8/19/2019 Design of Exhibitions
1/12
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found athttp://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=
Download by: [RMIT University Library] Date: 16 March 2016, At: 13:35
Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences, ThirdEdition
ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/book/10.1081/E-ELIS3
Exhibition Design
Lee H. Skolnick , Dan Marwit , Jo Ann Secor
To cite this entry: Lee H. Skolnick , Dan Marwit , Jo Ann Secor . Exhibition Design. InEncyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences, Third Edition. Taylor and Francis: New York,
Published online: 09 Dec 2009; 1797-1807.
To link to this chapter: http://dx.doi.org/10.1081/E-ELIS3-120044031
Published online: 09 Dec 2009
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 137
View related articles
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/mlt/10.1081/E-ELIS3-120044031http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/mlt/10.1081/E-ELIS3-120044031http://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode=&page=instructionshttp://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode=&page=instructionshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1081/E-ELIS3-120044031http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/book/10.1081/E-ELIS3http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=
8/19/2019 Design of Exhibitions
2/12
Exhibition Design
Lee H. SkolnickDan MarwitJo Ann SecorLee H. Skolnick Architecture þ Design Partnership, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Abstract
Exhibition design, sometimes called exhibit design, is the conceptualizing, planning, and creating of
exhibitions—built, spatial environments that communicate with audiences moving through them. As a
field of practice, exhibition design has only recently begun gaining definition and standards. Meanwhile, it
is flourishing worldwide, as exposition attendance soars, retail environments reinvent themselves, and
cultural institutions increasingly appeal to tourism and promote themselves as centers of entertainment, as
well as education. Bringing together a constellation of disciplines, exhibitions are designed by teams
working through a phased process that translates a script into an immersive experience. Audiences
engaging with the experiences interpret them through interactions with their elements, including their
architecture, colors, lighting, graphics, artifacts, and media. Design teams continually develop under-
standings of their audiences as they plan and arrange exhibitions’ elements in context. As exhibition
design expands in the beginning of the twenty-first century, it turns up new challenges, but as with all
design fields, exhibition design views challenges as opportunities.
INTRODUCTION
Exhibition design, sometimes called exhibit design, is the
conceptualizing, planning, and creating of exhibitions—
built, spatial environments that communicate with audiences
moving through them. Broadly, any exhibition can be cate-
gorized as either cultural or commercial, but more common-
alities than differences are shared across this border. Really
it is the permutation of many particularities, including con-tent, intention, size, setting, duration, expected audience,
and experience type that determine what an exhibition can
be and how it gets designed.
In the world of museums, there are those that use
artifacts, archival images, and text to document events
for visitors with preexisting knowledge, and those that
engage wide audiences in explorations of phenomena,
ideas, and themes through interactivity and play. Among
visitor centers, many attract year-round tourism to civic
icons, while others showcase corporate accomplishments
to employees and invited guests only. From trade shows
to international expos, independent environments com-
pete on the same floor for the attention of industry associ-ates or the general public, whose interests in a new
product, brand, or philosophy can translate into invest-
ment. Any of these exhibitions can be open for a matter
of days or decades, and designing them requires attending
to their distinct natures appropriately.
All exhibitions are designed by teams. To be sure, the
exhibition designer’s contribution is the core of the work,
as the final product is inevitably a physical environment
that functions and directs people in intended ways. How-
ever, in order to create a total design, subteams, who
together determine the story that guides the design, give
the design its shape and tone, plan and create vital ele-
ments, and build and install the actual components.
Because the field of exhibition design is quite young,
few exhibition designers, or design team members for that
matter, have come to their titles through a course of exhi-
bition design study. Rather, most approached the fieldthrough one of several avenues: designers through archi-
tecture, industrial design, commercial package design,
and furniture design; and other team members through
education, anthropology, and creative writing. Each of
these has some bearing in exhibition design, but also
requires designers and team members to think beyond
their fields and work cooperatively, as none address all
of an exhibition’s needs.
Like all processes, the exhibition design process fol-
lows a sequence of phases, moving from concept design
to schematic design, into design development, and finally
fabrication documents and fabrication and installation.
Each of these phases, often referred to differently bydifferent designers, can be further delineated into smaller
steps, and are typically completed in a reiterative fashion.
Culminating in the production of documents that signify
milestones and transitions, the phases keep team members
working toward common goals in a shared time frame,
and enable ongoing assessment of a project’s progress
that is captured and presented. A truer exploration of
exhibition design would require quite a bit more space,
Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences, Third Edition DOI: 10.1081/E-ELIS3-120044031
Copyright # 2010 by Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved. 1797
8/19/2019 Design of Exhibitions
3/12
and a few exceptional books have been written for that
purpose, including David Dernie’s Exhibition Design,
Larry Klein’s Exhibits: Planning and Design, Kathleen
McLean’s Planning for People in Museum Exhibitions,
and Jan Lorenc, Lee Skolnick, and Craig Berger’s What
Is Exhibition Design? Also, because the field is one that is
constantly reinventing itself, a richer understanding of
exhibition design can be had with some continual study.
Periodicals, like Exhibitor and Exhibitionist would en-
courage this, as would attendance at conferences, like the
annual American Association of Museums conference.
Finally, the best way to discover the burgeoning field of
exhibition design is to visit exhibitions. Each one is so
different from the next that comparisons made between
them would awaken any curious person to the craft
invested in them.
A last note: The background shared by the writers is
mostly of cultural exhibition design in American settings.
Much has been done to reach outside this limited scope, but
the history of exhibition design in Europe, and the excit-
ingly expanding field in both Europe and Asia are topicsthat easily warrant entire articles all their own. Exhibition
design has unquestionably become a worldwide phenome-
non, and its ubiquitous trends are reaching into other fields
everywhere. While this entry is reliable in its overview
of exhibition design, there is much more to explore, and
readers are enthusiastically encouraged to do so.
