eg Magazine 08 by SEGD

NO. 08, 2014

eg EXPERIENTIAL GRAPHICS MAGAZINE

Los Angeles International Airport’s (LAX) Tom Bradley International Terminal Integrated Environmental Media System

YOUR DESIGN PARTNER We’re more than just a digital media manufacturer. We team up with leading architects, designers, integrators and media experts to help transform public spaces into some of the world’s most iconic digital media destinations. From design concepts to in-depth technology sessions, we strive to deliver a high-quality digital media solution that lives up to your vision.

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ATLANTA ARTIST

HENSE

ROMANCE NEW LAX TERMINAL

SKETCHBOOK ANDREAS UEBELE

ATLANTA CONVERGING

CHPL PROJECT DESIGN Hunt Design

Society for Experiential Graphic Design A multidisciplinary community creating experiences that connect people to place

SEGD BOARD OF DIRECTORS President Vice President Treasurer

Jill Ayers, Design360, New York John Lutz, Selbert Perkins Design, Chicago Gary Stemler, archetype, Minneapolis, Minn.

PHOTO Mason Cummings/Parks Conservancy

Patrick Angelel, CREO Industrial Arts, Everett, Wash. Sander Baumann, designworkplan.com, Amsterdam Steve Bayer, Daktronics, Brookings, S.D. Peter Dixon, Prophet, New York Oscar Fernández (Ex Officio), University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Moira Gemmill (Ex Officio), V&A Museum, London Cynthia Hall (Ex Officio), Gensler, Seattle J. Graham Hanson, Graham Hanson Design, New York Edwin Hofmann, Limited Brands, Columbus, Ohio Alan Jacobson, ex;it, Philadelphia Amy Lukas (Past President), Inﬁnite Scale, Salt Lake City Wayne McCutcheon (Past President), Entro, Toronto Bryan Meszaros, OpenEye, South Amboy, N.J. Stephen Minning, BrandCulture Communications, Sydney Dan Moalli, Technomedia, New York Steven Stamper, fd2s, Austin, Texas Julie Vogel, Kate Keating Associates, San Francisco Leslie Wolke, Leslie Wolke Consulting, Austin, Texas

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Washington, D.C. Wellington, New Zealand

Lynne Bernhardt, lynne@sbs-architecture.com Stephen Carlin, stevecarlin@coopercarry.com Jason Helton, jhelton@snallc.com Mitch Leathers, mleathers@snallc.com Michele Phelan, michele@96pt.com David Spatara, wentworth_2003@yahoo.com Jack Bryce, jack@jackbryce.com Kevin Kern, kkern@505design.com Scott Muller, smuller@poblocki.com Kyle Skunta, kskunta@selbertperkins.com Julie Maggos, j.maggos@interiorarchitects.com Jeff Waggoner, jeffwaggoner@fuse.net George Lim, george@tangramdesignllc.com Angela Serravo, angela@tangramdesignllc.com Lucy Richards, lr@studiolr.com Rick Smith, rsmith@dimin.com Simon Borg, simon.borg@populous.com Adam Halverson, adamh@serigraphicssign.com Jese Yungner, yungner@visualcomm.com Rachel Einsidler, einsidler.r@design360inc.com Anthony Ferrara, anthony@designconcernus.com Anna Sharp, asharp@twotwelve.com Stephen Bashore, sbashore@cloudgehshan.com Ian Goldberg, igoldberg@cloudgehshan.com Kathy Fry, kathy@mayerreed.com Mike Sauer, ms@andersonkrygier.com Chris McCampbell, chris@kathydavisassociates.com Tim Huey, tim_huey@gensler.com Cynthia Hall, cynthia_hall@gensler.com Annie Patterson, apatterson@thisisdk.com Cynthia Damar-Schnobb, cynthia@entro.com Andrew Kuzyk, andrew@entro.com Danielle Bauer, dbauer@cygnusgroup.ca Daniela Pilossof, daniela.pilossof@gmail.com Jeffrey Wotowiec, jwotowiec@cannondesign.com Nick Kapica, n.kapica@massey.ac.nz

Publisher Clive Roux, CEO Editor-in-Chief Pat Matson Knapp pat@segd.org Executive Editor Ann Makowski Founding Editor Leslie Gallery Dilworth Design Wayne-William Creative Contributors Alex Brewer, Michael Mascioni, Leslie Wolke, Andreas Uebele Executive and Editorial Offices 1900 L St., NW Suite 710 Washington, D.C. 20036 202.638.5555 www.segd.org Advertising Sales Kathleen Turner kathleen@segd.org 202.638.5555 Editorial, Subscriptions, Reprints, Back Issues 202.638.5555 segd@segd.org 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. Subscriptions: US $80/year, International $125/year. Send US funds to eg magazine, SEGD, 1900 L St., NW, Suite 710, Washington, DC 20036. To charge your order, call 202.638.5555. Postmaster: Send address changes to eg magazine, 1900 L St., NW, Suite 710, Washington, DC 20036.

Atlanta Converging Born as a railroad terminus and later shaped by streetcar and interstate highway development, Atlanta has existed and mostly thrived at the crossroads of social, historical, and cultural changes. Today it’s a sprawling metropolis and a global hub for transportation, commerce, design, media, and entertainment. Thanks to innovative projects like the Atlanta BeltLine, the soon-to-open Ponce City Market, and the Atlanta Streetcar, Atlanta’s urban core is vibrant and becoming more so every day. Public and private investment in central Atlanta is on the rise and Atlantans are beginning to change their ways of thinking about urban living. Atlanta is an exciting destination for the 2014 SEGD Conference. Themed Convergence: Crossing Lines, the conference will explore how contemporary design practice is converging with urban redevelopment, placemaking, transit, sustainability, technology, and other major factors affecting design today. This issue was designed to give you a sneak preview of the city, the conference, and the thought leaders you’ll meet in Atlanta June 5-7. It provides some great stories about the convergence of design and innovation in Atlanta and worldwide. The conference program includes award-winning German designer Andreas Uebele, Wayshowing author Per Mollerup, and Atlanta-based graffiti and ﬁne artist HENSE, as well as the planners and designers behind the BeltLine and Ponce City Market. You’re guaranteed to be inspired and motivated to gather with your SEGD community June 5–7 in Atlanta. We look forward to seeing you there!

NO. 08, 2014

ATLANTA ARTIST

HENSE

ROMANCE NEW LAX TERMINAL

SKETCHBOOK ANDREAS UEBELE

ATLANTA CONVERGING

On the cover: Atlanta-based artist HENSE (aka Alex Brewer) combines the techniques of graffiti, ﬁne art, and urbanscale murals in his work. See story, page 54

Clive Roux CEO

eg magazine — 3

CONTENTS

1 UP FRONT (10)

Found Giving thanks in Cincinnati, epic views in Chicago, and Happy Signs in New York (14)

Out There Vital signs, high-tack vinyl, and interaction on the spot (16)

2014 SEGD Conference Preview HENSE, Per Mollerup, and Andreas Uebele converge in Atlanta.

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2 FEATURES (22)

The Romance is Back LAX’s new Tom Bradley International Terminal offers passengers an epic visual landscape. (28)

Out of the Box With ambient interactivity, user engagement (and design) is escaping the screen. (38)

Atlanta Converging Atlanta is a hotbed of high design and urban planning innovations, from the BeltLine to Ponce City Market. (42)

World-Class Welcome

3 INSPIRATION (54)

HENSE the Name The graffiti writer and ﬁne artist makes his home in Atlanta, but makes his mark around the globe. (60)

Sketchbook

Atlanta’s new international terminal welcomes the world in smooth Southern style.

To Andreas Uebele, drawing is a precise and poetic language.

(48)

(64)

Ponce Upon a Time

Up Close

A former Sears distribution building comes back to life, and environmental graphic design helps tell its story.

Ryan Gravel was a grad student when he dreamt up the idea that became Atlanta’s BeltLine.

eg magazine — 5

SEGD wishes to extend thanks to the inaugural 2014 Industry Partners

Special thanks to 2014 eg Sponsors and Patrons Lead Sponsor Foreseer Pentagram Sponsor Robert Probst APCO archetype Cloud Geshan Associates Dale Travis Associates fd2s Gallagher & Associates Hunt Design Mayer/Reed Poulin + Morris Selbert Perkins Patron C&G Partners Design Goes Donovan/Green

Additional thanks to our 2014 Program Sponsors archetype Arlon CREO Industrial Arts DeNyse Company Designtex Harmon Signs Principle Group Rainier REXframe SignComp Site Enhancement Services Unified Field

Systech | the trusted choice

Adaptable sign systems Manufacturing for more than 30 years

Your Ideas © 3M 2014. 3M and MCS are trademarks of 3M Company.

Our Solutions.

