"Boundless creativity, Limitless imagination"

Walt Disney once said, “When we consider a new project, we really study it; not just the surface idea, but everything about it. And when we go into that new project, we believe in it all the way. We have confidence in our ability to do it right. And we work hard to do the best possible job.”

For the designer, story telling for the guest experience means interpreting the story with the visual representation that best tells the story. This is an environmental art form. It is the process of putting together visual environments based on a story (theme) to whisk people away to “suspend the disbelief” and to satisfy the need to be entertained and distracted from their daily cares. All thematic designs originate with a story. The story is the glue that holds the design together. It is the key to continuity and maintaining a crystal clear focus for the project and everyone involved.


 With in the story, the attraction or experience is planned out in a series of thoughts; How do does the guest enter? Is there a pre-show? What is the first thing they see? What do they hear, smell, and feel? What emotions will be evoked? What comes next? How does the experience end? The story can be based on fact or fiction, on the real world, or on fantasy worlds created or as of yet to be created. The environments could be the interiors or exteriors of theme parks, science centers, museums, casinos, shows, retail stores, malls, theatre, movie theaters and more. It is the combination of creativity and the use of imagination that tells the story through the themed design, from the oversized to the miniscule, which amazes and entertains us.

Creativity in design is how cleverly the resources are applied with new concepts. Curiosity and brainstorming Thus, enabling enables the designer to dream up whole entirely new approaches to tell the history, or a "back-story", a new story or a style of design based on a time period. One of my most favorite designs was a time period coffee house named "@JAVA" that was based on "Googie" (a fifties style of architecture used in public spaces).


 These “blue sky” concepts are really based upon experiences and a vast collection of knowledge derived from research and development. Research and development means collecting references and resources and creating renderings and story boards that set the stage and assist the process of designing to insure accuracy, quality, and flow of the story or theme of the project..

Thematic designers are in essence the designers of the experience. And They are considered “The man behind the curtain”, the hidden magicians behind the scenes, the creators of the “big ideas”, engineering dreams and imaginings that come out of the blue sky into reality. These “blue sky” concepts are really based upon experiences and a vast collection of knowledge derived from research and development. Research and development means collecting references and resources and creating renderings and story boards that set the stage and assist the process of designing to insure accuracy, quality, and flow of the story or theme of the project.


 Experiential designing involves the placement of all the elements into a pre-existing space or in a new space created functionality and flow in which to place the elements of the story to be told. When all of the planning and design is completed, all of the thread elements are woven into the environment that maintains the integrity and functionality the overall story design like patterns sewn into a quilt. Entertainment design also embodies the cooperative process of concept, story or script approval, and technical expertise, show elements and the simple belief shared by all participants of the overall project or show. Larger scale themed developments require the cooperation of a vast number of expert contributors to translate imaginative concepts to turnstile reality.


 In the world of designing theme parks, event venues and exhibitions whether modular or permanent, all start with the concept and story Without a clear understanding, laid out on paper, the process and chorography from concept to the opening festivities can be an agonizing defeat. At that point, it would be playing catch up from there with many extra costs included.


 Once the story is solidified, the actual process of design begins. Each design is developed with several essential elements considered; such as the quality of the finished look, fabrication friendliness, end-user maintenance, and overall cost. The applied arts, such as set and prop fabrication, scenic arts, lighting, sound, and special effects that enhance the atmosphere and set the mood are other elements that a designer uses to create a world in which the story takes place.


 As the project is under way, the designer dons the hard hat and lives it! As the construction enters the final run, the designer is there for the finishing touches from graphics, and placement of props to adjusting the lighting. This can be right up to the opening hours and minutes. This is a reality in experiential designing, due to changes that can and will occur in the developmental stages of the project. Designers sometimes have to make “on the fly” decisions that can be brilliant solutions that speed the process along because they are already so entrenched in the storyline of the project.

Over the years with in Theme parks I have worked as a "hybrid" Designer on exterior architecture, retail store interiors, tradeshows, superhero stunt-shows, events and newly developed properties. Some were major park wide expansion projects nation wide and in Europe.

I have worked as a "hired gun" Creative Director, Project Coordinator with in my own theme fabrication facilities developing for Disney-trade show interactive, Six Flags Theme Parks, and Braves Turner Field, Atlanta Motor Speed Way and Coca Cola events and work with other major brand entities.

MISSION STATEMENT


 As a (story interpreting) designer, my goals goal and mission is to produce the most creative and impacting imagery solutions that can be dreamed up for the guest experience, while holding true to the historic accuracy of the story line. This is accomplished through the process of conceptual designing, developmental designing, and master planning into production readiness, and keeping the project on target through project creative direction. While employing diverse resources throughout the production phase of the project, I work hand in hand with fabrication facilities to meet goals, keeping in mind budgets and deadlines as major factors, without losing the integrity and quality of the original concept. I strive to achieve exceptional output for all of the projects that I am a part of as well as being a part of the team.


 It was best said by Walt Disney “All I want you to think about is when people walk through or have access to any thing you design, I want them when they leave, to have smiles on their faces. Just remember that. It’s all I ask of you as a designer.”

Very best,

Matt

"A designer of the thematic guests experience"

404 597 7372

expdesigner.com

Themed Attraction Retail Branding

There is a quote from Joe Boxer that states "The brand is the amusement park, the product is the souvenir".

Brand marketing is the driving force to get the product out to the audience or bring the masses to the product at the point of purchase sales with consistency and repetition. This article explores the growing importance of place and the brand experience in creating brand loyalty with an emphasis on the newer generations that demand "more stimulus and less nonsense.” The object to designing themed branded experiences is to capture a moment in time to "create a guest experience where the"brand becomes a truth" for the guest" - YAMA MOTO-MOSS. No matter what the story is. All of it is about the guest and their memory of the experience and what it means to them. This understanding can enable visualization in the design for future guest experiences too.

It is important to distinguish between corporate identity, brand identity, and brand image and a brand experience. Clarity promotes power. It enhances understanding and removes doubt. It transcends clutter and confusion. “brand clarity” is getting down to the essence of what your company represents. Corporate identity is concerned with the visual aspects of a company's presence. Brands do have to maintain a modern look to reassure consumers. The visual identity needs to change over time. But the key to successfully creating a new look is “evolution, not revolution”. If the intention is to substantially improve the standing of the brand, then corporate identity changes can be accompanied by widespread changes to organizational culture, quality, and service standards. If done well, and if consumers experience a great new or improved brand, then the changes will, over the longer term, have a positive effect on brand image as well. Corporate branding and identity development are one of the most important investments a company can make. A brand is a proprietary visual, emotional, and cultural image surrounding a company or its products.

Brand identity is the total proposition that a company makes to consumers. The brand is one of the most comprehensive and valuable elements of a company. It is the driving force behind your business and should be continually influenced by your company. Transported by an outstanding corporate design, an integrated brand identity system enables companies and their products to project their level of quality, reliability and value in the market in an influential way. Putting this idea into action is brand strategy. Everyone knows the fact that brand promotion is the ultimate goal of every company. While the brand strategy defines the message and mission of the brand, which may be a company, product or service, and how it should be perceived, the brand identity translates the strategic vision into a consistent image. As a tangible concept that can be accessed through the brand name, corporate identity, and the verbal positioning, the brand can be viewed as a product, a personality, a set of values, and a position. It occupies in people's minds. Brand identity is everything the company wants the brand to be seen as.

Brand image what the consumer perceptions is about the brand overall. Companies have to work hard on the consumer experience to make sure that what customers see and think is what they want them to. Branding is the process of creating and spreading the brand name. It can be applied to the entire corporate identity as well as to individual product and services. When the whole equals more than the sum of its parts, is when you can harness the collective knowledge and skills of two valuable groups, design and marketing, and achieve success greater than if they had been working individually.

