Environmental Graphics Campaign

Client: Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower)
Creative Firm: Hornall Anderson Design Works - Seattle, WA, USA
Creative Team: Ashley Arhart - Creative Director; Andrew Wicklund - Creative Director; Jamie Monberg - Interactive Director; Jay Hilburn - Designer; Chris Monberg - Interactive Producer; Paula Cox - Production Designer 

When lining up for a trip to the top of the tallest building in North America for the first time, it takes a little acclimation to fully grasp the magnitude of the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower). Seeking to bridge its iconic legacy with its state-of-the-art vision of the future, Skydeck Chicago enlisted Seattle's Hornall Anderson to create an end-to-end immersive Skydeck queuing experience to celebrate this world-renowned tourist destination and demonstrate real connections to the legacy and future of the Tower, while achieving key business goals of increasing visitor traffic and driving additional revenue per guest. Hornall Anderson created three major experiences that blend environmental graphics, digital interaction and sculptural elements designed to engage visitors and encourage visual and tactile interaction. The Tower Room, the Iconic Chicago Room and Skyscrapers-the latter filled with "fun with height" comparisons, which, for example, informs visitors that the Tower is the height of 262 Michael Jordans.

"The scope of the overall project includes the Skydeck identity redesign, visitor queuing experience, movie and elevator ride, with plans to grow the experience design to a more holistic extension," says the agency. "The experience emphasizes creating memories the visitor will never forget, whether virtually looking down from 103 stories high, to learning various factoids about the Tower and the city's cultural life through a mix of digital touch screens, wall graphics and a movie compilation of the Tower's history."