HISTORY
The origins of exhibition design are at once self-evident
and evasive. Humans naturally arrange objects for the
communication of particular statements. We do it in our homes and other environments. Arguably, creating exhibi-
tions is innate, and people have been doing it since the day
they realized they could manipulate their surroundings.[1]
European Roots
Appearing in biblical passages and Roman history, trade
fairs are as ancient as trade, itself, but trade fair exhibi-
tions as they appear today have their roots in European
history, as do exhibitions in museums.[2,3] The first of the
known major fairs, which has continued since at least
1165, was the Leipziger Messe in Leipzig, Germany.[4]
Meanwhile, the origins of museums has been traced tothe European Age of Enlightenment, when proponents
of the Age’s interest in making sense of the world,
cultivated the first natural history collections in wunder-
kammern, or cabinets of curiosity.[5] Essentially the prov-
ince of royalty and the Church, several wunderkammern
grew into renowned institutions, the Modern Museums of
Copenhagen and the Louvre among them.[6,7] While most
wunderkammern, overflowing with collectibles and ex-
otic rarities, were meant to impress onlookers with their
owner’s prestige, a number showed early signs of design,
like thematically arranged floor plans and inclusion of
interpretive text.[8,9]
Transition to Planned Experiences
In 1786, Charles Willson Peale brought museums to the
public, opening Peale’s American Museum in Philadel-phia, PA.[10] While Peale’s museum set a new precedent
for curation, that of collecting and displaying culturally
representative objects for the benefit of its visitors, its
displays followed from the wunderkammern, voluminous,
and somewhat indiscriminate. This style would hold sway
until the Museum of Modern Art in New York shifted the
paradigm in the 1940s with minimally displayed arrange-
ments of “empathetic” pieces.[1]
Meanwhile, in the commercial sphere, exhibition design
took a leap forward in 1851 with The Great Exhibition of
the Works of Industry of All Nations.[11] Planned by Prince
Albert and Henry Cole of England, the Great Exhibition
was the first truly international exhibition. Bringing 13,000exhibitors and 6,000,000 visitors together under the roof of
Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace, the Great Exhibition set
the standard for future expositions, and led to the formation
of formal oversight organizations, like the Bureau Inter-
national des Expositions. In the coming years, expos grew
increasingly impressive, with permanent structures desi-
gned by reputable engineers and architects, including the
Eiffel Tower by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 Universal
Exhibition, the current Museum of Science and Industry
for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago,
and the German Pavillion by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition.[12–14]
Also in the nineteenth century’s latter half, departmentstores began appearing worldwide. Their competition for
an emerging spending culture led them to install exhibi-
tions of power and branding in their entrances and main
floors.[15] Wanamakers in Philadelphia built a Grand Court
with a commanding bald eagle as its dome.
Toward a Contemporary Vision
In 1939, expositions moved into a new era. With the
New York World’s Fair’s theme Tomorrow’s World ,
expos began addressing humanity and cultural issues,
rather than technology and inventions.[16] Amusementrides and stage set architecture set the scene for designers
to begin creating entire environments at fairs, one more
exciting than the last. Following this course, the 1964
New York World’s Fair marked a seminal moment with
140 full pavilions, four designed by the Walt Disney
Corporation, and one by Charles and Ray Eames. Disney,
equipped with a team of Imagineers and a list of Mickey’s
Ten Commandments, had by this time opened Disneyland
in California, 1955.[17] The Eames team, with their chairs
1798 Exhibition Design
E t h i o p i a –
8/19/2019 Design of Exhibitions
4/12
that both broke and set the mold, had already opened a
number of exhibitions, including the American Pavilion
in Moscow, 1959, and Mathematica in 1961, which
remained open at the Los Angeles Museum of Science
and Industry until 1998, and has since been duplicated at
several institutions.[18]
Also at this time, many larger American institutions, like
the National Museum of American History and the Field
Museum of Natural History, created exhibition planning
departments, shifting power away from curators. These
departments created blockbuster exhibitions, like the Field’s
Tut , that drew enormous crowds and set a new pace for
museum exhibition design. In this atmosphere, museums
began rethinking the purpose of exhibitions and the struc-
tures of the departments responsible for them. Michael
Spock of the field museum advocated for including into
design teams educators and content developers who could
translate scholarship into stories for general audiences.
Frank Oppenheimer of the Exploratorium in San Francisco
challenged the nature of museum exhibitions altogether,
populating them with interactive experiences from whichvisitors derived their own interpretations. A series of work-
shops at the Field in 1982, sponsored by the W. K. Kellogg
Foundation demonstrated the effectiveness of a team ap-
proach to designing museum exhibitions, an approach that
has been adopted and adapted by museums far and wide.[19]
Today, at the onset of a new century, fairs, trade
shows, and expos around the world draw attendance rates
rivaling those of the Olympic Games.[20] Museums and
visitor centers find themselves competing for expanding
tourism and audiences looking for entertainment as much
as education.[21] Design firms are increasingly contracted
to plan both cultural and commercial exhibitions, and the
resulting cross-pollination is benefiting both arenas.[22]
Undoubtedly, exhibition design is flourishing, and work
by firms in Japan, Korea, and other Asian nations is
inspiring exciting movement worldwide.[22]
ELEMENTS
All exhibitions are compositions of space, architectural
elements, materials, graphics, color, lighting, and acous-
tics. Most also include objects, artifacts and images, and
increasingly media components. The available variety of
materials and methods is remarkably vast, and expanding
rapidly with technological advances. The possible uses of them in shaping immersive, transcendent experiences for
visitors are as many as the needs of each individual exhi-
bition, and those needs are governed by the exhibition’s
narrative and context.[23]
Narrative
The narrative, also variably known as the script, messag-
ing, or storyline, is in plain terms what the exhibition is
about. It is developed from a body of knowledge, a corpo-
rate philosophy, a set of ideas, concepts or messages or a
promotion of a brand, and subsequently completed with
additional research as necessary. Structuring the informa-
tion to be presented in the exhibition, the narrative also
suggests how the information should be accessed and
interpreted. Thus, it sets the foundation for decisions
about how the environment will communicate with its
visitors.[24]
Context: Physical and Cultural
An exhibition set inside a building not yet constructed,
allows opportunities to work with an architect in tailoring
important features to the exhibition’s needs. These can
include circulation, ceiling heights, natural lighting, and
access to mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems.