3M Commercial Graphics is proud to support SEGD’s vision to educate, connect and inspire the design community. We share in your experience of connecting people to place with a complete portfolio of practical and innovative solutions that will bring your ideas to life. For more information stop by 3M Booth #301 or visit 3MBrandSolutions.com

3M™ MCS™ Warranty

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Greener Solutions

UP FRONT (10)

Found Giving thanks in Cincinnati, epic views in Chicago, and Happy Signs in New York (14)

Out There Vital signs, high-tack vinyl, and interaction on the spot (16)

2014 SEGD Conference Preview HENSE, Per Mollerup, and Andreas Uebele converge in Atlanta.

FOUND

SECTION TITLE

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THANKS AND MERCY For Mercy Health–West Hospital (Cincinnati), one of the most effective ways to communicate its mission of compassionate care is through its physical environment. Kolar Design (Cincinnati) developed a comprehensive signage and donor recognition program for the hospital that communicates its brand values of care, advocacy, respect, and community service. The communication begins as soon as visitors enter the hospital’s main concourse, where a luminous media wall and sculpture recognizes donors to its capital campaign. The 24-foot-long wall combines digital storytelling—looping videos of the hospital’s history and donors—with edgelit acrylic tiles bearing donor names. The visual poetry is displayed on ﬁve 40in. NEC 400UX-3 LCD monitors surrounded by arrays of 8-footlong by 6-inch-high acrylic strips that slide into horizontal, extruded-aluminum channels. Fabricator Ad-Ex International (Cincinnati) created the look of individual donor “tiles” by digitally printing a fritted-glass effect in alternating colors across the acrylic strips. Donor names were second-surface etched on the 3/8-inch acrylic. (Photos: Joe Harrison, JB Photography Inc.)

When British artist Killy Kilford moved to New York in January 2013, he was super happy. But as he walked the streets of his new adopted home, all he saw were street signs, which for the most part carry decidedly unhappy messages. To share his happiness and help New Yorkers reframe the negativity that street signs can communicate, Kilford created 200 “Happy Street Signs” that he and a cadre of volunteers installed in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn in late 2013. “Street signs are a perfect artistic mechanism for change,” says Kilford. “They are already holistically accepted and arguably the most viewed art form in everyone’s daily life. Happy Street Signs tap into the existing functionality of signage and develop it in such a way that it becomes a catalyst for positive emotional reactions. I believe each positive reaction takes a footstep toward increasing public connectedness and happiness.” Kilford is now working on Happy Signs for six more cities in the U.S., Australia, and Europe. (Photo: Jason Sheldon)

DNUOF

HAPPY STREET SIGNS

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FOUND

SECTION TITLE

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AN EPIC WAIT

Millions ﬂock to enjoy the epic views afforded by Chicago’s Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower), but the wait to reach the 103rd ﬂoor can be long and not-so-epic. So Skydeck Chicago asked Hornall Anderson (Seattle) to elevate the queuing experience to complement the main event. Hornall Anderson managed to extend the aweinspiring experience all the way down to the lobby. Working with fabricator Xibitz and integrator Creative Technologies, the team celebrated the building’s legacy, focusing on the structure and its connection to Chicago’s history, culture, and people. The Tower Room features a superscaled “103” and typographic murals that detail key facts about the view. In the Chicago Room, interactives teach visitors about Chicago’s history and celebrities. In the Launchdeck Room, visitors look up before they look down, learning about the city’s skyscrapers via wall graphics and a breathtaking view provided by a giant ceiling-hung lightbox. The outcome is driving revenues and helping visitors forget they’re waiting in line. Hornall Anderson also named and created the identity for the tower’s new glass-encased view deck, the Ledge. (Photos: Adam Friedberg)

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OUT THERE

INNOVATIVE MATERIALS, PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY

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New product to share? Contact pat@segd.org.

A B

VITALSIGN IMPRESSIONS ACRYLIC LuciteLux’s Impressions line features a variety of textures in LuciteLux cast acrylic. The line is designed for retail, architectural, signage, interiors, and art installations. The material is durable, scratch-resistant, and easily fabricated and comes in a wide variety of colors, textures, and thicknesses. It was named Best in Show at GlobalShop 2013. www.lucitelux.com

This Seattle tech start-up offers a gesture-control solution that uses Microsoft Kinect to turn virtually any 3D surface into a multitouch screen. The sensor can be placed in front of a display using rear or front projection, and Ubi allows users to interact with it using simple gestures as though it is a touchscreen.

2/90 Sign Systems introduced VitalSign, a modular system that features changeable medical alert messages to communicate critical patient-care information. It can be placed next to a bedside or in the hallway with ADA-compliant room-identification graphics. Users can choose from standard medical alert messages or customized sliders in any color, icon, or configuration. It is available in eight standard sizes and a variety of configurations, and can also retrofit existing 2/90 modular signage components.

www.ubi-interactive.com

www.290signs.com

UBI INTERACTIVE

HIGH-TACK VINYL FILM 3M™ Scotchcal™ High Tack Graphic Film IJ39 is a new 3.5 mil vinyl ﬁlm with a high tack, pressure-sensitive adhesive for wrapping hard-to-stick surfaces. It is designed for solvent, UV, and latex-based inkjet printing, as well as screenprinting for short-term promotional graphics. It comes in 54-in. x 50-yard rolls, with an expected performance life of ﬁve years. Applications range from motocross bikes, coolers, and powdercoated paints to low-surface energy plastics such as polyethylene and polypropylene. www.3Mgraphics.com

eg magazine — 15

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Contour Entertainment / Creative Pull

20 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; eg magazine

FEATURES (22)

The Romance is Back LAXâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new Tom Bradley International Terminal offers passengers an epic visual landscape. (28)

Out of the Box With ambient interactivity, user engagement (and design) is escaping the screen. (38)

Atlanta Converging Atlanta is a hotbed of high design and urban planning innovations, from the BeltLine to Ponce City Market. (42)

World-Class Welcome Atlantaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new international terminal welcomes the world in smooth Southern style. (48)

Ponce Upon a Time A former Sears distribution building comes back to life, and environmental graphic design helps tell its story.

Client Los Angeles World Airports Location Los Angeles Budget $40 million Open Date September 2013 Architect Terminal Architect Fentress Architects Project Director, Media Program and Business Platform Development MRA International concept master plan, business strategy development, content strategy Design Director/Creative Producer Sardi Design environmental integration, materials palette, design intent Executive Content Producer Moment Factory media feature design, content director Support Content Producer Digital Kitchen Systems Designer and Technical Consultant Smart Monkeys Systems Engineering and Integration Electrosonic Inc. LED and LCD Manufacturer Daktronics

As arriving passengers descend an escalator toward baggage claim, they’re greeted with a stunning mediascape: an 80-foot-tall “Welcome Wall” that displays high-deﬁnition imagery is accompanied by welcome greetings in languages keyed to the arriving ﬂights. (Photo: Sardi Design)

The Romance is Back At LAX’s new Tom Bradley International Terminal, an epic digital landscape delights passengers, pushes the media frontier, and creates a new business model for airport operators. By Leslie Wolke

Art deco curtains part to reveal gold-toned dancers spinning inside a multi-tiered clock-like confection. Threestory-tall guitar strings quiver and plunk to the movements of passersby. A dapper 70-foot-tall gentleman tips his hat through a blizzard of slow-motion confetti. These aren’t scenes you would normally encounter in an airport, but then again, Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX is not your typical airport. Phase one of a $1.9 billion upgrade to LAX’s international service opened in September 2013—a LEED Silver-certified building designed by Fentress Architects of Denver. With the new terminal, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) also sought to elevate the passenger experience. A $40 million, architecturally integrated media program does just that, tuning sophisticated content to the passenger journey through the terminal and reminding them of the excitement and adventure of travel. An epic welcome As the country’s largest international gateway to Asia, LAX TBIT welcomes more than 17 million international passengers a year. And at the new terminal, that welcome is now a literal one: after clearing immigration, in-bound passengers descend a two-story escalator to baggage claim that faces an 80-foottall by 26-foot-wide LED display. Breathtaking high-definition videos sweep the screen—from a slow-motion California shoreline bubbling toward the sand to a close-up of a metal aircraft carapace reflecting the setting sun. Interlaced with these videos are greetings to the arriving passengers in their native languages, uniquely timed to each arriving flight. That mesmerizing 45-second descent transforms into a colossal yet personal—and undeniably memorable—welcome to Los Angeles. The Welcome Wall is just one of seven iconic and enormous digital experiences designed and produced by a multidisciplinary team for the new Tom Bradley terminal. The epic, cinematic landscapes are an ode to LA’s most celebrated industry. The project as a whole is called the Integrated Environmental Media System (IEMS) and is the largest digital media installation by far at any airport in the world. The statistics are stunning: 20 million LEDs over 12,000 square feet of displays, 105 million pixels or the equivalent of eight IMAX theaters. While the Welcome Wall delights arriving passengers, the other six digital monuments were designed to captivate departing passengers, who tend to arrive at the terminal two to four hours prior to their international flight. Their route to the gate is a linear sequence: from security to the Great Hall with its 110-foot ceilings and to either the North or South concourse. Perpendicular to the Welcome Wall is the Bon Voyage Wall, positioned to catch the eyes of outbound passengers as they collect themselves after security. At roughly one-third the height of the Welcome Wall, it is an ample digital canvas to broadcast larger-than-life Los Angelenos jumping and waving goodbye in super-slow motion. After encountering just two of the seven icons, a fundamental question comes to mind: Why would an airport spend $40 million to design and launch such a massive and technically ambitious array of digital spectacles?

