Our process

Developed with you.
Never just delivered
to you.

The standard industry experience: a kickoff meeting, three months of silence, then a big reveal you had no hand in shaping. We built our entire process to be the opposite of that.

0disappearing acts, ever
0phases, one accountable team
0of prototypes tested with real visitors
1roof over design + fabrication

Step by step

Seven phases. You're in the room for all of them.

01

Listen

"What does success look like?"

That question opens every engagement. We interview your stakeholders, walk your floor, and run real community listening sessions — with your actual visitors, educators, and neighbors, not just demographic pulls. It's how we build what your community wants, instead of what a template says they should want. Blake leads these sessions personally, alongside Gretchen Walker — the person our clients consistently describe as the translator between education-world goals and the fabrication floor.

What you getA clear, shared picture of goals, constraints, audiences, and success measures — before money gets spent on design.
Why it mattersConcepts built on listening survive board scrutiny. Concepts built on assumptions don't.
02

Plan

Planning that doubles as a fundraising tool.

Strategic planning, experiential (master) planning, and operational planning — connected, grounded in financial reality, and built to act on. We engage years before funding closes when needed, producing donor-ready concepts and budget frameworks that help your capital campaign succeed. Institutions have used our master plans to raise the money that built the building. Strategy facilitation is led by Jennifer Martin, founding President & CEO of TELUS Spark — she took a $160M science centre from concept through opening and then ran it for seven years, so your board will be planning with someone who has sat in their chair.

What you getA living roadmap: what to build, in what order, at what cost, and how to fund and operate it.
Why it mattersBoards greenlight numbers they trust. Donors give to visions they can see.
03

Design

Your voice, visible in every drawing.

Research, conceptual design, and schematic design — with your team as active co-creators at every inflection point. When concepts are presented, they reflect your institution's own thinking, because you were there when it happened. And since our designers share a building with our fabricators, every drawing is buildable from day one. Design that works on the floor, not just in the portfolio photograph.

What you getA build-ready schematic package your whole leadership team can champion — plus renderings donors actually get excited about.
Why it matters"I'm not sure how we got here" kills projects. Co-creation means you always know.
04

Prototype

Tested by real kids, in real museums.

Prototyping isn't an afterthought here — it's a core design tool. Possibility prototypes test whether a concept is worth developing at all; proof-of-concept prototypes validate mechanics and visitor behavior before we commit to a full build. Through partnerships with working museums, we put prototypes in front of real mixed-age audiences — not a captive test group that tells us what we want to hear.

What you getEvidence, not hope. You never get locked into an exhibit that only worked on a screen.
Why it mattersFixing an idea in foam costs hundreds. Fixing it in steel costs tens of thousands.
05

Build

Engineered for the most destructive force on earth: a three-year-old.

Our 47,000 sq ft Salt Lake City facility houses design, engineering, prototyping, and fabrication under one roof. The people who designed your project work beside the people building it — no translation loss, no handoff failures. Materials are chosen for high-traffic public reality: metal, HDPE, and engineered solutions that survive the daily weight of thousands of visitors without falling apart in three years.

What you getAn installation that matches what was designed, priced with no surprise change orders.
Why it mattersDurability is a budget line. Every repair you don't need is operating money you keep.
06

Install & Open

It arrives resolved, tested, and ready for visitors.

Our team oversees installation on site and tests every interaction before your doors open — so opening day is a celebration, not a punch list.

What you getAn opening with no scrambling: every interactive tested and resolved before your first visitor walks through.
Why it mattersFirst impressions become board impressions. A flawless opening protects the credibility you spent the whole project building.
07

After Opening

The ribbon cutting is day one, not the finish line.

Most vendors disappear the moment the ribbon gets cut. We don't. Every install ships with correct documentation and maintenance materials your operations team can actually use, there's a real person to call for troubleshooting, and when a part needs replacing years after installation, we help you source it. That doesn't end when the warranty does — long after it expires, our clients still call us for remediation, refreshes, and what's-next conversations, and we still answer. We treat a project as unfinished until every issue is resolved, because this is a long-term relationship, not a handoff.

“The project’s not done until it’s done… nobody was tapping out early. That’s a huge part of the decision-making.”

— Nina Dreiling, Director of Exhibits & Facilities, Glazer Children’s Museum
What you getDocumentation and maintenance materials at handoff, a real person to call for troubleshooting, and help sourcing replacement parts — years after installation.
Why it mattersThe fear we hear most from institutions burned before: being ghosted after opening — a manual and a phone number nobody answers. Our clients tell us the opposite: we never leave you out on an island.

Watch it happen

From sketch to opening day.

Built around your realities

We speak board, budget,
and mission. Fluently.

Capital campaigns

Donor-ready renderings, rock-solid budgets, and concept packages built for board packets and major-gift conversations. We're comfortable engaging years before funding closes.

No-surprises budgeting

Transparent pricing, realistic scoping, and proactive communication. You can stand behind our numbers in front of your board — because we stand behind them first.

Architect partnerships

Bring us in at schematic or design development. We contribute constructability insight, execute fabrication under your design leadership, and never compete for your prime contract.

Safety & compliance

Museum-grade engineering discipline, jurisdiction-aware safety compliance, and honest lead times — the rigor attractions procurement demands, without the education cycle.

Questions worth asking

Straight answers. No spin.

Do you compete with our architect for the prime contract?

No. When we're brought in during schematic or design development, we operate as a specialist fabrication partner within your project structure, not a competitor for the prime contract. Our portfolio includes successful collaborations where the architect maintained design leadership throughout.

Can you get involved before our funding is secured?

Yes. We regularly engage years before a project is funded, providing planning consultation and donor-ready concept materials that support capital campaigns. You can bring us in at whatever stage makes sense, from early planning through fabrication-only.

What happens after the exhibit opens? Do you disappear once it's installed?

No. Every install ships with maintenance documentation and care guidance, and if something needs attention later, you're calling the people who built it, not a help desk reading from a script. The ribbon cutting is day one, not the finish line.

Do you only work with museums and science centers?

Museums, science centers, and cultural institutions are our core, but we're expanding into attractions and corporate workplace experience, bringing the same engineering discipline and no-surprises delivery to those arenas that built our museum portfolio.

How is this different from a typical exhibit fabricator?

Most vendors hand off between design and fabrication, which is where scope, budget, and vision usually get lost in translation. Our designers and fabricators work under one roof in Salt Lake City, so the same team carries a project from concept through installation with no handoff failures.

What safety and engineering standards do your exhibits meet?

Every exhibit is engineered for the realities of high-throughput public environments. Durability, safety, and maintainability are treated as non-negotiable standards from the first concept sketch, not an afterthought before installation.

Curious how this
works for your project?

Bring us in at whatever stage makes sense — early planning, design development, or fabrication-only. First conversation's on us.

Let's talk about your project