Effective utilization of design, is a powerful tool for connecting the customer/user with products or services. It has now become imperative, and success simply won’t occur unless fusion with the right marketing strategy and program occurs with awesome design. In many organizations, these resource groups still work apart, missing opportunities to successfully work together. Design and marketing both have expertise in understanding customers/users. These perspectives are unique, yet equally important, and can provide breakthrough results when integrated as a team deciphering trends and creating concepts.

Consumer interaction has many forms in today's economy and is shifted by trends. That is why future-thinking industries and brand corporations are paying close attention to the overall brand experience they offer customers and the trends that are occurring in the industry of design. While many firms are just venturing into the experience strategy and design realm. What we are talking about is the purchasing and leisure experience that combines our need for social gathering in the traditional market place and the drive of pleasure seeking. The commercial elements of this experience are composed of corporate retail, food and attractions that stimulate the senses.

Another trend in themed retail is "Gamification". It is the use of game design, techniques and mechanics to increase user engagement and to drive action, is gaining fast momentum in the retail industry based upon the new generations of technology and user interphase. The growth in this sector has reached around $100 million, and is expected to reach around $3 billion by 2016, according to M2 Research. It's kinda like the movie Minority Report where you interact with the retail environment and it recognizes You by a key devise. I had designed a prototype hand held devise to be presented to Simon Malls.

A good entertainment retail project is definitely not just about the decorating of a retail space. It is resolidifying the story experience. In the past, they used to plaster the wall with surface graphic treatments and call it a themed environment. Today's shoppers are much more sophisticated. They are looking for a "total immersed experience" and something that is authentic to the story they love or brand that makes them look hot! The graphics and theme we create today in a mall is much more three-dimensional and interactive utilizing 4D experiences. It has to engage the shoppers and increase the length of stay.

From the movies to the theme parks, being constant in the way the branding is applied in repetition and consistent in the promise to the customer is the "better bang for the buck" for all in the long run. Here, it is said, "the brand is the promise". But now the brand has to be "truth" and meaningful as people are spending more on shared experiences. To be in the story line of themed environs mentally and physically is why my nephews and nieces wanted to be on the ride or hug Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny and wear Dr. Seuss hats for the "meaningful memory" of the experience! The price of "that" moment is worth it to see their faces light up! It is kind of like peoples reactions to the decorated windows in NY City at Christmas. Brand marketers know this and want the payoff of the "take home" through point of purchase sales in the branded souvenir. We as experiential designers are to work along side them and figure out how to create the world that this takes place in.

At the International Association of Amusement parks and Attractions (IAAPA) , I attended a forum on "future concepts in themed experiences" given by the Themed Entertainment Association. MTV brand marketing directors were giving the analysis of the teen consumers given to them by cultural analysis groups. The statistics were nothing less than staggering! Each generation of teens has their own trends and the brand marketers follow these shifts in supply and demand and improvise creatively to match the theme or cultural "identity swing". Each generation are yesterdays - tomorrow's consumers and, they have a vast impact on the designs of tomorrow's destinations. The last two, Gen-X and Gen-Y, have more of a comfort level than ever before with technology.

Home computers were just a portal of what's to come. Brand marketers know this and have to market commercially for the "point of purchase" in retail destinations. And they are all ready studying the next generation to "surf " future product design, functions and retail strategies. That’s where designers come in to meet the strategists who explain the sale approach. By getting the concept storyline down, the designer is enabled to create based on the product and accessories that go with it.

These retail locations are in theme parks, museums, malls, zoo's, theaters, hotel resort destinations, and restaurants. I was a part of this at Looney Tunes Expo at Six Flags in Atlanta Ga., I was a part of a super cool team where we won first place in the "Red Hot Gold Awards" at IAAPA in Dallas, Texas 1998. It was premiered in the Nov 1998 issue of Visual Merchandising and Store Design magazine (VMSD) for interior themed retail designing and point of purchase. Places like New York’s Time Square, Downtown Disney, Universals City Walks are just the beginning of the emerging future brand environs that convey the brand experience. These retail environments provide the branded "take home." In these places you will find totally awesome mega - themed entertainment retail environments where architecture and themeing meets brand, meets point of purchase. While attending the Shop East- convention in New York which is a hub of Visual merchandising and point of purchase displays and in the Chicago retail convention, I can catch a glimpse of the trend shifts in the brand retail designing.

Have you seen Las Vegas lately? Forget the slots and check out the shows, scenic architectural, themeing, that’s hit over the last 10 years! The teams of designers break the barriers of time, space and reality (with the proper funding you can do anything) concepts that take you to time travel and world travel in a nutshell as Epcot does. Casino's and restaurants have been taking a love-dive into this world of family entertainment theme design hands over feet!! It is a Mecca of themed hotel casinos, restaurants, and retail venues that has perfected the art-form of keeping the consumer in the casinos with visual stimulus that can overwhelm and displace time! Storyline venues there are a must see and attract visitors to their casinos to keep the patron in as long as possible.

This is accomplished by adverting the use of windows in the main areas so as to displace time and overwhelming the guests with a fantasy world. But not all unique architecture is on the interior of the facility A great example is called Fashion Show. It is a giant hotspot with it's floating facade of LCD lighting is a "cloud" of projected advertisements ( the architect was a genius!). Fremont street is a giant canopy lighting show. Paris Las Vegas, New York/New York, Venetian-Venice Italy, Bellagio Hotel /Casino just for the water show and Treasure Island's exterior pirate ship adventure show are still awesome! And new hospitality meca's are arriving on a growing basis in Las Vegas.

These exiting and new ways of constantly renovating and building the next newest best "thing" is also a must in that highly competitive atmosphere. And they are willing to put out extreme funding to do so. Also check out VMSD and eyewire.com for further referencing on the retail approach to designing. Powerful insights and knowledge of the industry are displayed monthly. Branding can be fun when you have the "real thing" in your hands! It has to be the TURBOMAN action figure with the moving arms and legs! It has to have the boomerang shooter and the rock & roar jetpack! It has to have the voice activator that shouts, "It’s turbo time"! (Batteries not included). And people do want to be in the branded experience like being in the movie. This adventure allows us to slip away and escape reality to be a part of something when we were kids! You don’t want to be on just any journey! But, to be onward to "the second star to the right and keep on till morning" adventure"!

While I was at that same IAAPA convention, I met up with a group of designers in a discussion on "Theme park branding with retail take home souvenir’s". Being a designer, I HAD to be in on the discussion. There I met Tony Baxter V.P. of Walt Disney Imagineering who pointed out that "no one wants to ride just any ride on space or dinosaurs. They want to ride the Star Wars ride at MGM Studios or be in the Exxon pavilion at EPCOT." Being fair here, one could also say the same about the Jurassic Park ride at Universal as it is a brand ride too. Another example is the relationship of the Grinch and Cat In The Hat movie with Dr. Seuss’ Landing at Islands of Adventure (IOA), The Haunted Mansion movie with the ride (WDW), The Twilight Z one Tower of Terror and The Muppets 4D Experience at Disney's MGM Studios. This is the reason that amusement / thrill parks have been turning to theme brand experiences in their rides. For example, Six Flags parks gives story and the thrill in the "action adventure" of the super hero themed coaster rides "Batman - The Ride" and "Superman The Ultimate Escape Coaster "too As well as WB presents the T.V. animated shows with Six Flags Thrill/Amusement Parks.

