Tour Group Exhibit: USG Corporate Innovation Center
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In tandem with a corporate reorganization, product research initiatives, and an upcoming national board meeting, USG Corporation’s Innovation Center hired Starr Design to create a comprehensive tour group exhibit. Consolidating numerous disparate laboratory displays into one centralized presentation area, Starr developed an efficient, streamlined, and safe system for managing tour groups in a manufacturing facility.
Adjacent to a main floor circulation corridor, the exhibit explores four major concepts. Brands + Products is a dimensional display of cut-away product systems and installation examples. Performance Criteria features an updated graphic representation of product ratings for fire, moisture, sustainability, abuse, acoustics, and aesthetics. Innovation depicts the 100-year timeline of USG technologies and products. New Products Platform, an integrated audio visual communication system, uses two stacked monitors to deliver news on emerging products and next generation materials.
The existing architecture and spatial constraints of the 3’ x 25’ exhibit alcove inspired unique solutions for displaying information. Panels radiating from an existing column showcase the client’s new technologies and the tried and true “Brands You Can Trust” product lines. Overlapping 7-foot high sliding panels maximize display area in the shallow recess. The panels depict sample products in dimensional box modules and media communication in frameless acrylic modules. The modules are detachable and designed for easy updating.
To control sunlight, the windows along the adjacent corridor wall are covered with motorized blackout shades. Additional lighting washes the exhibit areas. The lights, shades and audio visual components have presets for the start of each tour.
Organized in a non-linear way, the exhibit allows diverse laboratory groups or administrative personnel to move back and forth within the displays to customize their presentations for specific audiences. The focal area provides a refined, dimensional component that strengthens the client’s goal to “create differentiated products, services and systems that provide a sustainable competitive advantage.”
Starr Design also completed a 4-year phased renovation project. Please see the Research+ Technology Workplace: USG Corporate Innovation Center.
