Genentech - Living History Wall
Turning Corporate Archives into ‘Living History’
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Project Overview:
The scientists at Genentech fight the world’s hardest to treat diseases. In the lobby of a new employee center, the biotech icon wanted to celebrate its track record of enabling life-saving treatments while also acknowledging the years of failure employees must endure before such a breakthrough occurs. The “Living History Wall” honors this tension, distilling epic company milestones into human-scale encounters and embedding them into employees’ everyday routines. Positioned near a campus coffee shop and gym, the responsive installation uses depth-sensing technology to tie media to an employee’s presence as they pass by, helping to reinforce both a sense of communal belonging and individual employee impact.
My Role:
As the content strategy lead, I played a key role in ensuring that our creative approach authentically aligned with Genentech’s distinct brand and culture. Immersing deeply in the company’s history and its archives, I developed the content framework for the experience and the templates that would populate the framework, bringing the idea of a “living history” to life. The Genentech brand manager, impressed with our work, also engaged me to write the copy for the experience, generating incremental revenue for Second Story.
A people’s history: The installation recalls key moments from Genentech’s history through the lens of its distinct culture. Clever copywriting that channeled the company’s quirky spirit helped make the moments feel more like memories than milestones, tonally more akin to a school yearbook than a corporate timeline.
Presence-triggered playlist: The experience was divided into different content modes that are triggered by human presence and proximity. When no one is nearby, the installation speaks in a “louder” visual voice, with less content depth. Conversely, if someone pauses and deliberately approaches the screen, the most intimate layer of story surfaces.