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The Romance is Back

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Could we think about media in a way that both supports the passenger experience and creates a revenue platform?â&#x20AC;?

A series of 28-ft.-tall pylons provide a transitional experience as passengers move toward the North or South concourses and their departure gates. The slender monoliths consist of vertically stacked LCD monitors with content keyed to the art traditions of destination cities. Passenger movement triggers changing visual effects. (Photo: Moment Factory) 24 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; eg magazine

Rethinking the role of media It all began with a series of conversations between Mike Doucette (LAWA’s chief of airport planning and project manager for the new terminal), public relations executive Michael Collins, and Mike Rubin, principal and founder of MRA International, a development consultancy specializing in destination and place branding. The fundamental question was, as Rubin remembers, “Could we think about media in a way that both supports the passenger experience and creates a revenue platform?” LAWA’s Board and its Executive Director, Gina Marie Lindsey, made it clear the two goals were nearly equal, but that the passenger experience must be the primary guide for the media program. LAX had been relatively late in pursuing on-site advertising as a source of revenue, starting in 2006 with static and traditional digital displays positioned along the passengers’ journey. Airports derive most of their revenue from landing fees and leasing gates to airlines. But as the economy contracted and airlines staved off bankruptcy by slimming margins and squeezing expenses, airports’ aviation revenue fell and advertising became a priority. The train had left the station The new terminal was already under construction, but the opportunity to deﬁne a revenue-generating strategy while enhancing the visitor experience was too critical to ignore. So Rubin, Doucette, and architect Curtis Fentress brought Marcela Sardi, a designer of immersive experiences and a long-time collaborator with Rubin, into the project. Rubin’s role was to conceive the master plan for the entire media ecosystem. The team agreed on a guiding principle: for the outcome to be successful, the program had

to be integral to the passenger experience and well integrated into the architecture. Sardi recalls the initial exploration: “We looked at the architecture—where could we feasibly integrate pieces? The placement had to make sense in terms of the ﬂow of passengers through the space.” Drafting the business model While concept design proceeded, Rubin worked with a large LAWA team to develop a business case for the IEMS. The client team included LAWA Executive Director Gina Marie Lindsey, the LAWA Commercial Development Group led by Airport COO Steve Martin, Deputy Executive of Commercial Development Debbie Bower, PR representative Michael Collins, and LAWA’s Board of Airport Commissioners. Rubin emphasized the importance of this effort early on: “Design is not just a physical expression. It’s an overall strategy that must address the sustainability of the experience and its evolution,” and in most cases, he adds, that means generating revenue to sustain it. Together, Rubin and the LAWA executive team crafted a sponsorship strategy that combines entitlement (naming and branding opportunities for each media feature) and visitor engagement (ways that sponsors can provide a beneﬁt or service to the passengers.). A successful sponsorship “is one where the sponsor’s interest is in engaging with the audience not just to communicate their brand but to provide something of value, a connection, an experience, an enhancement that makes the brand memorable,” says Rubin. Sponsorship programs had not been undertaken in airports here or abroad and they provide a unique challenge, because, as Rubin notes, most airports are “bereft of any enjoyment and engagement.”

The Time Tower was conceived as a four-sided mediascape wrapped around an existing elevator core. Here it displays a short ﬁlm inspired by comedy actor/producer Harold Lloyd. Moment Factory built a full-scale model and shot live-action ﬁlm for the short. A functional clock face is also integrated into the tower. (Photo: Moment Factory)

eg magazine — 25

The Romance is Back

“Our mandate was not only to produce the media itself, but to produce the content guidelines to help future creators develop for the system.”

Iconic features take shape After a series of collaborative meetings with Doucette and Fentress Architects, the definition and location of each of the seven features was complete. Mike Rubin headed the content strategy for the program while Marcela Sardi developed the materials palette and design intent of each feature as mindful extensions of the Great Hall’s interior design. While structural, engineering, and lighting modifications for the landmarks were made as a series of change orders to the architectural plans, Moment Factory, a multimedia design and production studio headquartered in Montreal, transformed the content strategy into immersive, ambient media. With one year left before the terminal’s opening, Senior Multimedia Director Melissa Weigel explains, “Our mandate was not only to produce the media itself, but to produce the content guidelines to help future creators develop for the system.” Moment Factory’s team of 60 full-time motion designers, filmmakers, and animators joined forces with an army of freelancers to create not just the media for individual elements, but to design what Weigel calls an “orchestrated media environment…with a common cinematic language.” That language has aspects of travel documentary, fantastical set pieces, and ethereal imagery, all conveying the romance of travel and the delights of Los Angeles. Moment Factory created 40 short-films, each tuned to the exact technical requirements and dimensions of its media landmark. Creative and environmental design agency Digital Kitchen came on board to design and deliver a collection of “ambient narratives”—documentary-style stories that captured the spirit of Los Angeles and portraits of destinations like Seoul and Barcelona. Their hypnotic cinematography washes across the Story Board and down the Welcome Wall. In addition, Digital Kitchen was charged with developing brand expressions for LAX from the poetic slow-motion aviation skins with HDRs to sculptural cloud layers that float across the features. Innovations behind the scenes The complexity of building, installing, and deploying the media ecosystem cannot be understated. Moment Factory and Digital Kitchen produced about five hours of HD and large-format content, some of which process real-time flight information to render customized experiences timed with flight arrivals and departures. Moment Factory’s X-Agora video servers render the interactive content and generative content. Smart Monkeys (Miami) designed the sophisticated playback and show control system—the platform that runs all the media features. The system is a fusion of broadcast, A/V, digital signage, and enterprise-level networking to support the speed, data, and 26 — eg magazine

The Bon Voyage Wall, positioned to catch the eyes of outbound passengers as they collect themselves after security, features slow-motion video of Los Angelenos waving goodbye. (Photo: Moment Factory)

performance benchmarks the project required. LA-based Electrosonic Inc. integrated the entire system and built its NASA-like control room. As the winner of a public RFP process, Daktronics manufactured and installed the LED and LCD video displays, along with the architectural surrounds and a fiberoptic backbone. By the end, Adam Gilliland, Daktronics project applications engineer, tallied “approximately 10,000 modules totaling over 20 million LEDs.” Of the $40 million spent on design, development, and deployment of the IEMS, roughly $20 million was spent on the display technology, $6 million on the content, and the rest on fabrication, engineering, and consulting. Seeking sponsorship To inaugurate the system and enable the sponsorship platform, the airport authority sought bids for a Terminal Media Operator or TMO. Rubin and LAWA’s Commercial Development Group defined the TMO as a unique collection of responsibilities: to manage the sponsorship guidelines, to solicit sponsorship opportunities for the seven media landmarks, to manage those agreements after they have been approved by the airport authority, and to maintain the media infrastructure itself, which is estimated at roughly $2 to $4 million a year. The sponsorship guidelines drafted by Rubin and LAWA are intended to protect and evolve the high caliber of the content designed by Sardi, Moment Factory, and Digital Kitchen. Sponsors are allowed a maximum of 12 minutes per hour in aggregate (equivalent to 20% of the time) to communicate their brand on the media feature. Sponsors are also required to provide passenger benefits such as apps, charging stations, or other amenities to make the travel experience more enjoyable. In early December 2013, a joint-venture named JCDecaux/Airport Sponsorships/ Time Warner was awarded a six-year contract that guarantees at minimum $180 million in sponsorship revenue (and advertising in other terminals) to the airport. In his presentation to the LAWA Board of Airport Commissioners, JCDecaux president Bernard Parisot called this opportunity “nothing short of revolutionary, bringing together sponsorships with new services to make the passenger experience more rewarding.” Mike Rubin summed up this massive and ground-breaking project quite modestly: “We started with the passenger itinerary, looked at what is missing from the airport experience, and sought to identify sustainable models of engagements to support those enhancements.”