Although iron rides are not dark rides or kiddie rides, they are similar to other coasters in the "feel" of the ride and how the adventure begins in the "dark ride" atmosphere of the station and Q. Just like “The Incredible Hulk Coaster" was at Universal’s "Super Hero Island" at IOA. Yes! Now at theme parks, you can go watch the movie and come fly like a super hero! Here theme parks keep the promise made by the brand in the experience. )One example is Transformer Attraction ride at universal Studios from movie screen magic to a thrill ride. Another example of an extensive interactive brand experience is the Winnie the Pooh ride at Tokyo Disney Seas. The cost was as much as a casino in Las Vegas. Winnie the Pooh has been one of the top brand "point of purchase" for Disney. Pirates of the Caribbean has the movies to back it up being inspired, Disney Imagineers redesigned the darkride utilizing the movie characters as Capt Jack Sparrow... I am sure that DC.Comics and Marvel Comics will still do the same integration of Movie Magic to thrill/Darkride to Retail integrations as well as other movies as they all connect the dots now to the consumer experience. Disney paved the way for the branded end of the ride experience. The Disney retail experience is just as intense as the rides they are representing.

I had a privileged recent visit to Disney Global Retail Store Development in Orlando. There I met with Director Tim Johnson. As I was listening to what they are doing and how they do it, I noticed that they do not miss anything! They have thought of everything. And their attentiveness is to very last detail! The Disney retail experience is just as intense as the rides they are representing. That's why I appreciate them so much. Disney retail have some of the most entertaining spaces world wide from Tokyo to Times Square and now in China.

"Retail as theater"

I’ve had the privilege and fun to work in the same use of branding the attraction rides to retail with the branded experience on location in Six Flags parks involving super heroes like Superman and Batman. These designs were on the Q-line entry portals and coaster stations along with elements of the streetscapes, gaming and themed retail, concessions facades, stunt show spectaculars and gaming areas as branded experiences all over the U.S. and Madrid Spain at Warner Brother's Movie World.

The challenge of the designer of the themed experience involved in branding within movies, theme parks, retail, or other venues like museums is to meet or set the standards of visual imagery that best conveys the storyline with the highest degree of impact for sales. The blurrrring of the lines of fantasy and reality enables us to bring the customer into the themed environment visually, and completely immerses them in the experience through the story of the branded adventure, i.e. "seeing is believing."

This is accomplished through the use of designing architecture, media, graphics and technology packed with computer or traditional interactive theme elements to build brand loyalty that encourages repeat visitation, and connect into the heart of the consumer. For example, interactivity with characters or cultural icons can identify the customer to be one with the brand. This creates the atmosphere in feeling like you’re apart of the storyline as if on a dark ride with all of the "bell’s and whistles" thus, suspending the disbelief.

Best regards,

Matthew L. McCoy
Experiential Designer

Future of themed attractions

Into the future world of themed attractions and designing involving large venues and small alike we go!

Think-teams of experiential designers will not only work the cogwheel through the bigger and better light bulbs of concepts, storyboards, planning, design and development stages, but will have to take in the new challenges and seek new levels of eye candy to stay up with the trends or set trends.

There is a host of new, edgy ideas already in use; interactives such as teaching stations soft play games, multimedia motion viewing theaters and arcades with computer touch-screen stations that are now crucial elements to any venue that are called "bedtime". In arcades these venues are like shooting "TI- fighters" from the Millennium Falcon with motion-activated seats that shoot up into the ceiling and swivel sideways as you play the game simulation. Gone are the days of Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Asteroids unless they have 3D relevance. In the home theater gamming has only begun as virtual villagers plunder dungeons and capture strongholds in war games in online-teaming experiences. The nentendo Wii & Game Boy, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PS3, and more have now taken over reality as we know it. The "next level" will only reveal even more interaction as enthusiasts & gamers get off the couch and literally into the game.

The generational shift and the use of video games and their interface have taken a spotlight. There is a convergence in storytelling in video gaming & movies. In home theater & digital cinema in on line multi user universes, they are provided themed experiences without having to go anywhere. The content and theme park ride like- special effect gags that are in the real world space become useful when converging these experiences in a physical space. They press "new buttons" emotionally in the digital pipeline and multi-user interfaces. There are so many 3D IMAX theaters and 4D theaters. And there are now places that interact virtually in the round like LIVE PARK (a 4D Walk in type traveling exhibition experience. Newer boundaries are being pushed in theme parks with not only sights and sounds but smells with tiny air jets and rumbling seats called "butt kickers". New prototypes beyond personal movie goggles where you can watch your own movie are being utilized as Dual-Focus contact lens and sensory gloves for virtual gaming, medical and military needs. These extra enhancements to the senses provide a more memorable experience in the simulators.

Software designers, engineers and simulator developers are enhancing the 3D viewing now so that wearing 3D glasses will be obsolete. Holograms will be everywhere from advertisements in retail to gaming arenas. One day soon we will have a "holodeck" like the one seen on Startrek or a type of play true 5D environ. There are developers now creating a simulator where the guest can move, walk or run in any direction in a "cybersphere" where a number of high power projectors are used in combination to project the images which then combine to provide a fully immersive visual experience for the guests. This will give the illusion of walking freely through the computer generated environment.

The developers are already in discussion with organizations wishing to use the technology for applications as diverse as computer gaming, military simulations and manufacturing engineering product and factory design projects. Another new technology is the movement tracker system "used in a collective experience area that allows the media content to coinside with the movements of the guests and visitors or an individual in the environment called Omnimedia Theater". Yet another is the "Immersive Gaming Environments", or IGE's that aims to provide a new level of interactivity for the emerging real time gaming industry. It creates a console free multi user gaming experience. The IGE is a modular and portable gaming solution that redefines the relationship between spectators and players. The IGE immersive topology allows game designers to link spectators and two players through the 3D-real time motion tracking capabilities. It is a software ( computer driven) enhanced device (video, sound, lights) into a visitor controlled environment. I just want to ride in that flying car and have that Dick Tracy / Batman live feed video watch.

A really good place to checkout the future of gaming and simulators is at the E3 trade show ( Electronic Entertainment Expo) held annually. It was in 1997 (through a vender) I was able to work with Disney Interactive on a tradeshow booth. Their booth was massive at the E3 show and was based on Disney's animated movie Hercules. Another tradeshow is COMDEX - the technology business innovation trade show held annually. Last but not least, is IAPPA ( International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions). All of these shows are held annually. They vary from city to city based upon where the committees of those organizations think it should be held.

Themed gaming venues can also provide the security and atmosphere parents appreciate, in that the family or teens will have FUN in a competitive and completely themed environ and yet be safe. Larger venues such as DisneyQuest® Indoor Interactive Theme Park is a place where you create your own adventures in a one-of-a-kind indoor interactive theme park bursting with games that give "state-of-the-art" new meaning. As you enter through a portal, you will discover five floors of cutting-edge technology, virtual reality and 3-D experiences - all fueled by Disney innovation and imagination.

Smaller venues such as "Family Fun Centers" can benefit on cost and space not "lost in space" situations. These types or entertainment centers need to change their interiors around about once every couple of months and add new elements of excitement with new video and interactive games in order to generate return visits. I discovered this while designing and themeing for Mountasia Family Fun Centers and Malibu Grand Prix throughout the 90's. These "fun centers" can be a smash hit! These were ahead of their time and were shown at IAAPA in the 90's. Their brand strategy and management are used as models to this day.

Another venue is themed retail. "Gamification" in retail , the use of game design, techniques and mechanics to increase user engagement and to drive action, is gaining fast momentum in the retail industry based upon the new generations of technology and user interphase. The growth in this sector has reached around $100 million, and is expected to reach around $3 billion by 2016, according to M2 Research. It's kinda like the movie Minority Report where you interact with the retail environment and it recognizes You by a key devise. I had designed a prototype hand held devise to be presented to Simon Malls.

