Philosophy

Leading by Listening

We ask a lot of questions and do a lot of listening. Inclusiveness is woven into the basic fabric of our approach. We identify key project stakeholders and actively involve them throughout the planning and design process. Our mission is to help our clients achieve their goals, and to enable their vision to shape the design.

 
Visitors Come First

We design from a guest’s perspective, and we always seek to learn as much as possible about the audiences for our projects. Who will come, and why? What do they want and need to know? Only by understanding our visitors can we create effective experiences.

 
Enthusiasm is Infectious

We feel strongly that interpretation must be approachable and entertaining. We love what we do, and we look for ways to share our own enthusiasm with visitors, stimulating their curiosity and providing the tools they need to explore on their own, encouraging inquiry and discovery.

 
Continuity and Flexibility

We tend to favor a thematic approach to interpretive content development. This allows greater flexibility in visitor circulation patterns and also enables us to target specific content in individual experience components. To ensure continuity we establish clear conceptual linkages among project components.

 
Diverse Learning Styles

We try to offer multiple encounters with a project’s key themes, presented in different ways. Our goal is to serve multiple learning styles, identifying compatible and complementary techniques for expressing and reinforcing core content messages.

 
Appropriate Technology

We feel strongly that content drives design. We strive to match media and methodologies with content, context, and objectives. Sometimes the best solution involves sophisticated technologies, but sometimes it can be remarkably simple.

 
Durability and Sustainability

We recognize that the development, design, and fabrication of interpretive experiences is a complex and costly enterprise, and we are serious about sustainability. Simplicity, durability, and long-term operational efficiency are paramount concerns. It doesn’t matter how clever a concept is if the device doesn’t work when a guest tries to use it.