Open Forum

Hi Danielle.  All the other replies here are from the in-house exhibit side, so I'll offer advice from the commercial/professional design/fabrication industry – the contracted specialty teams that design and install exhibits for all sorts of museums and interpretive facilities (visitor centers, nature centers, history museums, historic sites/houses, etc., for clients ranging from fine arts museums to major science museums, children's museums, the Smithsonian, the National Park Service, and other federal and state agencies.  To get a good overview of this industry, go to the website of the National Association for Interpretation at https://www.interpnet.org  [National Association for Interpretation (interpnet.com)].  The field of interpretation as a whole has a much broader footprint in exhibit design than a typical fine arts museum, where ART is the focus, moreso than storytelling, which is what good interpretive exhibits do.  (A former head of the National Park Service describes himself as "the nation's chief storyteller" – and exhibits are a big part of how visitor-focused public lands and spaces tell their story.)

So – see the NAI website, especially these sections:

Interpreter's Green Pages (Products & Services) (interpnet.com)

PUBLICATIONS (interpnet.com)

However, I would also caution that to get hired at one of the major interpretive exhibit design firms around the country (or even a smaller one), most young exhibit designers have degrees in things like industrial design from Rhode Island School of Design or Georgia Tech, or even architecture degrees.  The InDesign and other Adobe products someone said you could "learn off YouTube" (I disagree!!) are GRAPHIC DESIGN tools (for "flat art" wall panels and printed publications), not EXHIBIT DESIGN tools, which are three-dimensional things like Google Sketch-Up and more sophisticated CAD drawings that are essentially blueprints for fabricators to build stuff.  For example, in two current exhibits I'm working on, the exhibit designer on our team, brainstorming with all of us as we plan the exhibits, has had to recreate a walk-in ship's hull, design a 17^th-century trading post using real salvaged cypress logs (after treating them for insects), design custom casework for ancient pottery sherds, design the mounts and protective railings for custom-made, lifesize models of a manatee mother and calf, etc., etc. – all of this in addition to your usual run of wall panels in various sizes, some with tactile elements embedded and, of course, large high-resolution historic images from the Library of Congress to illustrate the panels.  And much of this work has had to be configured within a 19^th-century solid brick and concrete building on the National Register, which is definitely a challenge.

Another route you might investigate, perhaps more than exhibit design itself, is consulting firms that work with clients on planning and communications/messaging/marketing, which ideally should all come before they start dropping $500,000 on exhibitry.  There's also a lot of need (and room, I think) for more incisive RESEARCH in the fields of interpretation, visitor studies, evaluation, and related areas.  Both visitor studies and evaluation have their own professional orgs within the interpretive field; the Legacy magazine runs some of this work, which I find helpful in my own work.  {About me:  I am a Certified Interpretive Planner thru NAI – although expired/almost retired! – and I have planned and written probably 50? interpretive exhibits around the country for NPS, National Wildlife Refuges, Forest Service, state and local parks, nature centers, university museums, history centers... and also facilitated and written about two dozen Long-Range Interpretive Plans for NPS as federal contractor for the past 15 years; in addition, my colleagues her in ATL do regular exhibit work for both the Atlanta History Center and the High Museum of Art.]  As an aside, it's always been surprising to me that the AAM and the NAI worlds don't seem to connect much.  I'm in both, but not many of us are cross-overs for some reason.

I see you are in Utah; look at interpretivegraphics.com.  They've been around in this field a long time.  They are not full-fledged exhibit design but only interpretive signage (i.e., one-dimensional, graphic design for wayside signs), but maybe you could visit them and get some advice. 

Good luck!

Fg

Faye Goolrick, CIP

Interpretive Planning and Writing

Atlanta, GA

Phone 404-633-2646

Hi Danielle.  All the other replies here are from the in-house exhibit side, so I'll offer advice from the commercial/professional design/fabrication industry – the contracted specialty teams that design and install exhibits for all sorts of museums and interpretive facilities (visitor centers, nature centers, history museums, historic sites/houses, etc., for clients ranging from fine arts museums to major science museums, children's museums, the Smithsonian, the National Park Service, and other federal and state agencies.  To get a good overview of this industry, go to the website of the National Association for Interpretation at https://www.interpnet.org  [National Association for Interpretation (interpnet.com)].  The field of interpretation as a whole has a much broader footprint in exhibit design than a typical fine arts museum, where ART is the focus, moreso than storytelling, which is what good interpretive exhibits do.  (A former head of the National Park Service describes himself as "the nation's chief storyteller" – and exhibits are a big part of how visitor-focused public lands and spaces tell their story.)

So – see the NAI website, especially these sections:

Interpreter's Green Pages (Products & Services) (interpnet.com)

PUBLICATIONS (interpnet.com)

However, I would also caution that to get hired at one of the major interpretive exhibit design firms around the country (or even a smaller one), most young exhibit designers have degrees in things like industrial design from Rhode Island School of Design or Georgia Tech, or even architecture degrees.  The InDesign and other Adobe products someone said you could "learn off YouTube" (I disagree!!) are GRAPHIC DESIGN tools (for "flat art" wall panels and printed publications), not EXHIBIT DESIGN tools, which are three-dimensional things like Google Sketch-Up and more sophisticated CAD drawings that are essentially blueprints for fabricators to build stuff.  For example, in two current exhibits I'm working on, the exhibit designer on our team, brainstorming with all of us as we plan the exhibits, has had to recreate a walk-in ship's hull, design a 17^th-century trading post using real salvaged cypress logs (after treating them for insects), design custom casework for ancient pottery sherds, design the mounts and protective railings for custom-made, lifesize models of a manatee mother and calf, etc., etc. – all of this in addition to your usual run of wall panels in various sizes, some with tactile elements embedded and, of course, large high-resolution historic images from the Library of Congress to illustrate the panels.  And much of this work has had to be configured within a 19^th-century solid brick and concrete building on the National Register, which is definitely a challenge.

