenue Action Association. Design: Calori & Vanden-Eynden Design Consultants. Fabrication: Harmon Signs, Glass and Mirror Craft, Solar One. Photos: Curt Clayton)
DNUOF
Motor City Mojo
eg magazine — 11
FOUND
SECTION TITLE
Sheltering Words
Bud Clark Commons is a key component of Portland, Oregon’s, Plan to End Homelessness and a statement about community sustainability. The LEED-Platinum center hosts a day center with counseling, 90-bed men’s shelter, and 130 studio apartments. The Men’s Shelter courtyard offers a peaceful refuge from the chaos of the streets. Mayer/Reed (Portland) was responsibIe for landscape architecture and environmental graphics for the center, including a distinctive courtyard gate that at once communicates the center’s ethos of safety and inclusiveness. Waterjet-cut from weathering steel, the 16-foot-wide gate contains quotations that establish connections to the community and to the shared human condition. Building identity, entry signs, and interior wayfinding were also designed to create a de-institutionalized environment where clients can seek critical social services while taking steps toward improving their lives. (Client: Transition Project Inc. and Home Forward. Architecture: Holst Architecture. Landscape architecture and environmental graphics: Mayer/Reed. Gate fabrication: Timblin Steel. Photos: Bruce Forester)
12 — eg magazine
Lehigh University’s new Science, Technology, Environment, Policy and Society building integrates the sciences, environmental studies, engineering, and the social sciences in a collaborative, communal space. Working with Bohlin Cywinski Jackson Architects and artist Larry Kirkland, Skyline Design (Chicago) created two monumental etchedglass panels at the Bethlehem, Pa., building, including a 70- by 20-foot curtain wall image that spans 28 windows. Working with Kirkland’s image of an American chestnut—locally significant because it was decimated by blight in the 1800s—Skyline Design used its eco-etch® Fotoglas™ process, an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional glass-imaging techniques because it lightly abrades the glass surface with a recyclable oxide powder that can be re-used for up to six months. In additional to being sustainably made, the glass art reinforces the STEP program mission by allowing students to see nature outside while they’re studying it inside. (Client: LeHigh University. Architecture: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson Architects. Fabrication: Skyline Design. Photo: © Craig Collins)
DNUOF
Clearly sustainable
eg magazine — 13
REVIEW
Wayshowing Redux Wayshowing > Wayfinding By Per Mollerup BIS Publishers, 2013 Per Mollerup has revisited and updated his 2005 wayfinding reference to include digital sign systems as well as new signage examples and images. Wayshowing > Wayfinding is divided into three parts that focus on problems, principles, and practices. First, it discusses the problems that wayfinding solves and the challenges inherent in this hybrid art/science. What are we looking for when we are trying to find our way in a new place or unknown country? His section on principles takes its point of departure in non-signs acting as signs, then goes on to a discussion of the concepts of wayfinding and wayshowing. He also presents theoretical and practical aspects of signs and their functions. After a section on signposting for visually impaired people, he ends the section on principles with a chapter on planning. The practices section examines cases from environments that depend on signage, including hospitals, airports, railway stations, museums, and cities. Case studies include traditional static signs as well as digital solutions.
“ What are we looking for when we are trying to find our way in a new place or unknown country?”
14 — eg magazine
Ideas for a book, website, or exhibit review? Contact pat@segd.org.
New York Neon By Thomas Rinaldi W.W. Norton & Co., 2013 Designer and historian Thomas Rinaldi has written the definitive guide to neon in the Big Apple, providing a borough-by-borough tour that includes some of the world’s most treasured historic signs. He also includes a section on preserving historic neon signs and a listing of New York sign shops that specialize in the art form. His brief history of “neon tubing” gets to the heart of why neon may be one of the most emotionally evocative forms of visual communication.
Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team By Alina Wheeler John Wiley & Sons, 2013 This primer on brand and brand identity breaks the process into three parts—Basics, Process, and Best Practices. Starting with the basic concept of “What is a brand?” it covers the brand development process thoroughly and concisely and illustrates with case studies from the world’s most successful brands, from the expected (Coca Cola, Amazon, Kleenex, and Starbucks, to name a few) to the less so (interactive textbook creator Inkling, a small city in Belgium, and Global Handwashing Day). There are also plenty of environmental graphic design projects, from the High Line to the California Academy of Sciences.
Cause and Effect: Visualizing Sustainability Gestalten, 2013 While we all have a distinct sense of the fact that our society, economy, and way of life must radically change to become sustainable, action is slower than anyone would hope. The thesis of this book is that communication designers are the best equipped to convey the knowledge necessary for sustainable development to happen in the timeframe that it needs to happen. Cause and Effect is a portfolio of design projects that illuminate sustainability initiatives, sensitizing people to how critically important they are and maintaining a sense of awareness of problems and how they must be addressed.
Sustainable Materials, Processes and Production By Rob Thompson Thames & Hudson, 2013
Trade Fair Design Annual 2013/14 Ed. by Sabine Marines cu, Janine Poach avedition, 2013
The latest in Rob Thompson’s series of reference guides for design students provides an understanding of the environmental impact of materials, manufacturing processes, and product lifecycles, and a guide to selecting and using them. The book combines practical information with indepth analysis of 15 materials, 14 processes, and six production lifecycles with technical descriptions and notes on suitability, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and environmental impact. Case studies range from how steel is produced to sustainable foresting, tapping latex and vulcanizing rubber, and water-based printing.
Trade Fair Design Annual is a picture book of winning trade show designs and an overview of trends in this specialized field. The latest uses of technology, brand, and storytelling are illustrated in 248 pages with close to 300 color images. Case studies in this German/English book are accompanied by interviews with the designers.
eg magazine — 15
OUT THERE
A
B
C
D
Innovative materials, products & technology
16 — eg magazine
New product to share? Contact pat@segd.org.
D
C
B A
EchoPanel
Simon Frambach’s Soft Light is a glowing balloonshaped light shade made of foamed polyurethane that interacts with its surroundings to serve a range of purposes from an illuminated pillow to lighting up dark areas by being wedged between objects. An energy-saving light bulb, protected by a cage, illuminates the porous foam from the inside.
Kirei EchoPanel acoustic panels and tiles add color and style to any space while quieting rooms by controlling sound reflection. Panels and tiles are manufactured using recycled PET plastic bottles and eco-friendly dyes, resulting in a Green Tag-certified product that can contribute to LEED green building credits with almost no VOC emissions. EchoPanels come in three variations, including geometric tiles that can be used to create images.
www.simon-frambach.com
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Soft Light
Smartway Wayfinding Insight’s SmartWay is a modular, LED-illuminated wayfinding system that features ultra-slim sign architecture, highly efficient light sources, and simple maintainability. The edge-lit system couples custom laser-etched panels with a high-performance replaceable LED light engine. This system produces brilliant uniform lighting for any type of opaque or translucent graphic, and allows facility staff to change graphics and do electrical maintenance without taking the sign down. Single- and doublefaced modules are available up to 8-ft. long and can be coupled together when longer messages are needed. www.insightlighting.com
Soft Signage Framing System The SignComp Soft Signage Tensioning System showcases graphics printed on many types of textiles. The aluminum framing system is designed for point-of-purchase displays or medical, hospitality, retail, and museum environments. The system eliminates the need for sewing or silicone beading to keep the fabric in place. A grip strip in the frame eliminates the need to prepare fabric edges. The frame and grip strip are re-usable so graphics can be changed out again and again. Cover options include a mill finish snap cover (if painting the frame a specific color), and black plastic or clear anodized snap cover (no painting required). www.signcomp.com
eg magazine — 17
CONVERGENCE CROSSING LINES
2014 SEGD Conference
| Atlanta | June 5-7
From its location south of the “grit-line” to Dr. Martin Luther King’s crossing of the “black-white line,” Atlanta has been shaped by cultural, historical, and social convergence. Join us for Convergence: the 2014 SEGD Conference, for a provocative examination of the fusion of contemporary experience design practice and how the crossing lines of interdisciplinary communities and creative thinkers have shaped not only Atlanta’s present, but the global future of ideas, people, and places. Register at convergence.segd.org before January 1, 2014, to enjoy early registration rates and to ensure your participation in an exciting multi-day program of progressive dialogues, inspiring design, and meaningful practiced-based strategies.
