How do we fully communicate a design idea in a world of video chats and emails?  As we all know, two people can look at the same drawing or rendering and see two completely different ideas.  It has been difficult enough in the past to clearly communicate a creative idea between two people.  Even trained professionals can misread the scale or the intended view when it comes to translating a 2-dimensional fully dimensioned document into a 3-dimensional reality.  Hand gestures and facial expressions help communication between people, as well as real time response to thoughts and assumptions.  However, under the current travel restrictions, it may be a while yet until collaboration between designers and clients happens in the same room.  It will be a while until we all have the privilege of working face to face and benefiting from hand gestures and responding to facial expressions.  It is important to find creative alternatives.
Imagine a system that could take an idea and allow you to view it just as you would if it was already built, at every step of the design process.  Imagine being able to walk through a white model and understand the scale of all the buildings around you.  Imagine looking at a view of corridors and understanding how close that plaza really looks from the end of the street.  Imagine standing in the middle of the plaza and experiencing the space as if you were standing in the middle of the plaza in real life, or imagine looking down every corridor or street that stems from the center of the plaza.  Or, imagine understanding the view angles from a guest perspective in a theater or show venue.Now, imagine being able to make changes in real time along with your creative team.  Imagine walking through a space along with your favorite designer and asking things like, what will happen if you make this plaza 10’ wider or 5’ narrower, or can you lower that tower by 15’ or can you make it taller?  And while you are sitting there, the space instantly changes and you can make decisions based on this level of understanding of the space.Imagine, no more!

TB has made all this possible in Concept+ through DIM (Design Integrated Modeling) and VR (Virtual Reality).  This process allows us to walk through the proposed development with all the stake holders who are willing to put on a set of goggles and explore the creative development of their investment from a guest perspective.  This experience can start with a white model and continue through the development of theming, ornamentation and selection of finishes and colors.

All scale decisions can be made based on a white model, when big changes are most efficient.  Color and finishes can be reviewed before fully detailing them to ensure the least amount of repetitive efforts.  The level of detail provided by our CONCEPT+ package is traditionally only available in an Art Director’s model, usually developed in Design Development.  The transition between creative and technical teams has never been more thorough during CONCEPT+.  All creative intent is defined and easy to follow in minor changes required by the development and engineering of the project. Value engineering efforts can also be done in the same format to ensure changes have minimum effect on the guest experience.

This realistic walk-through can be done weekly, or as often as required by creative approvals.   All stakeholders can participate, remotely.  There is no need for travel or face to face meetings when working with our team using this Concept+ process.  Our technical team will work with your technical team to ensure everyone has the required equipment in their own offices to facilitate this level of communication.  This investment can be used on multiple projects and is much less than most international business class travel expenses for one person.

This innovative CONCEPT+ idea is being launched by TB in collaboration with ITPS.  It is fully endorsed by those clients that have tried it and benefited from all the time, schedule, and cost savings of utilizing this process.   It is believed this process is where the industry is headed, and everyone will also be doing this in 5 years.  We are making it available NOW for about the same cost and time as a traditional Concept package.

Thelma & Boom or ITPS would be happy to answer any questions.  Contact any team member at info@thelmaboom.com or itps@interthemepark.com.