However, more often designers plan exhibitions for existing
buildings, working either with or around the context’s
features.[23] Meanwhile, the situation of an exhibition in a
surrounding culture determines who might attend it, andhow it might be interpreted by attendees, as well as by press
outlets, schools, various communities, and other groups.
Depending on its reach, an exhibition’s cultural context
can require wrestling with every detail of its narrative and
design, especially in the handling of controversial topics.
Space
Space is the volumetric area that the exhibition organizes
and thematically conditions. It is usually contained by
structural walls, a floor and a ceiling within an interior,
or imaginarily assigned within a larger interior, as with
the space designated to a trade show booth. An exhibitioncan also be outside, but its space is still limited and its
organization is still in the designer’s hands. To organize
space, designers consider aesthetic and experiential prop-
erties, including scale, proportion and balance, site line,
and visitor flow, among others. All together, these proper-
ties choreograph the positioning of exhibition elements in
relationship to one another.[25]
Architectural Elements
Architectural elements are those that are constructed to
define the exhibition’s space and display its feature ele-
ments. Walls built to partition spaces, ramps pitched to steer visitor flow, platforms created to elevate experiences, and
built forms inserted for interpretive effect are just a few
examples. In interactive exhibitions, these elements also
serve a second purpose of housing and protecting mechan-
ics and audio/visual and computer equipment. Furniture
built for comfort or as part of an experience, and cases that
contain collection items or display products are also archi-
tectural elements that have design qualities all their own,
and whose appearance in the space further defines it.
Exhibition Design 1799
8/19/2019 Design of Exhibitions
5/12
Materials: Construction and Finishes
Materials are used to build the exhibition’s architecture,
enable the mounting and presentation of other elements,
and evoke particular associations and sensations. Con-
struction materials, often hidden from view, are usually
generic, like wood, steel, drywall, and fiberboard. Finishes
are materials that exhibition visitors see, or that support
the other elements that visitors see, like affixed graphics
and painted colors. Traditionally, these materials have
been finished woods and different grades of glass, as in
the display cases of object-based exhibitions.[26] Recently,
technological advances have opened an expansive reper-
toire of materials to designers, including ranges of new
metals, plastics, and laminates, making it easier to evoke
emotions and interpret information and themes through
shape and texture. New materials also aid in placing
graphics and colors in desired locations, as their proper-
ties make them lightweight and receptive to paint and
adhesives.[27]
Graphics
Graphics are two-dimensional designs applied to surfaces.
In some instances, they are painted directly onto finishes.
More often, they are created with computer software,
printed on substrates with adhesive backings, and applied
to surfaces prior to their installation. Featuring text, dia-
grams, and images, graphics are used to deliver informa-
tion and suggest context. Composed of typefaces, color
palettes, patterns, and illustrations, graphics are also used
to set an exhibition’s tone, and unify its interpretive and
navigational systems. As computer and printing technol-
ogy advances, graphics are increasingly designed to cover large exhibition surfaces, like entire walls, floors, and
ceilings.[28,29]
Color, Lighting, and Acoustics
Color, lighting, and acoustics can be grouped together as
environmentally interpretive tools. They are often the
most effective tools in transporting visitors to believable
places, or immersing them in convincing ideas. Colors
conjure emotions and psychological associations, espe-
cially in juxtaposition or cooperation with one another.
Lighting both makes things visible and sets a range of moods. Acoustics control sound, dampening it in some
places, and allowing it to escalate in others. Together,
these elements make a richly interpretive exhibition expe-
rience possible, and also strongly influence its feeling.[30]
Objects, Artifacts, and Images
Objects, artifacts, and images are often a client or institu-
tion’s reason for creating an exhibition, in the first place.
In many cases, the display of one or more of these ele-
ments is intended to create a brand by which an institution
or business becomes known to the public. They can be
small enough to require a microscope, or large enough to
fit groups of people inside; sensitive enough to warrant
controlled conditions, or best experienced through touch
and manipulation. Exhibition designers create environ-
ments that both highlight these elements as attractions
and storytelling elements, and protect them as necessary.
Media
Media in exhibitions commonly refers to on-screen me-
dia, which includes film, video, and interactive virtual
experiences. Increasingly, media is becoming a standard
expectation. A handful of exhibitions have even been
designed with media as their central themes, or with me-
dia pieces serving as pinnacle experiences. In the last few
years, media has become highly sophisticated, able to
respond to users in surprising ways, and to perform ever
more complex functions. Fully immersive media experi-ences are now not only possible, but are even becoming
commonplace. Balancing these powerful experiences with
the rest of an exhibition has become an important chal-
lenge for designers.
PROCESS
From start to finish, the creation of an exhibition can take
several weeks to several years, depending on its size and
the complications of its content, context, and physical
requirements. Certainly, every designer has his or her
own approach to bringing an exhibition from nonexistentto open to the public, but all create through a process that
advances through a series of work phases.[31] Referring to
the phases, designers often use different terminology, but
commonly they are known in sequence as concept, sche-
matic, design development, fabrication documents, and
fabrication and installation.
From here, the process appears step-by-step and direct.
However, the progression of an exhibition’s design is
rarely so simple and linear. Rather, designers work in
what is called a reiterative fashion, meaning that within
each phase iterations of designs are completed, reviewed,
and revised until satisfactory. On a macro level, whole
phases can be reiterated until complete; on a micro level,single drawings or written descriptions can cycle in their
own reiterative processes. Further emphasizing the pro-
cess’ reiterative direction, exhibition designers typically
allow for returns to previous process phases either to
complete unfinished steps, or to revise designs as new
information and insights emerge. In mapping a process at
a project’s outset, designers try to plan ahead for these
motions, doing their best to keep to schedule and within
budget.
