Great Walls of Children’s

Central Ohio native helps create hospital’s new look

By Duane St. Clair

When . Nationwide Children’s Hospital opens the doors to its new wing in June, patients and visitors walking the halls will get an eyeful of strategic graphic design.

Behind that design is Upper Arlington High School graduate Wes Kull, the lead graphic designer for the wing. Kull, who currently lives in New York City, works for Ralph Applebaum Associates Inc., which bills itself as the largest interpretive museum design firm in the world.

His path took him from UA to the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Pratt Institute, then eventually to Applebaum, where he interned before getting hired full-time.

During Kull’s time at the firm, the team he works on has produced an artistic wallmounted world press freedom map in the Newseum in Washington, D.C.; displays entitled Pompeii: Life and Death in the Shadow of Vesuvius and Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times in Discovery, a Times Square museum; and a display about John Lennon at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in New York.

Kull’s work is visible throughout the environmental graphics and displays in the new Nationwide Children’s Hospital wing. He volunteered for the fouryear project as soon as it arrived at Applebaum’s door.

The intent of the design is to make the hospital less like a traditional hospital, without hindering staffers’ abilities to do their jobs. Interior design can be distracting if it is too colorful or creates an uncomfortable atmosphere, Kull says.

His main role was wall graphics, including “way finding” – the use of colors and artwork to direct visitors to their destinations. The pastel color-coded wall designs and paths on each floor add to the brightness created by large windows in halls and reception areas.

Kull’s work also included dioramas depicting nature scenes in niches along hallways, large green fiberglass trees and 18 large wooden animals made by Mansfield-based Carousel Works, all of it aimed at bringing the outdoors inside and making patients and families – especially children – feel more at ease.

The team was careful to consider health codes when any departures from traditional hospital décor were made. Aquariums, for example, “are a kind of tricky thing” so there’s only one in the emergency room and none in other areas, Kull says. “Hospitals have to be hospitals.”

The next step in Kull’s career will be coming home for opening ceremonies at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, scheduled for June 9-11. cs