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Every year, Duquesne Light Company helps sponsor the Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. After several years of using the same concept and display, Duquesne Light wanted a change. Springboard was asked to develop a new interactive display that was modular, reusable, economical to build, and easy to install and dismantle. Springboard’s scope started with the creation of a new concept and included the design and fabrication drawings as well.

In a sense, Springboard viewed the project as a branding exercise for Duquesne Light. What is the public perception of the utility company? How can the Home & Garden Show display help to evolve the brand?

The concept Springboard developed is called ‘Light Lab.’ Light Lab is an interactive play environment that includes an assortment of entertaining and educational light experiments and games. It is designed to position Duquesne Light as research based, future oriented, technologically savvy, youthful – and fun.

The design is composed of four parts. A ‘storefront’ of slotted steel and clear acrylic creates a beckoning wall of light and color, with a display of new types of light bulbs and lab glass. A second, curving, wall of corrugated fiberglass glows, while a third screen displays illuminated building facades renovated as part of an urban improvement program that Duquesne Light sponsors. Finally, a set of ‘lab tables’ anchor the space, each offering visitors a different activity or experience.