1800 Exhibition Design
E t h i o p i a –
8/19/2019 Design of Exhibitions
6/12
Throughout the exhibition design process, a succession
of document sets, or packages is produced. Each set sig-
nifies a benchmark, simultaneously presenting the culmi-
nation of the designer’s work up to that point, and
establishing the new foundation from which the work will
continue. Titled after the process phases they complete,
the document sets are typically known as concept, sche-
matic, design development, and fabrication documents. In
the fabrication and installation phase, there are no bench-
mark documents, as the culmination of this phase is the
opening of the exhibition itself.
Concept
The concept phase marks the initiation of an exhibition
design project. Its primary goal is the establishment of the
exhibition’s foundations, and its principal work is charac-
terized by research, brainstorming, and exploration. To
determine what the exhibition will be about, initial re-
search into its topic is conducted, structured into a hierar-
chy or framework, and developed into a preliminaryscript. The script determines the exhibition’s perspective
or approach to the topic, and with it in place, the exhibi-
tion’s general look, feel, and function begin to bloom
through a series of brainstorming sessions. From the ses-
sions, designers make explorations, sketching architec-
ture, and exhibit ideas that could appropriately translate
the script into an experience.
The concept document set can include:
Concept outline, exhibition criteria, preliminary script. Sketches or diagrams of the whole space and its com-
ponents. Analyses of projected attendance and circulation. Initial rough budget projections. Preliminary schedule. Suggestions of graphic style, copy style, and object
and artifact placements. Suggestions for marketing and outreach.
Schematic
During the schematic phase, the approved concept is
used to create a preliminary design for the entire exhi-
bition. The goal of the schematic phase is to identify
the exhibition’s components and make them imaginable,while leaving room for their details to be developed and
debated. Extending from the preceding phase, script
writing, brainstorming, and exploration continue until
the concept is fully fleshed out, and a design for the
entire exhibition can be proposed and discussed. Making
this possible, designers begin seriously assessing the
physical context in which the exhibition will be installed,
as well as the host’s resources for marketing, outreach,
and staffing.
The schematic document set can include:
Finished preliminary script. Revised project budget and schedule. Floor plans. Sketches of vignettes and component elevations. Foam core spatial models and mock-ups, or photo-
graphs of them.
Design Development
While the body of the exhibition has been made imagin-
able by the schematic designs, its details still need to
be elaborated. The goal of the design development phase
is to specify the exhibition’s details. The thrust of the
phase is in making definite choices about the tangible
things that will compose the three-dimensional environ-
ment, including materials, colors, graphics, text, equip-
ment, lighting schemes, A/V scripts, and computer
software. The decision-based character of design develop-
ment shifts the focus of the exhibition design processfrom imagining possibilities to making the chosen possi-
bilities work.
The design development document set can include:
Plan, elevation, and sectional drawings of all exhibi-
tion components. Written descriptions of all exhibition components. Preliminary schedules, lists of materials, graphics,
A/V equipment, and hardware and descriptions of
their uses. Updated project budget and schedule.
Fabrication Documents
In the fabrication documents phase, the decisions made in
the design development phase are incorporated into a set
of technical drawings and specifications. The goal of the
fabrication documents phase is twofold: first, to produce
documents so highly detailed that they can serve as
instructions for fabricating the exhibition; second, to iden-
tify a fabricator. Every detail of the exhibition, down to
its literal nuts and bolts, is specified, recorded in sche-
dules and indicated in hard-line drawings. Once this is
done, designers open a competitive bidding process, un-
less a trusted fabricator is already known. Designers also
open bidding for other contractors, including media pro-ducers, graphics producers, and copywriters, if they have
not yet been chosen.
The fabrication document set can include:
Hard-line, dimensioned plan, elevation, section, and
“exploded” drawings of every exhibition component
with close-ups of important details and specifications
of materials and hardware. Finalized schedules.
Exhibition Design 1801
8/19/2019 Design of Exhibitions
7/12
Plans for lighting, electricity, A/V connections, me-
chanics, and plumbing. Final project budget and schedule.
Fabrication and Installation
The final phase, fabrication and installation, takes the
exhibition from drawing and study to actuality. The goal
of this phase is a successful opening, and to get there
takes meticulous decisions on behalf of clients. First, the
fabrication drawings are delivered to the chosen fabrica-
tor. The fabricator reviews them and returns them as shop
drawings with suggestions of necessary, and sometimes
creative revisions. The designer then reviews the revi-
sions, and either approves them or makes further sugges-
tions. This back and forth shuttling continues until the
fabricator is confident he or she can build precisely what
the designer wants. Ensuring the fabrication meets the
design’s intents, the designer makes frequent visits to the
fabricator’s shop during this phase, as well as to the stu-
dios of other contractors. Present at the exhibition’s in-stallation, designers watch over details to the very end.
No documents are delivered during the fabrication and
installation phase. The culmination of the phase is the
exhibition’s opening.
UNDERSTANDING AUDIENCE
Throughout the process, designers strive to understand
their audience as best they can, and get ideas from them
about how to better the exhibition’s design.[32] To reiterate
the point: Any exhibition is a medium for communication.
Its very purpose for being built rests on the fact that peoplewill visit it.[33] Who those people are—children, adults,
scholars, the general public, etc.—determines the verbal,
visual, and experiential language most appropriate for the
dialog.[34–36] Cultivating an understanding of the audience
not only encourages an exhibition’s success, it recognizes
its responsibility. To this end, many designers conduct
formal studies of their audiences at different phases of the
process. Often, contracted evaluators are hired to perform
these studies more systematically and objectively.[37]
Initial Understanding: Front-End
During the concept phase, or even prior to it, manydesigners conduct front-end evaluations. Learning what
an audience already knows and feels about an exhibition’s
topic can help set the parameters of its script and influence
its possible presentation and tone. Considering an audi-
ence’s abilities and learning styles helps produce exhibits
that are suitable for them. Certainly, fair generalizations
about an exhibition’s intended audience can be made with
demographics, learning theories, and past precedents,
but many designers prefer to “meet” their audiences, or
representatives thereof, through formal studies, such as
questionnaires, focus groups, and interviews.
