It’s fun to learn the history of why Airbus landed in the Air Capital and its ongoing commitment to this community.
SONIA GRETEMAN
Greteman Group
chair of board/creative director
Our assignment: make the lobby more welcoming, experiential and informative through visual storytelling. Communicate the breadth of the global company, but focus on the Wichita campus. What brought Airbus to the Air Capital. Its role in the community. Its values-driven culture. The stories that set it apart.
A large monitor plays a looped, 7-minute video in which unscripted members of the Airbus team share thoughts about their work and Wichita. Footage of the Airbus Flying Challenge shows Airbus engineers helping high-school students build a kit airplane. (And, yes, at the end of the course it flies.) Supplemental corporate footage helps convey the scope of Airbus’s worldwide impact. While we tell the history of Airbus in Wichita, the focus is the future. And it’s bright.
Large-scale wall graphics, 3-D type and shadowboxes cover the walls. Photographs of Airbus team members add a human connection while big, bold quotes convey key messages. Engineering drawings complement shots of completed aircraft in flight. The experience center serves to promote pride, confidence and advocacy on the part of Airbus team members. It also helps attract and recruit the highest-levels of engineering talent. It works to educate – and to stir emotional responses from its many outside groups: students, business leaders, legislators, airlines, global visitors and industry advocates. We want people to leave the experience center understanding that Airbus is an international company with a deep, multifaceted U.S. presence – and thinking: “Wow, what a tremendous team doing great things within the industry and community.”