The Storyboard is a 120-foot-long, digital version of the medium so commonly used in Los Angeles creative industries. The multiple LED screens, manufactured by Daktronics, were designed to be viewed from multiple angles. Both Moment Factory and Digital Kitchen created “ambient narratives” for the feature. (Photo: Moment Factory)

Leslie Wolke (leslie.wolke@gmail.com) is a wayﬁnding technology consultant. She is a member of the SEGD Board of Directors and Founding Co-Chair of SEGD’s annual innovation event, Xlab.

eg magazine — 27

With ambient interactivity, user engagement (and design) is escaping the screen. By Michael Mascioni

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For Russian telecom company MegaFon’s pavilion at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, London-based architect Asif Khan designed an interactive 3D façade that’s been nicknamed the “Digital Mount Rushmore.” When athletes and fans have their photos taken in special 3D photo booths, the images are translated into 3D models, then animated on the building’s façade. Like superscaled pin art, thousands of narrow cylinders are pushed outward to form the facial landscapes. (Image: Asif Kahn. Technology: iart)

ot so long ago, ambient interactivity was largely the province of the art world, and considered a fringe phenomenon. But the concept of interactivity is changing radically. No longer restricted to the artificial, fixed “interactivity in a box” exemplified by kiosks and display screens, it is becoming more fluid and organic, embedded in a wide range of physical forms—from furniture, objects, and floors to architectural elements and building facades. This new generation of interactivity provides designers a wealth of new creative platforms and offers brands, retailers, and cultural venues almost unlimited opportunities to engage their audiences. The ubiquitousness of sensors in the environment and the rise of natural user interfaces like gesturebased technology have dramatically changed the prospects for ambient interactivity. Although it’s still in its infancy, more extensive experimentation with ambient interactive forms is shaping its development and yielding key insights into the nature of users’ interaction with their environment, information, and knowledge.

The Internet of Things The evolution of ambient technology is closely intertwined with the emergence of the Internet of Things, says Ana Monte, creative director for the interactive technology developer YDreams Brazil. “Touchable surfaces of all kinds of objects will be the next step in ambient interactivity. These surfaces will be combined with biometric recognition and devices controllable by apps to afford highly intelligent and customized environments.” Eli Kuslansky, partner and chief strategist for New Yorkbased Uniﬁed Field, predicts that in the next three to ﬁve years, ambient interactive forms such as responsive environments, embedded technologies, and interactive surfaces will be part of networked ecosystems that integrate multimodal sensors, media, big data, and social media networks into the built environment. “Conversations about these ecosystems won’t be as focused on technology and networks as they’ll be on people networks and resource and knowledge networks. It’s a new paradigm where multiple information and communication channels will be linked intelligently and can be accessed from multiple points of access.” eg magazine — 29

OUT OF THE BOX

A team of students from Sweden’s Hyper Island digital technology school created a prototype interactive window for streetwear brand WeSC. Content was created by online users who chose WeSC “activists” as characters in their videos. The videos were projected inside the store window in stop-action mode until the movements of passing pedestrians triggered the “Activists” into action.

Transforming user interaction Ambient interactivity completely changes the dynamics of user interaction, facilitating more organic, multidimensional interactivity that is more natural to the way people use and manipulate their physical environment. It dispenses with the experience of “staring at a flat computer screen,” says Mark Foster Gage, founder of Mark Foster Gage + Associates (New York) and assistant dean in the Yale University School of Architecture. “It can add a deeper and more responsive element to architecture and content.” It can also keep physical spaces fresh, responsive, and dynamic. For the innovative and “rebellious” brand Diesel, Gage created an architectural strategy that uses robotic screens, reflective surfaces, and social media feeds to create an immersive, techno-industrial space. The physical space is canvas for both Diesel-produced and customer-generated content. Visitors interact with the space and change the content, sound, hue, and color effects in real time via infrared sensors that track their hand movements in front of the screens. Illuminated handrails increase in brightness dramatically where they were touched, using proximity-sensitive film dots. Gage says ambient interactive design allows architects to fine-tune the environments they create, especially by allowing spaces to be programmed to vary by time of day and audience. “It also offers the element of surprise,” he asserts. “Spaces become more comfortable, active, and engaging.”

Architectural scale Marcela Sardi, owner of Sardi Design (Baltimore), sees ambient interactivity in public spaces increasing rapidly in response to the need to make spaces more intelligent and engaging. In some instances, interactivity is embedded at an architectural scale. Working with brand and placemaking consultancy MRA International and a team of content developers, Sardi was responsible for integrating a series of monumental media components into the new Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX. The $40 million Immersive Environmental Media System (IEMS), launched in September 2013, includes seven architecturally scaled digital displays sited to coincide with key points in the passengers’ journey through the terminal. The project uses multimedia content developed by Montreal-based Moment Factory, leveraging its X-Agora content management and software system. Sardi emphasizes the need to place interactive media “judiciously, in direct relation to a point in the visitor’s experience.” At the Tom Bradley terminal, immersive media components are synchronized with speciﬁc points in the passenger journey through the terminal, and often keyed to their destinations (see story, page 22). For ambient interactivity at this scale, says Sardi, “the experience must be natural, invisible, and simply part of the environment.” 30 — eg magazine

Interactives for outdoor window displays must be short and impactful to catch the interest of passersby. For the NIKE House of Innovation at Selfridges in London, Staat Creative Agency created a simple game for Nike’s lunar shoes, challenging passersby to “jump the highest.” Kinect-based motion sensors calculated the height and velocity of each visitor’s jump.

Mark Foster Gage’s architectural concept for the rebel brand Diesel features the store as canvas for a dynamic stream of content, both Diesel- and user-produced. Reﬂective surfaces heighten the drama in the immersive, techno-industrial space.

eg magazine — 31

OUT OF THE BOX

Windows on interactivity Interactive store windows are one of the most vital and popular forms of ambient interactivity, and offer one of the most transparent user interfaces. Marcus Wallander, a digital creative official for Great Works (Stockholm), says interactive windows are potentially powerful tools for retailers because they attract passing customers and are relatively cost efficient compared to other media. Wallander was part of a team that developed a prototype interactive window for streetwear brand WeSC. Content was created by online users who chose WeSC “activists” as characters in their videos and selected visual effects as their backdrops. The videos were projected inside the store window in stop-action mode until the movements of passersby triggered the “Activists” into action, performing daring skateboarding moves, for example, against kaleidoscopic backgrounds. In collaboration with NIKE Brand Design, Staat Creative Agency (Amsterdam) conceived and designed an interactive window for the NIKE House of Innovation at Selfridges in London in June 2013. The window was designed not so much to market certain products, but “to showcase the diversity of NIKE’s products in a nonintrusive way, amplify Nike’s brand image, and immerse people in the NIKE brand experience,” says Martijn Lamabada, Staat partner and creative director. Lambada notes the nature of content for interactive windows and other forms of ambient interactivity depends to a great extent on their location. Content for outdoor interactive windows, designed to catch the eyes of passersby, should be “short and hard hitting.” Content for interior interactive windows can be longer, he concedes, as customers typically spend more time in stores than outside.

Pictures under glass sacrifice all the tactile richness of working with our hands, offering instead a hokey visual facade.

“

”

—BRET VICTOR, FORMER APPLE HUMAN INTERFACE INVENTOR, ON THE FUTURE OF INTERFACE DESIGN

32 — eg magazine

In collaboration with Thinc Design and Urban A&O, Uniﬁed Field developed an immersive interactive environment for GE’s 2012 American Competitiveness event in Washington, D.C. Gesture-based presentations, multi-touch projection tables, and iPad-controlled mediascapes connected key GE job-creation initiatives to their target audience. Designed to spark conversation, the programs allowed visitors to explore GE’s history of innovation and delve into its various businesses, from appliances and aviation to energy management, power and water, and healthcare.

Lyt, created by Second Story using Intel’s Galileo microprocessor board, is a “collaborative lighting ﬁxture” that allows users to control ambient lighting using their mobile phones. Connecting via WiFi, they can draw on it, control its intensity, and adjust the character of the light. Lyt debuted at Maker Faire Rome in 2013. At NOVIY, a hip restaurant and lounge in Moscow, Potion created a suite of interactives including tables, digital wall murals, and the 20-ft.-long “Digital Floorboards,” which shimmer and change color as patrons walk over them.

Interactive surfaces As ambient interactivity evolves, it is spreading to a wide variety of surfaces: walls, ceilings, floors, and multi-touch interactive tables used in museum and retail settings. Companies like Ubi Interactive (Seattle) are marketing off-the-shelf products that turn virtually any surface into an interactive screen. Ubi uses Microsoft Kinect, proprietary software, and projectors to create multi-touch and gesture-based interactive surfaces. Interactive tables have become a popular staple in museums and also show up in retail settings, particularly restaurants and bars. “They are still a novelty, and importantly, they break the one-screen, oneperson limitations of touchscreens,” says Kuslansky. They also create social hubs and in space-constrained exhibition spaces, allow museums to cover a lot more content than traditional interpretive displays. Kuslansky says new developments such as transparent monitors with touch surfaces and flexible materials that respond to pressure are just coming on the market. Embedded and tagged objects like fiducial markers that can be recognized by sensors are becoming more common. In retail settings, he adds, connecting these surfaces to tagging technologies like RFID, near-field communication, and iBeacon will allow businesses to link them to their databases. eg magazine — 33

OUT OF THE BOX Design and technology studio Potion (New York) creates interactive experiences for a wide range of applications, from museums to corporations. For Moscow restaurant and lounge NOVIY, Potion designed a suite of ambient interactive elements including interactive tables, murals, and a 20-foot-long reactive ﬂoor projection that shimmers and changes colors when patrons walk over it. The visual experience happens behind the active participant, so it is best seen by their fellow guests—making the installation as much an event for spectators as it is for the individuals in the spotlight.

