Debora Novarini is a Studio Director, Design Director, and Brand Design Leader for Gensler’s South Central region, connecting people to brands through distinctive identities and immersive experiences. Her expertise spans brand strategy, visual identity, digital design, environmental graphics, innovation centers, branded environments, and communications, providing a comprehensive foundation for creating meaningful, connected brand expressions. Debora holds a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Graphic Design from Mississippi State University and is a member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and the Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD).
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Designing Immersive Spaces
The development of experience centers dates to the 1990s, when companies sought to create immersive environments for showcasing products and marketing brands. Traditionally, these spaces were designed for consumer-facing industries, such as automotive, retail, and electronics. In recent years, experience centers have been adopted by clients across many sectors seeking to differentiate their workplaces and headquarters by showcasing their products, innovations, and technologies. They are also being developed to attract new investors, while also reaffirming the confidence of existing stakeholders, demonstrating that their commitment is well-placed. In the project design process, experience centers are now intentionally created from the onset, an evolution from the spaces that were previously created later in the project timeline, which led to a lack of utilization.
Thoughtfully designed experience centers can serve multiple purposes, including highlighting a company’s commitment to transparency, providing space for product showcases, and celebrating innovation. Integrating these centers into workplaces and headquarters fosters stronger stakeholder engagement and redefines meeting and event locations. They also serve to recognize employees, enrich internal educational storytelling, and offer the opportunity to create highly curated tours for new hires and clients alike.
As organizations increasingly recognize the strategic value of experience centers, their role in cultivating trust becomes even more essential. Increasingly, many companies showcase their research and development to strengthen that trust. Experience centers offer a creative way to access innovation by providing hands-on interactions with products, services, and ideas. They not only create memorable experiences that go beyond traditional boardroom presentations but also show proof of concept and build trust, which helps companies stand out among their competitors.
In our work with TK Elevator (TKE), experiential and interactive design were merged to increase brand awareness in the company’s Atlanta-based innovation showcase and experience center. Within a jewel box, the two-story showroom offers a view into an adjacent lab, revealing a behind-the-scenes look at its products, services, R&D efforts, and smart technologies. Digital displays, environmental graphics, and artifacts allow visitors to connect and learn about TKE. Tours are highly curated for different experiences depending on the audience. For example, an engineering firm may receive an exclusive tour of the R+D lab, STEM floor, and showroom, while a government official or school may experience a semi-virtual guided tour of the R+D lab and a physical tour of the showroom. This speaks to the unique design of the innovation showcase, which was intended to offer multiple types of tours and ways to experience the rich content. Since opening in 2022, TK Elevator has hosted more than 800 stakeholder tours.
Companies with experience centers can strengthen community relationships by inviting the public in, signaling transparency and accountability. TK Elevator exemplifies this approach through its Innovation and Qualification Center (IQC), which serves as both a showroom and an educational hub. Through a partnership with the ACE Mentor Program of America and co-developed STEM lesson plans with local underserved schools, TKE provides students from primary grades through college with real-world exposure to advanced elevator systems, IoT-enabled solutions, and sustainability innovations. These experiences spark interest in STEM careers and the elevator industry while supporting workforce diversity within the building sector. Within a year of its opening, TKE hosted more than 1,000 students, educators, and community leaders at the IQC, reinforcing its commitment to helping tomorrow’s innovators realize their potential.
In addition to building trust and showcasing innovation, experience centers also function as versatile third spaces, meeting rooms, and event areas that extend their value beyond display. These environments are often intentionally designed to host both internal and external meetings and events from the start of a project conversation. This approach ensures they are not only visually engaging but also highly functional, activating areas people already occupy with meaningful elements that encourage interaction and passive learning.
Experience centers can play a pivotal role in attracting, retaining, and developing talent by showcasing a company’s mission, vision, and values in action. Through interactive touchpoints, which can range from large-scale demonstrations to smaller moments of engagement, companies provide experiences that spark curiosity, reinforce brand culture, and deepen employee and client connections. These spaces not only serve as recruitment tools by inspiring potential hires but also support ongoing training and professional development, ensuring employees remain engaged and aligned with organizational goals.
At the McKesson Experience Center in Irving, Texas, users are guided through a series of digital touchpoints that reveal the brand’s purpose and vision for the future, highlighting innovations, operational processes, and commitment to care. In the “Who We Are” hallway, visitors meet the people behind McKesson, and in another area, patient and customer journeys are exemplified with real-world healthcare scenarios from the perspectives of patients, caregivers, providers, pharmacists, and researchers. These experiences are designed to foster empathy and understanding, allowing employees and visitors to step into the shoes of those McKesson serves, helping to keep healthcare local, accessible and innovative.
Looking ahead, experience centers have the potential to transform engagement across industries when they’re designed to authentically reflect a brand’s story and values. This can include environmental graphics and storytelling, museum-like exhibit design with artifacts or industry replicas, analog interactive elements such as pull-out information cards, and digital features like projections, AR, or VR. The emphasis of each element is a narrative that guides the experience, making the spaces valuable platforms for education, connection, and brand immersion. Every brand has a story to tell, and experience centers are a perfect tool to share that story in a memorable and impactful way.