I studied many elements, as I watched the industry go through its own learning curves, attending seminars and working at Six Flags 1995-99 as an independent designer, that large theme parks must also add new attractions, facades, and themed retail arcade/outlets and rides each year to pull in crowds. Get the "BANG for the BUCK" in planning and themeing and invest in new environments! Watching soft play and video interactive's at larger parks such as Epcot (Disney) Universal Studios and Six Flags parks is a great way to see what is trendy. Due to multi-tasking attention disorders of the public, the fun for designers is the challenge of how visually to present the theme surrounding edutainment app's and visa versa with all of the "bells and whistles for emotional impact. Venues such as new science centers, interactive teaching museums, historical museums and Epcot Disney have the handle on it and so do newer heritage centers. I call it "edutainment designing". These are where you make complex and scientific ideas accessible to many different audiences. How do you excite kids about high-level research? How do you shape changing attitudes about our environment and motivate personal action? These Centers provide unique opportunities to make these connections. Some connections are "Learning Center Kiosks where touchscreen technologies allows multiple displays and "edutainment" in teaching skills with BIG Ideas or just plain out FUN!

We invite visitors to become explorers of their physical universe in new and unexpected ways. It is said that a child at play is an explorer at work investigating with speculation. Most of all we seek to inspire that sense of wonder and to provide pathways to action. Some are focused environs to pull in different age groups. This allows the patrons to relax in their social groups (and spend!) Demographic marketing and the tools of planning with no-holds barred themeing produces powerful and impacting environments

Talented extreme theme designers with awesome concepts and strong storylines can in a very similar way be like "super" movie directors( i.e.. Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Ridley Scott and Tim Burton) carefully calculating the motion of atmosphere. We hurl the viewer into a space through a Q-portal that displaces time and directional bearing into what ever universe we can dream up or replicate

"We give them an adventure and memories that bounce from the cranium to the brain in excitement and knowledge that can last a life time and keep them coming back for more like a cool roller coaster dark ride effecting all the senses"! The Best "so far" that I have had the privilege are the new 4D motion dark rides". The on- the- fly, whiz-bang timing and process of the totally themed "dark ride" adventures are in my book, nothing short of amazing!

In all that I do in designing the experience, I try to find inspiration on location in story-lines of fantasy character worlds, historical realities, future thought, while traveling on vacation or work, in books and in checking out other designers- even if their work "gives me envy pains". They are all resources to learn from and enjoy. I hope you are able to go and see IAAPA for the latest in themed attractions and where they are going into the future. There is always a panel or "forum convention" where the discussion on the future of theme designing is going. It is a never-ending process that we all enjoy! To see what’s new on the horizon (and around the next corner) out of curiosity gives rise to the exploration of those concepts and ideas.

Best regards,
Matthew L. McCoy

Experiential Designer

Architecture of Experience

I started on the journey of writing this article after the millennium as a conversation piece over coffee with other colleagues at an "Airport city" conference. But this subject matter had been on my mind for a long time. And now, I've found that my thoughts and expectations have only been solidified through the years by the conferences I've attended focusing on future based subjects and experiences like, "The Future of Themed Entertainment Forum" at IAAPA. In addition, the destinations and events that I have traveled to and observed have served as confirmations for these early projections on designing future experiences. Then there are a number of books that have recently been published concerning the subject matter of theoretical designing for the guest experience, based on futures not so very far far away, that have further confirmed and solidified those very early thoughts.

I have attended a forum classes at Harvard University on "Experience Architecture" that touched on this very subject inspiring me to commit myself to creating this article through time. The main focus of this particular discussion was on the trend shift in designing for the future residing in how we will live, work, and play in this next century with shape, form, and function. Its being recognized that the subject matter we were discussing then is now a universal concept, and I believe it will have a global impact in this next millennium. Designing guest experiences and live-work-play communities have literally sparked a revival that has taken the experience of architecture and the architecture of the experience to the next level. From the building of "hyper tech" to the renovation of decaying historic sites and districts architects have renewed their interest in creating new developmental processes in the way we presently design and how it will relate to the communities in a not so distant future.

This process starts with a spark of an idea or concept: a dream, or vision of what we expect or conceive and imagine the future experiences of tomorrow to be. The function of the "ideal" community of tomorrow that was envisioned in the early 20th century is now catching up with us. The shape that our community has taken is not what we expected. The questions now are how can we be asked to surf through past concepts in designing for the future when what presently can be conveyed as the architecture for future experience is dated? The answer has always been to take the best elements that define that era, to bring them up to date with the present trends, and to creatively meet those demands with this new blend, this new hybrid design

In the past, there were the old masters of art and architecture. From the city of Babylon with the ziggurats, and the pyramids of Egypt, to the city of Rome, with its giant cathedrals and monuments that Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo designed in the renaissance, to Antoni Gaudi Art Nouveau architecture in Barcelona Spain there have been countless examples for us to be inspired by in the future of designing experiences and destinations.

We explore the future of experiential design by learning from the past and creating for the present. By referring to the past of where we have been and what was best accomplished as touchstones in design throughout the eras we are able to use this knowledge to accomplish future designs with more unique and bold concepts than ever before.

Today there are forums, conventions and exhibits, and lectures and tours assessing future concepts of how we will interact with the environments we will live, work, and play in. These forums discuss the designing of work place environs, shopping malls and retail stores, restaurants, museums, zoos, theme parks, theaters, hospitality resorts, public buildings, common areas, whole cityscape and urban development parks, apartment complexes, condos and the layouts of neighborhoods.

Some have inaugurated programs from inception to embrace the ideal of the mutual enrichment of the arts through a collaboration to unite every segment of the experiential marketplace involving architects, engineers, designers and artists of all areas of professional walks of life. The words applied that describe them as one entity and what they do are, “designers of experience”, “story interpreting designers”, and other creative titles. Places like Harvard University School of Design at Cambridge Mass, The Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum NY and the Urban Land Institute, GA Tech are reestablishing their core to meet these concepts.

Then there are places to find them congregating and brainstorming through new forums such as the EXP-3 conventions, “Where experience intersects place”. This emphasis on the interrelationship of the applied arts is represented through debates, sketch scenarios or charettes. Also through exhibitions showcasing the work of talent. In the past, another example was a series of avant-garde installations in the 60’s called "Environments," that reasserted engagement with planning and building.

These exhibitions fueled books on collaboration of artists and architects for multidisciplinary designing. Other places can be the college forums where the future designers of tomorrow will set sail from to design the future. They are armed with their studies and the wisdom of professionals who show them the way. I also give lectures for graduating seniors of various educational institutions on applied designing.

Collaboration is not a new venture but a reestablished one. This emphasis on the interrelationship of the arts is still represented in the Architectural Leagues in painting, sculpture, landscape architecture and other design arts in such programs as the 1986 "Chair Fair" exhibition of 400 chairs by artists, furniture designers, and architects, and the 1988 exhibition "The Inhabited Landscape," on contemporary landscape design. Themed events, with participants from around the country and abroad, are organized on topics such as "Architecture and the Global Culture," "The Technological Imagination," Computers, and the New Complexity," “New Urbanism Today”," and "Sacred Space," on architecture for worship and contemplation.

As we go from the past yesterdays to the future tomorrows in concept and design, we want to establish an anchor or platform to begin from starting at a point in time. From 1890-1914, The Guilded Age and Progressive movement was the sketchbook of what the future might be headed to. By 1895 the Niagara Falls Power Company began generating alternating current (AC) from three 5000-horsepower generators. The Niagara Falls project ushered in the second phase of the Industrial Revolution and shaped and determined the way power would be produced and delivered from then on.

In 1897 streetcars appeared in Cedar falls. In 1898 photographs are taken with artificial light. In 1899 the loud speaker is invented. In 1900 Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1959) establishes a studio in Oak Park, IL for designing "prairie style" architecture. In 1901 December 5, Walter Elias Disney--Walt Disney was born in Chicago. 1903 Henry Ford founds the Ford Motor Company. In that December on the 17th, The Wright Brothers build a 750-pound machine with a 12-horse-power motor in which, at Kitty Hawk, first Orville and then Wilbur made the first powered airplane flights in history (first heavier than air flight). 1905 Albert Einstein writes his paper on the Special Theory of Relativity.