Informed Understanding: Formative
Arguably, the most useful evaluation, formative evalua-
tion, can be conducted in the schematic design phase,
when it becomes possible to gauge audience reactions
accurately before moving into the latter decision-making
phases.[38] By providing them with drawings, designers
can ask evaluation participants direct questions about a
fairly imaginable exhibition. By presenting them with
foam-core mock-ups, designers can observe participants’
interactions with their designs, often adjusting the mock-
ups to test various possibilities. Follow-up interviews and
questionnaires provide insights into what audiences are
deriving from their experiences. Results and recommen-
dations from these tests are used to finalize schematic
plans and prepare for making determined design decisions
in the next phase.
Specific Understanding: Prototyping
During the design development phase, concerns about
the operations of particular exhibit components arise. Be-
cause the level of detail is so specific in this phase, it
becomes possible to build full-scale prototypes of these
components. If the budget allows, designers can try varia-
tions of actual materials and mechanics until the compo-
nent works exactly as intended. Including audiences in
prototype testing can be extremely informative, as very
reliable observations can be made from their engagements
with and reactions to the exhibition.
Final Understanding: Summative
No better reaction to an exhibition can be gauged than
that of an actual audience in the actual space. Often,
designers add a postopening phase to the exhibition de-
sign process during which modifications can be made
to exhibit components that for all their planning do not
result as intended. Formal studies of audiences during this
phase, known as summative evaluations, time and observe
interactions and behaviors, and gather audience responses
through interviews. The findings of these studies can
often point to simple solutions to apparent issues, or les-
sons for the next project.
DESIGNERS AND DESIGN TEAMS
Because by their nature, exhibitions are cross-disciplinary
experiences, they are designed by teams. Depending on
the size of the exhibition, teams can be comprised of
individuals, or entire departments. In many cases, coordi-
nation of the players’ contributions, and assurance of their
1802 Exhibition Design
E t h i o p i a –
8/19/2019 Design of Exhibitions
8/12
mutual understanding of a shared process are as crucial
for a project’s success as any individual’s talent.
The assembling of a team can be the task of a lead
team member, or a manager who serves a more supervi-
sory role. In most design firms and museum exhibition
departments, team members are chosen from full-time
staff. Meanwhile, it is not uncommon for firms and
departments to complete teams by hiring freelance work-
ers. In some cases, teams are formed solely for the project
at hand. In still other cases, teams can include a core team
surrounded by peripheral ones, made up of hired experts,
volunteer advisors, interested community members, and
so on. In any instance, when assembling a team, the goal
is to select compatible team members, whose talents and
interests match the needs of the exhibition, some of which
will unfold as the project develops.[39,40]
Making decisions together, and communicating in gen-
eral, are critical tasks for exhibition design teams, espe-
cially those working on large projects that take years to
complete. Many models exist for structuring teams and
enabling their collective efforts.
[41]
They range on a spec-trum from linear hierarchies, with one chief decision maker,
to egalitarian committees that strive for consensus.
Similar to teams working in other fields of design and
communications media, exhibition design teams generally
divide their responsibilities into at least two sides (not a
technical term, but one commonly used), one to handle the
development of the story, content , and the other to handle
its telling, design. Often, teams also include a third side,
project management , to coordinate the actions of the whole
team and supervise the production of the entire project.
Within their sides, individual team members work to-
ward common goals, but it is through the collaboration
between sides that an exhibition is fully designed. Bothcontent and design bring their work to the table, and
management ensures that the story and its telling remain
within the project’s feasibility. Thus, some permeability
between sides is usually important for best practice. A
team whose members respect each other’s roles, but can
think in each other’s terms is the most likely to succeed
with greatest ease.
Content Team
Responsible for the story itself, team members on the con-
tent side can include curators, educators, exhibit develo-
pers, interpretive planners, content developers, contentcoordinators, researchers, and writers. Collectively, their
role is to cultivate the ideas, topics, and information to be
conveyed in the exhibition, and articulate them in a manner
that visitors will be able to grasp. The process of doing so
typically follows a reiterative course of accumulating, edit-
ing and arranging knowledge that relies on research, orga-
nization, analysis, association, and story-writing skills.
In the design of exhibitions that are rich in objects and
artifacts, content team members also maintain knowledge
of available collections and external sources. Sometimes,
entire stories are constructed around the showing of a
single item. Other times, it is through categorizing items
and selecting the most totemic ones that a story emerges.
Knowing what is obtainable, and understanding how the
inclusion and omission of particular objects and artifacts
will affect a story is the job of content team members.
Once a compelling story has been developed, the col-
lective role of content team members becomes that of
ensuring that the design expresses it, and that the expres-
sion is appropriate to the intended visitors. Often, this
calls for responses to evaluation findings, and additional
research and development to inform the details of the
story as its translation manifests.
Design Team
Determining how to tell the story, the design side of
the team can comprise a variety of designers from various
disciplines, including graphics, media, lighting, and
acoustics, all of whose work is coordinated by a leadexhibit designer, typically also supervising the efforts of
junior exhibit designers. Oftentimes, draftspeople, model
makers, illustrators, and other talents are added to the
design side to aid its diverse disciplines. All together,
design team members give the exhibition dimensionality
that people can enter, navigate, use, and share.
Beginning with rough sketches, designers’ transition to
drawings, and finally hard-line drawings as they reitera-
tively conceptualize, plan, and detail the visual and expe-
riential communication of the content. Inevitably, the act
of drawing reveals problems in the exhibition’s function-
ality and challenges to its proper expressions. Solving
these problems is part of designing exhibits, and doing sooften requires invention. Most designers welcome such
detours, viewing their pursuit as opportunities to make
their designs unique and successful.
