Written by: Sasha Rosen Tuesday, October 25th, 2011 .

EntertainmentDesigner.com recently had a chance to sit down with Andrew Gartner, founder and creative director of Gartner Design Company, which does everything from creating brand identities and film sets to designing hotel interiors and interactive museum exhibits. Just as Gartner Design Company’s repertoire is diverse and extensive, its founder’s background is equally varied. After studying architecture at UC Berkeley, Andrew designed interiors on both coasts, including California, where he was part of a team that designed a movie studio for George Lucas. He then started Gartner Design Company in New Mexico, but not before he designed museum exhibits, film sets, theme parks, and hotel interiors.

Learning about Andrew’s diverse background, it came as no surprise that what he enjoys most about entertainment design is the synergistic collaboration between different disciplines: “To do these kinds of projects, you have to switch hats a lot, and you can’t do it alone,” explained Andrew, “What I enjoy most is that I get to be an artist and share ideas with people, and that the spaces we create can inspire, educate, and entertain.” Andrew is not only interested in the aesthetics of designing a venue, but is also fascinated by the concept of reinventing how people use space, and honing in on what makes people feel inspired and form lasting memories.

What really struck us about the interview with Andrew was his fresh take on entertainment design as a tool to re-invent education. Gartner Design’s recent exhibit at the Halle Heart Children’s Museum is a prime example of this: the team took scientific and health education and made it accessible, entertaining, and even fun by creating interactive learning stations that address exercise, nutrition, and anatomy and physiology as it relates to cardiovascular diseases. Hundreds of kids per day visit the Halle Heart Museum to learn about healthy heart care through hands-on activities and demonstrations, and take part in Gartner Design’s philosophy that learning and play are not separate.

While entertainment design is multi-faceted, as Andrew explains: “my average day consists of marketing, consulting, brainstorming, researching, writing, and sketching,” the overall goal for the Gartner Design team, whether it’s designing for Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, Anheuser-Busch, or the Halle Heart Children’s Museum, is to give back to the community by creating something inspiring that people will love.

Visit the Gartner Design Company website

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