Austin's Harry Ransom Center uses environmental graphics to unveil its mission and collections.
The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, the University of Texas at Austin’s renowned literary archive, is home to some of the world’s most valuable cultural treasures. Its collections include one of only 48 copies of the Gutenberg Bible, a rare first edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and one of Jack Kerouac’s spiral-bound journals for On the Road.
A new children's hospital with LEED ambitions takes an organic approach to wayfinding.
It’s not often that hospital wayfinding systems are created from the ground up, but when new construction is involved, designers have a rare opportunity to integrate wayfinding cues into the architectural fabric of the building. And when that hospital is built to LEED standards, a whole new vocabulary of materials and processes is created.
Merje (West Chester, Pa.) has been selected to develop the Downtown Austin, Texas, Wayfinding Master Plan. MERJE is leading a multi-disciplined team that will design a comprehensive wayfinding strategy for the city, including technology applications, signage, printed support materials, maps, and urban gateways.
Jason has a bachelor’s degree in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas and received his MBA from Texas A&M University – Commerce. He has worked in the LED display and lighting industry for eleven years with Mark IV, Philips, and Sansi.
The Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin houses thirty million literary manuscripts, one million rare books, five million photographs, and over 100,000 works of art. Highlights include the Gutenberg Bible (c. 1455) and the world's first photograph (c. 1826). Both the Bible case and the first photo case were displayed in the lobby of the Center and viewed in such a way that best represented their individual history, without obscuring the entrance. The displays allowed the viewer to walk around and fully experience the objects.
Austin's Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority is on the cusp of significant expansion including a new park-and-ride initiative, new technology-enhanced vehicles, the addition of a commuter rail, and a dramatic growth in its service levels. fd2s was selected to provide comprehensive experience design services covering existing and planned transit offerings.
In the shadow of Brach's, twenty-eight massive wooden posts stand in an orderly rectangular configuration. Painted creosote black, the east and west faces of the posts are inscribed with the job titles of members of the Austin community. The north and south sides are inscribed with descriptive words these workers use to explain their job experience. The north contains negative descriptions and the south contains positive words. The skeletal configuration of the blackened posts mirrors the massive, unoccupied Brach's factory structure across the street.
