Antron created an incredible installation with a discotheque vibe with floor to ceiling tassels made of carpet fiber.

We loved these dresses made of oversized paint swatches at Benjamin Moore.

Bentley Prince Street took us back to the golden era of Hollywood with their 1940′s regency style showroom with the theme L.A. Story: Art, Culture, Fashion.

Davis created miniatures of all the featured furniture in their space.

InterfaceFlor lined a hallway with a giant chalkboard encouraging attendees to “Make Your Mark”

This sweet Sparkeology booth didn’t just catch our eye, it won Best Booth Design for NeoCon 2011

Can we get this awesome seating area/snowboard rack  from Turnstone for the fathom office?

Katherine Bennett, Associate Professor in the Graduate Industrial Design Program and an Art Center College of Design faculty member, discussed the methods and challenges of teaching Design Research to design students, as well as the need for a greater emphasis on design research across disciplines. Check out Katherine’s blog, Design Investigations.

Doris Sung is Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Architecture and Principal of dO|Su Studio Architecture. Doris explores the phenomenon of architecture as an extension of the body by using complex digital software to build innovative architectural research that incorporates materials in unconventional ways. She presented her vision for the future of architecture as well as her work on responsive design and the development of smart thermobimetals, materials that allow building skins to respond and mediate between our two natures: man and the environment.

Sean Brennan, Senior Strategist & Envisioner with the Next Group at Continuum, the global innovation consultancy, uses words and visuals to translate consumer insights into ideas that resonate with the right people. Sean uses his understanding of culture and obsession with trends to envision “what’s next.” Really interesting stuff.

Have you been inspired by any great speakers lately? We’d love to hear about it.

Synergy, collaboration, connection, prestige, identity, community, place – just a few of the key words describing the driving ideas behind the new Florida Atlantic University College of Arts and Letters, Culture and Society Building.

fathom was utilized in the pre-design process to determine the deepest needs of students, faculty and staff. Through one-on-one interviews, photo documentation and ethnographic research, the fathom team provided insights that were instrumental in the design and led to an environment that responded directly to the users’ needs. Colors — a major contributor to the space in the building – were established by the pre-design research process and resulted from the main themes of balance, connection, renewal and control.

Why a stray dog? Read more at Astorino’s blog DiscoverDesignBuild.

Written by feature writer Mackenzie Carpenter, the article highlights fathom’s three year involvement in the research, design, and development of the arena’s look and feel.

“Whether it was concessions, retail, interiors or art, it was really just trying to have everything have the same look and feel and that consistent experience throughout, and it was all based on user-centered research,” [Christine Astorino] said. “We uncovered that fans appreciate all aspects of hockey; not only just coming here and experiencing the energy, but the roots of the game, the nostalgia of the game. The fans actually felt like the Mellon Arena was a second home to them, so this new arena had to somehow embrace that, make them feel comfortable and welcome but at the same time add an entirely new and innovative experience that was much more current with the new brand of the Penguins.”

Read more here about the new brand and how it plays out in both the space and experience of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Back in January of 2008, we did a fathom study for the Pens, which included key findings on the importance of arena users connecting with the broader Pittsburgh community, the purity of the play across hockey’s long history, and the energy of the game-night experience. The architectural team took our study to heart, as evidenced by a number of cool features integrated into the design.

Without giving away the whole kit and caboodle, we will say that the new arena is pretty slick and sophisticated. Symbols of ice abound in the wall finishings, countertops, and light fixtures. Giant floor-to-ceiling windows seamlessly connect interior atria with the outdoor community. And there isn’t a bad seat in the house, especially with the massive HD screens strung high above the rink.

It’s always great to see our research and insights in action in the real world, but it will be even more exciting to see how they hold up under crowds of thousands with the arena doors open this fall!

This renewed attention to brand might stem from the increasingly global competition that every company faces. Or maybe a down economy—always attended by more fiscally responsible consumer behavior—demands an increased focus on customer retention.

Whatever the reason, this contemporary importance of branding has begun to reach the architecture world as well. We wanted to share our experiences of the turbulence that can attend this integration of disciplines.

As design thinkers and researchers, we’ve found that the most effective way to bring branding and architecture teams into conversation is a two-step process:

First, we think deeply and creatively about the emotional relationships users have with an identity, product, or environment.

Next, we translate the terms of those relationships into insights that we deliver to architects—and product developers, marketing creatives, business owners, and so on—to incorporate into their own work. In this way, we encourage “brand thinking” across a project or organization.

Such work, however, is often easier said than done. Architectural processes traditionally do not incorporate a pre-design research component such as the type we conduct, which means we as design researchers must focus on making our case for the richness an emotional experience can bring to a designed environment.

When our research process, which includes ethnographic studies and user participation alongside more traditional branding work, can contribute to the traditional architecture process, it leads to spaces more closely connected with the users’ desired experience, as some of our case studies demonstrate.

For a different example of incorporating a new component into a well-established process, we can look to the LEED model of establishing the long-term value of increased investment up front. LEED-certified projects, which follow a strict set of guidelines, cost more and take longer to build. Over time, though, they save money (and benefit the environment) through greatly increased efficiency in resource consumption.

In the beginning, LEED advocates struggled to convince clients that incorporating LEED guidelines into the architectural process would serve their projects best in the long run.

Eventually, as the broader design community, the media, and certain leading corporations saw the benefits, the LEED certification process gained traction. Today, the green building market sees tens of billions of dollars in new projects each year.

As with the LEED guidelines, integrating our pre-design research process into the greater architectural process also demands time, resources, and a broad trust in the value of the insights. If architects and designers remain enthusiastic about incorporating emotional experiences, perhaps clients will follow suit.

But how can clients and building users, led by design researchers, possibly be of use in making architectural recommendations?

Because buildings do not stand empty or unused; rather they only function within the context of real human beings. And for good reason, architectural training doesn’t focus on the design researcher’s user-centric tools like sensory and image exercises, one-on-one interviews, and participant observation.

When the design research team can use these tools to provide insights toward the architect’s work—and when the architect can take part in the research process—then the environment can both serve its users and reinforce the emotional experience.

(Reprinted with some modification from “The Promise of Space: Branding and Architecture in Theory and in Practice,” by Christine Astorino. Design Intelligence, January/February 2010.)