ESI

Bringing stories to life through participation

ESI places people at the centre of its design process, creating experiences that encourage active engagement rather than passive observation. By combining narrative, physical environments and interactive elements, the studio helps visitors develop a deeper connection with the places and stories they encounter.

For the White House Public Tour, ESI collaborated with former First Lady Dr Jill Biden and A+E Global Media to reimagine how visitors experience the history of one of America's most recognisable buildings.

The redesigned tour introduces interactive media, tactile features and multisensory storytelling to make presidential history more accessible and engaging. Visitors can explore the building's architectural evolution and discover stories of the people who have lived and worked there.

Creating moments of discovery and connection

Unexpected moments can transform how people experience a space. At Loma Linda University Children's Hospital, ESI created Loma Land, an interactive digital environment designed to bring imagination and play into a healthcare setting.

Young visitors can create personalised woodland characters and see them become part of a large-scale virtual world. The experience demonstrates how thoughtful design can introduce creativity and emotional engagement into environments where reassurance and distraction are particularly valuable.

At Hana Bank's headquarters in Cheongna, South Korea, ESI takes a different approach, transforming architecture into an evolving expression of the organisation's identity.

Digital media, sculptural installations and responsive environments extend throughout the building, connecting interior spaces with the exterior architecture. Together, they create opportunities for discovery while strengthening the relationship between people, place and brand.

Connecting experience design and architecture

ESI collaborates independently with external architects, designers, and project partners to support different project requirements.

A key differentiator for ESI is its relationship with NBBJ, allowing the studio to combine specialist experience design with architectural and interior design expertise.

Working together, the teams can develop integrated environments in which spatial design, storytelling and technology inform one another from the earliest stages of a project.

Its work encompasses creative strategy, experience design, digital storytelling and production, bringing concepts through to delivery while considering how experiences can evolve over time.

Shaping the next generation of destinations

ESI is expanding its entertainment practice with a growing focus on location-based entertainment (LBE), creating immersive destinations that bring together storytelling, technology and the physical environment. New projects extend that expertise into cruise ships, aquariums and emerging forms of entertainment and edutainment.

Alongside this work, ESI and NBBJ are collaborating with Dr. Dacher Keltner, a leading emotion scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, to explore how the science of awe can inform experience design.

The collaboration aims to translate research into practical design principles that strengthen connections between people and places, encourage exploration and create meaningful engagement beyond the initial visit.

By combining scientific insight with creative thinking, ESI is developing an approach to destinations that considers not only what visitors experience in the moment, but also what they remember, share and return to discover.