Another route you might investigate, perhaps more than exhibit design itself, is consulting firms that work with clients on planning and communications/messaging/marketing, which ideally should all come before they start dropping $500,000 on exhibitry.  There's also a lot of need (and room, I think) for more incisive RESEARCH in the fields of interpretation, visitor studies, evaluation, and related areas.  Both visitor studies and evaluation have their own professional orgs within the interpretive field; the Legacy magazine runs some of this work, which I find helpful in my own work.  {About me:  I am a Certified Interpretive Planner thru NAI – although expired/almost retired! – and I have planned and written probably 50? interpretive exhibits around the country for NPS, National Wildlife Refuges, Forest Service, state and local parks, nature centers, university museums, history centers... and also facilitated and written about two dozen Long-Range Interpretive Plans for NPS as federal contractor for the past 15 years; in addition, my colleagues her in ATL do regular exhibit work for both the Atlanta History Center and the High Museum of Art.]  As an aside, it's always been surprising to me that the AAM and the NAI worlds don't seem to connect much.  I'm in both, but not many of us are cross-overs for some reason.

I see you are in Utah; look at interpretivegraphics.com.  They've been around in this field a long time.  They are not full-fledged exhibit design but only interpretive signage (i.e., one-dimensional, graphic design for wayside signs), but maybe you could visit them and get some advice. 

Good luck!

Fg

Faye Goolrick, CIP

Interpretive Planning and Writing

Atlanta, GA

Phone 404-633-2646

Hi Danielle.  All the other replies here are from the in-house exhibit side, so I'll offer advice from the commercial/professional design/fabrication industry – the contracted specialty teams that design and install exhibits for all sorts of museums and interpretive facilities (visitor centers, nature centers, history museums, historic sites/houses, etc., for clients ranging from fine arts museums to major science museums, children's museums, the Smithsonian, the National Park Service, and other federal and state agencies.  To get a good overview of this industry, go to the website of the National Association for Interpretation at https://www.interpnet.org  [National Association for Interpretation (interpnet.com)].  The field of interpretation as a whole has a much broader footprint in exhibit design than a typical fine arts museum, where ART is the focus, moreso than storytelling, which is what good interpretive exhibits do.  (A former head of the National Park Service describes himself as "the nation's chief storyteller" – and exhibits are a big part of how visitor-focused public lands and spaces tell their story.)

So – see the NAI website, especially these sections:

Interpreter's Green Pages (Products & Services) (interpnet.com)

PUBLICATIONS (interpnet.com)

However, I would also caution that to get hired at one of the major interpretive exhibit design firms around the country (or even a smaller one), most young exhibit designers have degrees in things like industrial design from Rhode Island School of Design or Georgia Tech, or even architecture degrees.  The InDesign and other Adobe products someone said you could "learn off YouTube" (I disagree!!) are GRAPHIC DESIGN tools (for "flat art" wall panels and printed publications), not EXHIBIT DESIGN tools, which are three-dimensional things like Google Sketch-Up and more sophisticated CAD drawings that are essentially blueprints for fabricators to build stuff.  For example, in two current exhibits I'm working on, the exhibit designer on our team, brainstorming with all of us as we plan the exhibits, has had to recreate a walk-in ship's hull, design a 17^th-century trading post using real salvaged cypress logs (after treating them for insects), design custom casework for ancient pottery sherds, design the mounts and protective railings for custom-made, lifesize models of a manatee mother and calf, etc., etc. – all of this in addition to your usual run of wall panels in various sizes, some with tactile elements embedded and, of course, large high-resolution historic images from the Library of Congress to illustrate the panels.  And much of this work has had to be configured within a 19^th-century solid brick and concrete building on the National Register, which is definitely a challenge.

Another route you might investigate, perhaps more than exhibit design itself, is consulting firms that work with clients on planning and communications/messaging/marketing, which ideally should all come before they start dropping $500,000 on exhibitry.  There's also a lot of need (and room, I think) for more incisive RESEARCH in the fields of interpretation, visitor studies, evaluation, and related areas.  Both visitor studies and evaluation have their own professional orgs within the interpretive field; the Legacy magazine runs some of this work, which I find helpful in my own work.  {About me:  I am a Certified Interpretive Planner thru NAI – although expired/almost retired! – and I have planned and written probably 50? interpretive exhibits around the country for NPS, National Wildlife Refuges, Forest Service, state and local parks, nature centers, university museums, history centers... and also facilitated and written about two dozen Long-Range Interpretive Plans for NPS as federal contractor for the past 15 years; in addition, my colleagues her in ATL do regular exhibit work for both the Atlanta History Center and the High Museum of Art.]  As an aside, it's always been surprising to me that the AAM and the NAI worlds don't seem to connect much.  I'm in both, but not many of us are cross-overs for some reason.

I see you are in Utah; look at interpretivegraphics.com.  They've been around in this field a long time.  They are not full-fledged exhibit design but only interpretive signage (i.e., one-dimensional, graphic design for wayside signs), but maybe you could visit them and get some advice. 

Good luck!

Fg

Faye Goolrick, CIP

Interpretive Planning and Writing

Atlanta, GA

Phone 404-633-2646