Picture Flap at Best Friends

Location: Bentonville, Arkansas (Best Friends Pet Resource Center)
Use Case: Lobby Display
Client: Best Friends
Design Style: Industrial Modern, Mounted Signs
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Picture Flap Specs

Size: 4 ROW x 8 COLUMN Display
Dimensions: 48.5″ x 96″ x 9.5″
Finish: Classic Black Metal Casing
Installed: 2022

Project Overview

The Best Friends Pet Resource Center is a fully reimagined shelter offering information and services for both people and pets. Founded in 1984, Best Friends is a pioneer in the no-kill movement and strives to keep pets in homes. Breaking the mold of antiquated facilities that have long been the norm, the pet resource center is also designed without cages or kennels. In addition to the Bentonville, Arkansas, location, there are additional pet adoption centers across the country, including Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, New York City, and Houston. 

The Resource Center has helped reduce the number of animals killed in shelters from an estimated 17 million per year to around 355,000. The organization also runs lifesaving programs across the country and operates the nation’s largest no-kill animal sanctuary in Kanab, Utah. Working collaboratively with a network of more than 4,200 animal welfare and shelter partners, Best Friends is working to Save Them All®. For more information, visit bestfriends.org.

Best Friends in Bentonville aims to educate and protect animals with a mission to stop shelter kills. The center invites guests with a modern, welcoming aesthetic, featuring friendly orange accents against warm wood and cool-colored tile. In addition to being home to Best Friends Pet Resource Center (one of many locations), Bentonville, AR, is known as the Mountain Biking Capital of the World.

Functionality and Design

To create a welcoming atmosphere for potential adopters, we worked with Best Friends to build a Picture Flap display that reflects their goals and values. The Picture Flap needed to fit into the design of the Bentonville, Arkansas Center, which is clad in creative graphics and pops of their signature orange. 

With an open floor plan that allows for ample sunlight to pour in, the Best Friends space is a Industrial Modern style, with a wood-lined ceiling and the use of cool grey tile and flooring that brighten the space. Our 4 Row x 8 Column Picture Flap serves as the signature focal point of a kinetic statement wall behind the reception desk.

The Picture Flap at Best Friends in Bentonville uses vivid imagery and organizational values to educate visitors and prospective adopters. The display rotates through high-resolution photos of animals at the shelter, a sanctuary in Utah, and several mission objectives. 

We work with clients on all our Picture Flap projects to ensure all images translate well to the mechanical board medium. 

Photos of landscapes (shown here) are usually a great fit for Picture Flap. 

The Best Friends Picture Flap rotates through photos of pigs, turtles, birds, cats, dogs, and many more, showing the range of animals protected through their organization.

Behind the Scenes

Behind the scenes at Oat Foundry, every Picture Flap display starts long before a single flap clicks into place. It begins at the drawing board, where each project (such as Best Friends) is designed specifically for its space, down to size, imagery, and style. What looks like a simple board is actually an intricate engineered system, composed of thousands of individual parts that work in perfect synchronization. 

The detailed Split Flap creation process kicks off as sheets of cold-rolled steel are cut, bent, and powder-coated before being assembled into a rigid cabinet, the structural backbone of every Picture Flap display. Inside, electronics and proprietary software bring the system to life, while technicians manually install each printed flap into its rotating carousel. The result is an orchestrated blend of mechanical precision, craftsmanship, and motion, where every flip, sound, and transition is the product of hands-on, behind-the-scenes work happening in our Philadelphia shop.

During the creation of a Picture Flap, each board is thoroughly tested before being shipped to the client.

Lobby Use Case

Every lobby is an opportunity to tell a story about mission, goals, and values through design. Best Friends, which strives to end the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters, had a rich, dynamic story to tell through images, data, and objectives. Enter Picture Flap, our image-based Split Flap, and in-house go-to for telling visual stories. With the ability to create various “artboards”, Best Friends chose a range of high-resolution photographs of their animals to display on the Picture Flap, arguably the most impactful imagery to demonstrate their mission. 

The Best Friend’s Picture Flap, which serves as a kinetic statement wall and lobby signage, fits within the center’s clean, minimal aesthetic.

The minimal aesthetic of Best Friends, accented with wood and careful details, uses expansive windows to let in natural light for a warm, welcoming vibe.

It’s important to align elements with the brand’s identity, as shown by the custom installation here, which helps tell the Best Friends story.

Signage is only a part of the picture when it comes to lobby design. Best Friends also boasts a carefully curated merch wall, which invites visitors to browse and support the center.

Explore Lobby Signage

Press and Media

Best Friends Resource Center has made the headlines for its pet education, programming, clinic, and nationwide adoption and foster programs. Good Good Good has reported on the center’s operations, highlighting how the organization saves an estimated 13,000 dogs and cats per year. USA Today recently shared a heartwarming story about Lorie Comer, affectionately known as “The Puppy Lady,” who has fostered more than 100 dogs for Best Friends. Best Friends also made news for its partnership with pet food brand Blue Buffalo, which donated 500k lbs of food and treats to its shelters.

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People Magazine has extensively covered Best Friends, highlighting its services and amenities, including a coffee shop, a vet clinic, and a pet food bank. 

Featured Content
Donor Wall Ideas: Redefining Recognition Through Design

Donor walls give organizations an opportunity to clearly articulate their mission, goals, and objectives in a visually appealing way. Visuals also make it easier to comprehend information more quickly and effectively, especially through a mechanical display such as Picture Flap.

Read more about the benefits of mechanical donor wall ideas.


FAQS

How are Oat Foundry Picture Flap displays made?

The Oat Foundry process for Picture Flap is similar to our approach to make a Split Flap display. From the outset of a project, each Oat Foundry display is custom-made for individual clients, taking their specific needs into account before production begins. From there, tens of thousands of unique components are assembled by hand in our Philadelphia shop by our team of engineers and technicians. Watch our team construct a Split Flap display from scratch here, and read in-depth about the process here.

Can visitors interact directly with my Split or Picture Flap display? 

Oat Foundry’s companion technology, Algorithm, makes our displays interactive and on-brand. Using a series of dials, guests can rotate through a pre-set, customized interactions, so your brand is always in control of their participatory experience.

How much is Picture Flap?

Picture Flap starts at 20k and scales up based on size and customizations. You can learn more about Picture Flap pricing here.

Learn more about Picture Flap on our FAQ page.