ESI Design

ESI Design logo

Founded by interactive pioneer Edwin Schlossberg, ESI Design is an experiential design firm that has been redefining engagement for over 35 years. From its roots transforming the Brooklyn Children’s Museum to its current work with leading institutions and brands like The Edward M. Kennedy Institute, Barclays, Reuters, and PNC Bank, ESI integrates cutting-edge technology, digital media, art, and physical design to create environments that inspire audiences to meet, network, learn, collaborate, and be entertained and delighted.

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20 Related Articles

ESI Design in Next City

By Patrick Kowalczyk

May. 07, 2020

Next City takes a close look at how PNC Bank tapped ESI Design to transform a former dry cleaners in Cleveland into a thriving community hub.

Permalink | Posted on May 07, 2020 at 5:30 PM by Patrick Kowalczyk

ESI Design on The Weather Channel

By Patrick Kowalczyk

Aug. 15, 2019

PKPR secured an appearance on The Weather Channel for ESI Design founder Ed Schlossberg to discuss a massive light-art installation that draws on local weather data to create abstract light patterns that recall sunlight rippling through trees, rain falling, and clouds scudding across the sky. The installation at Chicago’s 35-story skyscraper at 151 North Franklin turns the concrete wall that once made the outdoor terrace feel narrow and cramped into an urban oasis.

Other coverage highlights include Curbed, NBC Chicago, Dexigner, Art Critique, SEGD, and AV Magazine.

Permalink | Posted on Aug 15, 2019 at 7:20 PM by Patrick Kowalczyk

Raves for new Statue of Liberty Museum

By Patrick Kowalczyk

May. 31, 2019

The new Statue of Liberty Museum, with exhibits created by experience design studio ESI Design, officially opened on May 16th.

PKPR helped coordinate several press tours for design, architecture, and arts media, resulting in over 50 stories that highlighted ESI Design’s work, over 70 percent of which quoted ESI Design founder Edwin Schlossberg or other ESI spokespersons.

Highlights included the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, WNYC, Business Insider, Metropolis, Architectural Digest, Slate, My Modern Met, New York Post, Fast Company, Quartz, Untapped Cities, 6sqft, and Dexigner.

Permalink | Posted on May 31, 2019 at 6:09 PM by Patrick Kowalczyk

ESI Design and the new Statue of Liberty Museum

By Patrick Kowalczyk

Nov. 19, 2018

ESI Design is designing the exhibits for the new Statue of Liberty Museum, opening in May 2019. PKPR helped organize a series of preview tours for design and architecture press during the museum’s construction. Coverage has included Architectural Digest, designboom, Curbed, Culture Trip, Untapped Cities, 6sqft, and A Daily Dose of Architecture.

Permalink | Posted on Nov 19, 2018 at 7:57 PM by Patrick Kowalczyk

Schlossberg on Buckminster Fuller in Metropolis

By Patrick Kowalczyk

Jul. 17, 2018


As a result of PKPR’s outreach, Metropolis Magazine published an article by ESI Design founder Edwin Schlossberg on how his collaboration with Buckminster Fuller in the late 1960s continues to shape his groundbreaking work in the field of experience design.

Permalink | Posted on Jul 17, 2018 at 6:36 PM by Patrick Kowalczyk

ESI’s Schlossberg on Design Matters

By Patrick Kowalczyk

Mar. 05, 2018

Put on your earphones and listen to this fascinating interview with ESI Design founder Edwin Schlossberg on Design Matters with Debbie Millman.

Permalink | Posted on Mar 05, 2018 at 6:45 PM by Patrick Kowalczyk

ESI in Engadget, Designboom

By Patrick Kowalczyk

Jan. 31, 2018

515 North State Street, Chicago, for Beacon Capital Partners, by ESI Design from ESI Design on Vimeo.

Engadget, Designboom, Web Urbanist, Interesting Engineering, and Urdesign take a look at how ESI Design reimagines the traditional office lobby by using algorithms to create trippy art that is wowing workers and visitors alike.

