NGenuity in Motion, Northrop Grumman

Aerospace leader Northrop Grumman has a deep and decades long legacy of bold innovation. They asked IDEAS to help celebrate their achievements and point the way to the future in an immersive exhibit at their Space Park facility in Los Angeles. The objective was to demonstrate to the next generation of employees, partners, and clients that, like the founders before them, it’s their NGENUITY that will continue to shape the future of Northrop Grumman.

Our approach was an experience design fusing true stories of innovative people, disruptive product models, and heritage artifacts, taking visitors on a dynamic journey featuring innovative interactives, videos, photos, models, and displays. IDEAS married our team of writers, producers, and media-makers with partners in show set and prop design and fabrication, lighting, and AV systems integration to create Ngenuity I Notion.

IDEAS conceived and produced the signature “Jack’s Office” experience. Our set and lighting designers worked closely with our media production team shooting and editing live-action video depicting a Jack Northrup silhouette character interacting with a junior engineer. The result was a period-accurate recreation of a 1940s era office in which the animated image of Jack Northrop’s shadow appears projected by a system housed within his “desk”. The system portrayed what appeared to be sketching on the aircraft “drawing” in synch with the recorded dialogue in which he encourages the young engineer to push forward with his breakthrough idea.

IDEAS also created an interactive game showcasing Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk Aerial Drone. From cameras mounted on a Global Hawk drone model hanging in an adjacent exhibit space,  visitors identify and select “targets” using a single screen exhibit, with a CGI overlay on the user monitor. The player’s goal is to tag all enemy targets within an allotted time frame. After each item is tagged the user is presented with factual information about technology used in the Global Hawk. The user is then rated on their performance and awarded a certain rank. These signature elements were supported by a complete portfolio of physical and electronic manipulatives, wall murals, key aircraft and spacecraft replicas, models, and a video theater.