PRESS RELEASES 
The Idea Factory
by Melody Finnemore
The Oregonian (Portland, OR) April 8, 2005
Formations Inc. specializes in the planning, design, construction and installation of exhibits for museums, interpretive centers, historic homes and visitors centers.
Craig Kerger, the company's president and design principal, began creating exhibits 33 years ago after realizing early in his professional life that he wanted to be a storyteller. Rather than relying solely on words, however, Kerger envisioned music, film, photos and interactive displays as his tools.
"It all kind of blossomed in the '70s around trying to get the attention of traveling visitors," he said, noting that his first projects included a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers exhibit in the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, and interpretive centers and trail exhibits for the National Park Service.
The Chicago native also knew early on that he didn't want to live in the Windy City. He and his first wife chose Oregon for its wide open spaces, and he founded Formations in 1989. The company's early work, including for the Pacific Northwest Museum of Natural History in Ashland and the Museum at Warm Springs, reflects Kerger's appreciation for the state's cultural history and natural beauty.
Michael Hammond, former executive director of the Museum at Warm Springs, said Formations' exhibits do much more than display artifacts.
"They tell the stories"
"They don't just say, 'Here are your baskets and your beads.' They tell the stories of the people who live on the reservation, and they wrap those stories around the exhibits," said Hammond, now executive director of the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum in Palm Springs, Calif.
Other Formations work in Oregon includes projects for the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria and the Mount St. Helens Forest Learning Center. Outside the state, the company's exhibits fill the Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne, Ind.; the Rupp House History Center in Gettysburg, Penn.; and the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, Calif.
"The Steinbeck Center has been one of the best projects for us and brought us a lot of national attention," Kerger said.
The National Steinbeck Center describes John Steinbeck's life, as well as the history of agriculture in the Salinas Valley. Agriculture is a focus of the museum because it played such a central role in the author's work.
Formations is capturing the character of another larger-than-life hero in its work on the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Ky. The 24,000-square-foot museum, scheduled to open in November, is the company's largest endeavor to date.
"There are very few artifacts, and it's a very conceptual idea about representing the man and his beliefs in a very dramatic theater setting because he was such a media darling," Kerger said. "The challenge to us is to create a very visceral design that conveys that sense of physical strength and also the strength of his convictions."
Among its many exhibits and interactive displays, the center will allow boxing enthusiasts to do a virtual training session with the champ and tour pavilions that represent Ali's principles—respect, confidence, conviction, giving, spirituality and dedication.
"It goes well beyond being a shrine to Muhammad and becomes a way he can help other people," Kerger said. "He's been very clear that he doesn't want it to be a hall of fame for himself. He wants people to use these principles in a very personal way."
Formations, which employs 33 full-time staff members and 20 consultants, began working on the Ali project three years ago.
Involvement at all stages
The company initiates each of its projects with a planning session to determine how best to tell a particular story. The ideas come to life through three-dimensional models and conceptual drawings that illustrate how the exhibits and interactive displays will look and sound. Formations then writes text and gathers visual elements for each exhibit.
For the Muhammad Ali Center, Formations' staff has worked with the artist LeRoy Neiman—who sketched dozens of portraits of Ali and provided original artwork for the center—and Howard Bingham, Ali's personal photographer.
"We've got all this history wrapped up in all these folks," Kerger said. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime project."
Like other projects, the final design phase for the Muhammad Ali Center involved engineering drawings that specify lighting and audiovisual requirements. The exhibits are now being built in the company's fabrication warehouse in Gresham.
"Typically, a project can be a year in design and a year in fabrication and installation," Kerger said.
Once completed, the exhibits for the Muhammad Ali Center will be trucked to Louisville. Five semis will take the first load in mid-August, launching a three-month installation period. Once the large casework is there, additional loads will deliver graphic and audiovisual components and, finally, the valuable collectibles included in the displays.
Mike Fox, president and chief executive of the center, said he has worked with Kerger on past projects and is especially impressed with Formations' success on this complex project.
"This has not been an easy job for them to manage," Fox said. "Formations had to be . . . wholly responsible for making this an institution of ideas, not an institution of objects."
The company's future projects include the Grand Coulee Dam visitors center and a center for the Army Corps of Engineers that highlights the romantic period of paddle-wheel travel on the Mississippi River.
"There just seems to be an endless supply of great stories to be told around the country," Kerger said, "and we're fortunate enough to be selected as the storytellers.