WHO AM I?
RICKEY CRUM | Rickey is an award winning artist, designer, fabricator, experience maker, and higher-ed instructor, combining nearly 20 years of creative experience, spanning multiple disciplines from art to architecture. Rickey’s educational background is in Aerospace Engineering and Architecture, receiving his Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies in 2007 and his Masters in Architecture in 2009 from The University of Texas.
His most recent endeavor, in conjunction with his partners, is the development of their new location-based immersive entertainment concept, Department of Wonder. As Head of Fabrication, his role is multifaceted and primarily focused on leading the design and fabrication efforts of the built environment, including overall technical planning and coordination, as well as design and development of one-off interactive exhibits (animatronics, microcontroller-based triggered experiences, etc.). In the short few months since its opening in October of 2022, Department of Wonder has already been recognized on a world stage through a diversity of publications, and most significantly by receiving first place in the Blooloop Innovation Awards for the category of Storytelling.
Additionally, Rickey founded the studio, Haptic Workshop, focusing on developing solutions to non-typical design problems with an emphasis on immersive and/or interactive art and entertainment based projects. The mission of Haptic is to leverage cutting edge digital fabrication tools and design software to explore the intersections of art, design and fabrication, which are skill sets he developed and honed both as an senior architectural designer with CallisonRTKL, and through his work as a teaching lab manager and adjunct faculty at SMU in the Master of Arts in Design and Innovation program. Rickey first began his foray into the entertainment world through his work at Billings Productions as the operations coordinator and Director of special builds, tasked with the design and fabrication of life-sized animatronic dinosaurs exhibited at zoos and museums all over the world! Rickey values both old and new technologies, and pushes to integrate both in his work. He has a passion for parametric design and digital fabrication, but you may also find him flint knapping stone tools in his spare time.