As the exhibition develops, the various designers’
work affects each other. Graphics influence the exhibi-
tion’s look, light reflects on graphic surfaces in unex-
pected ways, audio from media transforms acoustic
spaces. Meanwhile, each of the design contributions car-
ries material concerns. Lighting grids need to be sus-
pended and electrically wired, graphics need substrates
that adhere to surfaces, and acoustics call for very specific
finishes. Each of these is researched, sized, and specified
by the design side, and the responsibility for all of itfitting together, both conceptually and tangibly, resides
with design team members.
Project Management Side
Responsible for the exhibition’s opening on time and
within budget, the management side of the team usually
includes one project manager. Typically the liaison
between the team and the project’s client, the project
Exhibition Design 1803
8/19/2019 Design of Exhibitions
9/12
manager drafts a scope and a schedule and budget for
its completion, and communicates progress, delays, and
changes between parties. Because the project manager
remains aware of time, money, and the client’s concerns,
design teams frequently look to him or her to remind them
of parameters on their creativity. While this can be a
politically sensitive position, it is a critical one. Not only
does it help the team accomplish the job properly, but
it also protects team members from investing beyond the
project’s bounds, keeping them from overworking and
making sure they’ll be available when needed for the next
project.
Because bringing an exhibition to its fruition involves
the weaving together of so many efforts over time, coor-
dination is the project manager’s principal and constant
task.[42] With the many team members working indepen-
dently on their ends of the project, the project manager
resides at the center, keeping everyone apprised of each
other’s progress, and helping maintain the team’s camara-
derie and morale. At times, this can require great tact, as
any one team member’s progress can easily influencechanges, or even pose difficulties in that of another.
CONCLUSION: CONTEMPORARY TRENDS ANDCHALLENGES
The current state of exhibition design is an effervescent
one. Still relatively young, and certainly younger than the
museums and expos it services, its movement toward
becoming a formalized field has accelerated in recent
years, but its standards of practice have yet to be codified.
Only a handful of design schools teach it as a subject, and
only in rare instances is it offered as a full course or major.[43–45] Professionals of various types are filling its
positions, and their writings about their own experiences
are some of the first. Meanwhile, exhibition design is
growing by leaps and bounds, and gaining momentum
around the world, as cultural institutions, corporations,
businesses, public awareness campaigns, city govern-
ments, and more call upon the unique mode of communi-
cation that only exhibitions can offer.
The Next Big Way to Present the Next Big Thing
Over the last few decades, attendance rates at interna-tional expos have skyrocketed into the tens of millions.
Meanwhile, casinos like New York, New York , and retail
chains like Apple, Niketown, and IKEA have realized the
power of reshaping their stores into total, experiential
environments.[46] In both arenas, the goal of communica-
tion is to present the next big thing, be it a product, brand,
lifestyle, or philosophy. Competition in the commercial
sphere has become intense and fast-paced, and designers
are constantly looking for the next big way to present the
next big thing. As a result, in many ways, commercial
exhibition design has become a proving ground for many
new technologies, materials, and strategies.[47]
More and more frequently, these new technologies,
materials, and strategies are also being incorporated into
cultural exhibition design. One possible reason is that
most exhibition design firms work in both arenas, often
supplementing their abilities in the cultural sphere with
earnings from the commercial sphere. Another is the re-
cently emergent phenomenon of in-house teams collabor-
ating with contracted designers, who give shape to
expertly researched content in institutions whose staff
knows the audience quite well.
New Perspectives of Interpretation
In years past, knowing an audience was less valued by
cultural institutions who viewed themselves as having a
more authoritative role. The shift toward gauging visitor
expectations and interests, often through focus groups,
surveys, and other tools familiar to the commercial sector,is a recent one that is swiftly setting a new paradigm.
Responding to visitors, cultural institutions have learned
how to maintain and expand their public reach. Enabling
this response, designers increasingly plan exhibitions that
are more able to communicate with particular audiences.
To do so, many design teams have added educators to
their talent and educational theory to their tool kits.[48]
Not limited to cultural exhibitions, commercial designers
have also begun to consider experiential learning, con-
structivism, multiple intelligence theory, theories of in-
trinsic motivation, and others as helpful guides in
creating communicative environments.[49–52]
Universal Access
Along the same lines, a recent phenomenon is the require-
ment of planning for people with disabilities. While
designers have always taken this into consideration, as one
goal has always been to reach as many people as possible,
allowing for universal access has in many places become
enforceable by law. In the United States, title III, section
36.101 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of
1990 “prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. . .
and requires places of public accommodation and commer-
cial facilities to be designed. . .
in compliance with theaccessibility standards established” by the ADA.[53,54] As
stated in explicit terms, exhibition designers, like the
designers of any nonresidential facility, are now legally
obligated to plan environments that do not exclude physi-
cally impaired people. The ramifications of this are enor-
mous, as are the opportunities. On one hand a suite of new
constraints are imposed; on the other hand, implementing
standards like the ADA’s positions designers to revolution-
ize communities by creating wholly inclusive environments.
1804 Exhibition Design
E t h i o p i a –
8/19/2019 Design of Exhibitions
10/12
New Narratives
The trend in museums to respond to visitors’ interests has
engendered the rise in popularity of issue-based exhibi-
tions, made possible by a popular push away from object-
based exhibitions and towards concept-based ones. As
race, death, health, fear, and other conceptual explora-
tions become crowd-draws for museums, exhibitions are
changing shape to suit a very different genre of narrative.
Designers increasingly plan environments that embody
questions and journeys, rather than simply representations
of topical times and places.[55]
New Technology
One undeniable force that has transformed exhibition
design in just the last few years is digital technology and
the hurrying pace of its advances. Computers are now small
enough and powerful enough to easily be hidden from view,
while providing incredibly rich experiences. Video and
screen-based interactivity can deliver massive amountsof self-discovered information without consuming much
space. The temptation to fill an exhibition with digital
experiences is a pressing one for many designers, and often
something close to that is requested by a client.
