Last month, Solutions By Design reported on DARPATech 2007 and how Production Plus produced a show booth for DARPA STO, the Strategic Tactics Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.  This booth was an audio-visual tour de force, featuring 44 plasma monitors and all of STO’s latest projects–a remarkable technical feat in such a small area.  This month, SBD reports on the second half of the project: another booth at the same trade show, this one for the Virtual Space Office.  VSO is a subdivision of both DARPA-STO and DARPA-TTO (Tactical Technology Office).  It’s mission: space flight.

The DARPA VSO booth.

“Their goal for the past seven years, as I understand it, was to make space launches more cost effective,” summarizes David Cushing, creative director for Williams/Gerard Productions and this project.  “VSO achieved that goal with three spectacular launches.  They wanted to celebrate that in their booth–and also to inspire their visitors with the grandeur of their work.”  The VSO project managers were proud of their work, and justifiably so.  Space launches are tremendously delicate operations and very expensive.  3 successful launches in seven years at a reduced cost is a phenomenal achievement.

VSO had many technological and procedural advances to share, but they wanted to produce a different kind of booth from their sister agencies.  The STO booth, for example, was filled with models, prototypes, and presentations; this was common for DARPATech2007 this year, where the DARPA agencies all wanted to display their many triumphs.  VSO understood that their work tapped into something that the other agencies did not have access to; the magic and mystery of space itself.  And they wanted to capitalize on that.

“VSO came to Williams/Gerard with a fascinating design brief,” relates Cushing, “that asked for a booth that was not cluttered with models.  VSO had half the space that the other offices had (a 15’ x 30’ footprint instead of a 30’ x 30’ square) and they wanted something eye-catching.  They gave us great leeway to come back to them with great design.”  WGP submitted two potential designs.  “They chose the one that would become the final right away.  They didn’t change a thing–loved it from the beginning.”

The long, sweeping wings of the graphic panels, the video presentation, and the overhead screen were in the proposal from the earliest drafts.  Designer Paul Fujihara worked with WGP to capture the elusive feelings that accompany the mystery of our universe.  He started with a simple truth about point of view.  “What do you do when you contemplate the heavens, when you think about space?” asks Cushing.  “You look up.”

The DARPA VSO booth, cast here in blue.

To produce this booth, Cushing turned to Production Plus. “We knew we would get good value and great work from you,” he says.  Production Plus rose to the challenge.  The graphics were mounted on custom–built bent steel frames fabricated in the Production Plus shop.  Upon completion the booth was set up in its entirety on the shop floor for a walk–through with the client.  “They loved it,” Cushing beams, “and it is in no small part due to what Production Plus provided to the process.”