I recently worked with White Design Studio to design an energy exhibition for the Eastern Kentucky Science Center. This program was a complicated by many factors. Our target audience was school-aged children and their teachers and parents. Our exhibition was funded by local and state energy industry. We had a very short time line with which to design the exhibition, and White Design Studio had to pick up where another firm had fallen short in their efforts to provide a cohesive solution.

White Design Studio was able to take a large, complex set of ideas and weave it together with an over arching brand and graphic language that told our stories clearly and concisely. The brand was emblematic of both the subject matter, and the sense of discovery we wanted our audience to feel. Just below the brand, White Design was able to show many of the principals our exhibition would demonstrate individually in a master narrative that governed the exhibit and gave the visitors a foundation for everything they were going to learn. Finally, individual exhibits were attractive, the lessons were clear and all of the demonstrations and aesthetics supported the main narrative.

White Design Studio was a pleasure to work with during the design process, taking input from our team of educators, administrators, industry professionals and adding their own research and perspective to make a learning tool that is informative and inspirational. In the end, both our guidance and theirs produced a solution that was far better than either of us could have produced on our own.

Tom Vierheller

Interim Director, Eastern Kentucky Science Center

Battelle is the world’s largest, nonprofit, research and development organization. Their selling line is “The Business of Innovation.” Our overarching goal was to brand the lobby and cafeteria of their global headquarters in a way that embodied innovation.

The design challenge was to show Battelle as a global leader in science and provide a way for the public to experience their value. We worked with BHDP Architecture to reinforce their changes to the space, so our solutions would extend their goals. We also teamed up with a Obscura Digital and Murphy Catton to ensure tight control over the end product.

Our intent, throughout the lobby, was to monumentalize science in an abstract way. The molecule sculpture is where this goal is epitomized. A 3000 pound steel sculpture of a molecule reveals itself to visitors in the lobby. As they make their way through a glass wall the space peels away and reveals the entire sculpture, which can be touched and occupied.

The lobby also features an interactive video installation that has 4 modes. A sleep mode plays a subtle animation 5’ tall by 30’ wide. The follow mode tracks users with a branded animation which entices people closer. The user mode is a content-rich playful way for multiple users to find out more about the scope of Battelle and its contributions. The presentation mode shows a series of monumental video presentations, triggered remotely. The seamless integration of these, together with the depth of information accessible, makes this installation unlike any other.

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Our goal was to create an immersive interactive way of experiencing the Battelle brand that tapped into the wonder we all feel when we discover something. The interactive wall tracks you from up to 20 feet away with an animation, beckoning you to approach and discover. It then invites you to touch it. When you do, you discover that there is a wealth of animated content that tells a rich story of the history and capabilities of Battelle. White Design Studio, in conjunction with Obscura Digital and Murphy Catton developed a device that can track the movements of three individual users, in three dimensions, to deliver a personalized conversation between the user and the brand. The leader of a large group can remotely command the wall to play from a selection of monumental videos that take over the entire width of the 30 foot screen and all six channels of audio.

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The centerpiece of this environmental branding project is a 3,000 pound steel sculpture of a molecule developed by the scientists at Battelle. It is a portion of a molecule for a material key to the production of Hydrogen Fuel Cells. We think of this object as the church steeple in a small town. It is visible from much of the first floor and second floor and serves to anchor the entire project. For us, it monumentalizes science but also the connections Battelle makes between disciplines, which is at the root of Battelle’s specific value as a business.

White Design Studio developed a language of patterns that we used in the media and graphics of our environmental branding package. The patterns are made up of three elements. Squares, Circles and Hexagons. They are organized into streams, and within the streams, begin to align to local grids. Squares represent tables and frameworks for data. Circles represent atomic and molecular relationships. Hexagons speak to metallurgy and crystalline structures. These are all diagrams for scientific relationships and lenses through which we understand science.