Lehigh University / Artwork: Larry Kirkland / photos: ŠCraig Collin
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FEATURES (22)
Design to the Rescue
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Pentagram builds a stronger-than-ever identity for New York City’s public beaches. (26)
On the Move
At Adidas’ new research and design building, Büro Uebele uses turbocharged typography to express the essence of sports. (32)
Hands-On High Tech At Monsanto’s biotech research center, Spagnola & Associates marries digital storytelling and farming in a dramatic interactive exhibit. (38)
Graphic Edition
Poulin + Morris uses typography and dramatic scale to express NPR’s unique brand of journalism.
DESIGN TO THE RESCUE
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Pentagram builds a stronger-than-ever identity for New York City’s public beaches. By Jennifer Volland
22 — eg magazine
Paula Scher’s signs for New York City beaches feature post-Hurricane Sandy photos, taken from the exact location of the signs. American SignCrafters built them with extrudedaluminum frames and Fossil high-pressure laminate panels—materials that can stand up to sever weather and high winds. The concrete-block “islands” designed by Sage and Coombe Architects feature superscaled identification numbers that correspond to the signs.
Beach identification signs are accompanied by highly visible markers along the shoreline, mounted on the stanchions left when the hurricane swept boardwalks away. The stanchions were painted bright yellow so visitors can easily locate entry and exit points and where they are in relation to the streets on the other side of the dunes.
D
esign intervention in the wake of a natural disaster can be a tricky proposition. Emotions run high. Resources are scarce. Environmental restoration seems insurmountable. Efforts to rebuild, though admirable, can be fragmented, unorganized, and politically charged. It’s hard to know where to start. Such was the challenge posed by Hurricane Sandy after it ripped across the Eastern Seaboard in late October 2012, resulting in hundreds of fatalities and $68 billion in damages. The destruction was particularly pronounced in New York City. The storm crippled the city’s infrastructure where it made contact with land: more than 14 miles of beaches, as well as the boardwalks, one of New York City’s most enduring architectural symbols. “The boardwalks were gone and everyone was depressed about it,” explains Pentagram Partner Paula Scher. Just weeks after the hurricane, she was hired by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to create new signage and environmental graphics to help welcome New Yorkers back to their beloved beaches. Scher’s starting point for the project? “What is left is the beach, and that is still pretty great. So we focused on the positive.”
Restoring pride, repairing communities
Following the devastation of the storm, Mayor Michael Bloomberg wanted the beach communities to know they hadn’t been forgotten. The beaches had always served as an economic engine and an entertainment zone, drawing more than 20 million visitors the previous season. Sensing the urgency to get back on track, Bloomberg made a bold promise to reopen the city’s eight public beaches by Memorial Day weekend, just seven months after the storm. It was a massive undertaking, with a much faster timeline than most capital projects, and in many ways, with much more riding on it. Before restoration work could even begin, 430 million tons of debris were cleared from the beaches, and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers placed 4.5 million cubic yards of new sand. If restoring community pride in the city’s natural assets wasn’t enough of a challenge, Scher, in collaboration with a large team of architects and designers, had just five months from the start of the project to complete the initial implementation. The scope included 14 entrances at the Rockaways (Queens), two at Coney Island (Brooklyn), two at Brighton (Brooklyn), one at Manhattan (Brooklyn), one at Wolfe’s Pond (Staten Island), one at Cedar Grove (Staten Island), and two at Midland Beach. Responding to a highly charged catastrophe marked new territory for Scher, but she and her team applied the same rigor and approach as with any other project, outlining the conditions that had to be addressed and the audience that had to be reached. In this case, a prioritized list emerged. “Design should help repair communities by first helping to make things function, then to make the situation more pleasant for residents aesthetically and emotionally, and help set the conditions for appropriate economic and social development.”
Location New York Client NYC Parks and Recreation Department, NYC Department of Design and Construction Project Area 14 miles Open Date May 2013 Design Pentagram Design Team Paula Scher partner-in-charge and designer; Courtney Gooch, Rafael Medina, Lingxiao Tan designers Fabrication American SignCrafters Collaborators Garrison Architects modular lifeguard/restroom stations; Sage and Coombe Architects pavilions; Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects shoreline repair, access; LTL Architects Steeplechase Pier; McLaren Engineering Group shoreline repair, project management, structural Photos Peter Mauss / Esto
eg magazine — 23
DESIGN TO THE RESCUE
“
We didn’t change the beach rules, but we consolidated them and made them more positive. We had to redo all the park signage anyway. It just so happened that we had this obligation that we matched with an opportunity.
Wayfinding for a new reality
Wayfinding became a critical component of the rebuilding strategy. With much of the boardwalks and signage washed away, the sand dunes displaced, and the rules shifting due to beach closures, beachgoers had to reorient themselves to the new coastline. Scher’s team accomplished this through three basic sign types: identification signs, marker signs, and regulation signs. The freestanding identification signs feature post-Sandy photographs of the beach, taken at the exact location of the sign. Scher wanted to invoke a sense of place. In essence, the commissioned photographs create new memories for the next generation of beachgoers, while the signs’ blue and yellow color scheme references the salient features of the beach: sky and water. “I thought the signs couldn’t be just street signs. They are what I call emotional signage or a systematic poster system,” says Scher. “They are a hybrid between a poster and a sign.” Marker signs that run along the shoreline are attached to the stanchions that used to hold up the boardwalks (and have now been repurposed as seawall supports). They’re mounted vertically on the stanchions so they are highly visible and the relationship between beach entrances and streets is evident. Wherever there is an access point—essentially a hole cut through the dunes—the truss is painted a bright yellow. For signage, Scher specified extruded-aluminum frames and high-pressure laminate panels—materials that can withstand severe weather and wind over time (the previous signs were made of wood, and many were destroyed in the storm). Thomas Garatina, Business Development Manager for American SignCrafters, oversaw all aspects of fabrication. His team created a modular system in which all components are the same dimensions for all of the frames. The weight of the material proved challenging, requiring them to build a heavy-duty jig to stabilize it during the welding process. Rail-mounted regulation signs (in addition to some freestanding versions and those mounted on lifeguard chairs) feature white type on blue background and offer a clearer, much-simplified version of their more haphazard and visually chaotic predecessors. The project gave NYC Parks and Recreation a golden opportunity to improve the consistency of the sign messaging, and also demonstrate the city’s commitment to the beaches, says Betsy Smith, Assistant Commissioner for Revenue and Marketing for NYC Parks and Recreation. “We didn’t change the beach rules, but we consolidated them and made them more positive,” states Smith. “We had to redo all the park signage anyway. It just so happened that we had this obligation that we matched with an opportunity.”
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”
Scher also designed environmental graphics for the elevated modular lifeguard/restroom “pods,” prefabricated structures designed by Garrison Architects. Graphics for the pods include supersized park logos and restroom icons. For the four concrete pavilions at Rockaway Beach (designed by Sage and Coombe), she used supergraphics of the street numbers and abstracted maps of the surrounding areas. “The buildings needed a bright color palette,” says Scher. “If you did the same thing in the city, it would look goofy. But color works on the beach. It looks appropriate and strong.” Extending a legacy
The Parks Department had already collaborated with Scher in 2011 on a cohesive program for signage, wayfinding, and environmental graphics. It involved an entirely new protocol and the implementation (still ongoing) of a modular system at approximately 3,000 properties. Smith underscores how seriously the Parks Department took signage: “Signs were not keeping up with the state of our parks. But now we have a new kind of aesthetic awareness in the messaging we transmit throughout our parks.” They hadn’t given much thought to separating the beach signage from the rest. The hurricane, however, forced closer examination. Scher understood that the beaches provided a unique experience and branded NYC Beaches as its own entity. Although the Parks’ leaf logo remains, the color scheme (blue and yellow instead of green) and distinct fonts (Founders Grotesk and Maple) claim a new visual identity. Scher also accounted for the interface between the users and the signage. “In parks, you want signs visible but you don’t want them loud because it is a much subtler, harmonious environment,” Scher explains. “I was doing something else with the beach signs. The scale is much bigger. I designed the signs to be read from a distance. People need to be able to see them when they are walking.” In addition to its very pragmatic functionality, Scher’s signage program adds an element of reassurance in the aftermath of a massive community disruption. And although the effects of Hurricane Sandy will last years, maybe decades, Pentagram’s work made huge inroads into a key component in the process of restoration: communicating the resiliency and beauty of the beaches. The overwhelming message is one of hope. Jennifer M. Volland is an independent writer and curator based in Southern California. She co-curated Grand Hotel: Redesigning Modern Life, presented at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2013. She is also the co-author of Edward A. Killingsworth: An Architect’s Life (Hennessey + Ingalls, 2013).
