3M at Work
(3.1.2012) Building on 3M's collaborative work ethos, its technology innovations, and its leading scientists, THERE (Sydney) created an extensive environmental graphics program at the company's 8,000-sq.-meter Australian headquarters.
In the ground floor entrance foyer, an unconventional visual timeline showcases the company's logo evolution through the years. The 100-sq.-meter wall is made from horizontal slats routed at different depths to form the various logos, creating an impressive arrival experience.
Through discussions with the client and researching 3M's extensive image library, THERE found geometric shapes revealed in macro photography of the company's micro-replication technology, which is used in many 3M products. THERE appropriated these shapes--circle, triangle, hexagon, diamond--as a way to identity individual departments while establishing a common visual language used across entrances, meeting rooms, laboratories, and wall graphics.
In a breakout section of the building, THERE expressed ideas around human interaction, collaboration, and creativity on a 25m-long, hand-drawn mindmap feature wall that illustrates 3M facts and achievements.
Throughout the workspace, large-scale illustrative and graphically treated portraits pay homage to important innovators and scientists from 3M's history.
The project also included an extensive program of wayfinding, identification, and statutory signage, including large-scale carpark super graphics.
Utilizing 3M's recognizable red brand color and conveying 3M's culture of innovation, THERE designed a signage system with signs made as a single folded piece of steel. The signage was custom designed and fabricated together with a specially commissioned 1.5-meter high gloss red 3M logo standing boldly in the entrance foyer.