There were the turn of the century dreamers that are key to remember like Jules Verne who brought up time travel and past, present and future concepts and questions that never age. There was a small film made in the mid twenties called Melies Trip To The Moon, which later became a reality. In 1921 the word "robot" enters the language and in 1929 stock market crashes. In 1930 AT&T tries the picture telephone in which is not accepted at the time.

The Wall Street Crash in October 1929 became “the great divide" between the 1920s and the 1930s in lifestyles. The distinct moods of the two decades heavily affected the arts of both. It also had become a divide between American modernist designs. In retrospect, the designs of the l920s are best remembered for angular designs, an emerging machine visual look with an avoidance of both ornament and organic forms. The '20s were characterized by a blend of two stylistic influences. The exotic materials and voluptuous interiors were found in those "tall buildings that scraped the sky." They were an influence deriving from France's Art Déco elite, and the functional geometry of Zigzag Modern that was quickly absorbed from such art movements as French Cubism, Russian Constructivism, Italian Futurism, Dutch de stijl and German Bauhaus.


In 1925 the Paris Art Deco Exposition (from which Art Deco derives its name and was formally introduced) opened to the world. The French high style had pinnacled in the luxurious furnishings of the magnificent decorations that created a tremendous influence on American interiors. These influences found “ultimate expression” in the extravagant spaces of Radio City Music Hall designed by Donald Deskey. The rich decorations of the skyscraper and high-rise apartments provided opportunity in commissions for America's new breed of designers. Paul Frankl developed a complete line of Skyscraper furniture.The skyscraper inspired an angular, setback style generally described as Zigzag Modern that expressed the 1920's unbridled entrepreneurship, and it was inappropriate to the sober economic mood that followed the Crash in 1929. Both strains of the exotic materials and voluptuous interiors found in the 1920’s gave way to the ushering in of the '30s where aerodynamic forms, synthetic materials and the sleek finishes of futuristic elements came to the forefront of the vision and popular desire blended with speed. It was the advent of the Streamlined Modern.


There were prevailing and heightened impressions of escape from the pre-World War I constraints in design. The 30’s were the dawn of a new era in lifestyles. Before WW1 and the depression, trains were fascinating as a mode of transportation in luxury. After the war, automobiles were a dime a dozen. American manufacturers turned to design as an important solution. The designer's attempt to modernize products as a means of boosting sales led to the pursuit of a new style, one which evolved from the preceding fashionable Art Deco style of the 20’s. A dependable new image was needed to fuse industry into one and to thrust it out of economic stagnation. The image that answered this need was the streamlined form.

In the 1930s, Chicago's Century of Progress Exposition in l933-34 had the greatest significant impact on design awareness and had the greatest mass appeal of the four American expositions that were held. It drew almost 50 million visitors to the 424-acre plot of reclaimed land on the edge of Lake Michigan. The excitement and euphoria surrounding the event provided a huge profit during the depth of the depression. It also gave a glimpse of hope into a utopian futuristic lifestyle. On May 25, 1934 the Pioneer Zephyr three-car train of stainless steel sleek style design rolled into its display at the Century of Progress Exhibition at The Chicago Worlds Fair, and saved the train ride to the future by innovation in design, speed and style. Based on proven aerodynamic principles, it came to symbolize industrial progress. The optimum streamline form was expressed in the shape of the parabolic curve or the teardrop; this provided an image of energy-efficient “fluid” motion into the future.


Products were cased in sleek, aerodynamic bodies, symbolic of the 1930s fascination with speed and efficiency. Saving energy and functionality were secondary considerations as the style came to represent the personification of the product and the hope that it held for the future. The new breed of industrial designers in the l930s was more open to the suggestions of science and practical technologies, but they were less controlled by aesthetic traditions. However, they became detailed with tempering logical engineering with the quest for the perfected form in design.

Streamlined Modern also has roots within science fiction, We see this reflected in STARWARS Episode ll from George Lucas at the very beginning with the " intro fly in" scene into a city not unlike what one would have been seen in the 30's streamline commercial and architectural look. Utopian visions were driven by a mass of illustrators in magazine art, comic books and Hollywood film sets. Even now we see Edgar Rice Burroughs - John Carter of Mars (collection) influencing future dreams. Buck Rogers began in 1930 and Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon appeared 1934. In H.G. Wells' 1936 film version of Things to Come, montage and photography were combined with state-of-the-art modern-futuristic model sets. The futuristic cities painted for Amazing Stories reflect the advanced designs of Buckminister Fuller, Walter Dorwin Teague and other pioneering designers of the 30’s. In this period of twenty years, from 1920 to 1940, The United states produced a body of design work extraordinary for its combined enterprising collective effort and ingenuity. They are some of the finest designs produced in the 20th century.

On September 30th 1935 Hoover Dam (that had been started in the 20's) was completed with mix of a Art Deco and Streamline style.Then the steady movement of design of the 30’s was interrupted by World War ll in the 40's, which took up most of the attention of all efforts to the war machine, and, thus elaborate architecture such as Art deco and Streamline came to a screeching halt and submitted to conservation and functionality in design.

However, the concepts and the future life styles of tomorrow still flourished and were still fueled in comics, cars, appliances and music into the 50’s. Then the space-race was on. Jettson’s future concept in design with Googie architecture and Pop art roared onto the scene! On July 21,1954, Walt Disney broke ground for Disneyland. And as NASA looked to the skies, the U.S. Nautilus secretly traveled under the North Pole in 1959. There is an exhibit that is traveling across the U.S. on a 5 year mission called, “Yesterday’s Tomorrows” that explains how "Ideal" American communities envisioned in the early 20th century reflected hopes, excitement, and fears about the reality of an increasingly urban society. This exhibit features visionary concepts of the future and other artifacts out of the 50’s space cadet trends. It is unique and informative about the nuclear families lifestyles.It presents future concepts of how the designers of the turn of the century and beyond envisioned our future lifestyles to be.

In the 60’s we celebrated the future in the “sheen age” movement of silver fabrics and “futura minimalism” in styles of furniture and architecture that reflected the space age. In 1967 the geodesic dome appeared at the World Expo. There are the trends of architecture, transportation design and industrial design in contemporary futura and minimalism with an echo of glass. Now we see a retrofitting of design from the age of industrialization past WW1 that sparks our imaginations of visions of tomorrow are reflected in the industrial design starting in 2004-5 cars and SUV’s that are going back to streamline style. The same thing is happening with the Sheen Age with that contemporary twist.

During all of this, the world’s fairs were proving grounds to the future in the exhibits on transportation and lifestyles of the future and brought this to the populous through exhibits that where able to pull the past and the future to the present and feed the hunger of a better tomorrow in “edutainment”. With the promise in them of a utopian lifestyle, the world’s fairs and exhibitions shown became a springboard for future concepts as supply and demand changed during and out of the depression and beyond. World Fairs and Expos have a vast influence and reflect the future of what is to come. And are seen as influences in movies like IronMan where there is the Stark Expo. Walt Disney was influenced and utilized it to design and perfect the system of "Audio-Animatronics"at the 1964 Worlds fair where the longest lines were.

The world’s fairs had a unique way of presently looking backward and peering into the window of the future in designing for form and function. There are agencies today that are hired to conduct studies to find solutions on designing future environments. These studies and observations are usually conducted for brands that need strategies for supply and demand markets. Now their services are used for multidisciplinary designing.
The world fairs were world showcases that modeled the apex of style to be lived in, worked in, and entertained in. This involved every thing from structure design to exterior streetscapes and facades to the interior marketplaces. In large common or atrium areas and entertainment venues to more challenging smaller spaces such as office workspaces and living spaces. The ideas of tomorrow’s lifestyles are defined in the designing of these spaces.

