As we entered 2022, we did so with feelings of renewed energy, considerable optimism and unwavering dedication; in short, we were ready to help bring more amazing experiences back to the masses. Now at year’s end, it turns out the world was ready for this to happen as well.
The past twelve months reminded us all that humans still need to be connected – in person – to one another. They like to have fun, be surprised, learn, and forget about the real world for a little while, whether in an arena or the boardroom (even virtually when necessary).
As you’ll see from our practice leaders below, being able to innovate across experience design, physical fabrication and digital engagement has allowed DI to evolve and achieve excellence for our clients. The tools in our toolbox are an invaluable part of that ongoing success, but it’s the human factor – our incredibly talented team and trusted partners – that will allow us to continue pioneering the remarkable.
Entertainment + Retail
Looking Back – 2022 was a year rooted in our mission – continuing on our quest to design and build the world’s most remarkable experiences. We focused on growing and strengthening partnerships new and old, even expanding our relationships abroad with global projects.
We worked alongside some of the world's biggest brands, partnering with LEGO® (what?!) and Ferrari (what?!) for a combined attraction (what?!) in partnership with Merlin Entertainments at Legoland California Resort. Racers are invited to build their own LEGO Ferrari, then scan it into a customized digital version to compete with friends. DI also worked with Alamo Drafthouse and RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan to create a 12' hanging guillotine (what?!) you can sit beneath and enjoy a pre-show drink. (Don't worry, we included stamped engineering).
Looking Ahead – We could not be more excited about our efforts and initiatives to enhance the guest experience. As if looking back wasn't enough of a tease, we are collaborating with some of the biggest names in entertainment.
There is excitement to work alongside clients on several next-level initiatives, elevating the gym experience through digital interactives, developing custom games, creating personalized take-home VIP memberships, and even exploring first-of-its-kind, world-class LBE experiences alongside some of the biggest visionaries.
In addition to fostering new, innovative partnerships this year, we’re looking forward to reinventing some of our most tenured client relationships and exploring how we can set them up for success for decades to come.
The team has done an incredible job continuing to grow our in-house capabilities to design, develop and build remarkable experiences and creative technology activations across the globe (literally). And we’re just getting started.
PROFESSIONAL SPORTS
Looking Back – 2022 brought renewed enthusiasm for the importance of a great fan experience and the value of a community that can only come from cheering alongside other avid sports lovers. This year, we had the opportunity to be a part of an amazing set of projects with a heavy lens in the NBA. Our continued work on the development of the Intuit Dome marches on with an opening date in 2024. The team’s commitment to creating a next-to-none home for the LA Clippers has made this partnership such a thrill! We can’t wait to see how it all shakes out.
Our work with the Dallas Mavericks for their Texas State Fair activation turned out to be an all-time high point none of us expected. This fast-paced, super collaborative partnership resulted in a fantastic three-week exhibition for Mavs fans to explore the team’s history and never-before-seen artifacts inside the “Mavs Vault.”
One of the greatest honors was to be a part of the Kansas City Current Practice Facility and Stadium design team. Working alongside Willoughby Design and Generator Studio to design and build the world’s first dedicated stadium for a women’s soccer team has been extraordinary.
Looking Ahead – Our enthusiasm for what lies ahead is off the charts! Further collaboration with great partners and great teams to take on large-scale renovations and new builds makes the future bright. In development, we have some incredibly exciting work associated with the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs, as well as new activations for TD Garden, and new fan experience moments for the Minnesota Twins. Needless to say, we can’t wait to show these projects off.
DI is excited to continue working with our clients to find that perfect marriage of team and community, partnership activation and fan experience. Our playbook will continue to evolve and give our partners a proven approach to drive both fan engagement and revenue.
Healthcare
Looking Back – We can’t help but feel immense gratitude when looking back on our Pediatric Healthcare practice. The growth and opportunities we’ve seen are beyond expectations.
In 2022, Children’s Mercy Kansas City, Cook Children’s and Carilion Children’s Tanglewood Center all had the joy of celebrating grand openings of new spaces and facilities. A common theme across all these clients was an emphasis on not just re-imagining access to care and access to highly specialized care teams, but also a tremendous focus on elevating the patient (and family) experience.
We had the great privilege of being asked to help dream up and implement unique, vibrant environments inside these partners’ facilities, including an interactive butterfly wall, virtual paper airplanes, an immersive LED wall, and even a musically animated bird sanctuary inside Children's Mercy Kansas City pediatric burn unit. We worked to understand each client’s vision and challenges, allowing us to tailor these tech-driven elements accordingly, whether that be elements of positive distraction, donor recognition, environment design, community engagement and more.