Ambient…and everywhere Uniﬁed Field’s Kuslansky believes ambient interactivity will soon begin to surface everywhere, from stores to museums and city streets. In stores, it will take the form of “seamless, participatory shopping experiences connecting all touch points, extending from online to in-store, and linking personalization with customer service and sales with branding.” He believes ambient interactivity is revolutionizing the museum experience by offering greater context for exhibits and extending the bricks-and-mortar experience to encompass the digital realm. For art museums with extensive collections that can’t be displayed due to space and resource constraints, multitouch tables, gesture-based interactive experiences, and mobile apps are great ways to draw from a museum’s broader collection, engage audiences, and generate new revenue streams. In public spaces, the emergence of Big Data will dramatically impact civic and urban planning and ultimately change the way

34 — eg magazine

Ubi Interactive, a Seattle start-up partnered with Microsoft, offers a product that turns virtually any surface into an interactive, multi-touch screen.

public environments look and work, Kuslansky says. “Ambient sensors are everywhere, and are collecting an avalanche of data every millisecond of the day.” Uniﬁed Field has developed a concept called Legible City that provides a means for people to “read the city” in an actionable way. “By providing greater access to big data from cities, sensors, and social networks, for personal use, and to mediate its ﬂow, citizens will have a greater awareness of their environment. Ultimately, the Legible City concept allows cities to leverage these vast storehouses of data to enhance services and improve residents’ quality of life.” Michael Mascioni is a writer, market research consultant, and conference planner in digital media.

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ATLANTA LANTA CONVERGING From its roots as a railroad terminus to its current status as a poster city for urban redevelopment, Atlanta has always been shaped by social, cultural, and historical convergence. Design innovation is part of the mix, too. Here are some noteworthy Atlanta destinations and design projects you’ll have a chance to experience during the 2014 SEGD Conference in Atlanta June 5-7. Come on down and join us!

Piedmont Park Atlanta is called the City of Trees for good reason, and Piedmont Park, the 189-acre urban park a mile northeast of downtown, is its leafy showcase. Fun fact: Atlanta’s ﬁrst professional baseball team, the Atlanta Crackers, played in the park from 1902 to 1904. conference tour

ATLANTA BeltLine The BeltLine is an ambitious and innovative urban redevelopment plan that transforms a loop of old railroad tracks into a 22-mile transit greenway with light-rail and new parks and trails. It’s also providing a powerful economic engine for central Atlanta, connecting and stimulating growth in 45 neighborhoods. So far the BeltLine has generated $1 billion in private investment. The original mind behind the BeltLine is Ryan Gravel, who introduced the idea in his master’s thesis in 1999. He’s now a senior urban designer with Perkins + Will, the ﬁrm hired to envision the BeltLine. (Read the interview with Ryan Gravel, page 64.) conference tour

Ponce City Market A 2 million-square-foot former Sears Roebuck & Co. distribution center will open this fall as Ponce City Market, a mixed-use development including retail, a world-class market hall, Class A office space, and residential ﬂats. It’s on Travel + Leisure’s list of the World’s Coolest New Tourist Attractions even though it hasn’t opened yet. Design360 created environmental graphics and wayﬁnding for the site. (See story, page 48.) conference tour

38 — eg magazine

World of Coca-Cola It all started here in Georgia, when Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton devised the formula that gave the world a Coke and a smile. The World of Coca-Cola in Centennial Park includes iconic façade graphics and tower by Selbert Perkins Design (with fabrication by Design Communications Ltd.), and original exhibits by Jack Rouse Associates. (Photo: Jim Roof Creative)

conference tour

Vault of the Secret Formula More recently, Gallagher & Associates created a new exhibit around the arrival of the Secret Formula to the World of Coca-Cola. Few objects in the world spark an aura of intrigue like the door of a vault, which draws guests into the High Security Zone and through a series of experiences before the dramatic reveal. (Photo: Second Story Interactive) conference tour

Centennial Olympic Park Atlanta Botanical Garden Atlanta ﬁrm Whyte.Kerner designed the comprehensive signage and environmental graphics program for the world-renowned Atlanta Botanical Garden. Signage is minimal, clean, and crisp, never detracting from the beautiful setting. Look for Whyte.Kerner’s unique glass donor element in the visitor center, a colored-glass interpretation of magnolia blossoms. (Photo: Kieran Reynolds Photography) conference tour

The space where the world convened for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games is now a park chock-full of destinations, including the World of Coca-Cola, the soon-to-open College Football Hall of Fame, and the brand new National Center for Civil and Human Rights. conference tour

Jimmy Carter Library and Museum In 2009, Gallagher & Associates completed a $10 million renovation including a new exhibit that explores the former President’s early influences, his presidency, and his continuing humanitarian work. The museum tour traces Carter’s life from his childhood in segregated southwest Georgia, to the nuclear submarine he worked on as a naval officer, to his political career, first as a state senator, then as governor and finally as President. (Photo: Jay Rosenblatt)

conference tour

eg magazine — 39

ATLANTA LANTA CONVERGING HENSE Atlanta-born Alex Brewer, aka HENSE, made his name as a graffiti artist before achieving commercial success as a muralist and ﬁne artist. His supergraphic murals and facades brighten urban landscapes around the world, from Peru to Washington D.C., and of course, his home town. (See more of HENSE’s work on page 54.)

Atlanta Type Walk Type Walk was developed by SEGD member Laura Rossini (now with Collins Cooper Carusi Architects) in 2009 for her senior project at the Art Institute of Atlanta. Walkers see Atlanta’s built environment from a typographic, cultural, and historical viewpoint. The tour starts at the Carnegie Monument (built 1996), which uses columns from the old Atlanta Library, a Carnegie library built in 1901. (Photo: Laura Rossini) conference tour

Maynard H. Jackson Jr. International Terminal at ATL Atlanta is home to both the world’s busiest airport and Delta Airlines. A new international terminal was completed in 2012, providing a new front door and world-class welcome for international passengers ﬂying through Atlanta. Gresham Smith & Partners created a comprehensive wayﬁnding program for a complex set of challenges. Color-Ad Signs and Exhibits fabricated (see story page 42).

Museum of Design Atlanta and the High Museum of Art MODA and “the High” are located conveniently across from each other on Peachtree Street. MODA’s exhibit Design for Social Impact runs through August 3. At the High, enjoy an exhibition of its new print acquisitions through June 15.

40 — eg magazine

COMING ATTRACTIONS “Sweet”Auburn Avenue The Auburn Avenue History & Cultural Information Project focuses on downtown Atlanta’s “Sweet” Auburn Avenue, signiﬁcant for its history as an affluent and entrepreneurial African American neighborhood. Signature Design is working on wayside interpretives as well as enhancement of the I-75/I-85 underpass at Auburn Avenue, a stop on the new streetcar line. Signature has developed three concepts combining graphic murals, signage, lighting, and 3D elements including an augmented reality component in collaboration with Georgia Tech.

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame, opening in late 2014, will join the other attractions in Centennial Olympic Park. The 25,000-sq.-ft. exhibit will provide a shrine for college football fans with media-intensive exhibits designed by Gallagher & Associates. (Image: Gallagher & Associates)

Delta Museum Atlanta is Delta Town, and this summer, a new Delta Flight Museum will open at Delta headquarters at the Hartsﬁeld-Atlanta International Airport. Lorenc + Yoo Design is creating exhibitions that tell the story of how this once small crop-dusting company from Macon, Ga., grew to become the world’s largest airline. The $6 million renovation will refurbish the 1940s-era airplane hanger in which the museum is currently housed. (Image: Lorenc + Yoo)

National Center for Civil and Human Rights The $30 million, 20,000-sq.-ft. center devoted to the history of the civil rights movement will open in mid-2014. Inside the building designed by Freelon Group in collaboration with HOK, Rockwell Group is responsible for media-rich exhibitions. (Image: Rockwell Group)

eg magazine — 41

WORLD-CLASS WELCOME

Project architects embedded intuitive wayfinding elements such as floor patterns, sculptural ceiling forms, and “walk this way” lighting. In the ticketing hall, counters are angled 45 degrees to help guide passengers toward security, and a window on to the airfield helps them get oriented.

