Belle & Wissell partnered with the J. Paul Getty Museum to develop an informative and enlightening interactive experience for their permanent exhibit installation, J. Paul Getty: Life and Legacy. Wishing to bring more understanding and awareness to their founder, the Getty asked for the studio’s help in introducing J. Paul Getty to museum visitors, and extending his story as a means to explore the Getty collections. Belle & Wissell also crafted the J. Paul Getty Mobile Experience as a companion to the exhibit installation.

Alongside the Getty team, Belle & Wissell designed and developed a set of Media Matrix Stations profiling J. Paul Getty’s life, collection practices, and his legacy today. Each station focuses on one aspect of Getty, allowing visitors to choose the topic that interests them most, then further explore individual stories.

The Media Matrix Stations—“Getty’s Life,” “Getty’s Collection,” “Getty Collects: Antiquities and the Villa,” and “Getty’s Legacy”—are permanently installed in the Getty Center’s entrance to its South Pavilion. The experience opens with rotating, circular bands that relate to the specific content at the selected Media Matrix Station. After the user selects one of the bands (or its associated description above), the coil unravels to reveal a vertical, scrolling arrangement of stories.

Stories are custom-built from a number of diverse, flexible templates: including video, audio, and imagery. In addition, Belle & Wissell built several interactive components to provide further detail into Getty’s life—visitors can explore maps, timelines, scrapbook-like stacks, and high-resolution scans of Getty’s journal to dive deep into stories about his childhood, career, and passion for art collecting.

Belle & Wissell worked closely with the Getty team to create a unique experience that maintains a strong visual relation with the museum’s architecture, existing brand identity, and signage. Rounded shapes are used throughout the Media Matrix experience—meant to evoke the undulating forms that can be found throughout the Getty Center and its gardens.