1. PROJECT PROFILE
Chris Au
604 961 3472
Chris.Au@DidaxDesign.com
vA
Page 1
Feeding the World Exhibit
CLIENT The University of Saskatchewan’s College of Agriculture and Bioresources plays a leadership role in
education and research for ensuring a healthful and sustainable global food supply.
PROJECT The university developed the Rayner Dairy Research and Teaching Facility to house over 100 lactating
cows and to provide teaching and demonstration areas, for research and development. It also comprises
visitor-accessible overhead barn walkways, and interpretive exhibits. The title of the exhibit reflects the
overarching theme: Feeding the World.
Panther Creative was awarded this contract to plan, design, fabricate, and install the 200 sm exhibit with
Chris Au as the project manager and design director.
OBJECTIVE The exhibits augment and support the facility’s goals of
providing:
• training in agriculture, veterinary medicine, and other post-
secondary technical education and skills;
• resources for Canadian and international graduate student
research;
• R&D and technology transfer to industry for green and
sustainable technologies.
AUDIENCE The constituency comprises university faculty, staff and
students, K–12 school groups, industry stakeholders, funding
benefactors, professional/business community, regional/
national/global governments and colleagues.
The presentations included both
static and interactive (mechanical
and computer) exhibits, as well as AV
videos. The displays share a common
visual and physical vocabulary that
reflects the agricultural setting of
the facility. The structural support
of the displays comprise galvanized
steel pipes with industrial connectors
and clamps. As a counterpoint, the
graphics and other display elements
are highly finished and state-of-art.
If you care at all
about the future of
the world’s food
supply, you care—
whether you know
it or not—about
Saskatchewan.

2. PROJECT PROFILE
Chris Au
604 961 3472
Chris.Au@DidaxDesign.com
vA
Page 2
Feeding the World Exhibit
CHALLENGES Although the client group from the university was very enthusiastic, this was a new endeavour for them.
We worked with them to define their messages and set realistic goals based on the available budget and
spatial concerns. The building was already under construction when we came aboard so we worked
collaboratively with the base building designers and contractors to ensure that the physical facility
met exhibitry needs for power/data, HVAC, lighting, traffic flow, space allocation, and finishing. Some
of the critical client team members also held academic and teaching responsibilities around which we
scheduled our development process.
APPROACH The overall tone of the exhibit was :
• sophisticated but not slick;
• fun but not overly whimsical;
• friendly but not folksy;
• agricultural but not rustic.
• Planning
– Start-up site meeting
– Client/stakeholders workshop
• Design
– Concept
– Schematic
– Development
– Production
• Production
– Pre-production planning
– Fabrication/construction/
printing/production
– Shipping and Installation
• Close-out
– Exhibit Manual
Towards that end we developed a common visual vocabulary that included the use of galvanized
steel pipes as structural supports for exhibitry components. This versatile building material is used
in agricultural environments—interior and exterior—throughout the world. We adapted staging and
theatrical fittings to extend the versatility of this approach.
METHODOLOGY The phases and stages included:
Within each of the phases we developed the exhibit components in parallel:
• Interpretive themes, subthemes, messages;
• Space planning and architectural/engineering requirements;
• Exhibitry (including interactives);
• Graphics (texts and images);
• AV/computer media.
Agriculture and
Agri-Food Canada
Saskatchewan
Ministry of Agriculture
Western EconomicSaskMilk
Moody’s
Equipment
SaskCanolaNew Holland
Agriculture
National Bank
BMO
Financial Group
Agrifoods International
Cooperative
SaskFlax
Farm Credit Canada RBC Royal Bank Seed Hawk
The Rayner Dairy Research
and Teaching Facility and
its interpretive galleries were
made possible through the
generosity of the following
organizations, corporations
and individuals, as well as
those donors preferring
The University of
for her contribution, and for
her insight into the principles
of outreach and education
which guided her father and
inspired the development
This donor panel recognizes contributions made until September 1, 2013.
$1,000,000 +
$250,000
–
$50,001
Up to $25,000
$50,000
–
$25,001