Meanwhile, computers’ shrinking dimensions and
escalating abilities are placing more of them in more
people’s homes and pockets, equipping people with rich
experiences that require no environmental contexts. The
need to create digital experiences that are unique, or more
sophisticated than what is available to consumers, has
become demanding for exhibition designers. Likewise,
the challenge of designing real environments equally or
more exciting than virtual ones has become an actual
pressure.[56]
One emerging solution is the design of digital experi-
ences that are integrated into exhibition environments.[57]
As technologies like motion tracking and multitouch flat
screens become more accessible, this solution has grown
more viable. Another emerging solution is the invention
of new technologies and varieties of interfaces. Speaking
to both solutions, a new industry is burgeoning.[58–60]
Digital designers contracting with exhibition designers
are gaining popularity, often winning bids for jobs as
collaborative teams.
New Technology Backstage
The influence of technology’s innovations is also revolu-
tionizing exhibition design behind the scenes. Software
applications, like Photoshop, Illustrator , AutoCAD, 3D
Studio Max, Sketch Up, Revit , and Vectorworks, have
nearly rendered obsolete traditional design tools, like
compasses, shape palettes, drafting tables, and pencils.
At the same time, the Internet has become an
indispensable resource for content developers and
researchers, as well as a location for idea-exchange
forums hosted by design communities, like the Associa-
tion of Science-Technology Center’s Exhibit Files Web
site and blog.[61] E-mail and FTP’s have expedited com-
munications between teams and clients, and also made it
possible to easily collaborate across oceans. The effect of
this sweeping change of tools is not only immeasurable,
but also hardly complete.
Accounting for Sustainability
All exhibitions are made of materials whose processing
and transportation extracts natural resources and emits
greenhouse gasses.[23,62] Lighting, video projections, and
other electrically powered elements drain large amounts
of energy and produce pollution when sources of power
are fossil-fuel-burning power plants. Publicly supported
regulations and institutions like the World Green Building
Council are setting standards for designers to follow, and
making those standards achievable by helping grow aneconomy for them. As these concerns swell in the public
conscience, designers have an opportunity to serve as
vanguards by creating sustainable exhibitions visited by
millions of people.
Looking Forward
In any field of design, the root of the practice is in present-
ing information and emotion in new and more effective
fashions. Responsively, designers view the challenges of
the day as abundances of promising opportunities. As
today’s exhibition designers plan environments that en-gage people in experiences in compelling new ways, they
raise the field from its youth to its fruition. As they stay
aware of trends and plan one step ahead of them, they raise
the bar.
REFERENCES
1. Dernie, D. Introduction. In Exhibition Design; Laurence
King Publishing Ltd. London, 2006; 6–19.
2. Suggs, J.M.; Sakenfeld, K.D.; Mueller, J.R., Eds. Ezekiel
27:10. In The Oxford Study Bible; Oxford University Press:
New York, 1992; 885–886.3. Roupp, H., Ed. Europe and India. In Teaching World
History; M.E. Sharpe: Amonk, NY, 1997; 171–172.
4. http://www.leipziger-messe.de/LeMMon/LMGWeb_E.NSF/
pages/messeeng?OpenDocument (accessed March 2008).
5. Impey, O.; MacGregor, A. Introduction. In The Origins of
Museums; House of Stratus: North Yorkshire, U.K., 2001;
xvii–xx.
6. Lorenc, J.; Skolnick, L.; Berger, C. A brief history
of exhibition design. In What is Exhibition Design?
Rotovision: Hove, U.K., 2007; 12–17.
Exhibition Design 1805
8/19/2019 Design of Exhibitions
11/12
7. Gundestrup, B. From the royal Kunstkammer to the mod-
ern museums of Copenhagen. In The Origins of Museums;
Impey, O., MacGregor, A., Eds.; House of Stratus: North
Yorkshire, U.K., 2001; 177–188.
8. Olmi, G. Science—honour—metaphor: Italian cabinets of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In The Origins
of Museums; Impey, O., MacGregor, A., Eds.; House of
Stratus: North Yorkshire, U.K., 2001; 1–18.
9. Laurencich-Minelli, L. Museography and ethnographicalcollections in Bologna during the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries. In The Origins of Museums; Impey, O.,
MacGregor, A., Eds.; House of Stratus: North Yorkshire,
U.K., 2001; 19–28.
10. Alexander, E.P. The natural history museum. In Museums
in Motion: An Introduction to the History and Functions of
Museums; The American Association for State and Local
History: Nashville, TN, 1979; 39–60.
11. http://www.lib.umd.edu/ARCH/honr219f/1851lond.html
(accessed March 2008).
12. http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/teiffel/uk/ (accessed March 2008).
13. http://expomuseum.com/1893/ (accessed March 2008).
14. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5xb551wtnI (accessed
March 2008).15. Leach, W. Interiors. In Land of Desire; Random House,
Inc.: New York, 1993; 71–90.
16. http://park.org/Pavilions/WorldExpositions/new_york.html
(accessed March 2008).
17. http://thisdayindisneyhistory.homestead.com/WorldsFair.
html (accessed March 2008).
18. http://www.eamesoffice.com/index2.php?mod=exhibitions
(accessed March 2008).
19. Klein, L. Museum exhibition. In Exhibits; Madison Square
Press: New York, 1986; 62–89.
20. http://www.answers.com/topic/trade-fair?cat=biz-fin (accessed
March 2008).
21. Stefanovich, A. Driving innovation in museums. In
American Association of Museums Annual Meeting, Chicago,IL, May 16, 2007.
22. Lorenc, J.; Skolnick, L.; Berger, C. Portfolios. In What is
Exhibition Design? Rotovision: Hove, U.K., 2007;
140–249.
23. Lorenc, J.; Skolnick, L.; Berger, C. Process. In What is
Exhibition Design? Rotovision: Hove, U.K., 2007;
104–139.
24. Caulton, T. Exhibit devlopment. In Hands-On Exhibitions:
Managing Interactive Museums and Science Centers;
Routledge: London, 1998; 39–56.
