Unbound Visitor Experience
For the Unbound Visitor Experience, I helped transform the organization’s Kansas City headquarters into a fully immersive, story-driven environment that brought Unbound’s mission, global work, and the lives of the people it serves into the physical space.
My role went far beyond creating wall graphics. I was deeply involved in shaping the look, feel, flow, and functionality of the experience from concept through installation. I developed environmental graphics, wayfinding, signage, donor recognition, floor graphics, wall treatments, and branded visual systems, while also helping determine materials, colors, lighting, sound, and how visitors would physically move through the space.
I was hands-on with many of the environmental details. I helped select floor treatments and finishes, planned paint colors, worked through electrical and lighting needs, and helped install motion-activated audio speakers that brought recorded stories into the experience. I edited sound, helped determine where audio should live within the space, and contributed to creating a multimedia room that could function for films, presentations, and conferences.
I also curated stories, photography, and artifacts from Unbound’s field work around the world, helping determine what should be shown, how it should be presented, and how individual stories could support the larger narrative. That included working with content from different countries and cultures and finding ways to make the experience feel personal, respectful, and emotionally engaging rather than simply informational.
On the production side, I worked closely with printers, fabricators, installers, architects, internal stakeholders, and outside vendors to carry the design through to completion. I prepared large-format artwork, reviewed proofs, coordinated installations, applied vinyl graphics, helped troubleshoot materials and physical conditions on site, and made adjustments as the environment came together.
The result was a cohesive visitor experience that combined graphic design, storytelling, multimedia, interiors, sound, lighting, artifacts, and environmental design into one unified brand experience. It was one of those projects where I had to think like a graphic designer, art director, production designer, exhibit designer, and problem-solver all at once.
Interactive letter-writing wall.
Entry to experience.
Circular feature of Unbound's history. I added a motion speaker to play songs and speeches from the founders.
Entry with pine needle logo rug. Pine needles are laid out like red coarpet in some Latin countries. The India viewing room was also designed by me, including the archway and paint. Paint was Benjamin Moore specifically to match Unbound’s Pantone colors.
Zig-zag walls feature individuals served. Home replica features large spatial images of villages and motion-activated speaker with sounds from villages around teh world. Installed and edited by yours truly.
Galvanized metal wall is magnetized for posting announcements.
I planned all the lighting, electrical, paint, ceiling and floori treatment. I installed movable lights on top of each wall and installed motion activated sound in the space. I also installed smaller graphics and other features.
Dark to light wood wall was created to have customizable shelving to display important artifacts. Designed and installed by yours truly.
Before:
For fun, this was the unfinished space. I created lightweight banners to hang in between walls, and others created displays out of old pallets and things found in our warehouse.
Production
Here are just some of the production files I created to help our team visualize the overall space and determine fixtures, materials and the story. I had no 3D software, just an old iMac and Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to mock all this up and produc3e the final files.