This involves not only form and function of structure but the look and feel of the grounds keeping in gardening and cleanliness, and graphic directional's that are themed along with each area according to "flow" in the architecture and what would function in them such as furnishings, appliances, lighting. It's that kind of place that can provide a feeling of a speedy, safe and comfortable social atmosphere that is pleasant and sometimes educational with theme and a touch of innovation with automation that appeals to all the scenes. Disney created a kind of "permenant Worlds Fair" with these qualities in his themed parks as Epcot. And he had a vision of a future city. It was "The city of Tomorrow" or Progress city.

It was when I was visiting at Disney World in 1972, that we stayed in the futuristic designed Hilton that reminded me of the space station Hilton in the Sci-fi movie 2001. Visiting the Carousel of Progress in Tomorrow land and later visiting Epcot in 1982, reminded me of the movie Logan’s Run in city architecture. I got the early understanding and hope of " futurama concepts in architecture, pavilions, common areas, escalators, monorails, industrial design of transportation and appliances in retail design, urban future living and landscape design, signage, graphics and attraction design"! Epcot is Disney's permanent worlds fair and shows us a version of what tomorrow could be like. Based on the New York City’s 1964 World’s Fair exhibit, the carousel of Progress was a look back at the lifestyles of the past to the future living.

It was in Dec of 1998 I attended an exhibition in New York at the Cooper – Hewitt National Design Museum, (a Smithsonian Institution) which was on The Architecture of Reassurance – Designing The Disney Theme Parks. There I viewed the early concepts of Imagineering at Disneyland, Main street U.S.A., Tomorrow land, simulations, theme park architecture in the real world. Do you want to know where the experience of architecture was mastered in storyline and architecture? Designing out from the worlds fairs and movie magic arose a creative team that started it all. They are called Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI). Designing the guest's experience is what the Imagineer's came to call "the art of the show". This term is used at every level from the smallest detail of visual storytelling with color with in the overall concept design to the elements and the function of props.

It was at a state fair in 1969 I saw that infamous self move-along Hoover Vacuum cleaner! And, it was at an Auto-trade show I saw that flying saucer car with the bubble windshield bigger than the Bat mobile’s! I have only seen the pictures of the General Motor’s Futurama at the 1939 New York’s World of Tomorrow. There they exhibited new line products and materials such as plexiglass, fluorescent lighting, television and innovations of future cities and personal robots.

I like the concept of he car of the future with luxury and futuristic style that hovers with anti gravity feed or giant fans! I still want the dick Tracy watch and the jet pack! Remember that AT&T picture phone that didn’t make it in the 30’s? It has landed on our cell phones that carry live feed pictures. But now it is a reality with the world wide web. People who communicate in business meetings and brands that sell products over web are now global venues. And major brands are looking into the web as a resource to expand their domains and pre-cast their products like a movie trailer.

Our past visions are slowly catching up. Just like the Melies trip to the moon movie was caught up to on July 20, 1969, with NASA and Neil Armstrong. I watched this on a birthday. Museums and science centers further inspired and motivated me to have a belief in the directions of designing for the future experience and has catapulted me to being a “hybrid” designer that is in a multi-disciplinary field. I would also like to recognize before we "shift gears", some of the most influential creators to me as we move forward. They are Antoni Gaudi, Frank loyd Wright, Frank Gehry and especially Walt Disney.

There is a template for these quasi-cities. It is the Walt Disney theme park form and function which has forever changed our image of what urban life should be due to Main street USA. The suburban market Disney crafted is a simulated vision of the world which was both idealized and stripped bare of any significant risk, conflict or controversy. In Florida, California, France, Tokyo or soon to be China, Disneyland visitors need not worry about tripping over garbage, being accosted by panhandlers and being mugged in the middle of the day. In adapting the Disney blueprint to the contemporary ‘theme park city’, architects, planners and developers have borrowed two key Disney strategies.

To package the new entertainment destinations, they have embraced an architectural style which is designed to create an aura of fantasy, delight and well-being among onlookers. The retail establishments in fantasy cities are uniform and harmonious, suggesting meaningfulness and contentment. As reassuring as it may be Disney architecture is a fusion of consumerism and entertainment. There are other locations and brand identities that use this concept such as ‘The Showcase Mall’ in Las Vegas and “The Fashion Show”. These are non-gambling entertainment complexes on the famous ‘Strip’ that have a more futuristic in design than Main street USA. But the same since of security in the experience is there.

Theme parks are said to be one of the best contemporary examples of ‘large-scale urban control zones’. Visitors’ movements are discreetly but firmly directed by a combination of recorded voices, robots in human form and employees. To ensure that guests are directed towards specific locations and to hide other unsuitably locations. Disney uses a combination of technology (monorails and other transportation systems) and physical barriers such as pools, fountains and flower gardens. Control systems in theme parks act to ensure that guests follow an itinerary laid out by the park’s designers.

In Manhattan, Disney has sanitized, revitalized and retailed Times Square! Now uniformed public-safety officers employed by the Times Square Business Improvement District make visits to the 45 locations of a computerized surveillance system. The same entertainment-safety approach is spreading to other areas too.

New Urban redevelopments adopted this same model. In designing Boston’s Faneuil Hall, the prototypical ‘festival marketplace’, developer James Rouse sent his project manager to Disney World to learn the methods of maintenance and security. I wish New Orleans would do this at Burbon Street! Today I am now seeing the kind of place I’m writing about as in the start of "live, work and play” city environments that have popped up in the U.S. There are other concepts called “Airport Cities” and “New Urbanism”. These new city concepts are formed out of the demand from our life styles of need in convenience and safety. Brand markets have picked up on this too. And, has already reflected this movement in apartment and condo communities that involve urban master planning and space design in public and private uses combined.

This is now seen in every major mall across America. Urban shopping malls devote a major portion of its space to entertainment such as Potomac Mills had done that invited you to experience "Shoppertainmentsm". In this retail mecca you can enjoy over 220 stores that have themed facades and MillsTV, an in-mall television station broadcasting exciting details on brand names. When it's time for a break, take in a movie at one of 15 AMC Theatres with an exterior designed like Egyptian temples and security guards sit behind a glass wall in Central Dispatch monitoring banks of closed-circuit televisions and computers which reach into every corner of the mall that is reminiscent of casino's.

“New Urbanism” was not a new concept but a new look on spreading the super-city planning and development concepts of yesteryear to fit the lifestyles of the modern era. A place like this has opened in Atlanta Ga named Atlantic Station. This concept has a modern twist of turn of the century designing. It is a total “live, work, play” concept with street scapes and shopping districts that uses the multi level strategy and is the new upscale shopping area of Atlanta. These urban projects are being marketed as the heroes of declining downtown cores and of stagnant suburban shopping centers

The Aquarium combined with the World of Coca Cola is being redeveloped more in Atlanta. The world of coke has a "urban cultural" and retail venue in Las Vegas too that has sculptured giant bottles made by artist from 14 different countries from all around the world. An "urban cultural" approach is very much the concept used in newer museums and science & Children’s learning centers today. It very well could transform into that city of tomorrow in parking our new floating cars as we zoom from city to city in our lifetime. And last but not least there is the question of how to depose of the waste or recycle. Maybe, as at Disney it all is an underground system of structure to keep it all unseen or hidden as in Metropolis or like in Back To The Future (the movie) and use it all as fuel. We will figure it out.

