Client: City of Decatur

Overview

This 1500 square foot Visitor’s Center serves residents and guests of a small, Georgia city. On a minimal budget and with an 8 week start-to-finish timeline, our program included art and retail display, reception, three small offices, secure storage, conferencing, hospitality, a volunteer work area, and a restroom. Throughout the year, this space will function as welcome center, gallery and event space, city gathering place and festival control center.

Goals

To meet the variety of needs, our design puts all surfaces to work displaying art, merchandise and information. With the incorporation of graphics and artwork, we aimed to give residents a sense of ownership over the Visitor's Center. Custom graphics on the refurbished conference table include “six word stories” written by residents about their favorite aspects of the city. Additional graphics framing the exterior storefront glass invite passersby to enter. A printed wall covering features a larger-than-life city map for quick reference. Art hanging systems maximize wall space for display by local artists. The vibrant palette and bold graphics reflect the high energy of this City hot spot.

Process

At the outset of this project, the architect, Brian Randall, provided us with a floor plan. From this, we generated furniture and finishes plans for permit. We also collaborated with the architect on the ceiling design elements and selected all decorative lighting fixtures. We next selected, purchased, and managed installation for all new furniture and furnishings. We also directed the refurbishing of existing furniture and fully designed a pair of custom display fixtures. For the finish plan, we selected paint, carpet tile, wall covering and plastic laminate. To complete the finishes, we worked hand-in-hand with graphic designer, Marcia Lampe, developing graphics for the conference table, exterior storefront glass and printed wall covering. For the final layer, we were commissioned to merchandise the Center’s retail shelves and even created graphic artwork to complement the display.
 

Additional Information

Additional images and final graphics files are available.