Ben Keel's Design Work - U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum

U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum

Gallagher & Associates, Summer 2020

Colorado Springs is known by Olympians and Paralympians as a home for US Olympics because of the its training facilities for both Winter and Summer sports. The city now has a museum experience to reflect that culture of intense training, exceptional effort, and celebration of historical athletic achievement. Story notes include the beginning of the Olympic and Paralympic games, interactives and thematic spaces to simulate their training, technology that gives athletes a competitive edge, and nostalgic snapshots of the Summer and Winter Games.

There's much to the galleries, and the photos below highlight their unique graphic elements. I worked alongside G&A graphics manager Christian Cabrera and many others to refine and produce all the physical graphics for the two-hour experience. We also worked to label and clarify the space with graphics and markers for clear protocols and content because the museum's top goals were universal accessibility and health safety.

More information and photos available at gallagherdesign.com and the USOPM website.

The Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame

Elevator Intro Mural

The elevator transports visitors to the first gallery, where they then follow ramps through galleries to the bottom floor. In order to fit a thematic introduction to the galleries in the ride, the elevator has a view to a series of huge athletes, and then Pikes Peak in the distance.

Faceted faces of the Olympic Spirit gallery

The Olympic Oath, with changes highlighted in gold

The training gallery track contest pits two runners against Jesse Owen's record dash time.

Other sections of the training gallery highlight where and how athletes work to perfect their craft.

The training gallery has the most interactives, including the hearing-based goal ball game (left) and seeing how your feet and height measure up to Olympians and Paralympians (right).

Tactile Accessibility & Safety

I contributed to the museum's goal of universal accessibility is clear in this gallery, where tactile strips give clear marks of where activities start and stop, or in the above instance where to stand before the dash.

"The Lab" gallery provides insights on cutting-edge materials and tools, and even provides a couple to touch.

G&A worked with UK-based Centre Screen to produce most of the media. Here is a still from their Opening Ceremony media piece, where simple floor graphics mark proper social distancing.

Entrance ramp to the Summer Games gallery

The graphics in the Summer Games gallery wrap around visitors, consolidating fan-favorite moments in a series of snapshots.

The entrance to the Winter Games gallery features skiers and snowboarders flying overhead as visitors walk down the ramp.

The medal gallery contains the full spread of gold, silver, and bronze medals from Olympic History. While the metal is pretty, most of the color in this case comes from their ribbons.

The exhibits wrap up with a thrilling short film and an interactive infinity room introduced by this reflective panel.

And yep, that's me in the hat!