Design Process
Digital Reality Check
February 15, 2012
If you’ve ever visited the History gallery at the Royal BC Museum (and if you haven’t, everyone is saying you should), it’s quite likely you got lost inside. Part of the charm and mystique of the original immersive exhibition, mostly built in the early 1970s, was exactly that — getting “lost” in the illusion of re-created environments with all their intriguing nooks.
Of course, that also makes redevelopment planning a little tricky. In order to gain a better understanding of the complicated maze of exhibit infrastructure that currently exists, we took floor plans and digitally extruded them using 3-D modeling and rendering software. After some custom fixes to the resulting “walls,” we managed to create a tool that became very useful in finding out what was realistically possible in the space.
The image shown here is the “before” shot. But you’ll have to wait to see the “after” — we expect to complete preliminary concept designs phase later this year.
BC History 2.0
February 15, 2012
We’re happy to report reaching a major milestone in our work at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria: the interpretive plan for the redevelopment of the museum’s third-floor history gallery is now printed and bound.
Tim Willis, Director of Exhibitions and Visitor Experience remarked on the process: “I have never participated in a planning meeting where the team of four curators unanimously gave the planning consultant a vote of confidence, but it happened!”
So far, so good… now on to Phase 2: Preliminary Concept Design.
A Great Journey
July 27, 2011
Right on the heels of starting up work on plans for the new Suquamish Tribal Museum, Storyline Studio was invited to come up to the Suquamish reservation to observe the canoe landing ceremonies that are part of this year’s Northwest Canoe Journey. A short description here couldn’t do it any justice — you can read more about it in this story featured in the New York Times. It was great to be part of such a huge community event and witness the true spirit of the tribes.
How to Hang a Whale
April 23, 2010
Click an image to enlarge
The folks at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center are keen on displaying the 27-foot whale skeleton that they have been restoring for months. Storyline Studio designers Stuart Lee (shown here) and Bill Smith took some time out during their latest site visit to hang a whale-spine “template” in the future whale gallery to see how it would fit. With the help of museum volunteer Joe Cocke, they managed to squeeze all the virtual vertabrae between the rafters. Should be quite a sight once it’s replaced with a real set of full-sized whale bones!
Viewporting
December 13, 2009
Last week the Storyline Studio team dropped in at the future site of the Annenberg Project at Lower Point Vicente to do a little exhibit reconnaissance. Here you can see Stuart and Tim mocking up a “viewport”: a transparent graphic panel that composites historical scenery onto the current landscape. The idea is to help the visitor picture earlier cultures on the land — the trick is fixing a sightline, so that the two perspectives actually come into alignment. Good luck, guys!
Wayfinding Revisited
April 16, 2009
It’s always a great learning opportunity to visit your past design work after it has “weathered” for a few years — especially when it’s an outdoor wayfinding system in the middle of a desert. That’s just what happened when Storyline Studio principal Bill Smith was in Las Vegas recently: he took a current client to see the Las Vegas Springs Preserve. Back in 2003, Bill led the design effort for the LVSP signage program, no small task when we’re talking about a 180-acre site with literally miles of trails and exhibits. We’re pleased to report the wayfinding design has aged extremely well — and judging from the heavy mid-week foot traffic, the Preserve itself is doing just fine too! For more photos, click the thumbnails below.
