To mark the company’s 2015 anniversary, BASF SE decided to overhaul the history segment on display at its Ludwigshafen visitor centre. In cooperation with m box, Saatchi & Saatchi Pro (former zweimaleins) entered BASF’s competition for the exhibition’s redesign and the development of bespoke media-based exhibition objects.
The jointly developed solution focused on translating the symbolism of analogue books – as a representation of history – to a contemporary digital installation in space.
Here, visitors can pick actual, individually themed books from an outsized library wall. Once opened, these books unfold a virtual journey into the multi-faceted history of BASF. Visitors can use touchscreens to explore the rich history to their heart’s content, retrace intriguing historic developments or request further related information.
The room‘s second major and visually striking exhibit pours a chronological timeline of facts, images and graphics across the large pages of an opened book, allowing visitors to experience 150 years of company history in an emotional and attractive way. Beyond serving as fixed installations in space, these exhibits also travelled the world as flexible, easily configurable mobile exhibits during a global road show.
Beyond concept development, m box also handled all visual design, usability development and programming of this complex history installation. Also on the list of tasks: a customer-specific CMS to maintain the comprehensive history database as well as the planning, purchase and installation of all hard- and software components for the installation’s continuous operation at the BASF visitor centre.