35 prefabricated lifeguard and restroom stations, the first of their kind, were installed along the shoreline. The solar-powered, corrugatedmetal-and-wood modules, designed by Garrison Architects, were fabricated off-site and, following FEMA regulations, sit on stilts above the sand. For restroom signage, Scher designed superscaled symbols in metal applied to the walls.
Regulatory signage follows the system designed for the parks, replacing what had been a confusing jumble of signs with a cohesive set of blue panels with white type.
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SECTION TITLE
Client Adidas Location Herzogenaurach, Germany Budget Confidential Project Area 62,000m2 Open Date June 2011 Design Büro Uebele Visuelle Kommunikation Design Team Andreas Uebele, Carolin Himmel project manager Architect Kadawittfeldarchitektur Interior Design Zieglerbürg Fabrication Eicher Werkstätten, Dieter Ertl Inneneinrichtungen Photos Christian Richters, Werner Huthmacher
The signature architectural feature of Adidas’ new research and design center is a series of crossing bridges (“laces”) that traverse the huge atrium and connect offices within the complex. On the glass balustrades of the high walkways, the names of the meeting areas are displayed using reflective film. 26 — eg magazine
ON THE
MOVE At Adidas’ new research and design building, Büro Uebule uses turbocharged typography to express the essence of sports. By Pat Matson Knapp
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On the move
ADIDAS
new research and design center in Herzogenaurach, Germany, is the place where 1,700 workers develop new products for the world leader in sports equipment and apparel. It’s nicknamed “Laces” to describe the suspended walkways that crisscross its vast atrium, connecting departments and bringing employees closer together for collaboration and creativity. Andreas Uebele, principal of Büro Uebele Visuelle Kommunikation (Stuttgart) took inspiration from the word “Laces”—as well as the spirit of movement intrinsic to athletics—when he designed a system of environmental graphics and wayfinding for the building. Movement defines the design language Uebele and project manager Carolin Himmel adopted: turbocharged, superscaled typography runs through the building, reflected in the corporate typeface (a variation of FF Din) that leaps and bounds across walls and walkways, through meeting rooms and hallways, and into employee lounges.
Addressing the brief
Uebele’s “official” client briefing was to design a signage system that supports the Adidas brand as well as the unique architecture of the 62,000-squaremeter research and design center. Designed by Kadawittfeldarkitektur (Aachen, Germany), it is a ringlike building with a huge atrium and crossing bridges (“laces”) that end in informal meeting areas, lounges, and department offices. Uebele focused on his “internal brief”: developing a distinct atmosphere for the design
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center that responds to the Adidas brand and focuses on the key architectural features—the laces and lounges. “A design solution should always respond to architecture, landscape, brand, history, visitors, and employees,” says Uebele. “In fact it is a mixture of all of these parts but some are more important, some less. In this case we wanted to react to the specific characteristics of the architecture and thought that especially the 28 lounges should be designed to a higher level than just signage.” Uebele also “reacted” to some critical elements of the architecture, creating graphic interventions where it seemed appropriate. For example, screens made of slender metal tubing, which the architects chose to cover the glass interior facades of the building, seemed “a bit raw” to Uebele. At ground and atrium level, he transformed them into dramatic placemaking elements and wayfinding aids by painting superscaled letters on them. Visible from all points in the atrium, they serve as department identifiers while adding motion and energy to the space. When developing sign systems, Uebele says he and his team work closely with the architects. “They can be your partner, honestly criticizing and accompanying the designer through the project. We have had very good experiences with architects, even though we have made massive interventions in their work. We try to read their specific architectural language and respond to it. We discuss with the architect if our design is appropriate, or sometimes, if it is too weak.”
To ensure strong legibility using the modified FF Din type, Uebele highlighted one letter and one arrow in each sequence with a thick outline.
In the entrance area, words become sculpture in the form of a 8,280mm by 1,110mm reception desk made of Corian with vinyl text.
To identify destinations, an alphabetical code is displayed at the entrances of the departments. On the ground and atrium levels, superscaled department identifiers are incorporated into screens made of slender metal tubing. They can be seen from all points in the atrium, providing a selfexplanatory wayfinding aid.
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On the move In the bistro, letters forming the word “TIMEOUT” create a screen. The letters are CNCshaped and varnished MDF.
Go big or go home
“Too weak” was clearly not an issue in the Laces building. Uebele went bold, rendering the names of Adidas products in huge-scale typographic reliefs, bold wall paintings, and sculptural letterforms that add drama and a sense of motion to the black and white space. The building was designed as a neutral backdrop for the company’s colorful products, and Uebele followed the monochromatic scheme in public spaces. In the entrance, the word “Information” becomes a dramatic sculpture and beacon when rendered in 8,280mm by 1,110mm white Corian letters. The large-scale alphabetical department identifiers anchor the atrium space in black and white. In other locations in the building, letterforms march across corridor and meeting room walls, solidifying into bold abstract surfaces. Uebele reserved color primarily for the 28 employee lounges, which serve as important informal meeting zones for the product design process. On the lower levels, relief-style typographical murals in bold, contrasting colors give these rooms their own distinct identities and also serve as wayfinding aids through interior glass facades. The wall paintings bear the names of iconic products, inspiring those who will create the company’s next big successes.
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Lacing a path
Uebele’s biggest wayfinding challenge was communicating to users that the “laces” are quick and short connectors between departments and meeting spaces, and that they are more comfortable to use than the staircases. He again chose a typographic solution, embellishing the walkways’ glass balustrades with letterforms. On the glass, the names of meeting spaces look as if they have been stamped into super-fine, transparent gauze. The outlines of the letters are made of highly reflective film, creating a shimmering, mobile effect that attracts the eye toward the walkways. The outlines of letters and arrows are shifted vertically and repeated rhythmically, creating a dynamic, sporty effect. To augment the huge department identifiers visible from the atrium, Uebele incorporated an overview of the building’s functions in vinyl text on the white Corian “Information” sculpture. At key hubs and intersections throughout the building, tone-on-tone white typographical reliefs draw users’ eyes toward simple (and colored, for emphasis) wayfinding text incorporated into the MDF reliefs. Adidas employees have been happy with the program, and Uebele is convinced his signage and environmental graphics system does what it set out to do: express the energy and excitement of a sports brand while playing well with the architecture.
In key locations, letterforms solidify into economical twodimensional wall paintings. “ALL IN” identifies the staff entrance.
employees have been happy with the “ Adidas program, and Uebele is convinced his signage and
environmental graphics system does what it set out to do: express the energy and excitement of a sports brand while playing well with the architecture.
”
At major intersections, white typographical reliefs draw the eye to simple wayfinding information.
In the meeting areas, white lettering appears frozen in mid-movement, forming a mural relief that extends into the corridor. Here, the word “Burner” is formed from CNCshaped and varnished MDF.
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Client Monsanto Company Location Chesterfield, Mo. Budget Confidential Project Size 2,500 sq. ft. Open Date March 2012 Design Spagnola & Associates
Design Team Tony Spagnola art director; Nico Curtis, Kyle Green, Darren Norris designers Exhibit Fabrication, Technology Development, and Production Art Guild Inc. Environmental Signage Adler Custom Signs exterior vine sculpture Consultants Sue Wadlow exhibition writing; Renfro Design Group lighting consultants Photos David Sundberg / Esto
HANDS-ON HIGH TECH 32 — eg magazine
At Monsanto’s biotech research center, Spagnola & Associates marries digital storytelling and farming in a dramatic interactive exhibit. By Jenny S. Reising
Spagnola & Associates designed a 20-foot-high exterior sculpture that is inspired by rather than a literal realization of Monsanto’s logo. It also draws the eye to the new 2,500-square-foot visitor center, which is visible through full-height windows. Adler Signs built the sculpture as one piece with a pipe behind it for support.
