AutoGravity Galaxy Ceiling Process

3 M I N U T E R E A D

Within 20 months, AutoGravity had already outgrown its first office space and it was time to search for a new home.

In my first year, the company nearly doubled from 48 to 80 people and counting. With only 27,000 square feet and 6 meeting rooms, it was time for the organization to expand to a larger office space - and it was decided that we’d customize a new building from scratch.

We worked very closely with our building contractors and designers to develop textures, colors, furniture, and architectural elements that would resonate with our company’s space-themed identity.

I was given the unique opportunity to design the ceiling that would hang above the stadium seating in the main hall for the new office.

I took on this project because I wanted to challenge myself outside of my normal realm of design work.

What excited me about this project was that designing for a physical space has similar implications to product design. For successful design, be it digital or analog, both involve iteration and thoughtfulness for the people who will be using it.

Although it was a different flavor of design process than what I am used to, I found it charming how different disciplines of design can overlap significantly.

For this project, I worked closely with our building contracting team to gather requirements and timeline.

Aside from getting us REALLY excited to move in, visiting allowed me to be a user of the space and ask questions to the people who were building it. After I gathered enough information, I was ready to begin the creative work.

Besides designing for function, what also matters to me is designing an overall story for the end user. In order to do that for AutoGravity, the company’s values needed to resonate with the designs being made. 

The company tagline inspired a space theme throughout design creative, so to capitalize on this, we envisioned a fiber-optic galaxy ceiling that ran across two suspended ceiling systems, extending over 40 yards in length.

After deciding on the galaxy theme and hammering out the dimensions, I researched greek mythology and astrology to help underline the story that guided the design. The constellations I chose to feature were Orion, Scorpio, Little Dipper, Big Dipper, and Cassiopeia. 

In addition to the constellations, we wanted to feature the company logo. Since we were using 24mm fiberoptic “dots”, I had to make sure the dots I made in the design mocks accommodated a realistic concentration. I spaced them about 5-7 inches apart so that the logo mark would be legible from the ground floor or various angles.

To drive the design home, I included an upright “AG” that was legible from the stadium floor level, directly after exiting the lobby. 

For the spec delivery process, I worked with their designers for ceiling measurements so we could design a blueprint to scale in Adobe Illustrator. After completing the blueprint, I asked their CAD designer to help provide me with 3D mocks of the space so I could present the concept to a larger team.

Like product design, the ceiling blueprint design also needed moments of feedback, adjustment, and iteration.

Although I had initially centered the AG, the construction team decided to add another set of lights to the panel to enhance center-room lighting, so we then had to adjust the logo to the left for the final iteration. We were also in contact for the size of the fiber-optics, which we collaboratively decided it would be better to increase the diameter for maximum legibility. 

The Finished Product