Creating an exhibition design necessitates a profound comprehension of the craft. It involves employing visual storytelling techniques to craft a thoughtfully curated environment that seamlessly blends various disciplines, resulting in an immersive and captivating experience for the audience.
In the modern digital era, exhibition designs have transcended the boundaries of traditional art museums and heritage parks. Now, technology-driven artworks take center stage, utilizing cutting-edge technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) to transport the audience to unprecedented dimensions. These exhibitions enable visitors to virtually participate and directly interact with the showcased artworks or products.
The creation and successful launch of an exhibition design demand significant effort, often requiring the expertise of an experienced designer or a reputable exhibition design company.
Outlined below are the top 5 premier exhibition design companies of 2023:
1 Lorem Ipsum
Overview
Founded in 2000, Lorem Ipsum Corp. specializes in telling rich and dynamic stories that infuse physical and digital properties. It comprises global content creation companies catering to museum planning, marketing, film production, and immersive experience design. Over the years, they have worked with international brands like Google, Snapchat, Estee Lauder, Ralph Lauren, YouTube, and more.
Services
The experience design studio of Lorem Ipsum Corp. is in charge of exhibition design projects. It is globally renowned for its approach, combining art, technology, and storytelling to immerse and engage its audiences. The studio offers a range of services, including project planning, graphic design, 3D modeling, interactive development (AR & VR), and even AV integration.
It begins with a discussion of the aims, objectives, and type of audience a client wishes to attract. As the exhibition design company, Lorem Ipsum's job is to transform this knowledge into a memorable experience. With decades of experience in media and filmmaking, the company views the project through the lens of storytelling. It utilizes narrative as a tool to create an immersive experience for the target audience.
Lorem Ipsum also utilizes technology as a tool for its storytelling, like in its work on its exhibition called Warmth of Yamal, where the company made use of large-scale mixed-media models, multimedia programs, as well as physical and digital interactives to immerse the audience in the culture of the indigenous people and the landscape of Yamal Peninsula.
The experience design studio is focused on the results with an experience-first approach. Lorem Ipsum carefully creates its exhibition design to match the narrative intended by the client to achieve impactful experiences, resulting in client satisfaction.
2 formula D_
Overview
formula D_ design experiences that matter. This exhibition design company is a pioneer in creating immersive exhibits and visitor experiences using leading-edge media technology. The company is known for the works like Wonderdal Kids' Edutainment Centre, Museum of Science & Technology in Islam, and the Immersive Gulf Stream Experience, a large-scale audiovisual interactive exhibit commissioned for the Frost Science Museum in Miami.
Yet its work is not solely for impression and recognition. The mission of formula D_ is to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), inspiring people to act for positive global change. The company pushes the SDG agenda with its existing clients and refuses to work for destructive industries or on projects with a history of human and animal rights abuses.
Services
Every successful exhibit launch begins with a well-planned strategy. formula D_, partners with its client to craft a "vision document," equipped with 3D renders or a video walkthrough, to demonstrate the exhibit design. The company also takes in the feasibility of a project that not only captivates audiences but also drives business ROI.
Once strategies are in place, formula D_ lays the foundation of the project's success through a holistic design process. This considers the visitor experience, design of the interactive product, communication design, and so on.
When everything is set, the in-house technical production team of formula D_ takes charge of the installation of the exhibition design and monitors the experience post-installation to ensure that the exhibit runs smoothly.
3 EPM Agency
Overview
EPM Agency, a global marketing agency, is deeply committed to the art of storytelling. Its expertise lies in exhibitions and experiences, with additional services spanning apps, 3D & animation, film, web, and marketing. Regardless of the project's diversity, the common thread that ties everything together is the agency's ability to convey brand values, vision, and mission through storytelling.
Established in 1999 as Electropages, an online content marketing publication with close ties to the electronics industry, EPM Agency ignited a passion for exploring the extraordinary and finding innovative solutions for modern challenges. Later, it was acquired by Mouser Electronics, one of its clients, with the vision of transforming Electropages into a leading agency in digital marketing.
To fulfill this ambition, EPM Agency strategically acquired like-minded innovative agencies such as Zeta and spiderJar, rounding out its services and solidifying its position as one of the world's top digital agencies. With over 90 in-house experts in digital marketing, exhibition design, and experiential marketing, the agency has become a master storyteller, evident in the success of every project it has undertaken over the years.
Currently, EPM Agency boasts a 15000 sq. ft. studio space housing its 90 employees. It has served prestigious brands across Europe, America, and Asia, with clients viewing the agency as equal intellectual partners working collaboratively rather than mere service providers. The company offers a free discovery session to discuss the partner's brand experience goals, all delivered through digital storytelling. To date, EPM Agency has successfully executed over 300 projects each year.
Services
Services offered by EPM Agency revolve around creating brand experiences that forge valuable connections with audiences. Equipped with multiple studios and a seasoned digital team, the agency excels in seamlessly blending the physical and digital realms to bring visions to life, regardless of complexity or urgency.