W
hen Monsanto opened its new visitor center at its research headquarters near St. Louis, Missouri, the agricultural biotechnology company saw the opportunity to tell its story in a new way—one that focused more on agriculture than on the company itself and used technology as a powerful narrative tool. “The facility was built in 1984, and in the meantime, the company had changed, the world had changed, and there were a lot of digital tools available to tell our story,” says Tami Schilling, Vice President of Technology Communications at Monsanto. Previously, the company had offered a 45-minute video before guiding visitors (a mix of farmers, students, and financiers) around the facility. But Monsanto wanted to engage them in a new way by pairing high technology and agriculture—reflective of what is happening at the center. “People would come in and want to learn about Monsanto, but we didn’t think about how to invite people into a conversation about what they care about—the population, the planet, people, progress, the potential to deliver more and better food, and better conservation practices,” says Schilling. “We wanted to share that we have a common value system, that there are things we think about every day, and that those common values matter more than anything.” The new Ernest Jaworski Agricultural Science Gallery at Monsanto’s Chesterfield Village Research Center in Missouri was relocated to a highly visible location behind the entry lobby, with four 13-foot-high displays that take advantage of the 20-foot-high ceilings. The highly interactive displays are designed to emphasize how Monsanto is working to get technology into the hands of farmers.
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HANDS-ON HIGH TECH
The Planet display features three touchscreens and interactive knobs that visitors can turn to learn where water is on the planet, where farmable land can be found, and how the weather impacts where things grow. For example, using transparencies and LED lights, the pillar “fills” with water to reveal how much water on the planet is fresh.
Storytelling by design The first task was moving the visitor center from a conference room to a more prominent location adjacent to the entry lobby. The 2,500-squarefoot exhibit is designed to be an unguided tour, with an informational hierarchy in each display that allows visitors to explore each topic at their leisure and in any depth they choose. To reimagine the visitor center, Schilling tapped Spagnola & Associates (New York), which had designed an exhibit for Monsanto in China in 2010. Spagnola set out to create a permanent exhibit that would educate customers and visitors about the challenges facing farmers today. Spagnola’s challenge—packing a lot of information into a small, high-ceilinged room with full-height windows and no wall space—led to the use of interactive exhibits. “Interactivity gave us the ability to layer a lot of information into a small space while ensuring visual continuity throughout the exhibit,” explains Tony Spagnola, Principal.
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“ The interactive stations talk about the big story, and each pillar has some kind of interactivity to get you started, with touchscreens that give you further depth of subtopics within the topic.”
Topical towers The exhibit is divided into four topics—Planet, Population, Productivity, and Progress. Each is the focus of a 13-foot-high interactive display that takes advantage of the 20-foot ceilings and features a central 10-foot-high glass totem, a waisthigh white circular interactivity table, a black steel base, and 12-footdiameter circular cork flooring underfoot. The challenge for Spagnola was creating unique interactive elements that told individual stories but shared a continuity of form. The highly interactive displays emphasize how Monsanto is working to get technology into the hands of farmers by letting the farmers use interactive technology to learn more about the topics. “The interactive stations talk about the big story, and each pillar has some kind of interactivity to get you started, with touchscreens that give you further depth of subtopics within the topic,” Spagnola explains. For example, the four-sided glass Planet display incorporates three touchscreens controlling or presenting information on the amount of water on the planet, where farmable land can be found, and how changes in the weather impact where things grow. Visitors can turn one of three interactive knobs next to the touchscreens that, using LED lighting and transparencies, illuminate the vertical display with the answer to a question (e.g., the display appears to “fill” with water to show what percentage of the earth’s water is fresh). Each touchscreen then provides additional information on the topic, such as where freshwater can be found worldwide. For the two-sided Population pylon highlighting the growing population and future crop needs, designers specified two glass panels with four rear-lit globes labeled with predicted future population growth. On the growing population side, the touchscreen allows visitors to see how the population is increasing in different time increments. Users can stop a time ticker (on a monitor hidden behind the glass) at any moment, and an image appears to visually illustrate
Four rear-lit acrylic globes sandwiched between two glass panels provide estimated future population levels at the population pylon.
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HANDS-ON HIGH TECH
“ Tony’s design knocked our socks off. We had no idea how amazing it would be,” Schilling enthuses, adding that an unexpected outcome is the number of requests from the community to use the center as an event space. “It catches people’s attention, sets a tone when people enter, and has been a thought and conversation generator.” the population growth for that time period. For example, if the ticker is stopped at one day, a picture of a stadium in St. Louis appears to show that one day’s growth worldwide equals the population of St. Louis. Likewise, stopping the ticker at one year will reveal an image of Japan to show that 365 days’ growth is equal to the population of Japan. On the other side of the display, visitors can push one of three buttons on the table with images of corn, cotton, and soy, and text will appear on three stacked, frameless monitors to show how much more farmers will need to grow to feed the future population. The four-sided Productivity pillar uses lenticular images to illustrate how people farm in other countries. For example, one image shows farmers in America using tractors while another shows a farmer in China doing the same work by hand. The three touchscreens feature the same multiple-choice quiz game—for example, “How many countries farm by hand?”, “How many countries have electricity?”—with the opportunity for visitors to delve deeper for more information. For the Progress display, Spagnola says, “All I wanted was a big image of corn, and three monitors made that happen.” Three stacked monitors display looped imagery of crops on all sides. The screens are designed to interact with soil-filled magnetic pucks on the table below. Users can place a soilfilled puck over a circular image of seeds (e.g., canola, wheat, corn, soybeans), and that triggers the “growth” of a plant on the stacked screens. For example, if you put the dirt puck over the corn seeds, a corn stalk begins to “grow” from the lower screen, then up to the second screen, until it is a mature 10-foot-high stalk that traverses all three screens. After the image is fully “grown,” copy slides in from the side to reveal how the crop is being grown better through new technologies. High drama Creating a theatrical display using a variety of interactives required a lot of behind-the-scenes effort. Art Guild Inc., which realized Spagnola’s vision for the interactive exhibits, had three months to “bend physics a little bit” and create a seamless experience, according to David Egner, Art Guild’s Director of Museum Services. For example, Art Guild went through several rounds of prototyping 36 — eg magazine
and materials to make the lightbox in the Planet pillar virtually invisible until text appears in front of the graphic. For the Productivity totem, Spagnola wanted illumination from corner to corner, so Art Guild had to figure out how to diffuse the light without creating hot spots. Additionally, designers did not want any visible means of support for the pillars and had originally specified thin Corian tabletops. In the end, however, Art Guild used thicker Corian for better support and housed all of the mechanics in the pillars’ circular painted steel base, with access panels to reach the mechanics. Art Guild also used thin, lightweight aircraft cabling and custom connectors to minimize the visible support for the ceiling-hung disk on Potential. And because St. Louis is in a seismic zone, everything had to be engineered for exceptional stability and security. Getting the lighting just right was also crucial, so Spagnola tapped Richard Renfro, Principal of Renfro Design Group, to switch on the drama. Simple black track lighting illuminates the individual pillars from above, while tiny LED lights under each display throw light down onto the cork flooring. “I wanted the flooring around each display to glow, like you’re on a floating plane,” Spagnola says of the stage-set-like design. The new visitor center—officially named the Ernest Jaworski Agricultural Science Gallery to honor Ernest Jaworski, who led the agricultural research group’s pioneering genetic modification efforts—has been a big hit with Monsanto and visitors. “Tony’s design knocked our socks off. We had no idea how amazing it would be,” Schilling enthuses, adding that an unexpected outcome is the number of requests from the community to use the center as an event space. “It catches people’s attention, sets a tone when people enter, and has been a thought and conversation generator.” Spagnola says the exhibit’s interactivity—and visual drama—are attention-getters. “If you make something that’s beautiful, it will be memorable, and if people remember it, then it’s worth their time.” Jenny Reising is a freelance writer and editor and the former managing editor of I.D., the International Design magazine. She has contributed to numerous design publications, including VM+SD, Boutique Design, and Hospitality Style.
By pressing one of three oversized dials at the planet display, visitors can learn how much of the world’s land is farmable, where fresh water can be found, and how weather impacts where things grow.
For the four-sided Progress display, a circular magnetic puck containing soil can be positioned over an image of seeds (e.g., corn, cotton, soybeans) to activate the “growth” of the plant on the display’s three 2-foot-wide frameless monitors.
At the end of the exhibit, a video of the research head of Monsanto welcoming visitors is rear-projected onto an 8-footdiameter, ceiling-hung Plexiglas disk suspended with aircraft cabling. The planter below features a changeable bouquet of crops grown at Monsanto’s greenhouses.
