K-mart turned church

February 12, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Filed under Collaboration, Misc., Signage, Wayfinding

Photo: PlainJoe Studios

Think K-mart turned Ashley Furniture turned worship facility. The Young Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina has an average attendance of 5,200 people between its three facilities. When designing the new facility in Matthews, the church leaders, in their 20s and early 30s, didn’t want Elevation to feel like a typical church. They brought in Visioneering Studios Architecture to handle the master planning, design development, and interior design, while PlainJoe Studios of Corona, CA designed the environmental graphics, signage and wayfinding. Other project collaborators include: Design 2020 (A/V & lighting), Cogun (Design & Construction). — S.N.

Photo: PlainJoe Studios

Digging deeper with client engagement

February 9, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Filed under Collaboration, Design Process, Design business, Uncategorized

Designers see themselves as problem solvers, and their first instinct when faced with a client’s challenge is to charge in—armed with available information, their own biases, and previous experience in similar situations—and deliver the Big Idea. But the problems designers are asked to solve are getting bigger and more complex. Often, they run much deeper than just the initial challenge the client presents. And as a result, they demand a much deeper level of engagement between client and designer, suggests Mark VanderKlipp.

Designers “…must elevate ourselves from the product level to the systems level, from designing artifacts to designing entire ecosystems, from being problem solvers to becoming solution finders,” says VanderKlipp, president of Corbin Design and a member of the SEGD Board of Directors. His article for Design Intelligence explores a deeper level of client engagement, and suggests four ways of “Forging Invaluable Partnerships.”  –P.M.K.

Sound Playground

January 27, 2010 at 11:55 am
Filed under Collaboration, Exhibit Design, Interactive, Lighting

Toronto-based interaction design firm, Aesthetec Studio, designed the electronics and interfaces for Sound Playground at the Connecticut Science Center. The interactive sculptures allow visitors to compose music. There are four colorful digital instruments: “a ‘rhythm’ sequencer with 64 touch-sensitive key controls, a ‘melody’ fret board with 13 touch-sensitive frets, ‘harmony’ wheels whose tops spin to make, well, harmony, and an upright bass. The exhibit is meant for several people to play together.” Project collaborators include:  Jeff Kennedy Associates and AV&C.

Find great work-in-progress pics on flickr. — S.N.

Sound Playground at Connecticut Science Center from Aesthetec Studio on Vimeo.

MiaSci’s Living Core

January 22, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Filed under Architecture, Collaboration, Design Process, Exhibit Design, museum

The Miami Science Museum slated to begin construction this year will share the city’s Museum Park with the Miami Art Museum. The MiaSci building designed by Grimshaw Architects is “structured around a lushly landscaped indoor and outdoor ‘living core’ of terrestrial and aquatic exhibits, featuring one-of-a-kind aquarium components, a state-of-the-art digital dome, hands-on exhibits and interactive digital technology.” This week, marine experts from around South Florida met with the exhibit design team from Thinc Design for a brainstorming workshop focused on advancing the design of the aquarium components.

According to the MiaSci blog: “The workshop was the kickoff to an intensive period of exhibit development that will begin next month, drawing on the experts to refine the key messages and content areas of the Living Core. In particular, the group identified specific opportunities for connecting the exhibits to current research; how the exhibits could be used to explore the broad environmental and social impacts of such topics as aquaculture and climate change; ways to use technology to enhance the experience, and ways to engage the public in ongoing research and solutions to environmental challenges.”

For a full list of collaborators and updates on the project click here. — S.N.

View from the Living Core

Think, thank, thunk

June 10, 2009 at 11:50 am
Filed under Collaboration

“The issue of how design educators address entrepreneurship is a real puzzle.” Read more

The Lion King 1½ dvd

Boy A ipod Dadnapped movies

Man of Her Dreams ipod about it.  – A.M.

Phenomena