Myth-Understood: Octopus Exhibit

[Exhibition and Experience Design]

Project Tasks:

Brand Development
Concept Development
Graphic Identity
Space Planning and Design
3D Modeling
Rendering

Tools:

Rhino 3D
Enscape
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Illustrator

Title:

Myth-Understood: Octopus Exhibit

Project Brief

For this project, I worked within a team of 3 to develop a brand and experience for our chosen animal, the Octopus, in the Central Park Zoo. In order to create interest in the Octopus without having the actual animal within the exhibit, my team and I designed an immersive experience that brings visitors into their underwater habitat. My role in our team was to help to research and develop the concept and to lead on the design/model of the exhibit.

Research

This project started with research within our group on the audience of Central Park Zoo as well as our chosen animal the Octopus. We found many unique facts about the animal and used that as well as myths that Octopi have shown up in to establish our Big Idea and concept direction.

Site Analysis: Central Park Zoo

The Central Park Zoo is a 6.5-acre zoo located at the southeast corner of Central Park at the heart of New York City. It is part of an integrated system of four zoos and one aquarium managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

Audience Analysis

Big Idea

MYTH

Octopus’s incredible intelligence has been viewed as threatening throughout history, thus being depicted as villainous creatures in myth and popular culture.

Mission Statement

VS

Octopus Research - Key Facts

Largest brain-to-body ratio of any invertebrate
8 arms, 9 brains (in each arm)
Can recognize human faces, develop bonds and biases against particular people
Females sacrifice their health to raise and protect their young, usually dying because of this
The Kraken is the best known cephalapod creature that was known to terrorize soldiers off the coasts of Norway and Greenland
In Japanese mythology, the octopus, known as Akkorokamui, is seen to have healing properties due to their ability to regenerate limbs. Individuals will leave tribute to aid in recovery

TRUTH

Octopus’s emotional intelligence are what allows them to defend their young and develop relationships with humans. In actuality, they mean no real harm to us and are often threatened by human activities like overfishing and habitat destruction.

Concept Design

After finishing the brand research, I decided on having the experience placed in Bryant Park. The targeted audience of NYT Games fit well with the park and I established the Big Idea of the experience. From there, I began ideating through mood boards and sketches to create the concept for the experience.

Location: Bryant Park

Concept - Mini Morning

In this 10-15 minute experience, visitors get a taste of the most popular three games of the New York Times Games App. Integrated into the setting of a morning routine, visitors play Wordle on the bathroom mirror, Connections on the subway platform, and do a collective crossword in a cafe.

Sketches

Mood Board

Storyboard + Final Design

As I moved on from the ideation phase of the project, I created a storyboard to show how a visitor would move through the experience. In the design of each space created, I used the iconic colors related to each game to help differentiate betweeen each area.

Storyboard