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GRAPHIC
EDITION
Location Washington, D.C. Client NPR
Design Poulin + Morris Inc.
Fabrication Boyd Sign Systems base building sign program, mural fabrication/installation; Jack Stone Signs icon tower fabrication/ installation, exterior ticker/ribbon, media mosaic installation; Maltbie lobby exhibition fabrication/installation; SNA LLC LED fabrication (icon, exterior ticker/ ribbon, media mosaic); Imperatives, Inc. LED content programming and scheduling
Design Team Richard Poulin principal in charge, design director; Erik Herter project manager, senior designer; Ani Ardzivian, Joshua Gallagher designers
Photos Jeffrey Totaro
Budget Confidential Project Area 440,000 sq. ft. Open Date April 2013
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Consultants Blue Telescope audio interactive programming
The Media Mosaic encloses Studio One, NPR’s largest production facility. This quilt-like assemblage of LED panels, news ticker, and static exhibit panels is a superscaled celebration of what NPR does.
A 52-ft.-tall steel icon tower marks the corner of the entrance plaza in front of the NPR headquarters in DC’s NoMa district. Jack Stone Signs (Landover, Md.) cut the NPR letters out of painted-aluminum panels and inset white translucent acrylic letters so they could be illuminated at night with LEDs.
Poulin + Morris uses typography and dramatic scale to express NPR’s unique brand of journalism. By Deborah K. Dietsch
NPR,
formerly known as National Public Radio, has been headquartered in Washington, D.C., for more than four decades, but it was just this year that the media company consolidated its operations in the city. Five years ago, NPR purchased a telephone warehouse in the emerging North of Massachusetts Avenue (NoMa) district near Capitol Hill. With the help of local firm Hickok Cole Architects, NPR expanded the 1927 portion of the building with a seven-story concrete addition. The resulting 440,000-square-foot headquarters provides recording and production studios, offices, and staff amenities for about 650 employees in a contemporary, LEED Gold-certified building. At the heart of the complex, a two-story newsroom hums with round-the-clock activity. Broadcast from the studios surrounding the space are NPR’s most popular shows, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered. “The whole concept of the building was to encourage collaboration among our employees,” says Maury Schlesinger, NPR’s director of real estate and administrative services. “We also wanted to express the NPR brand on the street, as you walked into the building and throughout the building.” The search for an environmental graphic design firm to create such an integrative identity program led Schlesinger and his colleagues to select New York-based Poulin + Morris. “They seemed to have the right balance of creativity and sensitivity to our brand,” says Schlesinger, who particularly liked the firm’s work at the Newseum near the National Mall. eg magazine — 39
“ It was important that the exhibit be layered because this is a complex and detailed story, and we wanted to encourage people to return.” Not just radio
For Poulin + Morris, the assignment began with workshops with NPR employees from both DC and member stations around the country. “That process allowed us to really understand the culture and diversity of NPR,” says Principal Richard Poulin. “We wanted to convey what makes NPR—its approach to storytelling, voice, and image—different from other media companies.” Poulin’s team was charged with representing not only NPR’s roots in radio, but its recent expansion into digital, video, apps, and photojournalism. Their design solutions celebrate the company’s unique brand of journalism through large-scale text-based elements that appeal to both NPR staff and the public. Not surprisingly, words and sound metaphors fill the building through both static and kinetic displays.
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From the street, there’s no mistaking the building is home to NPR. Marking a corner of the entrance plaza is a contemporary interpretation of a radio tower. This 52-foot-high steel pylon bears the classic NPR logo and bright LED “sticks” behind glass along both sides. Fabricator Jack Stone Signs (Landover, Md.) cut the NPR letters out of painted-aluminum panels and inset white translucent acrylic letters so they could be illuminated by the LEDs. Stretching above the front doors to wrap the building corner like a kinetic ribbon is a news ticker, assembled by Jack Stone Signs from 16mm LED boards made by Sansi Technology USA. Both the signpost and ticker act as beacons in the neighborhood at night, signifying the building’s 24/7 operations.
NPR’s mission statement encircles the reception area like a decorative frieze. Two sizes of Knockout type convey the words at different scales in shades of gray. Line patterns on the reception desk are meant to represent sound waves, one of several such visual metaphors in the building.
Celebrating NPR
Vinyl murals patterned with words drawn from NPR’s culture extend through the stairwell linking the building’s seven levels. Fabricator Jim deRoin of Denver-based Boyd Sign Systems worked with Fineline Graphics of Denver to print and install the mural.
Inside the lobby, NPR’s “Media Mosaic” flashes snippets of news and programs related to news, music, books, arts, and life that are drawn from the company’s website and constantly refreshed. “It’s a large-scale visual celebration of what NPR does,” says Poulin. The LED and static panels of the quilt-like assemblage are mounted within a steel armature covering the walls of Studio One, NPR’s largest production facility. This space is used to broadcast lectures and performances and host group events and staff meetings. Text within the LED and static panels is designed in sans-serif Knockout, one of three typefaces Poulin + Morris chose for NPR from the New York-based Hoefler & FroereJones Type Foundry.
Typography across glass doors greets employees to the aptly named Soundbites Café on the ground floor. In addition to this staff cafeteria, the building includes fitness facilities, a wellness center, and a bike room.
“Knockout’s extensive type family, from super compressed to extra wide, provided us with a visual diversity that was needed for the varied information being displayed,” Poulin explains. Stretching along one side of Studio One is a permanent, interactive lobby exhibition devoted to NPR’s history, innovations, storytelling, and national reach. The linear, reader-rail display is organized into different sections from top to bottom, including a timeline, pull quotes, and text-driven narratives, so each can be viewed separately or together. “It was important that the exhibit be layered because this is a complex and detailed story, and we wanted to encourage people to return,” says Poulin, who worked closely with NPR staff on content. He chose the slab-serif typeface Sentinel for its legibility and readability on the display as well as the interpretive text and captions on the static panels of the Media Mosaic.
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“ We wanted this to be an enveloping visual experience, a more restrained and subtle typographic treatment than the typical approach to a mission statement.” Mission-critical graphics
Off the lobby, an elegantly simple reception area is clad in the same laminate wall panels as on a portion of the building exterior. Encircling the space is vinyl lettering spelling out NPR’s mission in two different sizes of Knockout type. Acting as a decorative frieze, the words form a quieter, motionless version of the changing LED “ribbons” at the entrance and on the media wall. “We wanted this to be an enveloping visual experience, a more restrained and subtle typographic treatment than the typical approach to a mission statement,” says Poulin. Similarly, NPR’s culture is celebrated in lettered wall murals in select areas of the building. Words associated with its activities, such as “curate,” “discuss,” “verify” and “inspire,” are printed on a single, adhesive-backed vinyl sheet extending through the entire stairwell. “We had to print all the vinyl running up the seven stories at one time. We had one shot to get it right,” says fabricator Jim deRoin of Denver-based Boyd Sign Systems, who worked with Fineline Graphics of Denver to print and install the mural. 42 — eg magazine
Poulin + Morris also developed NPR’s permanent lobby exhibition, This is NPR. A 70-ft.-long reader rail stretches along one side of the lobby; organized into different sections from top to bottom, including a timeline, pull quotes, and narratives, so each can be viewed separately or together. P+M also developed an interface that allows smartphone users to access a specially designed website offering additional audio clips for each section of the exhibition.
The staff lounge off the newsroom also features a text-dense vinyl mural, printed with quotations from staff on what NPR means to them. Wallpaper in the employee cafeteria is made from shredded newspapers and magazines, and vinyl lettering on glass doors identify the space as the aptly named Soundbites Café. “We wanted to create strong typographical focal points,” notes Poulin. Floor directories in the elevator lobbies are made of durable vinyl, as are most wayfinding elements, to minimize cost and allow for future changes. Gotham, a contemporary sans-serif typeface, was used for this wayfinding as well as the donor recognition and code-related signage found throughout the building. On the end wall of each elevator lobby, video monitors serve as digital bulletin boards to inform staff about everything from holiday parties to cafeteria menus and safety procedures. Poulin + Morris developed 16 templates for the displays, working with NPR’s design staff to fine-tune the company’s graphic standards.
Within the two-story newsroom, Poulin + Morris marked each floor and studio facility with large, “reverberating” numbers inspired by radio frequencies. The designs are based on a modified version of the Gotham typeface used for all base-building and donor recognition signs.