When Atlanta opened its new $1.4 billion “global gateway,” the city knew that good wayﬁnding was a critical piece of the passenger experience. Gresham Smith and Partners made the connections. By Pat Matson Knapp 42 — eg magazine

Client City of Atlanta Department of Aviation Location Atlanta Architecture Atlanta Gateway Designers (Gresham Smith and Partners, Duckett Design Group) Environmental Graphic Design Gresham Smith and Partners Design Team Jim Harding director environmental graphics; Tim Rucker, Betty Crawford environmental graphic designers; Wilson Rayﬁeld architectural designer; Julia Rayﬁeld interior designer; David Chesak, Jacob Parker, structural engineers Fabrication Color-Ad Signs and Exhibits primary fabricator, Forms and Surfaces Infonorm Flight Information System Structures, Sun Coast LED interior dynamic display signs, Daktronics LED displays (separate contract) Consultants Big Sky Inc. security and dynamic messaging design and programming Photos Chris Cunningham

Gateway signs for ATL’s new international terminal are 30-ft.-tall aluminum pylons with pushthrough, internally illuminated letterforms. The vertical design was partly inspired by a lack of real estate on the busy interchange. A 20-ft. drop-off directly behind the sign required construction of a retaining wall.

hen it opened its new international terminal in 2012, the world’s busiest airport established its new front door to the world. With a price tag of $1.4 billion, the new Maynard H. Jackson Jr. International Terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) adds 1.2 million square feet and 12 new international gates to accommodate the airport’s growing international traffic. Project architects Atlanta Gateway Designers (a partnership between Gresham Smith and Partners and Duckett Design Group) set out to design a “timeless gateway” that would serve as a stand-alone terminal but also connect with ATL’s existing infrastructure. Making those connections was a complex process that included constructing a tunnel 40 feet underground beneath an active taxiway to link the old international concourse with the new terminal. Just as challenging was the task of guiding more than 10 million annual international passengers to their desired locations in the new Concourse F and beyond to the rest of the airport, says Jorge Cortes, Assistant Director of Design, Planning & Development for the City of Atlanta Department of Aviation. “This facility had complex connectivity challenges, and our focus was on ensuring that our directional signs were placed at the correct decision points and that they provided clear, concise, and consistent information to optimize and ease the movement of passengers,” Cortes explains. GS&P’s Environmental Graphic Design Group was tasked with designing a comprehensive signage and wayfinding program that encompasses roadway signage, entry pylons, parking garages, curbside, terminal wayfinding, gates, code-compliant ADA signage, baggage information systems, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection areas. Color-Ad Signs and Exhibits, a Virginiabased firm specializing in large-volume turnkey projects, handled the massive fabrication, installation, and coordination aspects of an endeavor that cost $5.5 million (fabrication and installation) and included more than 8,000 signs. Minimal, unified, and clear

Working closely with the architects allowed the environmental graphic design team to provide a unified look and feel for the signage as well as seamless connections between the new and existing airport infrastructure. Project architects also understood the importance of intuitive wayfinding, says Jim Harding, GS&P’s director of environmental graphics. “So the architecture itself addresses some basic passenger circulation issues without being reliant on signage. That allowed us to take a minimal approach.” The terminal’s check-in area is a prime example. As passengers first walk in the door, floor patterning and ceiling forms guide them toward common check-in counters, angled 45 degrees to instinctively move traffic toward the security checkpoint. Large windows overlook the airfield, the view helping to pull passengers in the right direction. Lighting provides a bright, “walk-this-way” reinforcement. “Our philosophy is that if you had the perfect building, you wouldn’t need any signs,” says Harding. “But in a 1.2 million square foot airport terminal, it’s pretty hard to pull that off.” Where signage is necessary, it’s clean and minimal. The signature design feature is a curved fin shape that complements the building’s soaring architecture. The fins appear throughout the signage program, from overhead, truss-mounted roadway signs to identification pylons and interior directionals and even dynamic signage elements. eg magazine — 43

WORLD-CLASS WELCOME “From visitors’ first point of contact with the wayfinding system, we wanted to introduce the aesthetic of the terminal itself,” says Tim Rucker, environmental graphic designer for GS&P. So the sign panels mounted on standard DOT truss structures introduce the architectural curves of the new terminal and their custom vertical post supports draw inspiration from the architecture as well, with an aluminum-composite skin that mimics the tapered columns at the departures curbside. The terminal’s gateway signs also echo the fin shape in a pair of soaring, 30-ft.-tall aluminum pylons with push-through, internally illuminated letterforms. The pylons also recall the shape of the tapered columns appearing in the terminal architecture. Inside, a post-and-triangulartruss structure similar to the roadway signage appears on a smaller scale for informational kiosks and digital airport directories. The interior sign system features the fin shape on stand-off acrylic sign panels, an economical and flexible design choice that creates a three-dimensional look that is also light and airy in sync with the terminal design. Making connections

The new terminal’s sheer physical scale and traffic volume, combined with necessary connections between the existing airport and new terminal, resulted in a complex scope for the signage program, says Harding. “It took a lot of coordination with a large stakeholder group,” he explains. “We’d be in a room with 30 people, all representing different points of view about the airport and how signage could serve their needs. We had to work through that in a way that ultimately best served the passengers.” The wayﬁnding challenges started on the interstate highway system, where new exits were constructed off I-75 and I-85 to direct passengers to either the domestic or international terminal. “We had to develop an entirely new wayﬁnding system once people got off the interstate exit to guide them to the new international terminal,” adds Rucker. 44 — eg magazine

Check-in counters are common-use, so electronic curbside displays (by Daktronics) show passengers which door they should enter for their airline.

Color-coded supergraphic help passengers remember their location in the ﬁvelevel parking garage and reinforce the international theme.

The biggest wayﬁnding challenge, says Cortes, was that international passengers arrive at the airport one of two ways: either through existing international gates at Concourse E in the domestic terminal, or through the new international terminal. “Connecting passengers arriving at Concourse E are processed through Passport Control at this concourse. However, terminating (Atlanta-bound) passengers are directed through a sterile corridor and are processed through our new Passport Control at Concourse F,” Cortes explains. Getting them through U.S. Customs and Border Protection and on to Passport Control and baggage claim from these multiple origination points required a very well planned and complex system of breadcrumbs. The matter was complicated even further by the need to provide information in multiple languages. The airport decided it did not want to produce unwieldy, multiple-language static signs but instead relied on dynamic displays that can be programmed in multiple languages as needed. For example, beginning in the sterile corridors as passengers deplane and exit the jet bridges, digital signs alternate between English and the language of the originating ﬂight. Passengers see the same information repeatedly until they get to Passport Control. Static signage was initially planned to be English-only, but just before the airport opened, Delta issued a worldwide directive that signage at all of their major hubs would incorporate English and Spanish. That required some major scrambling for the team, including fabricator Color-Ad, which had a substantial portion of the program already installed.

Where ceiling-hung directionals weren’t appropriate, GS&P designed freestanding aluminum pylons with a modiﬁed ﬁn design at top and sturdy stainless-steel bumpers at bottom. Color-Ad Signs and Exhibits was the project fabricator.

Ceiling-hung directionals are acrylic with vinyl lettering, an economical, ﬂexible choice that also creates a light and airy appearance in the terminal. The curved ﬁn shape appears throughout the system.

eg magazine — 45

“This created some huge challenges, as in some cases the sign panel and supports had to be made larger to accommodate the additional messaging,” says Michael Taylor, Color-Ad’s project manager. “Some of the supports had to be modified by entering the completed ceiling line.” Fitting the changes into the already-tight schedule required extensive coordination between Color-Ad, the client, the design team, and project coordinator Holder, Manhattan, Moody, and Hunt, to ensure the design intent could still be honored. Integration with the more than 100 contractors on the huge site and interfacing with the client were also key to the project’s success, says Christopher Smith, vice president of business development for Color-Ad. “This enabled us to provide customer-centric solutions for numerous on-the-spot changes that could have hindered progress.” An additional $400,000 of fast-paced work for the long-term parking garage also had to be fit into the existing fabrication schedule. Other issues included a complex set of directionals for passengers on pre-cleared flights; these passengers are waived from the Customs and Border Protection segment of their journey, so they need to be steered toward the domestic terminal, where they pick up their baggage. “It’s a circuitous route, from the arrivals level down to the grand hall, down a level and around their elbow,” laughs Harding. The solution required providing directions to both

domestic and international baggage claim at key decision points. Passengers are then sorted at the arrivals level and directed by signage to the appropriate destination. “This was just one example of the many complex wayﬁnding issues that arose.” Almost home

In spite of the added requirement for bi-lingual signage and a 25% budget cut midway through the project due to changing economic conditions (the overall terminal budget was cut by $400 million), GS&P and Color-Ad managed to bring the signage program in on time and within budget. The airport is happy with the experience it’s providing passengers, and Harding has gathered his own feedback. He often flies through the airport himself, and shortly after it opened, spoke with a well-traveled couple from Budapest who said it was the best airport experience they’d ever had. On the other end of the passenger experience spectrum, after traveling on her first flight ever, his niece also declared the experience “very easy.” “The project goal was to create a world-class travel experience for international passengers, and I think we accomplished that,” says Harding. In 2013, international passenger traffic exceeded 10 million, and Cortes says ATL’s job now is to monitor the ongoing effectiveness of the wayfinding program, “to ensure it continues to provide optimum passenger movement through our facility.”

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The new identity signage will recall the original Sears Roebuck signage atop the building.

