Advising a team at El Pueblo de Los Ángeles Historical Monument, we were tasked with helping expand their offerings to include a digital arts program to attract a larger audience. They were looking to draw a younger crowd to specific events on a routine basis, specifically interested in utilizing digital media and interactive experiences as a way to bridge the perceived disconnection between the historical and the contemporary.
To gain a baseline understanding of our target audience’s perceptions, we conducted a survey of local college students asking if they were familiar with El Pueblo, by that or any of it’s other known names.
Of the participants, 2 out of 3 were unfamiliar in both the local and transplant, or recently-moved-to-town, groups. We also found they held a common sentiment that El Pueblo was more of a “tourist trap” than a historical site with museums and activities.
After this, we visited the site and noted areas for improvement, researching other similar sites and digital art projects to better understand opportunities for growth with technology and art.
In addition to infrequent social media engagement and a lack of digital marketing, our visit to the site indicated many of the museums had few visitors. Most would visit the Olvera Street Marketplace and leave, skipping the cultural sites and museums, especially the ones more tucked away and difficult to find.
For an area so diverse in history and culture, the various cultural museums feel disconnected from the community in the central area and Olvera Street. This seemed indicative of a larger branding issue, as the most commonly recognized name for the site was simply Olvera Street, which is just one part of what the site has to offer.
We also saw opportunity for added community engagement with events, and ways to redesign the environment to feature other locations on the site using community-made art and various site enhancements.
In creating our solution, we saw an opportunity to amplify aesthetic, user engagement, and community partnerships. Along with updated branding for physical and digital assets, we suggested adding unique experiences like a digital-audio tour and an AR art gallery, sponsoring community-painted cultural murals and environmental enhancements, and hosting a series of events and activities for people to discover under-utilized areas of the site.
As a staple of culture in Los Angeles, and to create a more inclusive community, we suggested leveraging potential partnerships with local artists and influencers to create events and paint large murals, connecting the site visually and fostering a larger sense of cohesion across its diverse community.
With our mission to utilize art and technology to garner interest in the site, we designed immersive, interactive experiences that highlight the site’s diverse culture. Visitors can enjoy augmented-reality interactive art exhibits, explore cultural murals, or follow a digital-audio tour to learn about the site and its history.
We curated a vibrant color scheme inspired by the site’s Chinese American Museum, reflecting the diversity the area is trying to portray. Paired with our simple, modern font and new logo which emphasizes the cross-section of cultures with the Venn diagram shape, these styles are designed to celebrate the multicultural history of the site .
A self-guided digital-audio walking tour designed to immerse visitors on a journey around the site, elevated evening experience with night installations, and site improvements encouraging visitors to interact with the diverse history and culture around them.
Whether exploring community-made art and murals on the walls and crosswalks outside, or entering the historic Pico House’s augmented-reality powered interactive art gallery, visitors can enjoy work from local artists all across the site.
Seasonal events will feature local food trucks, vendors, musicians, and artists, encouraging visitors to participate in activities and creating a community gathering space while introducing newcomers to the multicultural history of the site.
Creating a style guide to bring cohesive storytelling across the website, social media, and site signage, and updated signage across the site to encourage exploration and discovery of underutilized areas.
In presenting our solution to the El Pueblo team, we synthesized our research into a functional, knowledgeable solution including a refined Digital Arts program, a list of potential artist and vendor collaborators, and branding and social media marketing plans.
We also wanted to highlight opportunities for existing Olvera Street merchants participation and provide data by preforming further research, showing the panel we have the most unique, innovative, and appropriate solution.
In our feedback, we found the panel liked the focus on lighting and night-time feasibility. They mentioned they liked our designs and visual themes, and seemed cautiously optimistic towards the use of AR, which would allow visitors to point their smartphone at any painting and watch it come to life, highlighting the artist’s expression through the use of technology and creating a new way to experience art for the next generation at El Pueblo.
We set out to create a visually connected, cohesive, and multi-sensory experience which encourages Angelenos and tourists alike to take full advantage of El Pueblo, and through strategic installations, events, and re-branding, we believe that El Pueblo has an opportunity to enhance their overall visitor experience, draw in new and younger visitors, and amplify the El Pueblo name and presence.
Overall these changes will acknowledge the history, culture, and heritage of the area while giving the sense that history is continuing to be written by re-imagining a center of culture in LA: an area where cultures collide.
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