Inside, scenes from novels, movies and historic moments are brought to lifelike detail, using custom fabrication and the company\u2019s own digital design expertise.<\/p>\n
Instead of meeting rooms, workers hold Zoom conferences in capsules modeled like a Monty Python castle or a room in the International Space Station.<\/p>\n
![\"Pods](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781526966_99_REG-L-NeoPangea557.jpg\")
Pods that depict concepts are central features at NeoPangea, a design and marketing firm at 215 S. Fifth Ave., West Reading. (BILL UHRICH\/MEDIANEWS GROUP)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a room that is Indiana Jones themed, there\u2019s a talisman that when you move it, it turns lights on and off,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cThere\u2019s a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea submarine pod, which is all polished copper and brass, with truly one-of-a-kind artifacts that are handmade, that look like we\u2019ve captured mermaids in bottles.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Sarah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781526967_412_REG-L-NeoPangea552.jpeg\")
Sarah Schafer, left, design intern, and Sarah Trafford, senior experience designer, work inside a pod that resembles the set of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at NeoPangea, a design and marketing firm at 215 S. Fifth Ave., West Reading. (BILL UHRICH\/MEDIANEWS GROUP)<\/p>\n
Like an intersection, the lab serves cross purposes: it\u2019s a dreamscape where NeoPangea\u2019s designers freely sow the fruits of their creative labor.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also a carefully curated statement of just how vastly NeoPangea\u2019s professional capabilities extend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe capture the mystery and the ethos of NeoPangea in those moments,\u201d Tucker said of the lab\u2019s decor. \u201cWe try to capture the moment of creating a story in those rooms, to show how dedicated we are to showing unique stories. Really, we\u2019re storytellers.\u201d<\/p>\n
What is NeoPangea?<\/p>\n
NeoPangea, which recently celebrated its 21st anniversary in its birthplace of West Reading, is a digital design, marketing and production studio. They specialize in experiential media, media designed to immerse the audience using tools like interactive displays or augmented and virtual reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a creative partner to entertainment brands, museums and partners across consumer product goods, retail, augmented reality,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cThere\u2019s quite a lot that we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their projects combine elements of design, storytelling and custom fabrication \u2014 everything from digital ads and video games to large-scale interactive displays and exhibits.<\/p>\n
NeoPangea\u2019s clientele includes household names, like National Geographic, Nickelodeon and Paramount+, as well as more localized interests, like the Berks History Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a team of 30 to 40 at any given time based on that project scope,\u201d Tucker said.<\/p>\n
He said brands look to the company for its ethos as storytellers capable of weaving unique solutions and technology experts at the forefront of experiential media.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the years, we\u2019ve become more entrenched in what\u2019s happening in technology,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cWe have a lot of collaborators abroad that view us as experts, like you would assume you would only be able to find in a top five market or Silicon Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n
Founder Brett Bagenstose started NeoPangea in 2005 in his spare bedroom.<\/p>\n
He based the company\u2019s name around the Latin for \u201cnew\u201d and the idea that the Earth once contained a single, unified continent, called Pangea.<\/p>\n
NeoPangea signifies Bagenstose\u2019s belief that the internet has created a digital \u201ccontinent\u201d where people can come together to wonder, explore and, most importantly, play, according to the company\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
Playful approach to creating<\/p>\n
That playful element is apparent in NeoPangea\u2019s approach to its projects.<\/p>\n
One of the company\u2019s projects for Paramount+ turned a Times Square billboard into a fully 3D-model of a starship in celebration of the final season of \u201cStar Trek: Picard.\u201d The starship seems to peek out of the borders of the display as it hovers to a stop above the entrance of the Marriot Marquis.<\/p>\n
Its work with National Geographic includes \u201cBecoming Jane,\u201d a traveling, multimedia exhibition that transforms Jane Goodall\u2019s memoirs into an interactive exhibit, and \u201cMake Mars Home,\u201d an alternate reality experience that recruited prospective Mars colonists in a mock mission to the planet, using an interactive website, virtual reality simulations and more.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s local efforts are also notable. At the Reading Public Museum, NeoPangea digitally resurrected Nefrina, a 2,500-year-old mummy, who springs to life in a holographic display to share her story with visitors.<\/p>\n
NeoPangea has also been tapped for a large-scale revamp of the Berks History Center that will place updated interactive displays on the building\u2019s multiple levels.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s efforts have earned prestigious industry accolades from the likes of The Webby Awards, Forbes, SXSW and the American Alliance of Museums.<\/p>\n
Exploring Inc. acquired NeoPangea<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve also earned the financial backing of Exploring Inc., an Atlanta-based platform of companies that delivers immersive environments and fabrication solutions.<\/p>\n
Exploring acquired NeoPangea in March.<\/p>\n
In a release, the companies noted that NeoPangea has collaborated with Exploring\u2019s custom fabrication arm, ID3 Group, for years.<\/p>\n
The acquisition formalizes that relationship and streamlines planning between the two, the release said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen too many projects wrangled by multiple external vendors become harder than they needed to be,\u201d Bagenstose said in the release. \u201cDecisions get separated, timing gets delayed, and before you know it, you are fixing issues instead of building something great. Being part of Exploring changes that.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Employees](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781526967_720_Exploring_Fast-40_Mockup_01b_st.jpg\")
Employees of NeoPangea and new parent company Exploring, Inc., honor Exploring\u2019s fourth consecutive nomination to the Atlanta Association for Corporate Growth\u2019s Georgia Fast 40 list. (Courtesy of NeoPangea)<\/p>\n
Tucker noted that nothing about NeoPangea\u2019s identity has changed with the acquisition.<\/p>\n
\u201cTechnically it\u2019s an acquisition, but it feels more like a partnership,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cIt enables us to have conversations with all of these other experts in the same industry verticals, and also be supported by them, because we\u2019re part of the same infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781526967_263_REG-L-NeoPangea556.jpg\")
The work corral at NeoPangea, a design and marketing firm at 215 S. Fifth Ave., West Reading, is an open space to encourage interaction among staffers. (BILL UHRICH\/MEDIANEWS GROUP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Halfway down Fifth Avenue in West Reading sits a building that doesn\u2019t quite blend in. Those driving by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,60,182,28,128,130,129,1015,707],"class_list":["post-219546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-business","tag-local-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-mer","tag-west-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}