PONCE UPON A TIME Ponce City Market will resurrect a storied Sears Roebuck & Co. building and create a vibrant urban centerpiece for Atlanta. Environmental graphics and signage will help tell its story. By Pat Matson Knapp

48 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; eg magazine

“Just off the BeltLine—Atlanta’s network of trails and parks that follow former rail lines—a $250 million redevelopment is turning a massive Sears, Roebuck & Co. into a multiuse beacon of regenerative cool.”—Travel + Leisure magazine

Jamestown hopes Ponce City Market’s central food hall will rival great food halls such as Pike Street Market in Seattle, Chelsea Market in New York, and Quincy Market in Boston. Steel beams and trestle details evoke the railroad tracks that criss-crossed the site, bringing goods in and out of the old Sears distribution center.

Ponce City Market will open in fall 2014 in the 2.1 million square foot former Sears Roebuck & Co. distribution center in Atlanta.

WHEN Travel + Leisure magazine recently released its list of the World’s Coolest New Tourist Attractions, Atlanta’s Ponce City Market made the list even though it’s still under construction. When it opens this fall in the 10-story, 2.1 million-square-foot former Sears distribution center—the largest brick building in the Southeastern U.S.—Ponce City Market will encompass 330,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, 475,000 square feet of Class A office space, and 259 residential ﬂats. Its focal point is a Central Food Hall that developer Jamestown hopes will rival the great food halls in other U.S. cities: Pike Street Market in Seattle, Quincy Market in Boston, and Chelsea Market in New York. Add a rooftop garden with mini-golf and an amusement park and a BeltLine-accessible outdoor bar made from a repurposed boxcar, and the cool factor keeps multiplying.

The development is also driving major urban revitalization on Atlanta’s east side, connecting the Old Fourth Ward, Virginia Highland, Poncey-Highland, Inman Park, and Midtown neighborhoods and providing a powerful economic engine for the area. Hometown developer Jamestown, which purchased the building from the City of Atlanta for $27 million in 2011, has fashioned Ponce City Market after its Chelsea Market project in New York, but with a uniquely Atlanta twist. Most Atlantans have fond memories of the old Sears building, and Jamestown’s goal is to bring those stories to life and at the same time, create a modern, eclectic, walkable urban experience in the heart of the city. “There is only one building like this, only one place with this story and this heritage,” says Jim Irwin, Jamestown’s senior vice president and director of the project. “When we bought the building, it had been lost in plain sight for 20 years. It’s a lot of fun reawakening Atlanta to it.”

eg magazine — 49

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Placeholder Printed Directory by Jamestown 36” by 24” poster

Market Hall The Lawn

Storytelling with graphics From its experience at Chelsea Market and similar heritage projects, Jamestown knew the role that environmental graphics can play in telling the story of a special place. So Irwin called on Design360 (New York), which had added compelling graphic and wayfinding interventions at Chelsea Market. “They really understand the role of materiality and color and character in telling the story of a place like this,” says Irwin. “They know when to make a statement and when to let the building breathe. Just like at Chelsea, at Ponce City Market they’re making big punches with color and graphics in key areas. And in other areas, graphics take more of a back seat.” Irwin believes the “trifecta” of a good environmental graphics program is playfulness, utility, and materiality. For Ponce City Market, that translates in some key ways, says Jill Ayers, Design360 president and creative director. “Setting a warm, friendly, and slightly whimsical tone was really important as we developed the graphics and signage package—and particularly the wayfinding system,” she explains. Getting them there The scope of the signage program is vast, from exterior and interior wayfinding to iconic identification elements and ADA and base building signage. But the first order of business is getting people from the surrounding roadways into the parking garage. Atlantans are accustomed to the abundance of surface parking lots, but parking at the Ponce City Market site happens under the building. Persuading them to go against instinct and park underground is a challenge, says Ayers. “You’ve got quite a mix of people who will be coming into the site: people who work here, live here, or who are just here to shop or eat out. A huge task was identifying the major entryways to the site and creating easy paths for people to follow. We want to make sure people have a good experience getting to parking.” So Ayers and her team designed colorful, fun guideposts to get them there. Retro exterior signage (including some modern-day interpretations of signs previously on the site) is combined with directionals, lollipop signs, and once inside the garage, a system of color-coded supergraphics on garage ramp walls, on support beams, and in stairwells. “The goal was to make it fun, easy, and available,” says Ayers.

Retail pylons that will be found throughout the site were inspired by a market vernacular and recall stacked shipping crates. Reinforced with raw steel, the modular system will accommodate directionals, tenant directories, and promotional information.

Exterior wayﬁnding signage will be built of raw steel and will incorporate the Ponce City market identity created by Jamestown.

FLATS OFFICE SHOPS MARKET

Tenant Name

Side A

50 — eg magazine

Placeholder Promotional Poster 18” by 24” by Jamestown

Side B

Modern heritage Jamestown and Design360 agreed that while itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to evoke the feeling of what once was on the site, being a slave to the past was not on the agenda. So colors, materials, and forms have a retro feeling, but with a clean, contemporary attitude. The color palette starts out â&#x20AC;&#x153;almost primary,â&#x20AC;? says Ayers, but turns retro quickly, inspired by the color palettes that Sears Roebuck & Co. offered to customers in the 1930s and 40s. Typefaces were chosen to support the story, but also to work for marketing and collateral materials that Jamestown produces. They include League Gothic and Forza from the HoeďŹ&#x201A;er & Frere-Jones type foundry. The siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main identity signage harkens to the past: 16-foot-tall reverse channel letters marching almost 125 feet along the rooftop of the massive building. A painted sign on the brick faĂ§ade at ground level echoes the look and harkens to the painted signs of the past. Signage materials were inspired by the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s warehouse aesthetic and by the railroad tracks that led to the Sears distribution center in its heyday, as well as by a market vernacular. Exterior signs will be constructed of raw and corrugated steel, and steel will also be used as accents and reinforcements for indoor signs. Inside, retail pylons that will be found throughout the site recall old Sears shipping crates, but offer a sophisticated modularity that allows space for directional information, the Ponce City market identity created by Jamestown, and promotional information. Jamestown has spent a lot of effort harvesting old equipment and Sears products from the site, and plans to incorporate them into public art. Owned by the City of Atlanta for two decades and used as an outpost for city hall, the building was never fully utilized and tons of old equipment sat idle, waiting to be resurrected, says Irwin. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The City in many ways did us a favor by never expanding into the building,â&#x20AC;? says Irwin. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was full of old equipment like metal scales, sinks and water fountains, old catalogs and toolsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;all kinds of treasure that can be used now. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re working with local sculptors to create some amazing art to spread around the site.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;They really wanted to preserve and communicate the historic ďŹ&#x201A;avor of what had happened on the site, so we refer to that era in subtle ways,â&#x20AC;? says Ayers. There is very little illuminated signage, and no ďŹ&#x201A;ashing signs or LEDs or billboards. They wanted everything to be in keeping with the historical context of the site.â&#x20AC;? Irwin says Ponce City Market ďŹ&#x201A;ies in the face of what he calls todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;plague of sameness.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;You can go to a grocery store or mall in Seattle and one in Florida and not know the difference. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re all tired of that. People are always going to be interested in places like thisâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;places that have authenticity and character and a real sense of permanence.â&#x20AC;?

Some of the signs designed by Design360 were directly inspired by signs on the site during Searsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; heyday.

Guiding Atlantans to the siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s underground parking will be a key challenge. Design360 is creating â&#x20AC;&#x153;fun and friendlyâ&#x20AC;? guideposts including retro signs, lollipops, and bold typographic murals.

PARK HERE

CITY MARKET EST. 2014

eg magazine â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 51

INSPIRATION (54)

HENSE the Name The graffiti writer and ďŹ ne artist makes his home in Atlanta, but makes his mark around the globe. (60)

Sketchbook To Andreas Uebele, drawing is a precise and poetic language. (64)

Up Close Ryan Gravel was a grad student when he dreamt up the idea that became Atlantaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s BeltLine.

SECTION TITLE

HENSE the Name

Atlanta artist Alex Brewer combines ďŹ ne art, graffiti, and a graphic sensibility in his city-scaled murals.

54 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; eg magazine

HENSE, aka Alex Brewer, made his name as a graffiti artist and now works as a fine artist and urban muralist, combining the technique and vocabulary of graffiti with the formal technique of abstract painting. He has been commissioned to paint on buildings, highway supports, and reclaimed spaces in cities around the world. He lives and works in Atlanta and will be a featured speaker at the 2014 SEGD Conference: Convergence in Atlanta June 5-7. HENSE took a few minutes recently to speak with eg magazine. When did you first know you wanted to be an artist? I’ve been creating drawings and paintings since I was very young. I was exposed to creativity early on through my parents. They both had a background in interior design and architecture, which led me to have a strong interest in the creative fields. When I was young I always enjoyed visiting museums and seeing paintings and drawings as well as sculptures. I think those early sources of inspiration contributed to me wanting to be creative.

How did you get into street art and what was your first tag? I discovered graffiti in 1992. My first tag was “Stoop,” which is pretty hilarious to think about now. I starting writing “Hense” maybe a year later in 1993 and stuck with that throughout the years. I liked the letter combination and they way they flowed. I also liked that it had a real meaning and wasn’t just an arbitrary word. I worked on my letters and mastering the use of spray paint by painting abandoned buildings in Atlanta for several years. I also worked on paintings in my studio as well during those years working as a graffiti artist.

