W.L. Gore & Associates
Capabilities Center
A global headquarters that seamlessly immerses visitors in story and science
W.L. Gore & Associates challenged Bluecadet with reimagining their global headquarters' sales experience.
Prioritizing user experience, we designed and implemented flexible, docent-led and self-guided tours, seamlessly tailored to individual visitor interests.
Our team created the comprehensive spatial, interactive, and interpretive experience for the Capabilities Center. This choreographed 1-hour immersive journey combines digital storytelling and interpersonal discussion to showcase Gore's capabilities, culture, and commitment to innovation.
Enter Through an Interactive Light Sculpture
Visitors enter the Capabilities Center through a sculptural corridor featuring integrated, motion-triggered lighting animations. The passageway builds anticipation and propels the visitor into the large central exhibition space. The physical design subtly introduces themes, materials, and visual effects that recur throughout the Capabilities Center.
Immersive Theater for Hands-On Science
The heart of the Capabilities Center is an intimate, interactive, immersive theater space. Here, visitors engage in a personalized "show," guided by a docent while interacting with Gore products. Interactive large-scale media explains the complex science behind these products in a way that’s both entertaining and digestible. Dynamic multi-directional sound and lighting, a curved projection screen, and retractable mesh panels create a flexible space for these immersive demonstrations and also group events.
An Awe-Inspiring Product Showcase
A vast, floor-to-ceiling display showcases over 70 product samples, highlighting Gore's impact on industries from apparel to aerospace. Interactive text labels trigger elegant light animations that illuminate related products, offering a captivating visual journey through Gore's innovation.
People Power: A Glimpse into the Hearts of Gore
Gore's success is driven by its people. To showcase the unique talents and perspectives of Gore Associates, Bluecadet produced four engaging videos. An interactive touchscreen allows visitors or the docent to select stories based on their interest. Through a combination of full-scale video portraits, photography, and dynamic graphics, visitors gain a personal connection to the company.
Behind The Scenes of Product Development
At Gore, product performance and quality are paramount. Six mini-laboratories combine custom interactive media and physical demonstrations to reveal Gore's product development and testing process. Each unique laboratory station showcases how Gore ensures top-of-the-line product performance.
Powerful Partnerships
A custom film, produced and shot by Bluecadet at six locations, plays on a 16-foot screen. Showcasing four partners from diverse industries, the film highlights the quality and success of collaborations with Gore. Given the massive custom canvas, Bluecadet shot the film to make visitors feel like they are standing with the interviewees at scale, in their environments. This dynamic visual display also serves as a striking backdrop for events and presentations in the Capabilities Center.
A Lobby with a Mission
The lobby space is a testament to Gore's brand and mission. A custom arrangement of screens showcases the company's global reach through original films and animations inspired by the Eames film "Powers of 10." Ornamental panels highlight Gore's material science expertise. Custom seating and an adjacent cafe space fosters collaboration and connection, embodying the company's promise: together, improving life.
Awards
World Class Briefing Center, Association of Briefing Program Managers
2022
“Emphasis on the company’s core principles, service to communities, the ability to impact the world positively, and their history of innovation comes across with authenticity... making this a premium experience that includes 'surprise & delight' moments along the way.”
-World Class Briefing Center Award Jury, Association of Briefing Program Managers
3D spatial planning to visualize the entire space and programming.
Behind the Scenes:
Creating an award-winning experience
Stellar experiences don’t just ‘happen.’
Ideas and techniques are visualized, prototyped, and tested. These efforts mitigate risk by confirming or disproving assumptions before a project is in it’s final stages of production, when issues are much costlier to fix.
1. Interactive light sculpture conceptual sketch
2. We built a custom, real-time VR visualization of the space to test the scale and design of each program, including the interactive light sculpture
3. Final build of the light sculpture
Projection tests to confirm scale of visual elements, before any hardware has been installed.
Animation of the Lobby media.
Credits:
Client: W.L. Gore & Associates with Anon Design
Concept, Design, Content, and Software Production: Bluecadet (Ellen Freifeld as Executive Producer)
Audio Visual Systems Design and Installation: Diversified
Physical Design and Production: Digsau and The Taylor Group
General Contractor: Whiting Turner
Construction and Project Management: Becker & Frondorf