Looking Ahead – We are in the early stages on several projects that will truly push the envelope regarding experiential design. Over the next few years, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, MU Children’s Hospital and Vail Health will open brand-new, free-standing hospitals. All three of these organizations have placed a tremendous emphasis on experience design and have turned to DI to help craft, create and deliver on their incredible visions.
Our work ranges from environmental design and branding, positive distractions for behavioral health, technology interactives and more – all working to reimagine how the physical and digital can impact the patient experience and improve outcomes. Our team is thrilled to work alongside our influential partners as they forge onward while trusting us to help make a meaningful difference in pediatric healthcare.
College Sports
Looking Back – Throughout all the change and uncertainty College Sports has undergone this year, the DI mission remained the same – creating remarkable student-athlete and game-day experiences.
DI was honored to help revitalize the North End of Jack Trice Stadium at Iowa State University through three unique interactives. Our team worked to elevate the stadium’s existing tunnel entrance to create a sleek, energy-filled environment. We also designed two new and improved All-America Honor Walls as a running tribute to ISU greats. The third interactive is three massive ISU football helmets, offering a larger-than-life photo op Cyclone fans will always remember (and share on social media).
Memorable stadium and campus experiences not only benefit student-athletes and fans but also serve as a recruiting path for visitors. College athletics are an experience, and prospective student-athletes should feel that throughout their visit.
Looking Ahead – We’re proud to continue our partnership with Wake Forest University as we wrap up a multi-year master planning initiative involving seven athletic facilities. This extensive project required DI collaboration with key partners and university stakeholders to ensure everyone was aligned on a shared vision. Through facility planning, comprehensive design and branding, and integrated technology, this master plan initiative creates an unparalleled student-athlete experience.
We are excited for Sacred Heart University to open the Martire Family Arena for their Men’s and Women’s Hockey teams. Set to debut in early 2023, this is another collegiate hockey venue where DI will provide comprehensive facility branding and environment design.
We’re eager to expand our footprint in Chicago through two fantastic partnerships. DePaul University has tasked DI to help create a new athletic Hall of Fame that uses immersive design and interactive tech to honor the school’s rich history and greatest athletes while serving as a ‘wow’ moment on campus. DI is also thrilled to partner with the Big 10 Network headquarters to tell an engaging brand story through seamless and captivating experience design that complements and elevates the existing space.
MUSEUMS + ZOOS + ART
Looking Back – DI is fortunate to work with so many diverse and unique cultural institutions all around the country. That said, 2022 surprisingly turned out to be the Year of the Children.
We are immensely proud of two new DI sound and light exhibits at the renowned Children’s Museum of Indianapolis (TCM) – Malala Yousafzai: The Power of Education and Giants of the Jurassic inside Dinosphere.
Our team also had the great joy partnering with the Flint Hills Discovery Center to create a rich and colorful exhibition inside the new Prairie Playscape exhibit in Manhattan, KS. We look forward to sharing more exciting insights on this project soon!
Finally, a huge congratulations are in order for our friends at Zoo Knoxville, who recently earned the Top Honors for Exhibit from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums!
Looking Ahead – As we look to the horizon, we see a new theme emerge: the Dream of Human Flight. We are incredibly excited to be working on several ground-breaking, flight-focused museums preparing for takeoff.
The Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum, located in Atchison, KS, will be the only venue in the world to tell the comprehensive story of one of America’s most iconic and beloved historical figures. The museum uses custom, cutting-edge technology, STEM and STEAM-centered exhibits to immerse you into the nostalgic Art Deco era and early years of flight. The AEHM targets a Q1 2023 opening.
DI is working closely with the International Skydiving Museum and Hall of Fame to realize their vision of an international museum devoted to the people, history and sport of skydiving. The one-of-a-kind museum will include many adrenaline-pumping phenomena you can’t get anywhere else—without actually taking the leap.
We’re also honored to be working with the Kansas Museum of History. What does that have to do with flight? Everything! Most of history’s early aviation pioneers either hailed from Kansas or did a lot of flying there because when it comes to flight, there’s just no place like Kansas.
CIVIC + TRANSIT
Looking Back – 2022 was a highly successful year for the DI transit practice, as we saw the highest level of activity in our practice’s history in terms of planning and contracting. We recently partnered with LG Electronics to showcase a tech-savvy development at the 2022 ACI-NA Conference. This “digital veneer” wall prototype maintains the ability to display important flight and wayfinding information while serving as a refined and modern design element. The need for tech interactions and elements within terminal areas also continues to grow, and we look forward to deploying our gesture-based interactives positioned to engage and educate travelers.