25. McLean, K. Transforming space. In Planning for People in
Museums; Association of Science-Technology Centers:
Washington, DC, 1993; 115–130.
26. Witteborg, L.P. Raw materials. In Good Show! Stevens, A.P., Ed.; Smithsonian Institution: Washington, DC, 1982;
145–156.
27. Cuffaro, D.F.; Paige, D.; Blackman, C.J.; Laituri, D.;
Covert, D.E.; Sears, L.M.; Nehez-Cuffaro, A. Material
selection. In Process, Materials and Measurements: All the
Details Industrial Designers Need to Know But Can Never
Find ; Rockport Publishers: Gloucester, MA, 2006; 78–87.
28. http://www.segd.org/about/what_egd.html (accessed Sep-
tember 11, 2008).
29. Calori, C. What is environmental graphic design? In Sign-
age and Wayfinding Design: A Complete Guide to Envi-
ronmental Graphic Design Systems; John Wiley & Sons,
Inc.: Hoboken, NJ, 2007; 2–13.
30. Dernie, D. Lighting. In Exhibition Design; Laurence King
Publishing Ltd.: London, 2006; 136–159.
31. Dean, D. The exhibition development process. In Museum
Exhibition: Theory and Practice; Routledge: London,
1994; 8–18.32. http://www.visitorstudies.org/ (accessed September 11,
2008).
33. Dean, D. Audiences and learning. In Museum Exhibition:
Theory and Practice; Routledge: London, 1994; 19–32.
34. Hooper-Greenhill, E. Communication in theory and prac-
tice. In Museums and Their Visitors; Routledge: London,
1994; 35–53.
35. Panero, J.; Zelnik, M. Introduction. In Human Dimension &
Interior Space: A Source Book of Design Reference Stan-
dards; Whitney Library of Design: New York, 1979;
15–20.
36. Ruth, L.C. Introduction. In Design Standards for Chil-
dren’s Environments; McGraw Hill: New York, 2000;
vii–x.37. Diamond, J. Planning an evaluation project. In Practical
Evaluation Guide: Tools for Museums & Other Informal
Educational Settings; AltaMira Press: Walnut Creek, CA,
1999; 15–24.
38. McLean, K. Doing it right. In Planning for People in
Museums; Association of Science-Technology Centers:
Washington, DC, 1993; 68–80.
39. Klein, L. What is an exhibit? In Exhibits; Madison Square
Press: New York, 1986; 62–89.
40. McLean, K. Teams and schemes: The cast of players. In
Planning for People in Museums; Association of Science-
Technology Centers: Washington, DC, 1993; 35–47.
41. Smithsonian Institution Office of Policy and Analysis,
Exhibition making models. In The Making of Exhibitions: Purpose, Structure, Roles and Process; Smithsonian Insti-
tution: Washington DC, 2002; 5–10.
42. Bine, J. A project manager is. Exhibitionist Spring’06 ;
70–71.
43. http://www.pratt.edu/newsite/index.php?group_id=62&div_
id=5375 (accessed March 2008).
44. http://www3.fitnyc.edu/graduatestudies/exhibition (accessed
September 11, 2008).
45. http://www.uarts.edu/academics/cad/ms/mepd.html (accessed
September 16, 2008).
46. Klingmann, A. The lessons of Las Vegas. In Brandscapes;
MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, 2007; 189–205.
47. Vranckx, B. Leisure. In Exhibit Design: High Impact
Solutions; Collins Design: New York, 2006; 202–253.48. Hooper-Greenhill, E. Forces for change. In Museums and
Their Visitors; Routledge: London, 1994; 6–34.
49. Dewey, J. Criteria of experience. In Experience and Edu-
cation; Simon and Schuster, Inc.: New York, 1938; 33–50.
50. Hein, G. Significance of constructivism for museum edu-
cation. In Museums and the Needs of the People; Interna-
tional Committee on Museums Meeting: Israel, 1991.
51. Gardener, H. The idea of multiple intelligences. In Frames
of Mind ; Basic Books: New York, 1983; 3–11.
1806 Exhibition Design
E t h i o p i a –
8/19/2019 Design of Exhibitions
12/12
52. Csikszentmihalyi, M.; Hermanson, K. Intrinsic motivation
in museums: What makes visitors want to learn? Mus.
News May/June 1995, 74 (3), 3438.
53. http://www.justice.gov/crt/ada/reg3a.html#Anchor-Appendix-
52467 (accessed March 2008).
54. Majewski, J. On striving for accessible exhibition design.
In Smithsonian Guidelines for Accessible Exhibition
Design; Smithsonian Accessibility Program: Washington,
DC, 1996; iii–iv.55. Skolnick, L. Towards a new museum architecture. In
Reshaping Museum Space: Architecture, Design, Exhibitions;
MacLeod, S., Ed.; Routledge: New York, 2005; 118–130.
56. Thomas, S. Introduction. In The Digital Museum: A Think
Guide; Din, H., Hecht, P., Eds.; American Association of
Museums: Washington, DC, 2007; 1–8.
57. Mouw, M.; Spock, D. Immersive media: Creating theatri-
cal storytelling experiences. In The Digital Museum: A
Think Guide; Din, H., Hecht, P., Eds.; American Associa-
tion of Museums: Washington, DC, 2007; 45–56.
58. http://snibbe.com/ (accessed March 2008).
59. http://www.localprojects.net/lpV2/ (accessed March 2008).
60. http://www.mine-control.com/ (accessed September 2008).
61. http://www.exhibitfiles.org/ (accessed March 2008).
62. Cuffaro, D.F.; Paige, D.; Blackman, C.J.; Laituri, D.;Covert, D.E.; Sears, L.M.; Nehez-Cuffaro, A. Sustainable
design. In Process, Materials and Measurements: All
the Details Industrial Designers Need to Know But Can
Never Find ; Rockport Publishers: Gloucester, MA, 2006;
172–177.
Exhibition Design 1807
Top Related