Client: KID Museum
The Challenge:
KID Museum has run a region-wide festival for seven years, attracting over 15,000 people. Most attendees left without knowing who KID Museum was or what it had to do with the festival. My challenge was to better convey the KID Museum brand and create an unforgettable visitor experience.
The Outcome:
I have never been as proud of KID as I am today. We put on an incredible event that brought all of our work to the next level. Thank you for your professionalism and dedication to make this an off the charts experience for everyone involved. I think all who attended got a fuller understanding of what KID is all about and there was renewed energy and commitment from our supporters to realize our vision.
Design Thinking
When we began planning, I knew I had to bring people together to create a shared vision. Could a collaborative process, based in design thinking, bring the organization into alignment? I ran a series of sessions with all staff, using brainstorming rules from human-centered design and affinity mapping the themes. It was exciting to see a collective vision emerge. Inspired by immersive experiences like Meow Wolf and Burning Man – we envisioned a “KID City” – where kids created an installation over the course of the day, using their maker skills. I created prototypes of KID City elements and we tested prototypes with kid visitors.
KID Makers
Several thousand kids contributed to KID City over the course of the five hour festival. Kids wired LEDs, used drill presses, activated sensors, designed cars and helped build some of the city structures.
Skill-building
Exploration
Perseverance
Empathy
Imagination
Initiative
“Street Signs” helped visitors navigate the City – and each stop provided a different kind of interaction.
What would visitors do with 1,200 laser-cut triangles? Facilitation proved key here, as Educators encouraged strangers to collaborate to build larger structures. It was a fantastic experience for all ages! Three triangle designs were used, and dichoric film was applied to one design to add visual interest.
Inspired by the incredible art of Yayoi Kusama, I designed a mirrored, black-light infinity room. At the start of the festival, this room was starkly decorated with neon trees. Kids worked at build stations to make designs, add LED lights, and then ‘plant’ their creation in the room, where fans spun the designs and added movement. The experience grew more dynamic and visually compelling over the course of the day, as hundreds of kids added their designs.
Kids had ten minute turns at Maker Highway, to make a car of their own design and test it on our track. They could change axle position, wheel size and weights to see if they could get the car down the track. The track is now one of KID Museum’s most popular school programs.
Sensors are a critical part of KID Museum’s robotics and coding programs with kids – so I wanted to introduce the power of sensors in a fun and interactive way. Each ‘house’ on Sensor Street was powered by a different type of Sensor – and visitors were prompted to Move, Touch, Stomp and Shine a light to discover how the sensors worked. The ‘Street’ incorporated motors, arduinos, and conductive paint, as well as light, distance and pressure sensors.
Integrating the five largest immigrant communities of Montgomery County was a critical part of FutureFest. Each community had interactive booths and performances, and the message of “Our Community, Our World” was brought together in KID City. At the Cultural Crossroads station, visitors designed an art piece using fabrics from around the world, and then added to a collaborative wall. The exhibit was designed to be portable and is currently on display at a local mall as part of a wider cross-cultural community celebration.
Families used ropes of different weights and thicknesses to weave tree trunks of their own design. We were surprised to find that some families spent over an hour just designing trees! The trees started with bare trunks and the designs grew with every collaborative addition.
The Ribbon Pavilion was an experiential structure and sensory experience. The center opened up to a small ‘room’ with an open ceiling. Many kids went through the Pavilion over and over (and over!) again. Adults enjoyed it as much as kids.
Many kids experienced the thrill of using a drill press for the first time, as they cut their pieces of wood for Woodley Way. The dowel structure grew over the course of the day. Kids drilled and decorated wood pieces, and then used a hammer to add their creations. Wood Warren doesn’t look like a polished exhibit and that is the point – it was made collaboratively by kids, and the process was the key, not the finished product.
Success
In the end, “KID City” was a resounding success. In the event surveys, there was an alignment between what we wanted visitors to experience and what they liked best about the festival. Using words like ‘interactive, creative, hands-on, sensory, experiential, diversity, culture’ – visitors described the very experience we wanted them to have. Visitors overwhelmingly expressed an interest to explore maker learning further at KID Museum. In addition, I led an internal process that was positive and fun. It was a collaborative build as well as a collaborative visitor experience, and we were able to create a transformational learning environment that has lived on after the festival.
Role
I played three roles in this project:
- Creative Director – managing the visual design and overall visitor experience.
- Project Manager – overseeing teams across two sites, presenting to the Board of Directors, recruiting sponsors.
- Fabricator – operating power tools, programming sensors, and putting city structures together.
