Case study: 
‍Interactive Mini Museum, Spin Master

Telling the story of the world’s most innovative toy company. 

SUMMARY

  • ‍Background: Spin Master was re-envisioning its headquarters.
  • ‍Problem: They needed to educate visitors and new hires on their 25+ year history of innovation within strict spatial and safety constraints.
  • Solution: A 'mini museum' designed from scratch including curation, research, co-design workshops, and prototyping.
  • Results: An entertaining and interactive learning experience that's fun for all ages.
Above photo credit: Gabby Frank in Toronto Life
Photo Credits: Samuel Cheng, Spin Master
Overview
Spin Master has an awe-inspiring history: three university friends created a novelty item in their Mom’s kitchen made of sawdust, pantyhose and grass seed (Earth Buddy), and through sheer hustle, ingenuity and a flair for promotion, grew their tiny operation into a multi-channel entertainment company famous for its mega hits (ever heard of PAW PATROL?), eye-popping innovations, countless awards, and massive sales.
Problem
The displays needed to include 25 years worth of content, panels, videos, toys, and interactive props, but fit within a smaller space with strict spatial, fire code, and accessibility constraints.
Users

Spin Master welcomes a wide range of visitors:

  • Investors
  • Inventors, writers, producers, creators, actors
  • Global partners
  • Retail partners
  • ~500 employees in this location
  • Kids and families  
Roles & Responsibilities
I led the research, experience design, and overall production.
‍
This project would not have been possible without the ongoing leadership and support of Anton Rabie, Holly Peacock, Kris Jackson, Lucas Klava, Jamieson Cochrane, Manuel Hernandez, our vendors, and many others.
Constraints
  • The space was under architectural reviews and construction throughout the planning process, leading to the available footprint changing several times.
  • Due to fire code regulations in the space, exhibits could be no deeper than 2' from the wall, which presented significant design challenges.

PROCESS

Research

While preparing to move into new headquarters, Co-Founder and Co-CEO Anton Rabie had a vision for a "mini museum" showcasing their history, innovations, and values to inspire visitors and staff.

Initial research was geared towards defining scope, identifying use cases, narrowing the experience, and gathering creative process insights into Spin Master’s products.

This involved workshops, and interviews with dozens of stakeholders.

Synthesized insights: 

  • It must truly tell the story (vs. being strictly promotional): Spin Master has won more Innovative Toy of The Year Awards than any other toy company, and has had several billion-dollar hits among the hundreds of products it has created. Learning the history, and curating this massive amount of information, media and artifacts into something bite-size and entertaining was a challenge.
  • It also had to convey the company culture, values, and partnership philosophy.
  • It must support many formats: e.g. texts, video, artifacts, photographs, and interactive props and toy demonstrations.  
  • It must have interactive elements: Spin Master makes fun and interactive products, so the exhibit needed to reflect this.   
Curation

The finished exhibits include dozens of panel-sections, product displays, miniature dioramas, larger-than-life props, video displays, and hands-on interactive elements –– all of which had to be prototyped in order to ensure a smooth fabrication phase.

This phase was extensive, involving mockups, interactive concepts, 3D renders, maquettes, visual explorations, and material experiments.

Prototyping

Before any design could begin, I led content curation to ensure we were focusing on the right areas and aligned on the scope.

Interviews and archives review carried on throughout the design phase as we refined from thematic areas down to panel details and items.

Highlights

Outcomes

The resulting mini museum has proven to be yet another hit for Spin Master, delighting, educating, and inspiring visitors ranging from business partners and investors, to the media, to families and children visiting the toy company.
  • Significantly increased visitor engagement – every visitor and staff member can learn the stories and achievements of Spin Master, and tell others.
  • Used research and co-design to ensure the exhibit reflected what the larger Spin Master team thought was most important in showcasing their history, innovations, and values.
  • Interface elements were inclusively designed.
  • Successfully curated, co-designed, prototyped, and managed production of dozens of content experiences.
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