Major infrastructure and transit developments are more than engineering feats, they are the lifelines of future communities. From concept to ridership, Cicada creates story-driven, technically accurate imagery and cinematic media that move massive projects forward.
We bridge the gap between complex engineering and public understanding. By transforming blueprints into immersive visual narratives, we help project teams accelerate government approvals, secure critical funding, win community buy-in, and elevate the overall quality of the civic design.
We collaborate closely with architects, engineers, and project teams to ensure we reflect the latest design intent, accessibility standards, and operational logic in order to support design development, stakeholder engagement, and public communication.
Airports are some of the most complex, highly regulated environments in the world. When proposing modernizations or new terminals, stakeholders need to see exactly how passenger flow, security infrastructure, and architectural aesthetics harmonize.
Our Value:
Accelerating Approvals: We translate highly technical aviation data and master plans into intuitive, high-fidelity visuals that clear municipal and federal regulatory hurdles.
Securing Stakeholder Buy-In: From airline executives to local authorities, our imagery builds immediate consensus around long-term capital improvement projects.
Cicada supported HOK’s competition entry for the King Khalid International Airport master plan design. Grounded in the concept of interconnected constellations, the architectural design serves as both an organizational framework and an inspirational vision for a global travel hub.
To bring this visionary concept to life, Cicada produced a cinematic project video that seamlessly blended animated CG scenes with cosmic-themed motion design and titles. By translating abstract, highly technical master plans into an immersive visual narrative, we elevated the proposed facility’s experience and effectively demonstrated HOK’s architectural vision to key decision-makers.
Cicada Design worked with HOK and the Salt Lake City Department of Airports to help communicate the vision for The New SLC, one of the largest airport redevelopment projects in the United States and the first new U.S. hub airport built in the 21st century. Through cinematic video, CG renderings, and an interactive VR experience, the project allowed public audiences, stakeholders, media, and creative partners to understand the future passenger journey before completion, from arrival and departure sequences to terminal spaces, concourses, wayfinding, and public art.
By bringing the design to life before construction was complete, the work helped build understanding and excitement around the project’s long-term impact on the region. The visualizations became an important part of the airport’s public communications and design unveiling efforts, while also supporting conversations around the integration of public art and passenger experience. Together, they transformed a complex infrastructure initiative into an accessible and immersive story about movement, identity, and the future of Salt Lake City.
Integrating light rail transit into existing urban fabric requires delicate balancing and immense community transparency. Success hinges on showing local residents, business owners, and city councils exactly how new lines will integrate with their daily lives.
Our Value:
Fostering Community Buy-In: We mitigate public friction by delivering realistic, human-centric renderings of stations, streetscapes, and pedestrian interactions.
Streamlining Multi-Government Approvals: Our precise media helps transit agencies align provincial/state, municipal, and environmental oversight bodies behind a single vision.
Cicada produced photorealistic animations for select stations along Line 6, supported by a suite of detailed renderings covering station architecture, maintenance facilities, civil‑road infrastructure, and above‑ground shelters.
Our team collaborated closely with every design discipline throughout design development and the construction‑document phase, refining each iteration in response to evolving feedback and ensuring that every visualization accurately reflected the latest project direction.
Ottawa’s Confederation Line was our most ambitious transit undertaking to date. Over a five‑year period, we collaborated closely with the design teams to produce four renderings for each of the line’s seventeen stations, capturing key milestones throughout design development. Our work also included the initial visualization package that supported the team’s successful P3 bid.
Beyond architectural accuracy, we adhered rigorously to wayfinding and accessibility standards, ensuring every image communicated a system designed for all users.
Regional rail and commuter networks span massive geographic distances and involve multi-year phases. Communicating the long-term economic and lifestyle benefits to the public and funding bodies is essential to maintaining project momentum.
Our Value:
Unlocking Funding and Support: We create compelling visual narratives that demonstrate the macro-level value of regional connectivity, helping to justify large-scale public spend and speed up funding allocations.
Technical Information Simplified: We distill complex transit staging, rail corridor expansions, and multi-modal hubs into clear, digestible media for non-technical decision-makers.
Cicada created a focused set of visualizations for the Stouffville Line expansion, highlighting upgrades at Agincourt, Milliken, Steeles, and Unionville stations.
The imagery clearly communicated the value of the improvements, helping stakeholders & transit users understand how the enhanced stations support future two‑way, all‑day service and a more efficient regional network
Cicada Design helped translate the complex vision behind Regional Transit GTA’s “Moving People Matters” initiative into a clear and engaging explainer video. The project supported a broader regional conversation involving major municipalities including Toronto, Brampton, Guelph, Kitchener, and Waterloo, alongside Metrolinx and GO Transit, and business leadership through Canada’s Innovation Corridor network. Through strategic scripting, 3D visualization, motion graphics, and cinematic production, the video communicated how two-way, all-day GO rail service and connected mobility hubs could link communities across the Innovation Corridor. The piece helped government, municipal, transit, and business stakeholders explain the economic, environmental, and quality-of-life benefits of major transit investment, turning a dense infrastructure strategy into an accessible story about mobility, growth, and regional competitiveness.
The complex systems that power, connect, and support our cities, including massive over-build engineering platforms, roadway networks, subterranean utility hubs, and transit facilities, are often the most challenging for stakeholders to visualize, yet they require the most stringent environmental, zoning, and community approvals.
Our Value:
Simplifying Complex Engineering: We translate intricate structural engineering, staging phases, and utility frameworks into clear, high-fidelity visual assets that demystify technical data for regulators and the public.
Demonstrating Community & Economic Value: We show how heavy civil engineering and essential infrastructure can integrate beautifully and sustainably into urban fabric, smoothing the path for critical land-use approvals.
Enhancing Multi-Disciplinary Design: Working alongside civil engineers, structural master planners, and architects, our iterative visualization process helps teams refine spatial dynamics, material impacts, and structural design long before breaking ground.
For the Manhattan West Platform in Hudson Yards, we created a precise 3D construction‑timeline animation that became essential for communicating the project’s unique engineering challenges. With two future 67‑story towers rising above active rail lines sitting 65 feet below grade, our visuals clearly illustrated how Brookfield’s post‑tension precast segmental bridge system would allow construction to proceed safely without disrupting train service.
By turning a highly complex build sequence into an accessible, intuitive story, our animation helped investors understand feasibility, guided builders through the staging strategy, and reassured transit users that operations would remain uninterrupted.
For the new Jamaica bus depot we developed few images to showcase the new facility on a macro scale, coordinating drone photography to capture the site’s footprint and context. The focus was to showcase how the building integrates with the existing community. Another large component of the video was to showcase the industrial operations of how buses would navigate the facility for storage and servicing.
