EXPlore Branded Experiences

A good story can take us in, transport us and allow us to experience the similarities between ourselves and others. On TV, a good story can stop you from flipping through channels. In a book, it compels you to turn the page.

In the built environment, an engaging story can connect to all different people, whether it be a client or customer, and inspire them to interact. That can mean anything from a fan buying a ticket to a football game to a first-time mother choosing the right hospital to deliver her baby.

Buildings, offices and campuses are manifestations of an organization’s core values and they should communicate that. If your facility isn’t promoting your story and culture, your investment isn’t living up to its full potential. The challenge for many of our clients is that they aren’t sure how to leverage their buildings to define, maintain and effectively promote their brand. That’s where HKS EXPlore can help.

EXPlore is a creative agency of problem solvers that specializes in conveying messages through the built environment to help companies connect to their audiences. We’re dedicated to marketing our clients’ brand through architectural expressions of their vision and values. We believe each client’s story is unique and we tailor our services by researching their history, culture and targeted audiences.

From branded architectural design to brand communication strategy, EXPlore is committed to helping turn the bricks and mortar of your facility into powerful communicators and revenue generators. Your investment can communicate to many different audiences and EXPlore can help you say the right thing, at the right time, to the right people.

Well before a building is designed, we can participate in capital campaigns to help communicate the benefits of a project to potential donors. We successfully partnered with Texas Christian University (TCU), helping to raise 100 percent of the money needed to fund a six-year redevelopment of its stadium in half the expected time. We did this by using TCU and Fort Worth’s history to create a memorial space that honors the six major donors. Wrapped in an art deco style, Founders Plaza infuses the hardscape with a 1920s era map with streets, rivers and rail systems represented through textures and accent lighting.

For U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, home of the Minnesota Vikings, EXPlore created the largest interactive sales center ever built by an NFL team. The center overlooked the stadium’s construction site and featured two authentic suite build-outs, a 24-seat club section, a sales assistant app and an experiential player tunnel. The tunnel was a hallway for visitors entering the center and was lined with TVs featuring cheering players, smoke machines and atmospheric effects, and game noises. Six months ahead of schedule, 100 percent of the stadium’s premium suites were sold, an unprecedented result.

EXPlore guides how a brand is communicated through a building while ensuring consistency throughout a project’s many layers. In Grand Prairie, Texas, we created a unified brand presence between the Epic and Epic Waters, a groundbreaking community center and neighboring water park that share a site. The goal for this 166,000-square-foot project was a sophisticated yet approachable graphic package that made the campus feel fresh, invigorating and connected.