Exhibitions
Exhibition design is one of the agency's specialties, and unlike agencies that merely generate ideas, EPM Agency proactively executes them. With cutting-edge equipment, including motion capture and immersive virtual experiences, the in-house team collaborates closely with clients to establish project requirements and objectives before assigning a specialist team to execute the design. EPM Agency even provides mock-ups, roadmaps, or sample demonstrations to ensure alignment before embarking on new projects.
Experience
For immersive experiences that improve brand perception, EPM Agency collaborates with its technology partners to create captivating experiences utilizing 3D content, film, virtual reality, and physical interactions. Employing the hero's journey approach to storytelling, the agency skillfully incorporates sensory marketing to evoke emotions in audiences and deliver an emotionally-rich experience.
Technology plays a supportive role in amplifying the brand experience rather than being the focal point. The key is harmoniously integrating the physical and digital elements to craft a seamless and immersive encounter for the audience.
EPM Agency's expertise is evident in projects like Electronica, where they crafted an AR experience using embedded LEDs in a tabletop landscape designed from 86 perspective sheets. This allowed for collective engagement without compromising the quality of the exhibition design.
Companies seeking to elevate their exhibition designs and create lasting, emotionally impactful experiences for audiences can rely on EPM Agency's exemplary use of technology and storytelling prowess. With the agency's touch, audiences feel like they've embarked on a personal hero's journey during the exhibit, leaving them with vivid memories and a strong emotional connection to the brand.
4 Chick Russel & Company
Overview
Chick Russell & Company (CR&C) is an award-winning creative development company known for its extraordinary designs in themed entertainment venues, a sample application of exhibition design. The company specializes in location-based experiences, combining story-driven environments with next-generation media, physical effects, and interactive gameplay for everyone to enjoy.
For each project the company undertakes, CR&C organizes teams of industry experts, including designers, estimators, schedulers, and fabricators. The company provides a variety of services that target every aspect of the exhibition design projects, including planning, management, and production, as well as the owner's representation.
Services
Similar to the approach of other exhibition design companies, CR&C begins every project with a thorough understanding of the objectives as well as the mission and vision of the company to lay down the foundation of the exhibit. The project audience must also be established to determine the reaction the exhibit wants to solicit.
Once everything is documented and approved by the client, CR&C designs a mock-up to test key concepts, ensuring it's aligned with the overall theme of the exhibition design. The company oversees the production of all designs, testing and adjusting all the elements to successfully create a well-rounded experience for the audience once they get to interact with the exhibit.
The amount of attention and effort poured by CR&C is rewarded in the end, as evidenced by its work for various theme parks like the Transformers: The Ride-3D in Universal Studios Hollywood. Theme-park goers are immersed in the experience through the synchronized movement of roving flight simulator robot vehicles while their senses are overpowered by motion, heat, wind, and water effects. Well-received by the audience, it won the Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement and the International 3D Society Lumiere Award for 3D Technology.
5 Roto
Overview
Roto is an exhibition design company and a custom fabrication firm operating within an ecosystem of multidisciplinary studios. The teams of both groups collaborate to create inspiring, immersive spaces. The company has a strategic planning studio where analytical and creative ideas are generated and an experience design studio where design solutions are implemented.
Moreover, Roto has an immersive media studio where artists, designers, developers, and engineers gather to create immersive installations and interactive spaces using modern technologies like AR/VR, gesture control, sensors, and so on to integrate into the exhibition design. Lastly, other electronics are handled by the interactive engineering studio, and other exhibit components like architectural interiors are done at its custom fabrication shop.
Services
The services of Roto have materialized in several locations: museums, science centers, zoos, aquariums, brand experiences, and architectural spaces. In its work for the Museum of Science and Industry Chicago, Roto provided an exhibit detail design, demolition and renovation of plane interiors, reinstallation of new plane fixtures, and fabrication of plane interior and exterior to transform its Take Flight exhibit.
To modernize its signature 1964 United Airlines Boeing 727, Roto needed to strip the plane to its core to upgrade it into a multi-sensory aircraft where the audience could immerse themselves in the era of early jet travel. A replacement was also needed in the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, where Roto had to upgrade its 9000 square-foot, collection-based exhibit Space Odyssey.
By providing services like immersive media design, A/V system integration, interactive engineering, and other design solutions, Roto seamlessly integrated science, nature, art, technology, and pop culture to foster a deeper understanding among the museum visitors. As an exhibition design company and fabrication firm, it has done its job to create an immersive environment where the audience can interact and learn first-hand from the various collections displayed at Space Odyssey.
Conclusion
Overall, these top 5 best exhibition design companies display a proven track record of successful exhibits that are well-received by their target audience and the projects' clients. While they are similar in their approaches, their executions differ to meet the exhibit's objective. Each one ensures an overall immersive experience after installation.
Artists, business owners, and creative directors can leverage these five best exhibition design companies to plan, design, and build exhibits that resonate with different kinds of audiences. After all, even with the latest technologies, creativity still lies in the talent and skills of the exhibition designer and the fabricators.