Most of the signage in the building is made of vinyl to reduce costs, increase durability, and allow for easy changes in the future.
What’s your frequency?
Throughout the building, various design elements act as visual metaphors for NPR’s radio frequencies. On the exterior, vertical glass fins in different shades of blue march along the windows to represent sound waves. Glass partitions, carpeting, and the reception desk feature repeating patterns of lines to reinforce the wavelength theme. In the work areas, each floor level and studio is identified by large vinyl numbers that appear off-register as if reverberating like sound or, as one NPR employee put it, “caffeinated.” The outlines of the numbers are composed of several overlapping lines and based on a modified version of the Gotham typeface. Currently, Poulin + Morris is completing the branding for NPR Commons, a shop off the entrance lobby where visitors line up on weekdays for building tours. The firm is designing the packaging, shopping bags, and select items sold in the store. As Schlesinger notes, “We wanted one mindset to carry our graphic identity throughout the entire project.” Deborah Dietsch is a writer based in Washington, D.C.
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Inspiration (46)
Jane Davis Doggett
Traveled through an airport lately? The graphic system standards you see today are the innovations of an EGD pioneer who harnessed color, scale, and the alphabet to humanize massive public spaces. (53)
SEGD Events Outlook
The outlook for 2014 looks inspiring, thanks to SEGD’s packed calendar of professional development events. (58)
Workspace
In Minneapolis, Gensler uses environmental graphics and art to tell advertising agency Olson’s brand story. (60)
Sketchbook
“Thinking visually” with David Harvey, Senior Vice President for Exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History (64)
Vince Frost
The founder and creative director of Australian powerhouse studio Frost* on going home and “inspiring ideas to life.”
Doggett was the first to codify airport terminals by letter, and she added color and shapes to help travelers toward their airport destinations. On roadway signs leading to the airport, she recognized the need to group airline/terminal destinations for legible viewing distance from cars. Pictured is Houston Intercontinental Airport, which opened in 1971. 46 — eg magazine
Jane Davis Doggett with her dog Liberty and her art, which borrows the simple shapes and bold colors of signage. At 84, she is still working, drawing from her background with Josef Albers to develop two- and three-dimensional graphic works, some of which are in the permanent collection at Yale University.
JANE DAVIS DOGGETT Traveled through an airport lately? The graphic system standards you see today are the innovations of an EGD pioneer who harnessed color, scale, and the alphabet to humanize massive public spaces. BY PAT MATSON KNAPP INTERVIEW BY TRACY TURNER
T
rained at the Yale University School of Art and Architecture in the mid-1950s during its modernist heyday, Jane Davis Doggett was one of the first designers to envision how architecture and graphic design should work together to help people navigate unfamiliar spaces. As her colleagues in architecture were designing massive public arenas, transit systems, airports, and cities to serve the booming post-World War II economy, she recalls, “I got interested in the human scale. How would a person coming to these behemoths find his way and be secure in understanding the place?” Graduating from Yale in 1956 with an MFA, she launched a pioneering career in a yet-unnamed field—environmental graphic design. In the next four decades, she created graphic identities and wayfinding systems for a wide range of public spaces, most notably 40 international airport projects. Her contributions to EGD include many concepts considered standard today: She initiated the use of colorcoding and super-scaled letters to help guide
travelers through airports, used standard fonts to unify messaging, and introduced a family of arrows and symbols to coordinate with her “ABC” terminal identities. She has also been credited with the concept of thematic graphics that branded airports as the gateways to their communities. “I had the privilege of working with Jane at her company, Architectural Graphics Associates, on projects for Newark Airport, Jacksonville, and Tampa,” says Sue Gould, FSEGD, President of Lebowitz | Gould | Design (New York). “She was enormously influential in her time, and deserves recognition for her innovations that are now intrinsic components of airport engineering and architecture.” Tracy Turner (Tracy Turner Design, New York), another protégé of Doggett’s, met with Doggett recently at her home in Maine. They spoke about her days at Yale, her early career and airport work, and the ideas that still inform the practice of EGD today. eg magazine — 47
At Houston Intercontinental Airport (now George Bush International), Doggett expanded on the use of Alphabet A and used the “ABC” concept for terminal recognition and indexing airlines to the letter. Signage was integrated with the architecture.
At Memphis International Airport, which opened in 1961, Doggett created a new airport aesthetic: signs built into the architecture, “not hanging like price tags and labels.” All messages, including airline titles, were standardized in one font and contained in fascia bands and in beams spanning corridors, à la the Greek classical frieze. Memphis was her first airport project, collaborating with Mann & Harrover Architects.
Starting from her first airport project in Memphis, Doggett saw the logic of using a standard font as a unifying element. She created “Alphabet A,” adapting it from German Standard, a forerunner of Helvetica.
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“ Typically the architects would run out and take a picture of their building before anyone could get a sign on it. They viewed signs like measles. But the big mass public projects scared them—because it was going to be easy for people to get lost. So environmental graphics really emerged from the nature of the demands on large-scale architectural projects and the environments they created.”
How did you get involved in environmental graphic design? It actually came about at Yale. At the school at that time, everyone was thinking large. It was prophetic. The architects were conceiving projects on a huge scale: sports arenas, mass transit systems, airports, massive urban renewal and design. Projects were new, complicated, and big. It occurred to me to think about the person coming to these behemoths and what the human scale should be and how this person would find his way and make use of the place. And how did the architects react at Yale? Were they receptive? They were extremely open. They recognized the issues. At the same time though, no one anticipated the huge role graphic design would ultimately play. How did you start your career? My first job was with George Nelson. There, I worked on the permanent exhibit at Williamsburg—the anthropological part—and it is still up. Among the shards of 18th century Chinaware, we would find vintage pieces of Coca Cola bottles which we also installed, as part of the whimsy and human connection and dating the layers. Then I moved on and had the good fortune to receive
assignments from Architectural Record. They sent me to Europe to meet and photograph architects and engineers. I met Alvar Aalto and Pier Luigi Nervi and some outstanding young emerging architects, so that was a terrific time for me. Your first big job in EGD was the Memphis Airport, right? Roy Harrover, an architect and friend of mine from Nashville and Yale, and his partner Bill Mann won the competition for the new Memphis Airport. Roy knew I was exploring interfacing graphics with architecture on a grand scale. He said, I think this is a chance for us to do some good architecture with good graphics here. We were under 30— but we had that glorious audacity of youth and plowed ahead. Yale had given us no barriers; we just did not know we could not do things. This commission, which we won in 1959, was exciting for all of us. Roy and I went all over to look at different airports around the country. What we found for graphics was a sorry state—actually a void. There may have been a budget for “signs,” with a monetary allowance similar to the “hardware” budget, about $5,000 for the whole job. Signs were considered to be in the domain of sign fabricators, to be produced under construction contracts or
provided by the major tenants, such as the airlines, rental cars, or the coffee shop. There was no design budget; graphic design as we now know it didn’t exist. The first thing I did was to develop a standard font for use throughout the facility. This was the genesis of “Alphabet A.” It was based on German Standard, a typeface similar to Akzidenz Grotesk. It became our foundation for systemizing a graphic program. I was able to convince the airlines to relinquish their logos because in those days some were good but some were just awful. The alphabet carried each name and was a way of cutting down the visual clutter. So you concentrated on creating a recognizable font as an organizing principle. Did you look at many fonts? How did you settle on one? I knew serif fonts were problematic for long-distance viewing. I thought sans serif was better for distance; it’s simpler, with basic strokes defining each character and an expanded letterform was better for viewing from afar. Letter spacing is also important. Generally I favored a more open letter spacing since it was easier to read. I developed a laboratory of sorts for exploring these visual issues.
eg magazine — 49
“ My red and blue color-coding concept designated the north side serving one group of airlines and the south side serving another. (I had argued that calling them “North” and “South” zones, as the engineers had originally done, would be confusing for the public. People don’t always reason like engineers, and at night, who would ever figure out North and South?).”
