SCADstory Atlanta

SCADstory Atlanta transforms a traditional campus visit into a theatrical, multisensory journey: the first fully immersive brand story ever attempted by a university. Built inside a purpose-designed gallery at an urban art and design campus in Atlanta, it delivers a four-act experience that moves visitors from curiosity to conviction through story, space, and the coordinated language of projection, light, fragrance, and sound.

Agency

Practice Area

Client

Savannah College of Art and Design

Industry

The Challenge

Campus visits typically inform. They rarely inspire. The institution needed a permanent exhibition that could serve two goals simultaneously: move prospective students from consideration to first-choice intent, and contribute meaningfully to Atlanta’s cultural landscape. The solution had to be emotionally resonant, operationally scalable, and genuinely open to the public. Not a closed recruitment tool, but a cultural destination with a scholarship mission built into its access model.

Project Vision

SCADstory Atlanta was conceived as proof that an exhibition can do what a brochure, a website, or a conventional campus tour cannot: place a visitor inside a living story and make them feel, not just understand, that they belong. The vision was to create a permanent cultural destination with a clear narrative arc, one that moves visitors through four distinct spatial acts, ending with a simple, powerful statement: This Is Your Place. More than 70 students, alumni, and faculty contributed to design and production, transforming the project into a living demonstration of the institution’s core educational proposition: that creative mastery happens through doing.

A sitcom set springs to life with holographic storytelling, blending nostalgia with innovation.

BRC Imagination Arts

The gallery’s colors swirl into the acorn as fog rolls in — setting the stage for a dream in motion.

BRC Imagination Arts

Design + Execution

An animated version of the university’s founder guides visitors through four acts: a gallery alive with student and alumni work; a corridor of light that opens into discovery; a 360° dream box where imagery, fragrance, and music converge; and a finale where every element builds to an emotional crescendo. Pixel-accurate projection mapping, achieved through laser-scanned environments and UV-mapped surfaces, turns walls, floors, and architectural details into a unified storytelling canvas. A signature miniature set moment features a holographic illusion of the guide appearing within a physical model, blending digital performance and tangible space. Real-time generative lighting responds to time-coded narrative cues, producing particles, ribbons, and directional wipes that appear to emit from surfaces rather than spill onto them. Three custom fragrances, introduced at specific narrative peaks through DMX-controlled diffusion, evoke the institution’s campuses in France and Savannah and Atlanta’s own creative energy. The original score, composed for a custom modular synthesizer layered with live orchestral textures, is presented in 360° immersive audio, reinforcing narrative movement through tone rather than text. The exhibition opened in May 2025 after approximately 37 months of development and is free and open to the public with a suggested scholarship donation. Post-visit surveys show a measurable rise in visitors naming the institution as their first choice for enrollment, with many citing the experience as the deciding factor.

In the Dream Box, the Atlanta skyline appears on dimensionally through the magic of projection mapping.

BRC Imagination Arts

From Georgia to Provence — the experience transports guests to SCAD’s global campus in Lacoste. The scent of lavender wafts through the air.

BRC Imagination Arts

The Oculus ignites. We are transported through time — landing in a moment of celebration and growth.

BRC Imagination Arts

A high-energy visual symphony: SCAD Atlanta bursts to life in a celebration of creativity, culture, and community.

BRC Imagination Arts

A glowing portal opens — inviting guests to continue their journey through SCAD’s world of creativity.

BRC Imagination Arts

  1. Student work spanning more than two dozen disciplines comes to life across the entry gallery, establishing the creative community visitors are being invited to join as the immersive narrative begins.

  2. An ‘umbilical table’ organizes eclectic yet powerful content into the chronological stages of pregnancy, to help guide the visitor.

    BRC Imagination Arts

  3. The gallery’s colors swirl into the acorn as fog rolls in — setting the stage for a dream in motion.
    BRC Imagination Arts

  4. In the Dream Box, the Atlanta skyline appears on dimensionally through the magic of projection mapping.

    BRC Imagination Arts

  5. From Georgia to Provence — the experience transports guests to SCAD’s global campus in Lacoste. The scent of lavender wafts through the air.

    BRC Imagination Arts

Project Details
The piece itself speaks to the range of specialized talents and skills nurtured by its programs. I’m sure visitors are engaged and impressed by the level of artistry and creativity of the transporting experience.
Juror 1
This takes the campus visit experience to another level, pushing the boundaries of what’s expected for this type of visitor center – creating a multi-sensory environment as a direct, and living, example of the educational offering and institutional identity.
Juror 2
Design Team

BRC Imagination Arts

Collaborators

Blur Workshop (architect)
ID3 Group (physical fabrication)
Entech Innovative Engineering (physical fabrication)
Rosebrand (physical fabrication)
Stimulant (digital fabrication)
TechMDinc
X-Laser
NYXdesign
Michail by Michail Sykianakis
Henchmen
Eyebolls ltd
Erik Desiderio Music
Emery & Associates
EarsUp Sound Design
digiLED (HK) Ltd.
dandelion + burdock
Clearwing Systems Integration
Black Wolf Productions

Photo Credits

BRC Imagination Arts (photography, videography)

Open Date

May 2025

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