When the story of a building calls for an immersive experience, Experiential Graphic Designers know how to rise to a challenge. EGD extends far beyond signage, and can help transform a space into an environment that communicates, educates, welcomes, and inspires.
LS3P officially launched EGD as an in-house service in 2020 with Experiential Graphic Designer Jennifer Boyles at the helm. Visual Communications Designer Ellie Dawson joined the team full-time in 2023, and both Boyles and Dawson are passionate about the impact of their work. “Experiential graphics allow us to saturate the built environment with communication and connection,” Boyles explains. “How we feel about a space dictates our experience within the space – and we as designers can play a big part in creating positive experiences.”
These visual stories are equally effective at the room scale or the city scale. A two-story mural at the entry of Robert Smalls International Academy unites the school community around the inspiring story of its namesake, a former slave who led a daring escape, while a district-scale branding effort for the Myrtle Beach Arts & Innovation District helps to bridge distances across “people, place and time” with a strong identity. At any scale, EGD is most successful and immersive when it integrates fully with the architecture - for example, with weaving images between subtle 3-dimensional “portals” down a hallway as students traverse a graphic timeline. A slight shift of planes accentuates the graphics and creates a sense of progression, but the opportunity arose because the whole team was able to discuss strategy in the conceptual phase.
Hand in hand with architecture and interior design, EGD is a powerful tool to celebrate the community, identity, and story of a place. EGD can help people navigate, or provide information, or inspire; in any case, according to Boyles and Dawson, “people are going to feel something.”
Boyles remembers visiting one of the first EGD projects she designed, the MUSC Children’s Health R. Keith Summey Pavilion, and talking with a parent about her child’s experience of the space. Having experienced frequent doctor’s visits from a young age, this child had learned to be afraid of medical environments and struggled during appointments in other buildings. In the Pavilion’s bright, interactive, and child-friendly environment, however, she loved picking out marine life on the walls and insisted on visiting every floor of the building each time before leaving the building. The EGD transformed the entire patient and family experience.
EGD is a key part of a holistic “branded environment” – one which tells a story of a place in a way that creates a sense of inclusion, shared history, and welcome. It’s also most effective when the EGD team is integrated with the architectural team from the earliest stages of a project. “When we’re involved in the design from the kickoff meeting, we can truly understand the holistic design concept behind a space, and we can find visual ways to represent the ‘gold nugget’ of the design,” says Dawson. “EGD is essentially storytelling. We get to help create spaces where everyone feels included in a shared identity or history.”
Meet the Contributors
As LS3P’s Experiential Graphic Design specialist, Jen Boyles collaborates with the team from the earliest stages of design to develop a comprehensive approach to branding and graphics. She seamlessly integrates these elements with interior design, architecture, and programming to effectively communicate your distinctive vision and culture.
With a fervent drive to bring people and places together, Designer Ellie Dawson, harnesses the power of research and local community assets to inspire peacemaking practices. Drawing upon her extensive background in branding, she relishes the opportunity to creatively solve problems through storytelling and illustration.
“Experiential graphics allow us to saturate the built environment with communication & connection. How we feel about a space dictates our experience within the space - and we as designers can play a big part in creating positive experiences.”