I remember our visual-distance viewing experiments from when I worked for you. Specifically I remember what we learned from our study on arrow forms: that what was a clear and successful form at 100 feet was not the same at 450 feet. You always felt that only highway engineers had studied letterforms for traffic conditions, and you believed designers should be involved in this process. Yes, and we continued to study the finest details of “read out,” as the need was there for signs to function for safety and organized traffic flow on new, unfamiliar roadways. From Memphis I went on to do the Houston Airport and it was there I expanded on “Alphabet A” using the “ABC” concept for terminal recogni tion and then indexing the airlines to the letter. The initial concept stemmed from a roadway/message space problem. At the exact turnoff into the separate terminal, there simply wasn’t enough space for a sign to display the airline titles in legible sizes at the automotive approach distance. The idea I came up with— which nobody had done in an airport before—was to display the airlines in advance, keyed to a huge terminal letter (A, B, C, etc.). Then airline titles were dropped and just the big letter was displayed, preferably on
50 — eg magazine
large overhead roadway signs. The result for the driver was a read-out from 2,000 feet, in advance of his decision point. In subsequent DOT traffic studies it was found that my system approach of advance indexing significantly enhanced the safety and ordered flow of traffic. It also eliminated the number of signs required. The savings in sign elimination while achieving attractive, well placed, and legible directions helped my firm get many other airport projects. You also designed sign systems for hospitals? Yes, and sports arenas, universities, and subway systems. We did Fairfax Hospital, a large project in Virginia that serves as a major DC facility. Hospitals are so similar to airports in benefitting by display of destination goals and color coding. The planning and thinking are the same process. There are some hospital wayfinding trends I avoided, such as floor markings. They can be obscured by people, wheelchairs, etc., and they bring maintenance problems. Do you have a favorite airport? Yours, or another? Well for me it is still Tampa—a landmark for me and very special. They have taken such good care of
it, even today. They still use the logo I created for them, and the blue and red color-coded icons. Tampa wanted to achieve a special and unique travel experience. They were a great client. The airport director, George Bean, had a “walking-distance budget.” The first public use of the Westinghouse shuttle “people mover” came into being—what we called a “horizontal elevator”—to zip passengers from the Landside Building to satellite airside buildings where the airplanes docked. My red and blue color-coding concept designated the north side serving one group of airlines and the south side serving another. (I had argued that calling them “North” and “South” zones, as the engineers had originally done, would be confusing for the public. People don’t always reason like engineers, and at night, who would ever figure out North and South?). The red/blue split goes through information space in all levels, from lead-up roadway signs to departing passenger zones and baggage claim. The passenger just follows the big red or blue symbol to the airside and through to the baggage claim zone. This greatly simplified directional flow. The big color icon can also be seen across a great distance, whereas the airline title would be too small to read.
At Orlando International Airport (199191), Doggett created a kite theme—a nod to kite-flying events in the area and an appeal to children traveling through the airport to visit Disney World. To enhance the theme, she designed terminal entrance placemarkers that integrated individual letters, colors, geometric containers, and kite configurations.
Tampa International Airport, which opened in 1973, still uses the logo Doggett created. Her red and blue color-coding concept designated the north side serving one group of airlines and the south side serving another. Engineers wanted to call them “North” and “South,” but she prevailed. “People don’t always reason like engineers, and at night, who would ever figure out North and South?”
Doggett is also credited with the concept of thematic graphics to brand airports as gateways to their communities. At Miami International, her logo was based on the sea nautilus and used orange and plum— colors favored by the Latin Americans who make up a large portion of the area population. Her design vision for roadway signage was white sculptural arches inspired by the arches that typify Miami’s Spanish architecture (1982).
eg magazine — 51
At Baltimore-Washington International Airport (1980), Doggett used airport logos as unifying graphic elements in the terminal.
You also innovated by creating themes for airports and other public spaces, didn’t you? I innovated and encouraged “gateway themes” for the airports, with the philosophy that the airport must serve more than as a house for airlines. It needs to express the unique part of the world and the people it serves—geographically and culturally—much as the train stations served as grand entries in their day. At Memphis, with my “Greek frieze” message bands, I complemented the architect’s theme of elegant white column ceiling supports in the spirit of the Greek Revival architecture of the South, which the Memphis area personified. At BaltimoreWashington, I used nautical signal flags in a spirit of patriotic flag-waving to express the airport authority’s goal for the airport to serve and compete as the Capitol’s third national airport. At Tampa, the first of the new Florida jetports, I used Florida sun and sea colors to enhance the authority’s “Gateway to Florida” image. And at Miami, my design concept was a grand roadway entrance of white sculptural arches to support signs, in the vein of the 52 — eg magazine
At BWI, Doggett designed monolithic directional pylons that incorporated directories and wayfinding information.
Spanish arches that typify Miami’s Latin architecture. The avenue of arches is often displayed as MiamiDade’s thematic icon. The airport experience has changed quite a lot, hasn’t it? Everyone used to love to go to the airport, to go to the shops and good restaurants. Now you spend time in line going through the “cattle chute” and taking your shoes off. The airport experience has become such an inhuman ordeal to go through. The domination of the security apparatus is crushing the aesthetic. Tell us what you have been doing lately with your new artistic efforts. It started with a Christmas card I sent to friends in which I used the passage from Ecclesiastes, “There is a Season - unto all things there is a season...” and I illustrated it with simple geometrics: a circle, a triangle, a square, a rectangle, trapezoid, etc. The response to this card was overwhelming and people wrote me suggesting I do a book expanding on the idea. So I did, and called it Talking Graphics. It is based on the signage premise of using
simple shapes and bold colors. I used Biblical and Latin quotations as text inspiration for the bold graphic expression. Limitation is the key. I also thought these images and text might be expressed in a larger context so I created large panels in an exhibition context. I have been designing all this by working in Adobe Illustrator Vector forms, and it is just amazing what the computer tools allow. Do you have an assistant or do you do everything yourself? I hand draw everything and my assistant transposes it in Adobe Illustrator sketches. Then we tinker back and forth. In 2010, Yale asked me to do an exhibition so I selected panels for a Talking Graphics exhibition that showed for six months. I became so intrigued with the medium that I started doing scenic images—waterscapes. My medium is what I call electronic silk screening. I render each design segment in selected colors by Pantone and adjust the color percentages as I need. It takes me back to an earlier period in my life artistically. I am having fun! Photos: Courtesy Jane Davis Doggett
2014 Events Outlook
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eg magazine — 53
A multidisciplinary community creating experiences that connect people to place
Healthcare Innovation Workshop CINCINNATI MARCH 20-21, 2014
Design+
SEGD Design+Connections is a new one-day education event that will be held on-site at the 2014 ISA International Sign Expo in Orlando. Sessions will focus on placemaking, branded environments, accessibility, technology and media, and other issues specific to design for the built environment. The format will couple lecture-style presentations with panel discussions and breakout trend sessions.
ORLANDO APRIL 24, 2014
E&E Exhibition & Experience Design Workshop WASHINGTON DC AUGUST 21-22, 2014
Airport & Transportation Workshop DALLAS/FT. WORTH SEPTEMBER 25-26, 2014
54 — eg magazine
The SEGD Exhibition & Experience Design Workshop is a two-day event with focus on current design methodologies and trends for exhibition and experience design. The event is designed to bring together an interdisciplinary audience of designers, architects, technology, museum and exhibit professionals, through onsite tours, lectures, and breakout trend discussions on key areas of this convergent and incredibly diverse area of contemporary EGD practice.
The SEGD Airport & Transportation Workshop is a two-day event jointly organized by SEGD and ASMN. This event focuses on the complexities of airport design programs from signage and wayfinding planning and management to customer experience and integrated technology. The workshop will include a tour of DFW’s facilities and sessions covering topics related to airport planning, information and experience design, and management and operations.
2014 Events Outlook
Well
SEGD Well is a two-day event focused on current design methodologies and research for environmental graphic design in healthcare, including wellness and healing environments, information design and nomenclature, and the patient experience (service design). The event is designed to bring together an interdisciplinary audience of designers, architects, healthcare professionals, and patients through tours, lectures, and breakout trend discussions on key areas of healthcare design practice.
A multidisciplinary community creating experiences that connect people to place
CONVERGENCE
The 2014 SEGD Conference with its theme of Convergence: Crossing Lines, will use the context and inspiration of Atlanta as a launch point for educating, inspiring and connecting our members with amazing projects, stories, and visions from both a local and global perspective. From its location south of the “grit line” to its place in history crossing the “black-white line” as well as its hosting of the ultimate “finish line,” Atlanta epitomizes how excitement, energy, and change happen at the convergence of disciplines, cultures, and ways of thinking.
