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National Geographic Bears Ears

The living cultural landscape, Bears Ears is the source of identity, knowledge, the healer, the library, the sacred, and the home of our ancestors. We are inseparably linked to the land and responsible for the preservation of its heritage. We have to protect beautiful landscape and cultural heritages as rare and precious as ancient village sites.

Client

Service

UX/UI Design, Visual Design, VR

Client

National Geographic

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"Our greatest treasures are public lands."

THE

CHALLENGE

In 2016, President Barack Obama created the Bears Ears National Monument, named for a pair of tall buttes that resemble the top of a bear’s head peeking over a ridge. His proclamation recognized the area’s “extraordinary archaeological and cultural record” and the land’s “profoundly sacred” meaning to many Native American tribes.

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Eleven months later, in early December of 2017, President Trump reduced Bears Ears by 85 percent. 

The living cultural landscape, Bears Ears is the source of identity, knowledge, the healer, the library, the sacred, and the home of our ancestors. We are inseparably linked to the land and responsible for the preservation of its heritage. We have to protect beautiful landscape and cultural heritages as rare and precious as ancient village sites.

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Helped design online immersive experience showcasing Bears Ears National Monument's history. With a goal to celebrate the land and spread the support to preserve National Monuments.

OUR

MISSION

Provide a design solution for National Geographic a fully immerse the viewer in the imagery and stories, we designed a minimal user interface that recedes when not in use. This design allows the natural beauty of Bears Ears to shine through and serves as a subtle compliment to the vivid videography, imagery, and iconography we used. 

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This is Bears Ears is divided into three chapters: the story of the peoples who live there, the sporting that attracts new visitors, and the call to action to defend its historic designation. 

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View 360

Video

Provide a design solution for National Geographic a fully immerse the viewer in the imagery and stories, we designed a minimal user interface that recedes when not in use. This design allows the natural beauty of Bears Ears to shine through and serves as a subtle compliment to the vivid videography, imagery, and iconography we used. 

​

This is Bears Ears is divided into three chapters: the story of the peoples who live there, the sporting that attracts new visitors, and the call to action to defend its historic designation. 

​

360°

VR VIDEO

The 360° VR stories are an essential component of the site experience, allowing viewers to explore cultural relics or adventure on the beautiful mesas in full effect. By using Google technology for the mapping and VR, we were able to transition amazing bird’s eye views into awesome VR escapes.

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Knowing that most people would be viewing the site on their phones, we paid careful attention to create an elegant mobile experience. We leveraged onboard mobile hardware like the gyroscope and motion detection to give users a complete VR experience no matter where they were or what device they were using.

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Story Line

VR Experience

We present the beauty of the landscape as is. By adding lights, it becomes a living museum. It is surprising and intriguing way to experience Bears Ears. Lights can be natural device to direct user’s attention from one site to another. The contrast between light and dark can underscore the story visually. For example, gradual darkening of parts of the national monument map can imply that we’re losing those area, its majestic landscape and precious heritage. Conceptually and technically, light and shadow is elegantly used to blur the abrupt boundaries between detailed photogrammetry data and proximate satellite data.