The Waterloo Regional Museum
Discovering more than a century of technological innovation through the history of local entrepreneurship.
Sector:
Museum
Location:
Waterloo, ON, Canada
Year:
2011
Services:
Art Direction, Copywriting, Editing, Interactive Media, Media Design, Sound Design., UX /UI Design, Video Shoot, Motion Graphics Design
Description:
Unconventional Thinking: Innovation in Waterloo Region was the first major feature exhibit curated by the Waterloo Region Museum, coinciding with the official opening of the museum in November of 2011.
The exhibit explored the process of innovation - how an invention gets to market or sometimes fails to get beyond the drawing board - and the many stories of innovation in Waterloo Region. Visitors discovered what makes Waterloo Region a hotbed of innovation. As a community, people living and working in the area have developed and embraced innovative ideas including solutions to old problems, high-tech electronics or social programs. It is this culture of creativity and invention that sets Waterloo Region apart as a centre of innovation in Ontario. From the LeRoy (the first Canadian production automobile), agricultural innovations, to our connection to the Lee-Enfield Rifle, blue box recycling and, of course, the BlackBerry, Waterloo Region has a rich story of innovation that continues to this day.
The Design Foundation designed and produced two of the media pieces in the space. One is a 10 minute long movie detailing the design of the Circa 75: a precursor technologically, it foreshadowed the internet, streaming services worldwide and "facetiming". The other group interactive borrowed from the popular broadcast "Shark Tank" in which historic figures from Waterloo are "pitching" their inventions, allowing the audience to determine if their inventions made it to production or not. Wildly successful, the "Innovation Den" was extremely popular for the run of the exhibit.