CROSSING LINES
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| Atlanta | June 5-7
Interactive + Experience Design
Technology & the Internet of Place BROOKLYN OCTOBER 23, 2014
Xlab 2014 takes attendees to Brooklyn, the borough many call Silicon Alley. There, a massing of tech-centric firms and studios are developing next-generation platforms and other innovations that are sure to impact future interfaces and experiences. Be part of the continuing conversation about the role of technology in experience design and how it will shape place and the collective practice of EGD.
2014 Events Outlook
Annual Design Conference
eg magazine — 55
A multidisciplinary community creating experiences that connect people to place
tech
Panelists are selected based on their expertise and experience in the focus area for the current series topic. eg conversations are designed as conversations between the moderator, panelists, and participants, much like a chat would occur in the studio. It’s a casual but measured platform for learning, inspiration, and insight. Participants who attend eg conversation are provided with a comprehensive archive summarizing the session’s dialogue and learning outcomes through integrated text and graphics.
Webinars by SEGD
eg conversations is SEGD’s education platform for live webcast-moderated dialogues about current issues in EGD practice, technology, and design process. Each eg conversations consists of a pairing of example case studies that are aligned with a series of targeted questions designed to provide meaningful and practical insights for attendees, and allow them to apply the gained knowledge into their EGD practice.
Design Tools: Processing + Grasshopper January 30, 2014
Beyond Screens: Immersive Experiences July 31, 2014
Navigation: Digital Mapping + Mobile Apps
practice
December 11, 2014
Metrics for Healthcare Environments February 27, 2014
Location Plans + Messaging Schedules April 3, 2014
Demystified: Specs for EGD November 13, 2014
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2014 Events Outlook
conversations
Project: “Wheels” 2010 Santa Monica, CA Artist: Anne Marie Karlsen 58 ft x 51 ft Fireform Graphic Tile
Rated in the Americans for the Arts 2011 ‘Year in Review’ as 1 of 47 of the most outstanding public artworks in the country. Commissioned by the Santa Monica Arts Commission
Photographs by Bill Short Photography
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OLSON Client Olson Location Minneapolis Budget Confidential Project Area 125,000 sq. ft. Open Date February 2012 Design Gensler Design Team Bill Lyons principal in charge; Betsy Vohs project manager; Amy Barthel graphic design, illustration, signage; Jason Hall design director; Beth Nist, Beth Mosenthal interior design; Kate Levine project architect; Mark Spencer technical director Fabrication SDDI fabrication and installation of signage and wayfinding; Pictura vinyl graphics; RJM general contractor; Mirror Wall paint; Danica Alder string artist; Sunrise Painting & Wallcovering painting contractor Photos Pete Sieger 58 — eg magazine
Minneapolis
At advertising agency Olson, creativity and connection are what it’s all about. When the rapidly expanding firm secured 125,000 square feet in Minneapolis’s historic Ford Center building, they asked Gensler’s Brand Design team to focus on connections central to the firm’s philosophies and success. They also wanted the building’s industrial character to shine through. The Gensler team chose sustainable reclaimed and industrial materials that connect the new space and the building’s rich history. An eclectic mix of found objects and commissioned art reflect the variety of individuals, clients, and processes that comprise the firm. The new space includes Brand Rooms dedicated to key clients and integrated displays that recognize visitors and showcase Olson’s brand anthropology studies. Environmental graphics are a key to telling the story. From the exterior, Olson’s brand mark is boldly visible—in the style of Georges Russe—spanning four floors of exterior-facing elevator lobbies. Inside, the concept of connections emerges as soon as visitors exit the elevators. Floor identifiers are in the form of largescale graphic artworks by local artist Danica Adler, who wove multi-colored strings into patterns of nails. In the 10th floor entryway, the Olson mark finds expression again in a dimensional logo wall made from hundreds of bronze tubes. For Olson it was a symbolic way to illustrate that, like the logo sculpture, the company’s “sum” is greater than its parts.
Want to show off your Workspace? Contact pat@segd.org
eg magazine — 59
David Harvey Senior Vice President for Exhibition American Museum of Natural History
Photo: D. Finnin/AMNH
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Sketching is always my first impulse, writing a distant second. Sketching is a means of thinking visually—on the page—and thoughts are generated as I watch a sketch unfold. The first mark is defining, raising many new opportunities for making the next mark, and new possibilities materialize while others fall by the wayside. The drawing process is a conversation between my imagination and the page, mediated by my hand, and that dialogue challenges me to respond. Earlier in my experience, the act of thinking in both plan and elevation challenged me to visualize objects and spaces— exhibition furniture, moldings, and gallery configurations— in three dimensions. Thinking through the processes of construction, mentally rotating the anatomy of a 3D object, and simultaneously considering alternatives was exhilarating. Materials, fasteners, joinery, and finishes all come into play; each offers options. So for me, sketching can be exhilarating, defining, challenging or just pleasantly escapist. It illustrates the act of building something in the imagination, and it evolves visually though one’s own physical act of expression. Ultimately, sketching creates a material object: a freestanding, expressive work or a clear proof of concept.
“ The drawing process is a conversation between my imagination and the page, mediated by my hand, and that dialogue challenges me to respond.”
Concept sketches, quick and gestural (here for AMNH’s Spitzer Hall of Human Origins), are done to communicate suggestively with others. They are usually throw-away scraps of trace. Concepts will change, but as early impressions they intuitively inform.
America’s first postcards were issued around the same time that the American Museum of Natural History was founded. Within the constraints of a 4by 6-in. postcard format, I reconcile the mysteries I often imagine—around corners and down passageways, in old halls, and behind dioramas— with the reality of what it means to influence, and in turn be influenced by, such a venerable museum. eg magazine — 61
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UP CLOSE
Vince Frost Vince Frost is Chairman and Creative Director of Australian powerhouse studio Frost*, a 30-member team that has won global recognition for its work across digital, print, and environments. The team often takes a 360-degree approach to projects, impacting all touchpoints of its clients’ communications. Ongoing work for Qantas, for example, extends from signage and wayfinding in the company’s headquarters to the passenger experience and even staff training. Frost* clients also include Phaidon Press, Colliers International, Rio Tinto, the iconic Woolworth’s department store in South Africa, D&AD, and the City of Sydney.
Asked to create an information kiosk for Sydney’s Chinatown, Frost* was inspired by the beauty of traditional Chinese lanterns, and worked with a paper-cut artist to create the design for the curved walls.
Frost took a few minutes recently How is the to talk with eg magazine. Australian design scene unique? You were Pentagram I’m not sure the design scene is London’s youngest associate unique. It’s a big country with a director before successfully small population, so there’s running Frost* London. What plenty of room for growth. What lured you to Australia? I like is the lack of a class system I fell in love with Australia from and the very “can-do” attitude. the first moment I arrived. The decision to relocate was the How is your studio result of a few significant set up, and how do you foster events. With AGDA (Australian creativity across the Graphic Design Association), I disciplines? had taken part in a seven cities Our positioning is “inspiring in seven days design tour that ideas to life.”® Our values are had me toying with the idea. Care, Collaborate, Connect, Ultimately, it was an accident Create, Celebrate. that convinced me to actually Our studio is divided into make the move. My busy work/ four teams: strategy, brand/ lifestyle came to an abrupt halt comms, environments, and when I fell down the stairs at digital. We have an open-plan my London studio. After studio with an open approach to breaking my leg I was forced to collaboration with our team and take some time off to our clients. We also have recuperate. It was then that I monthly defrost* talks whose realized I needed to ease up and purpose is to inspire our staff, spend more time with my our clients, and our friends. family. My then-wife (an Australian native) and I decided to move to improve our lifestyle.
Your firm is doing a lot of digital projects that sometimes don’t even involve physical environments or objects. How do you see digital design affecting your studio? Everything is digital now. It’s no longer either/or and we embrace it with every opportunity we have. Technology is evolving so rapidly and it’s an incredibly exciting time for design, as anything is possible. And how do you see digital technologies impacting environmental graphic design in particular? It’s changing rapidly already. Digital wayfinding and Google buildings maps are being discussed with every new brief we take. The clients are the ones pushing us to be forward thinking and find ways of connecting with others doing “cool stuff.” What influences you right now? The opportunities that are before us. My team and the combined skills and energy excite me. What are you passionate about besides design? My partner, my kids, running, the beach.
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NO. 07, 2013
NO. 07, 2013
eg EXPERIENTIAL GRAPHICS MAGAZINE
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