Makerspaces, all the rage the last few years, can be found at many museums, or even as a dedicated community space. They’re also not just for adults, but for young children and teens. Giving children hands-on opportunities to become craftspeople, learn basic engineering principles, and explore their creative side is an important part of STEM …
Continue reading “Inspiring Budding Builders: Creating an At-Home Makerspace”
This post was originally featured on ChicagoTribune.com by Daniel I. Dorfman. Tucked inside a building in an industrial-looking stretch of Central Park Avenue in Lincolnwood, two local businesses have forged a mutually beneficial partnership. For most of the last decade, Luci Creative, a design firm about to celebrate its 10th anniversary in business, and Ravenswood …
Continue reading “Lincolnwood creatives design dazzling museum, theater displays”
This post was originally featured on NO MAS COACH! by Jon Nickel-D’Andrea Uber is looking to make the holiday travel experience just a little bit smoother in one of that nation’s most hectic airports, Chicago O’Hare. Just between Terminal 2 and 3 they’ve debuted a new pop-up concept called Uber Comfort. The goal is to …
Continue reading “Uber Comfort debuts Pop Up in Chicago O’Hare”
This post was originally featured on azcentral.com by Weldon B. Johnson, Arizona Republic The first encounter with Victoria the Tyrannosaurus rex — the Arizona Science Center’s latest special attraction — lets visitors know there’s more to this experience than simply gazing at a big skeleton. Before the bones are revealed, you’ll watch a 3-minute video that introduces the dinosaur that …
Extensive updates to the core Karkomi Holocaust Exhibition at the Illinois Holocaust Museum serves to debunk the myth that Jews did not resist during the Holocaust. New exhibition galleries showcase armed, physical resistance in occupied Europe during the Holocaust.A semi-immersive environment throughout the exhibits helps visitors connect to the story. The ghetto uprising space, comprised …
This post was originally featured on WRAL.com by Sarah Lindenfeld Hall, Go Ask Mom editor Just in time for the holiday shopping season, The Streets at Southpoint in Durham opened its new children’s play area this month called The Trails at Southpoint. With an outdoor theme, the space features three play areas, including a winding …
Continue reading “Take the Kids: Explore the ‘trails’ at Southpoint’s new indoor play area”
Ravenswood Studio is currently fabricating the exhibit and interactives to accompany the new traveling exhibition: Victoria the T. rex. Victoria is the second most complete T. rex fossil to tour. For her new environment, Ravenswood needed to create eight curved walls with a modern twist on foliage. Each wall piece was curved at exactly 11 …
Continue reading “Being Flexible: Bending to the needs of Victoria the T. rex”
Recently completed for the Sound Playground exhibit at Chicago Children’s Museum, the Ravenswood Studio team fabricated two imaginative, interactive components where visitors are invited to hear, feel, and create their own sensory experiences. “Big Boom” is a custom designed, 6-foot drum that children and adults can walk inside and operate with an oversized foot pedal. …
Continue reading “Sound Playground at Chicago Children’s Museum”
Ravenswood Studio recently completed this impressive scenic artwork and set fabrication of “Djembe! The Show” — for the Apollo Theater Chicago (2540 N Lincoln Ave). Inspired by the bold and high-energy design of the production, our team detailed and built all the faux finished bamboo rolling set components, one-of-a-kind painted backdrop with LED stars, custom …
Continue reading ““Djembe! The Show” – Apollo Theater Chicago”
Just completed at the Garfield Park Conservatory! Check out this Luci Creative developed and designed interpretive graphic panel refresh. The Ravenswood Studio team fabricated 11 of these 34″ x 17″ visitor enrichment graphics throughout 6 Garfield Park Conservatory exhibits. To maximize both a vibrant and modern aesthetic, and ensure durability in challenging and humid surroundings, …
Continue reading “Garfield Park Conservatory: Graphic Panel Refresh”
Ravenswood Studio engineered and built eight interactive elements for this traveling pop-up exhibit that demonstrate how the sub-seafloor’s rocks and sediments can reveal the scientific secrets about Earth’s development and ancient history. The exhibit is based on the ambitious International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and its flagship research vessel JOIDES Resolution (JR). Ravenswood Studio fabricators …
Continue reading “In Search of Earth’s Secrets: A Pop-Up Science Encounter”
This stylized and sculptural crab apple is sited near a large crab apple orchard in the internationally known Morton Arboretum. Our carpenters created it by laminating 19 layers of CNC cut ½” plywood that was fitted to an elaborately made form that accommodated the entire lamination process from beginning to end. When finished the piece …
Continue reading “Crab Apple Structure at the Morton Arboretum”
Luci Creative designed three ultra-realistic sets for the SXSW conference. The sets were part of a marketing activation planned by the agency 360i for the premier of Bravo’s Imposters season 2. Ravenswood Studio built the interiors of a private jet, a yacht and a room in a Russian ice hotel. We used all our skills …
Ravenswood Studio fabricated these lighted standalone pillars for each Pacific Island region and culture in one of the older galleries of the Field Museum. This gallery has one of the world’s best collections of Pacific Islands artifacts. Luci Creative used the beautifully crafted artifacts as inspiration for details and designs of the pillars. Besides representing …
The Ravenswood team fabricated and installed this Luci Creative designed Heritage Exhibit for John B. Sanfilippo & Sons, Inc. It is dedicated to exploring the story of this family-run business that is the largest provider of nuts in the United States and is active in over 70 countries throughout the world. Naturally, we used pecan wood …
Continue reading “Nut Map, John B. Sanfilippo & Sons, Inc. Heritage Exhibit”
For the 2013 release of the prequel movie, Oz the Great and Powerful, Ravenswood Studio built not one but two amazing carriages. One was an ornate open carriage and the other was an enclosed sedan, shown below. This project was very hush hush for more than two years before the release of the movie and …
Continue reading “Oz the Great and Powerful Carriage Fabrication”
Perched atop a big shipping crate, in front of the Milwaukee Public Museum, was a very large dinosaur egg created in our studio to announce that a touring dinosaur exhibit was coming. When the exhibit opened, we placed a cracked open egg in front of the museum as if the dinosaur had hatched! This was a …
This abstract set for the world premier of the play Constellation at Steppenwolf Theatre looks like a monolithic concrete bowl. It is made out of plywood and hardcoated foam, and is sturdy enough to support multiple actors climbing and sitting on the wall. The amazing thing is that even though it looks monolithic, it comes …
Continue reading “Constellations at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater”
What a fun project! For Marriott Theatre Lincolnshire’s production of the musical Ragtime, we took a common golf cart and transformed it into a well-proportioned Model T scaled to fit the size restrictions of the Marriott Theatre stage. Fiberglass parts from a Model T hot rod kit were modified to fit on the chopped golf …
Continue reading “Custom Model T Car for Marriott’s Ragtime”
For Marriott Theatre Lincolnshire’s production of Newsies, we created several 25’ long I-beams. They had to look like real steel I-beams, but had weigh less than 700 pounds. They also had to be rigid and light so they could pivot on two points above the stage and strong when they dropped down to the stage …
Continue reading “Newsies at Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire”