3 reasons to engage an experiential design agency

What Is Experiential Design?

Experiential Graphic Design (XGD) involves the orchestration of typography, color, imagery, form, technology and, especially, content to create environments that communicate. Examples of this work include way-finding systems, architectural graphics, signage and sign programs, exhibit design, retail design, and themed or branded spaces. Increasingly, XGD involves the use of emerging digital technologies and systems that present dynamic content through motion graphics and make possible rich interactions between a user in a place and the information being provided. Operating at the intersection of communications and the built environment, the field embraces a wide range of disciplines including graphic, architectural, interior, landscape, digital and industrial design.

 

-Peter Dixon, Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD)

Reason 1: Digital Program Strategy

The first reason to engage an experiential design agency is one that many companies sometimes overlook – a digital strategy. In our experience, we’ve often been asked to recommend technology and/or content to create an experience, but when we ask “why”, people are taken aback by the question.

The answer(s) to “why” will always dictate what type of digital technology, hardware, or type of content for us to create or recommend. It’s the reason behind it all. This is usually established in the beginning of a project as a digital program strategy. The digital program strategy will usually involve the following three areas:

1. A strategy to meet required or visionary corporate business objectives
2. A strategy to solve corporate and/or brand communication challenges
3. A strategy to engage in environmental and spatial planning or design

Most experiential design agencies like Array Interactive will provide strategic services to help create a digital program strategy in collaboration with key stakeholders on the client side.

Case Study: ExxonMobil
Corporate Campus Digital Signage Strategy

Array worked closely with ExxonMobil and architectural firm, Gensler to develop a campus-wide corporate digital signage strategy for ExxonMobil’s new 385 acre corporate campus in Houston, Texas that included 26 interactive touch screens within select buildings and over 360 digital signage displays site-wide.
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Reason 2: Custom-tailored Digital Content and Creative

The second reason to engage an experiential design agency is when there is a desire or great need to create a custom, unique experience that can’t be duplicated by templates and off-the-shelf stock images or videos. Huge amounts of money has already been allocated to purchase cutting-edge technologies and hardware, but not enough time has been spent thinking about what content to display to take full advantage of it. The other scenario is that the marketing team only has Powerpoint slides or corporate videos from the website to use, but no true digital content created just for the experience itself.

This scenario is not unique to startup companies. Companies of all sizes have made this mistake by focusing so much on the latest technology that the content is only a side conversation or after thought. Many now realize that content is king and that it makes sense to engage an experiential design agency to conceive and execute for them in the following areas:

• Generate high-level experiential creative concepts
• Visualize and show key brand stories that create an emotional connection
• Create and execute impactful designs and compelling motion graphics

At Array, we’re passionate about being an award-winning experiential design agency that helps companies and organizations of all sizes, from startups to Fortune global companies create custom-tailored content and creative for their digital programs.

Case Study: National Japanese American Historical Society
Interactive Museum Exhibit

Array created a storytelling touch-interactive experience for the National Japanese American Historical Society (NJAHS) Museum in San Francisco to tell the hidden stories of Japanese American Military Intelligence Service soldiers during World War II that helped the United States and its allies win the war in the Pacific.
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Case Study: San Francisco Giants
Branded Social Media Experience

Array was hired by the world champion SF Giants to create a highly branded social media experience for the @Cafe in AT&T ballpark that would engage fans and make them feel a part of the bigger Giants family and franchise.
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Reason 3: Custom-built Experiences and Development

The third reason to engage an experiential design agency is the need to execute on all the custom experiences and content created. Mind-blowing custom experiences such as gesture, proximity, touch-interactive, augmented reality, way finding, social listening data etc. and more usually require custom built development. Similar to developing a standard digital product, a digital experience requires in-depth research, experience, and design from a user (audience) perspective and the engineering firepower to make it happen in three ways:

• Design unique multi-sensory experiences and applications
• Engineer custom technology for custom requirements
• Develop custom visualizations for custom data sets

Array was founded on the belief that innovation and technology fused with beautiful, smart creative could transform how businesses operated and how brands touched their audiences.