Permalink | Posted on Jan 31, 2018 at 9:59 PM by Patrick Kowalczyk

ESI Design in Rolling Stone

By Patrick Kowalczyk

Aug. 30, 2017

Starting with creating games for pocket calculators more than 40 years,  Ed Schlossberg of ESI Design has been obsessed with developing games that large groups of people can play together in the same space. PKPR placed an op-ed by Ed in Rolling Stone discussing his lifelong passion and what it means for the future of gaming.

Permalink | Posted on Aug 30, 2017 at 12:20 PM by Patrick Kowalczyk

ESI on NY1

By Patrick Kowalczyk

Aug. 01, 2017


New York City streets and parks served as a giant testing ground for ESI Design at it tried out its newest games at this past weekend’s outdoor extravaganza, the Come Out & Play Festival.

NY1’s Roger Clark broadcast live from Dumbo all morning, where Clark got a chance to play ESI’s games like Revenge of the Third Rail and Tough Bubbler. See more coverage in outlets from am New York to Brooklyn Reporter.

Permalink | Posted on Aug 01, 2017 at 3:59 PM by Patrick Kowalczyk

ESI Design transforms eBay Campus

By Patrick Kowalczyk

Apr. 13, 2017

Main Street at eBay Headquarters by ESI Design from ESI Design on Vimeo.

When eBay spun off PayPal, the company wanted a new, forward-thinking approach to its brand identity. eBay engaged ESI Design to create a 20,000-square-foot central building called Main Street on its Silicon Valley campus that would serve as the company’s new front door.

PKPR secured a byline on the vision behind the eBay design in Work Design Magazine (”The Workplace is the new Corporate Communications Platform”) and stories in Contract Magazine, BisNow (”How New Tech HQs are Redefining Office”), Building Design + Construction, Dexigner, and SEGD.

Permalink | Posted on Apr 13, 2017 at 7:53 PM by Patrick Kowalczyk

ESI Design makeover electrifies Denver

By Patrick Kowalczyk

Aug. 19, 2016

Wells Fargo Center, Denver, by ESI Design from ESI Design on Vimeo.


3,600 birds flock in ever-changing flight patterns. 8-story-high waterfalls cascade. And 86-feet-tall trees sway—all inside the lobby of this office building in downtown Denver.It’s all part of a jaw-dropping makeover by ESI Design for the Wells Fargo Center owned by Beacon Capital. Denver’s third tallest skyscraper, the Wells Fargo Center was designed by legendary architect Philip Johnson in 1983. The centerpiece of the renovation is an eight-story digital installation in the building’s glass atrium, which is wowing visitors and drawing crowds to the once somber office lobby.

Coverage highlights include Slate, The Denver Post, Colorado Public Radio, PSFK, New Atlas, SEEKER, Confluence Denver, Building Design + Construction, INSIDER Design, and Colorado Real Estate Journal.
 

Permalink | Posted on Aug 19, 2016 at 11:45 AM by Patrick Kowalczyk

ESI Design Goes Viral!

By Patrick Kowalczyk

Jul. 26, 2016

Terrell Place, Washington DC, by ESI Design from ESI Design on Vimeo.


An office lobby in Washington, DC is going viral thanks to news coverage from around the world that PKPR secured for ESI Design.

A dazzling, 1700-square-foot, motion-activated mural in the lobby of Terrell Place has been covered in outlets from Slate and Architzer to DCist and Washingtonian and in countries as far-flung as Israel and Russia..  A video of the installation by Tech Insider has been viewed over 1 million times to date. ESI’s own video of the installation has been viewed over 40,000 times to date, making it by ESI’s most watched video of all time.

Permalink | Posted on Jul 26, 2016 at 9:48 PM by Patrick Kowalczyk

ESI Design on MSNBC

By Patrick Kowalczyk

Apr. 22, 2016

For Earth Day 2016, MSNBC profiled ESI Design’s work on The Beacon at The Tower at PNC Plaza in Pittsburgh, considered the greenest office building in the world.