The strategies for that community will be for both communitarianism and individualism. “Image” will be apart of social reality and although utopia only exist in our hopes, urban chaos would turn into urban ‘flow” through planning and design. Today, these planned communities “live, work, play” environs like Celebration Station (Disney) is harmoniously integrating to echo the communitarian utopian dreams of the 19th century. Or could this atmosphere be like a "Metropolis", like that of Fritz Lang's Metropolis? Not likely, since the established concept is one of old town U.S.A. community living.

Metropolis also is not a new word. Just years before the movie Metropolis was made, there was King Camp Gillette. “In his utopian tract of 1894, Gillette outlined his vision of a collection of 40,000 skyscrapers clustered together in one grand "Metropolis" located near Niagara Falls. Surrounded with glass atriums, the steel-framed buildings would house most North Americans. Within a few years, however, Gillette's outlandish utopian vision was overshadowed by another project that brought him fame and wealth - The invention of the safety razor.

Then there is the connection to Superman and Metropolis, Batman and Gotham City that represents a type of New York City. There a river runs though it becoming giant waterfalls at the cities edge that runs though a generating power plant. Is it homage to the future visions of the past? But that’s another story.

Lang's early architectural and art training is evident in his visual approach to Metropolis. He developed narrative and created an atmosphere through expressionistic, symbolic sets and lighting, as well as through his editing. The story takes place in 2026, one hundred years from when the movie was made. The city of Metropolis is a crowded one where people are either of the privileged elite, or of the repressed, impoverished masses.

This futuristic world plays and delights in the gardens and stadiums. The scene that illustrates this shows an orange stadium with blue sky drifting by as the privileged class enjoys a life in the comfort of tall buildings with giant panoramic view windows that are polarized for the time of day. Lang visually shows how cold, crowded, busy and yet beautiful Metropolis is.

Futuristic paintings and models of the city show the unique architecture as well. Suspended streets, and zigzagged buildings, only begin to exemplify the bustling city. It is obvious how influential the concept of Metropolis has been on architecture, books from Arthur C. Clark and in films with movies like Stanley kubrick’s Space Oddesy 2001 that where eye openers! I love the space orbiting Hilton! Others include Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, Luc Besson's 5th Element, Cameron’s Terminator trilogy, Spielburg movies as Minority Report and the reversal of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind that is WAR OF THE WORLDS 2005 not to far off from ID4. There is George Lucus and Star Wars Episodes1, 2 and 3 "Revenge of the Sith" where we see the futura of a city planet complete with streamline or Art Deco futura mixed with Eco-Tech in a style of blended architecture out of historic 30's and the systems of transportation style in design are the cinematic rave and in a revival at this time due to new digital media techniques.
Iain McCaig was the concept designer for the newer Starwars trilogies.

Other Honorable mentions are in the style of future concept designing, Syd Meads designing has influenced a wide range of industrial designing of transportation, zoos to future cities. His influences can be seen in many films as Star Trek, Blade Runner, Tron and Tron sequel as well as two Japanese film projects, The New Yamato and Crises 2050. He has designed much in transportation and industrial design and architectures too.. Another influence is Hayao Miyazaki animation film director from Japan as well as others who explore the new futures of "Yesterday's Tomorrows". I had lived there for two years while in the Marines.

Remember that traveling exhibit called “Yesterday’s Tomorrows” about past visions of future lifestyles? There is a movie called "Robots" directed by Chris Wedge that has used the past visual concepts of the future of robot designing in the 30's. They have created a mechanical city and a charactered robot society that is animated in 3D that rivals the animation of The Incredibles. Some character designs have the armature of C3PO in STARWARS, Spielburg's A.I. and the Lost In Space costumes that take us back to the central robot in Lang's Metropolis. They have humanoid faces stylized out of the 30's blended with driod bodies not unlike HAJIME SORAYAMA's art of sexy cyborg robots.

And there is the move John Carter that has a past-present design to the sets and the storyline even though it is science fiction . This was based upon the book A Princess of Mars. The city-state of Zodanga and the city of Helium in the movie set and scene design reminds one of a Metropolis designed as a future city adapted to the remote desert regions of Mars.

Other influences in architecture can be seen at the future city design and planning National Engineers Week Future City Competition that began in 1992. The Future City program takes place in more than 30 regions of the United States and there are trial programs in several countries. The competition is sponsored by the National Engineers Week Committee that was founded in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers to increase public awareness and appreciation of the engineering profession and of technology. A consortium of engineering associations and major US industries are involved.

There is a consortium of companies led by Canada’s Reichmann family (late of the controversial Canary Wharf project in London’s East End) that have opened the doors to ‘Destination Technodome’. The $450 million indoor entertainment and sports complex is placed on the site of a former air force base in northern Toronto. It includes a year-round 150-metre ski hill, a whitewater rafting course, mountain-climbing walls, a Hollywood-inspired theme park, a fabricated tropical rainforest a replica of Bourbon Street New Orleans and a 30-screen multiplex cinema. There is my wish come true for Burbon Street New Orleans!

Destination Technodome is one of a new breed of entertainment centers intended to anchor the ‘fantasy cities’ of the future where tourism, entertainment and retail development are to be collogued together in to a ‘themed’ environment. Developments like Destination Technodome are deemed ‘urbanoid environments’ They are said to have “a unique “genuine feeling” atmosphereand fantasy. However something is not quite right”.

Like the movie West World the environment is too scripted to perfect. Almost paralleling a theme in the movie The Matrix. In that environment the former faux world that people were living in was to perfect because the thing that was missing was a sense of the free choice and natural human flow, diversity and traditional lifestyle. I believe that human culture is more powerful than we suspect. And ushers in it’s own flow in where ever we live.

As in all trends such as movies, fashion and architecture, there is a consistency to go back and revise designs with present techniques to bring more clarity to the story line. Designs for the future can be generated using these techniques too. What was recollected as the best of a generation’s style combined with new a concept or idea can assist in designing and telling a new story from the past or future. It becomes a “Back-Story” or a pre-show in design that gives weight and truth for the present adventure. This too can be used in the architecture of experience designing. An example of this type of designing is presented to us in the movie The 5th Element. On board the Luxury cruse liner that is a space ship of our future, we see that the interior architecture experience is the future meets Art Nouveau in shape, form and function.

The object to designing themed experiences is to capture a moment in time to "create a guest experience that becomes a truth for the guest" - a quote from -YAMA MOTO-MOSS. No matter what the subject is. All of it is about the guest and their memory of the experience and what it means to them. This understanding can enable visualization in the design for future guest experiences too. There is no dearth of opinions to be expressed on the subject of architecture and experience. We can, however, see some absolutes. We can look back on transitory fads and fashions, and can discern from them the truly great ideas used in form and function. We can see where they worked and where they did not.

Then we use those answers to enable us, to guide and catapult us, to innovations in future concept planning and designing. We strive for originality and meaning in design. The world of tomorrow is a vision that grows and slowly becomes reality. The concept of where things are going in designing the future of how we will live, work and play in this next century is the main focus in this particular discussion and around the world.

"The freedom science and fantasy lend to a visual director or designer is limited only by the imagination."

This article is dedicated to my fellow designers and creators of unique experiences.

Best regards,

Matthew L. McCoy
Experiential Designer

HERITAGE Centers MUSEUMS and Traveling EXHIBITS

Over the last few years I have slowly and steadily added the role of design consultant for museums, heritage centers, and traveling exhibits to my professional portfolio. In the process of gaining this expertise I have noticed that there has been a decline in visitors to the older venues. It is my belief that the primary cause is that many museums and heritage centers are in desperate need of “facelifts” to make them more interesting and attractive to visitors. Also the themed entertainment industry has been luring away customers due to the emergence of newer entertaining technology, rides and expos. Some heritage centers are on the verge of closing due to the strain of the demand trend toward more exciting and entertaining venues.

