W. L. Gore
Best known for their signature product Gortex, W. L. Gore & Associates is a global materials science company dedicated to discovery, product innovation, and improving lives. Their Capabilities Center in Newark, Delaware, showcases the company’s heritage to partners, customers, and visitors. With architectural partner Digsau, we created a series of experiences that highlight Gore’s capabilities, culture, and innovation.
The Advanced Materials Interactive Theater
This immersive theater offers hands-on experiences with Gore product samples. When placed on a central RFID-enabled table, samples trigger animated immersive moments that explain their properties and capabilities. Gore Associates provide personalized tours, deepening visitors' understanding of the science behind their innovations. Featuring dynamic sound and lighting, a curved projection screen, and retractable mesh panels, the spiral space supports a range of immersive experiences and group events.
Testing the User Experience
Gore’s products are incredibly complex feats of engineering, difficult to unpack and share. We worked closely with their team, building explorable renderings, content tests, and physical mockups, and collaboratively problem-solved for the nuanced storytelling needs.
An interactive VR tour helped validate the spiral experience for both the client and potential visitors.
Low-fidelity scale mockups helped us understand the nuances of the Associate’s presentation approach. They also validated scale, and the need for supportive elements like labels.
High-Fidelity Prototypes
Once the scale and form factor were validated, we began testing content at scale, and in high resolution. Within this setting, we could review the complex story and interface details. We also identified opportunities we hadn’t seen previously, like the impact of revealing the PTFE structure across the entire projection surface.
“Bluecadet is a deeply collaborative partner. Throughout this project, they challenged our assumptions and pushed us to identify true north: the ultimate vision of the new Capabilities center. Bluecadet was the compass guiding us towards that vision along the two-year journey from concept to completion, they delivered in a way that exceeded our expectations and has already delighted thousands of visitors”
Credits
Executive Creative Directors
Troy Lachance, Brad Baer
Creative Director
Bradon Webb
Art Director
Katie Savage
Narrative Lead
Ksenia Dynkin
Spatial Designer
Eli Robbins
Project Management
Victoria Jones, Liz Quann
Interactive Designers
Alyssa Hamilton, Jillian Hammer
Motion Designers
Aaron Richardson, Devon Burgoyne, Siji Chen
Technology Lead
Ben Bojko
Technologists
Weili Shi, Adiel Fernandez, Kevin Zakszewski