Permalink | Posted on Apr 22, 2016 at 10:45 PM by Patrick Kowalczyk

“A Dazzling, Data-Driven Showstopper”

By Patrick Kowalczyk

Oct. 28, 2015

The greenest office tower in the world, The Tower at PNC Plaza, opened in Pittsburgh, PA earlier this month,  One of its most groundbreaking innovations is how it engages with employees to communicate the invisible things that the building is doing behind the scenes to conserve energy and water – and the role that employees can play in maximizing the building’s efficiency.

The communication is all done through a soaring, 24-foot-high installation in the Tower’s lobby that uses real-time data from the building to reveal how the building is performing through light, color, and sound patterns. It’s been hailed as a “dazzling, data-driven showstopper” by MNN (Mother Nature Network) and received coverage in outlets from Slate to Architect Magazine.

Permalink | Posted on Oct 28, 2015 at 11:57 AM by Patrick Kowalczyk

ESI’s Ed Schlossberg Profiled in WSJ

By Patrick Kowalczyk

Jun. 16, 2015

On the heels of the opening of new exhibits and experience design projects for The Edward M. Kennedy Institute and the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration, ESI Design founder Ed Schlossberg is profiled in today’s The Wall Street Journal - “A Designer’s Creation: His Own Career.”

Permalink | Posted on Jun 16, 2015 at 8:36 PM by Patrick Kowalczyk

ESI Design profiled in Engadget

By Patrick Kowalczyk

May. 14, 2015

Engadget goes behind-the-scenes with the ESI Design team for a video tour of the design and technology behind the exhibits at the new Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration opening on May 20th.

Permalink | Posted on May 14, 2015 at 12:49 PM by Patrick Kowalczyk

ESI Design profiled by CBS This Morning

By Patrick Kowalczyk

Apr. 27, 2015

CBS This Morning aired a fantastic profile on ESI Design that’s been over two months in the works.

For a look at how ESI Design is at the forefront of using LEDs to transform formerly overlooked office buildings, correspondent David Begnaud visited the ESI offices in NYC for interviews and tours, as well as two of its projects in Chicago. The result is a definitive look at how ESI Design is setting the benchmark for experience design.

Permalink | Posted on Apr 27, 2015 at 8:19 AM by Patrick Kowalczyk

ESI Work For Kennedy Institute Wins Praise

By Patrick Kowalczyk

Apr. 06, 2015

President Obama officially opened the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston last week.  PKPR client ESI Design created the Institute’s interactive exhibits and visitor experience, which includes a program that allows up to 100 people to “play” Senators-in-Training in a full-scale recreation of the U.S. Senate Chamber.

The firm’s innovative work won praise from influential design outlets and columnists including Fast Company (”In This Museum, You Don’t Learn About Senators. You Are a Senator”), Quartz (”Ted Kennedy’s Institute Lets Visitors Play Senator For A Day”), and Slate (”Kennedy Institute Combines Cutting-Edge Tech With A Full-Scale Senate Replica”).

Permalink | Posted on Apr 06, 2015 at 6:57 PM by Patrick Kowalczyk

Slate Looks at How ESI Reimagines Old Buildings

By Patrick Kowalczyk

Feb. 23, 2015

Slate’s design Kristin Hohenadel today took a big picture look at how ESI Design is re-imagining old office buildings for the 21st century using massive light-art installations, digital media experiences, interactive technology, and more.

Permalink | Posted on Feb 23, 2015 at 11:02 AM by Patrick Kowalczyk

ESI Design in Architectural Digest

By Patrick Kowalczyk

Oct. 31, 2014

How do you transform a Brutalist mass of concrete into a vibrant property that appeals to Boston’s growing tech industry?  Architectural Digest take a look ESI Design’s makeover for the lobby of I.M. Pei‘s iconic 177 Huntington tower on the Christian Science Plaza in Boston.

Permalink | Posted on Oct 31, 2014 at 10:28 AM by Patrick Kowalczyk


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