I am never bored in my job. There is always something new and exciting we are working on. The latest project to bring excitement to my world entailed updating the ATM at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The ATMs were being updated across our network and this location would be getting a completely new model which offered us an opportunity to create a new surround for it.

From Concept to Delivery, the new Partners ATM surround frame at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Many ideas came to mind when designing concepts for this ATM, especially because of its location and proximity to the Galaxy’s Edge land at the theme park. We ended up with a design concept that would play well with its surrounding while also supporting the technology and futuristic storylines so strongly featured in the “Star Wars” land. In order to accomplish this, we used a variety of materials that included brush aluminum, followed by a layer of acrylic mirror printed from a pattern I designed based on Partners branded graphic elements. The logo was layered over the acrylic face, also printed, and cut out in acrylic. For the overall shape, I conceptualized a variety of modern approaches than just a boring standard surround you would encounter at another bank or credit union.

One learning opportunity for me involved using a different color than our standard Partners Red which we normally use on all our ATM surrounds. At this particular location, we were limited in only using the dark gray, which is also an important brand color in our style guide, however, we had never used it on an ATM surround before. We were concerned the ATM would not stand out enough or that the colors would not show well, but to our surprise, the design worked very cohesively. We stayed true to who we are as a brand, by using the gray and metal texture, we pushed the boundary of our brand in ways we hadn’t done before.

The finished product speaks for itself. We tried an out-of-the-box approach at designing this ATM surround and the result was simply put a huge success.