The National Postal Museum was granted a gift by Pitney Bowes for roughly $3.5M. Many people were involved in this project. I was contracted by Multimedia Resources, Inc to design the game and UI experience mostly. Other east coast participants, ROC Group did the interior texture, fabrication and laser alignment. Both groups worked on the holograms and sound isolation technology. As the experience designer, I interacted and participated in many design decisions.
This is the outside entry to the National Postal Museum.
And stepping inside…
You arrive at the courtyard or atrium with exhibits about the early days of mail.
Our exhibit was at the end of the chronological tour, more about the future of direct mail and demographic targeting, later coined ‘narrowcasting’. This was the entry.
It started with a bronze of J.W. Woolworth, often considered the father of direct marketing. In the frame behind him we projected a hologram of his ghost welcoming visitors to the exhibit.
Turning the corner put a visitor into a three-chambered display, with holograms of each L.L. Bean, Burpee and Tiffany ghosts also hologram projected onto the frames and plate glass.
The ghosts were all played by a talented Disney actor in costume and character.
Because we expected close proximity as visitors toured the audio/video kiosks and displays, we installed sound isolation domes over each station. The audio being played could only be heard while standing directly under the dome.
This shot shows the array of laser projects in the ceiling scaffolding. They projected colored images of mailing entities on the wall, and synchronized those projections to actually turn corners by leaving one projector where another picks up.
These Sony RGB projectors were used for the two-panel display games, and to project the visitors images on screen.
Three dual-panel stations are shown here, with UPC slots for visitor identification for game play.
The exhibit was lit warmly and had a nice marblesque feel with modern brushed metal.
At the end of the exhibit was a machine (by Pitney Bowes of course) that would collate your game scores and info, add a Smithsonian brochure, print postage and mail to the address the visitor provided, for them to find in their mailbox at home after their visit, demonstrating and reinforcing the power of direct mail.
