Client: SCAD

Location: Savannah, GA, United States

Completion date: 2019

Project Team

Executive producer

Paula Wallace

SCAD

Executive producer

Glenn Wallace

SCAD

Production

SCAD Design Group

Design and production consultant

BRC Imagination Arts

General contractor

The Kicklighter Company

Electrical/plumbing engineer

CDDC LLC

Mechanical engineer

Islands Engineering PC

Kneupper Music

Ears Up

TechMD Inc.

Henchmen

Johnathan Martin Creative Inc.

Renegade Animation

Remarkable Light

Clearwing Systems Integration

Entech Innovative Engineering

Stimulant

Trish Anderson (B.F.A., fibers, 2005)

Jeff Billon (B.F.A., broadcast design, 2007; B.F.A., motion graphics, 2007)

Sarah Brand (B.F.A., sequential art, 2016)

Sam Chi (B.F.A., animation, 2005)

Hannah Chiclana (M.F.A., performing arts, 2017)

Joanna Davidovich (B.F.A., animation, 2005)

Cameron Hoss (B.F.A., industrial design, 2018)

Marcus Kenney (M.F.A., photography, 1999)

Masud Olufani (M.F.A., sculpture, 2013)

Will Penny (M.F.A., painting, 2013; B.F.A., painting, 2008)

Jonathan Plsek (M.F.A., themed entertainment design, 2015)

Olivia Plsek (M.F.A., themed entertainment design, 2015)

Michael Porten (M.F.A., painting, 2012; B.F.A., illustration, 2004)

Shannon Snow (B.F.A., illustration, 2011)

Overview

SCADstory is about the power of a dream, told through an immersive 4D experience. Housed in SCAD’s first building, Poetter Hall, SCADstory takes guests on an unexpected journey through SCAD history, across four decades of beauty, design, and invention. Told with the magic and wonder of more than a dozen SCAD disciplines—from animation to themed entertainment design—SCADstory is unprecedented in higher education.

Entering Poetter Hall, visitors are greeted by student docents. Proceeding through a fireplace/doorway, the interactive experience begins. SCADstory invites guests on a journey, starting during SCAD’s earliest days – and to share in kitchen-table conversations between President Wallace and her parents, May and Paul Poetter. The kitchen table represents that place where life’s biggest decisions are made.

In one scene, a wall of clocks represents those who doubted the vision and viability of SCAD. The clocks have many queries—”Careers…in the arts?”—before concluding, “This is an idea whose time has come!”

SCADstory highlights key scenes from SCAD events like Sidewalk Arts Festival, SCAD Savannah Film Festival, and SCAD commencement. SCADstory concludes with a powerful reel covering 20 years of expansive growth to three locations and virtual learning worldwide.

Goals

The very best SCAD ambassadors are its students and alumni – the beneficiaries and standard bearers for the dream that started SCAD. The goal of integrating alumni designs was to highlight the depth and breadth of the SCAD academic experience, and enable prospective students to imagine their creative contributions coming to life in a first-of-a-kind installation like SCADstory. By engaging alumni, SCAD was also able to underscore that success in creative disciplines is often a collaborative endeavor – a lesson that is emphasized to SCAD students every day. SCADstory is the beginning of a journey toward a creative career, and visitors are encouraged to consider their own dream as they walk through.

SCADstory’s primary audience includes students, alumni, and prospective students. SCAD prepares talented students for creative professions though engaged teaching and learning in a positively oriented university environment. SCAD was founded to empower creatives to reach their full potential. Showcasing alumni work inspires current and prospective students—and the general public—and highlights how powerful creative work is often multidisciplinary.

Process

Collaboration is key to the SCAD dream – and to SCADstory. From inception to the realization of this one-of-a-kind immersive experience, over roughly six months, SCAD staff and alumni collaborated intensively with experiential design and production agency BRC Imagination Arts, where more than a dozen SCAD creative disciplines joined together to reinvent storytelling and bring SCADstory to life.

SCAD majors represented include:

Motion media design
Painting
Fibers
Industrial design
Animation
Sculpture
Sequential art
Architecture
Performing arts
Illustration
Interior design
Photography
Themed entertainment design
Advertising
User experience design and
Interactive design and game development.