These older out of date museums, heritage centers, and traveling historical exhibits are faced with the daunting task of showcasing the concept story line with more up to date and innovative ideas in exhibit designing, utilizing the same marketing tactics as theme parks to create excitement for the guest’s or guest experience. They must use fresh approaches, new theories, new discoveries, and new concepts to envelop the guest with more mixed-use technologies, hands on exhibits, and entertainment.

There are examples of newly constructed and older museums, heritage centers and interpretive facilities that have transformed themselves into successful venues by adding powerful story telling tools and presentations with full multi-media touch stations with surround theaters. They start their tours with multimedia presentations, sometimes featuring a live actor, film, and/or video projections. IMAX theaters, and multi media experiences with hands on interactives that were once only in themed expos, and are now integrated within the walls of museums and heritage centers.

It is, however, initially the subject of the museum that lays the foundation in the “discovery” through the creative story telling experience. To approach that concept in clever ways that meets or exceeds the expectations of the guest is the goal. Today's guests are demanding and drive industry trends. My job is to be highly creative and design an environment within and without the museum that will assist the guests to discover for themselves the adventure in the story line while at the same time gaining the information that the overall presentation is designed to impart.

It is understood that first and foremost, the mission of a museum and in kind facilities is to educate. It is also understood that learning can and should be fun and thought provoking. Using history as the story and immersive environments as the story-teller., “edutainment” exhibits attract visitors and engage them in discovery, learning and exploration. Exploration is key to learning. It is human nature to explore. We invite visitors to become explorers of their physical universe in new and unexpected ways. It is said that a child at play is an explorer at work investigating with speculation. Most of all we seek to inspire that sense of wonder and to provide pathways to action.

People of all ages yearn to explore and are inspired by those who have changed history doing it. Lewis and Clark were explorers. Explorers break new ground - but it doesn't necessarily have to be physical ground. Jonas Salk, the discoverer of the first polio vaccine was an explorer; so was historian Arthur Schlesinger; astronaut Neil Armstrong; film-maker Ken Burns; and baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson. That spirit of discovery manifests itself today in our own search to understand who we are, where we have been, and how we as a society might approach the future.

It is believed that exhibits which work best are those that reach the audience on an emotional level as well as on an intellectual plane. The goal is to truly connect with the audience, to make them stand up and take notice, to create a memorable experience worth repeating .The guest experience as an “edutainment” concept is where trends have been heading. Science centers and children’s museums are moving into more interpretive interactive and hands-on touch station exhibits in their environments within multimedia and reaction based simulators with theaters.

I have been asked about how I transitioned my experience designing in theme parks and themed entertainment into that of designing museums and heritage centers. To me, it seemed a very natural progression. Themed entertainment is centered on a story. Museums, heritage centers, and the like are trying to tell a story as well. In the theme park, the story is usually fictional and is a means to present the primary product, "entertainment and fun." In the museum environment the story is real and is the primary product is education. Both are using the story (the theme) to present the product. The presentation of the "theme" makes all the difference in the success or failure of either venue. Understanding the relationship of theme and product in both venues made the transition almost seamless.

I remember working with the National Museum of Patriotism in Atlanta, Georgia providing creative direction, working as the exhibits designer. The exhibits included a lobby, three theaters, several military kiosks with multimedia display touch screens, and the largest 9/11 exhibit in the Southeast. Additional exhibits included The Immigrant Experience, the Hall of Patriots honoring Medal of Honor and the Medal of Freedom recipients, and other concepts in patriotism and American volunteerism throughout history to present day.

One of my favorite centers will always be The Smithsonian in Washington D.C. which is constantly being renewed. I also enjoy the new National Museum of the Marine Corps and Heritage Center at Quantico, VA. It has the most amazing architecture as a partial in-ground structure. I visited the facility while it was still under construction and toured the site. It is planned to resemble the Iwo Jima Memorial in “stylistic shape” architecturally, not unlike the new Freedom Tower proposed in NY which is geometrically stylized after the Statue Of Liberty.

Others on my list include the National Museum of the Native American Indians for its architecture and artifacts, as well as Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center, which is the world's largest and most comprehensive Native American Museum. Constitution Center at Independence Mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania captured my attention with its architecture and interior content design, as did Colonial Williamsburg for preservation. The appeal of the National Scouting Museum in Irving, Texas was for hands on training and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, in Florida was for technology and exploration. These places and others rival theme parks in content, energy and fun while at the same time imparting their primary product (information) to their guests.

A few years ago, I designed the Native American exhibits at the Funk Heritage Museum and Appalachian Settlement near Atlanta, Georgia. It is the "Official Georgia Frontier and Southeastern Indian Interpretive Center". It has artifacts, multi-media exhibits, dioramas, interactive computer displays and The museum’s giant HDTV Theater shows an award-winning film, "The Southeastern Indians". The Funk Heritage Center interprets 12,000 years of Native American history and the pioneer experience in the Appalachians. The Center also houses more than 6,000 regional artifacts, the most significant of which can be seen in the Hall of the Ancients.

With curiosity and enthusiasm, we study history and the ingenuity of science in a continuing age of discovery. Through the past and forward to new discoveries, stories are waiting to be told. Through the years, I have developed a concern and a passion, as I visited other museums and centers, to create not just another historical display, but exhibits that have meaning, education and entertainment-the way storytelling should be.

As an interpreter, what I provide is architectural; exhibits and interior design in modularity or in a permanent space. I try to recognize innovative integration of architecture and exhibits utilizing the “whole” space, keeping in mind the traffic flow. I believe in a collaborative approach that involves each museum director and board and staff members in all levels of planning and design.

There are steps to developing the “whole” space. These include analyzing the mass of the space and developing the plan view to establish exhibit basic size and traffic flow. Then, ensure continuity through overhead programs such as graphics and signage. There are floor treatments, wall treatments, intermediary displays and effects with specialty zones, lighting design, soundtracks, and a well planned series of connecting elements between each unit to consider.

I design with three controls in mind: quality, cost and time to completion. This is accomplished through the process of conceptual design, creative direction, master planning, and thorough knowledge of available materials and associated fabrication methods. I try to create interesting visuals without “over-designing” in relation to exotic materials, difficult fabrication techniques, and complicated installation issues.

Modular projects that I have worked on include the Ordinary Heroes Medal of Honor Exhibit that I co-designed and rendered in Light Wave 3D. As traveling historical exhibit, it involved pictorials with touch station kiosk and was later acquired by The Smithsonian Institute. My position on modular design is that is a means to transform a well-developed plan into manageable units for fabrication and installation. Within this approach, I am comfortable with projects divided into multiple phases, and often produce materials for fundraising efforts to support the institution’s overall goals.

Recently, I designed a new exhibit for The Black Patriots Foundation as a nationwide traveling exhibit that depicts African Americans who fought for our nation from the Revolutionary War until now. This exhibit is to present awareness to help fund The Black Revolutionary War Patriots Memorial on the National Mall in Washington D.C.

As you look through the portfolio, it is hoped that you will notice the diversity of designs. I believe that this diversity is its biggest strength. While some design firms have a noticeable design approach, my style is that whether it is the traditional artifact-driven look or a multimedia expansion with “edutainment” I design with an overall narrative feel that takes on it’s own style. My goal is to establish a reputation for delivering innovative ideas and one-of-a -kind customized solutions that are as diverse as my client base.

In the development stage, I will offer “creative development” solutions with the use of innovative concepts and unique design within realistic facility requirements to keep the plan on track. I can adjust to create quick adaptive designs to meet unexpected complications or requirement changes. While employing diverse resources, I work hand-in-hand with the client and multi-vendor fabrication facilities that are second to none in meeting the project goals, remain in budget, and meet the project deadline.

Best regards

Matthew L. McCoy
EXPERIENTIAL DESIGNER