HENSE’s garage project for Bedrock Real Estate Services in Detroit was organized by Library Street Collective Gallery. (Photo: Sal Rodriguez)

How did your work transition from the streets to the studio and then to paid commissions? From 1992 on I threw myself into the world of working outdoors and on multiple surfaces. I studied art at Virginia Commonwealth University brieﬂy and dropped out to pursue my work in the street. In 2000 I got a job working at an art publishing company that had an inhouse art studio full of all the materials I would need to experiment in creating work. I worked for the company

eg magazine — 55

HENSE Is also a successful gallery artist. In 2013, he was selected to create a sitespeciﬁc Installation at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. (Photo: Steve Cole)

for several years developing works for them and for myself, while simultaneously going out to paint the streets at night. I learned about scale and working outdoors through street work and I learned about painting and developing my studio practice by working with the company. I always took on my own projects or exhibitions on the side and got to a point of being really busy with my work to shift focus entirely on my studio and commissions. I currently split my time traveling for public art projects and working in my studio. I like to keep a good balance of studio time creating new work and being outdoors working on projects. Your outdoor work in particular is often quite graphic. What are your inﬂuences? I draw inspiration from a lot of different sources. I look at contemporary painters working today, modernism, post modernism, abstract expressionism, and minimalism as well as graffiti culture. Graphic design, interior design, and architecture are also huge sources of inspiration. What do you feel work like yours adds to the urban environment? I like to consider the architecture and context in which my work will be viewed. I think public art in many forms can be a great addition to public space in an urban setting. My work explores relationships between shapes, forms, and color as well as spontaneous mark-making and line quality. I’m interested in how these elements relate to each other, 56 — eg magazine

but also in how they can interact with the architecture in a public environment. I also enjoy my work being viewed outside of the “white cube” gallery setting. I get similar satisfaction creating a public work as I do exhibiting a body of work in a gallery. In fact, I tend to lean toward works in public space as my form of exhibiting. I’m also currently exploring spatially interactive sculptures and installations using hand-cut wood shapes and cinder blocks. What are you working on now? I’m currently working in the studio on a new series of screen prints on paper and paintings on wood. The screen prints are monoprints, all unique and original works on paper. Not one print is identical. I’ve also created editions but these monoprints are really just works on paper exploring new shapes and elements as well as color combinations. I’ll draw my designs on transparency paper in black ink or acrylic and use those to burn screens. I’ll have multiple screens to select from while working. I’ll decide what to use next after I print an element. Sometimes these pieces get to a ﬁnished state quickly and other times they take a while to complete. I’m also working on new paintings and continuing to explore mark-making and scale. Right now I’m cutting large shapes out of plywood and creating sculptures with them and I’m also stacking painted cinderblocks in public spaces.

What are your favorite recent projects and why? I really enjoyed my mural in Lima, Peru, and the church I painted in Washington, D.C. These have been two stand-out projects because the scale and location of both were very dynamic—and challenging. What would your ideal project be? Probably an installation and exhibition at a major museum or institution. What inspires you in general? I’m generally inspired by other contemporary artists working today as well as design, web, fashion, modernism, painting, architecture, and travel. I’d say that creativity in general really inspires me daily. I wake up every morning wanting to be creative. What’s it like living in and working out of Atlanta? Is that a barrier or an advantage? I love having my studio in Atlanta. I can keep studio and business costs reasonable and travel whenever I need to for projects or vacation. Atlanta is growing within the arts and we have some great artists working here now, so it’s been an exciting place to be a part of. Where can we see your work in Atlanta? I have several public art pieces in the city—South Broad Street in downtown Atlanta, Arizona Avenue, and the new Fay Gold Gallery / WestSide Cultural Arts Center in Midtown West to name a few.

In 2012, HENSE was commissioned to transform an abandoned church in Washington, D.C., into an art installation. The mural is located in a burgeoning arts district. (Photos: HENSE and Miguel Martinez)

HENSE’s 2013 public mural on the façade of the ISIL Institute in Lima, Peru, was his largest work to date, measuring 137 ft. tall and 170 ft. wide. He worked with a crew of 10 locals to complete it. (Photo: HENSE)

“I get similar satisfaction creating a public work as I do exhibiting a body of work in a gallery. In fact, I tend to lean toward works in public space as my form of exhibiting.

”

eg magazine — 57

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Andreas Uebele Büro Uebele Visuelle kommunikation gmbh The hand guides the pencil, discovers how its pressure on the paper changes the line. It feels the paper’s resistance, senses if it is rough or smooth. It notices that the pencil responds like a musical instrument when you change angle and speed. It understands: drawing is not an unreﬂective, casual activity. It is a controlled process— full of attentiveness, with a concrete intention. The eye sees the line, sends a signal to the hand. A closed loop is created, generating understanding: now the hand knows if the line is straight or curved, heavy or weak. Drawing by hand is an unmediated physical experience, a craft. It sharpens the feeling for form, it reﬁnes the judgement. Drawing is a beautiful discipline and a precise language for the designer.

Sketches and ﬁnal layouts for the visual magazine Vorn

60 — eg magazine

“ Drawing by hand is an unmediated physical experience, a craft.”

Hospitals can be scary, cold, and clinical places. At Offenbach Hospital, bursts of color create bright spots. Each destination has a color and pattern assigned. Early sketches and drawing are shown above; the fabricated structure (below) features slim aluminum proﬁles that ﬁt seamlessly into a subframe, allowing easy updating.

eg magazine — 61

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eg magazine — 63

UP CLOSE The Atlanta BeltLine is transforming underutilized railroad infrastructure into a new way of urban living.

Ryan Gravel The Mind Behind the Atlanta BeltLine Ryan Gravel was a Georgia Tech graduate student in architecture and city planning in 1999 when he envisioned an innovative urban redevelopment plan that would transform a loop of underutilized railroad tracks encircling Atlanta into a 22-mile transit greenway with light-rail and new parks and trails. He’s spent the past 15 years working to make the BeltLine a reality. What was your inspiration? I was fascinated with the connection between the infrastructure we build and our way of life. The old streetcars in Atlanta came out of downtown and built the neighborhoods. The interstate highway created a different kind of growth pattern, cutting the neighborhoods off from each other. So how do you design a system that revitalizes innercity neighborhoods with walkable districts and transit? Atlanta is a railroad town. A lot of the old tracks are still in use, but there is a unique loop circling the city that was underutilized. My graduate thesis was to repurpose these 64 — eg magazine

corridors with transit and economic development, redevelop all the land around them, and revitalize the streetcar neighborhoods along the route. How did your idea come to life? After graduating, I worked for an architectural ﬁrm that does urban mixed-use projects, repurposing old sites for retail and housing. I told my coworkers about my idea and they thought it was cool. We got together and sent some letters to people, including Cathy Woolard, who was on city council. She was excited about the idea of transit projects geared toward people in the city—people who are more likely to want it, ride it, and pay for it. She hosted some town hall meetings and people fell in love with the idea. For three years we talked to every Rotary club, business group, church, or school that wanted to hear about it. We created this amazing grassroots movement that translated into political support from council and the mayor’s office. Soon, we had

volunteers in the hundreds. People not only embraced the idea, but owned it and sold it to their neighbors and friends. They fought for it. Trace your own BeltLine path for us. I volunteered for four years building support for the project, then started Friends of the BeltLine and worked full-time there for one year. It merged with BeltLine Partnership, where I worked for another year. After that, I worked with the city as part of a planning team for about six months before joining Perkins and Will, where I’ve been for six years now. I’m still focused on the project. And I ride my bike to work every day on the BeltLine. What is the status of the project right now? About four miles of the mainline corridor are done. Four trail segments are open, four new or renovated parks are open, and new affordable housing has been ﬁnished. Running and art programs are already in place. Over the life of the project, 22 miles of pedestrian-friendly rail transit will be built, as well

as 33 miles of multi-use trails, 1,300 acres of parks, 5,600 units of affordable housing, and 1,100 acres of remediated brownﬁelds, along with public art and historic preservation projects. The BeltLine has already generated $1 billion in private investment since 2005. What has been the most exciting aspect of bringing the BeltLine to life? The way that it is not only changing the physical form of the city, but the way people feel about their city. The Eastside Trail is open and on a sunny Saturday afternoon, it’s jam-packed. The cars parked on the street are from outside the county, so it’s really inspiring people to come to Atlanta again. The city will be a completely different place in 20 years, a more sustainable and healthy place. It’s exciting to be a part of that.

NO. 08, 2014

eg EXPERIENTIAL GRAPHICS MAGAZINE

Los Angeles International Airport’s (LAX) Tom Bradley International Terminal Integrated Environmental Media System

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ATLANTA ARTIST

HENSE

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SKETCHBOOK ANDREAS UEBELE

ATLANTA CONVERGING