AIGA Event | Julie Beeler – Design for Wonder

Danielle and I (Heather) recently attended an AIGA design event in Los Angeles at the Pacific Design Center where Julie Beeler explained story telling in the 21st Century through interactive media.

Julie Beeler is co-founder of Second Story Interactive studio. Second Story has been recognized as a leader in both online and on-site interactive media design. Clients include Coca-Cola, Chanel, Nike, TED X, National Geographic, University of Oregon, Bank of America, etc.

University of Oregon Ford Alumni Center – An interactive installation to allow prospective students visiting the University to learn about the courses available and learn more about what the campus has to offer. Instead of focusing on the past, the center gets visitors excited by focusing on the future.

Julie ‘brought the outside in’. Inspired by the waterfalls of Oregon she used 9 cascading screens to allow the students to explore the departments using information from alumni and current students. These walls could also be moved to allow the room to be used for other purposes, and are able to be easily updated with new information through a simple content management system.

Another installation was a ‘contributions wall’ created to show digital donations and current events. It was created with wood veneer and digital projections, giving the illusion of an engraved wooden wall.

http://secondstory.com/project/oregon-entry-wall    see the video here

Coca Cola’s “The Vault of the Secret Formula” – An interactive installation created at The world of Coca Cola in Atlanta, Georgia. People can visit the vault and explore the tale of the famously secret formula.

Of course the idea was not to share the formula, but to engage visitors and explore the history of  Coca-cola with fun and mysterious interactive stations.

http://secondstory.com/project/browse/featured-work/vault-of-the-secret-formula

The showcase of work from Julie Beeler and Second Story Interactive was beyond impressive and gave us renewed inspiration for our own design work at P&W.

We left the presentation with a few helpful design pointers to share:

- Incorporate the many facets of storytelling into your design work.

- Allow an idea to be explored through brainstorming sessions, sketches, and discussions, before running off into “the world of pixels”

- Think about the end user when designing. Ask yourself, what is their experience?

- Always critique your own work, it leads to better results.