Looking Ahead – It’s full steam ahead with our focus on the airport market as part of our growing transit practice. We are well-positioned to capitalize on the trends in the transit market, all of which aim to elevate the travel experience to be more entertaining, efficient and educational. We are proud to have secured several projects within the new terminal at Kansas City International Airport, including an educational history exhibit and artistic wayfinding, as well as a full-scale air travel simulator devised to help first-time or uncertain travelers navigate what to expect on their upcoming flight.
Bus Rapid Transit continues to be a popular initiative as cities across the country aim to improve the efficiency of their systems. We secured influential contracts to provide custom-designed BRT shelters for the city of Austin, TX and Everett, WA – both of which will begin production for 2023 installations.
Corporate
Looking Back – One of the few constants in our Corporate practice has been “change.” Companies are working to define and navigate a “new normal” and with that comes the evolving importance of experience design. DI continues to showcase our flexibility to partner with large and small organizations, helping them ideate, design and create extraordinary activations across the country. Every day is truly unique, and this year brought its fair share of exceptional projects and partnerships.
We had the opportunity to develop bespoke, branded art pieces made out of life-size turbines (that actually spin!) inside the headquarters of one of the world’s largest airline companies. We fabricated and installed an illuminated, massive two-story exterior sign fabricated to draw eyes from a busy highway over a mile away. With an elegant and complex visitor journey in mind, we also designed an unforgettable exhibit inside a 20’ x 20’ vault that will safely house and showcase tens of millions of dollars worth of collectible cards and magazines.
From technology interactives and meaningful design elements to massive 3D-printed art pieces, clients continue to turn to DI to help create unique, eye-catching pieces inside their spaces.
Looking Ahead – DI is looking forward to continuing our partnership with American Century Investments in their efforts to reimagine their headquarters’ main lobby, aiming to showcase and share over 40+ unique brand stories, values, and key milestones. Through various interactive elements integrated with AR applications and a 25’ tall “Cultivation Wall'' that blends the physical and digital worlds, employees and visitors alike will gain an appreciation and unique understanding of where the firm has been, and more importantly, where they are going.
While hybrid work may be here to stay, the in-person corporate environment is still very much alive. Therefore, enjoyable and well-designed corporate experiences are more important than ever. From value-driven corporate museums to forward-thinking, product-centric innovation centers to highly-customized, tech-driven experience centers, our team is eager to continue pushing the envelope, ideating new ways to tell engaging brand stories that excite, motivate and connect all who enter the space.
HIGHER EDUCATION + STUDENT LIFE
Looking Back – We continue to grow valuable partnerships, both old and new, helping our Higher Education clients create remarkable experiences and spaces that resonate with all who enter – students, recruits, alumni, staff, donors and more. We’ve worked alongside various institutions, not only to tell their unique stories and pay homage to their tenured histories, but also to empower them to serve as market trendsetters.
DI continues to be a part of critical conversations, collaborating with university leaders on how they envision recruitment efforts, fundraising initiatives and immersive tech integration.
Looking Ahead – We have a number of stellar projects coming to life in the new year, and we’re excited to share a sneak peek. The Texas A&M Foundation tasked DI to complete a total design refresh of their Jon L. Hagler Center on campus. Aiming to honor past donors while attracting younger alumni participation, our team and partners transformed the center to reflect the foundation’s values, history and vision, while serving as a modern and approachable facility to support the foundation and its legacy.
We’re growing our trusted partnership with the University of Kansas, now working with them to help create The Jayhawk Welcome Center. This experience is positioned to be one of the “smartest” welcome and visitor centers in Higher Education. Using advanced technology, prospective students will receive a curated and customized journey as they explore all things Kansas Jayhawks through various digital interactives.
There is incredible work being done inside Colorado State University's (CSU) Spur campus. The Denver-based campus is home to a wide variety of agriculture and veterinary research, demonstrations and educational programs. Our team was responsible for creating interactive, real-world exhibits and comprehensive design inside the three facilities: Vida, Terra, and Hydro, which is set to open in 2023. This unique, community-driven initiative will transform food and agriculture across the world while inspiring a new generation of learners
And With That...
We want to express our immense gratitude to our valued partners and clients who continue to embark on this innovative journey with us. None of this would be possible without your collaboration, support and trust. We look forward to what lies ahead, never ceasing to challenge what’s possible in our shared mission to create the world’s most remarkable experiences.
