This is a short introduction into Exhibition Design. Taken from my own understanding and notes from the first two chapters of Exhibition Design: An Introduction Book by Philip Hughes (2015). The summary of further chapters might follow in later writings.
During one of my last Masters virtual classes, my professor highlighted a new insight into virtual meetings: there is a new trend of people trying to dissect what others are trying to represent from their bookshelf content shown behind their backs during virtual meetings (article). With people working from home, part of their outer personality became hidden too, to compensate the hidden part of their personality they subtly enhance their background details to highlight it.
When one hears of Exhibition Design they tend to think of a very limited scope of design, yet as the example above, exhibiting is applied in so many aspects of our lives, direct or subtle. We humans have a natural tendency to display. Display what we own, what we won, or what we worked for. Our homes and offices are arranged to showcase our possessions and acquired paintings or pictures. And with the ever presence of social media, our virtual presence is filled with images we hand-picked to resemble our personality through moments framed in pictures or items. Sometimes this nature to display grows larger than our homes, we use architecture to innate and frame objects and spaces that are sacred, promoting cultural or spiritual relevance.
The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, or the Pantheon in Rome are prime example of sacred display — the space is designed to represent the idea of being in a holy location, giving it high ceilings to give us a sense of elevation; making us raise our head as we enter. The act of looking up resembles our aim of reaching the heavens above, while the size of structure gives us the humility of feeling small and insignificant to something that is bigger than us. The calligraphy in the mosques (and to some level the paintings in the churches) affirms these believes adding a sense of belonging and tranquility in these spaces.
These is all deliberately designed by the architect or designer to showcase the spiritual value of the buildings, linking it to ourselves and our believes.
Slowly, we started exhibiting our items for the general public, creating museums. Through my life in Rome I found that the first museum officially created was the Capitoline museums (Musei Capitolini) in 1471, when Pope Sixtus IV donated his collection of bronzes to the two main buildings sitting on the Campidoglio square (the square was remodelled later by Michelangelo himself). This collection increased in time with sculptures donated by popes as they distanced themselves from pagan symbolism after they inherited the seat of Rome. Though only years later in 1734 Capitoline museums were opened for the public the first time.
To understand this field of modern exhibition design, I started with reading and summarising my understanding on Hughes’s book Exhibition Design: An Introduction. The details in this book are intended to a wide array of audiences that are interested and drawn into this field, from different background and professional levels. The wording used is coherent and practical giving necessary information for this field that also suits varied readership.
For a modern exhibition designer to axel in his field, he must manage work creatively combining the physical aspect and the digital aspect of our era, combining both functionality and aesthetics. While the norm starting any field is to have background information about it, in the case of exhibition designers it is not necessary, as other design disciplines or art fields can build up their skills and transfer them into the exhibition design field. Usually, a wide range of design specialists gather to work in some of the exhibition design projects (depending on how big the project and budget is). Exhibition designers are then usually specialised into creating either publicly funded institutions (museums for example) or commercial (for corporate clients); although the difference between both sectors is getting less and less with time.
While this is a very short personal overview of the exhibition designers role, I found the first two chapters the most essential into understanding the role of the Exhibition designer: To correctly define and understand The Brief and then The Visitor.
The mark of a successful brief is a successful creative project.
The exhibition brief is the most crucial part of every exhibition design. The more specified the brief is, the better the outcome. All successful projects start with a good clear briefing, which specifies the objectives, learning outcomes and available assets (or collections) which keeps evolving as the client and designer explore its potential and delivery techniques. The brief also assists both the client and designer as the project moves forward to make sure they did not stray far from the aim of the project. As an, exhibition designer, it is essential to question your understanding of the brief — is it logical, is it clear? Ask questions, visit the museum vault or the clients factory — these ‘cultural visits’ are essential to go over the brief correctly and help convey ideas and feelings of the exhibition.
The set of strategies to go over during the main components of the brief, although naturally they are versatile depending on the size of the project:
1. Objectives
Most museum or companies have their mission and objectives written — it is incredibly helpful to see and understand their end-in-mind during development and the objective of the exhibition.
2. Messages andOutcomes
Define or find the key messages the exhibitors want to communicate to their audience. Usually a set of values and ideas they want to showcase as part of their strategy. It is important to define the link the audience is expected to take away from their experience from the exhibition; as it impacts the design features from spatial storytelling to gathering spaces. An example in a natural history museum: The key message to leave with school children is: “the bugs in my house are interesting”. Thus the museum can play a powerful role through live demonstrations or showing key objects taught previously in the classroom and create links between the two.
3. MasterPlan
Often encompassing the entire site, the master plan component interprets the potential visitor routes between the galleries, showcasing the logical content sequences between the disparate content and gallery areas. They are essential to make a consistent visitor experience through logical and carefully devised narrative. It could also show options for the client to use their buildings and galleries optimally within a given budget.
4. Marketing
Exhibitions that are accompanied by large events (such as TV programmes, lecture series, opera shows, etc..) are almost always more successful, thus the designer must be aware of all the events related to the exhibition from the client. The exhibition itself can create shareable moments catching further public attention through mixed ways of physical and virtual features (such as social media).
5. Content andAssets
The brief should also establish in detail the exhibition content. Explaining the storyline narrative, the theme, assets and the content that are available for the designer to use on the visitor.
6. Costing
Understanding the scale of the exhibition will first require understanding of the budget. Usually the client hires an exhibition-cost consultant to help determine the project budget and expectation. Naturally the higher the interactive experience the more expensive the exhibition is. This component should also show how the funding is achieved, if it’s via public, governmental or private funds.
7. OtherDetails
Other details such as sustainability goals, legal requirements, sites information, and especially audience needs (such as disabilities) are also very important to be highlighted in the brief depending on their relevance.
In summary, the brief should be detailed to allow for creative interpretation. The exhibition designer should understand clearly what he or she is required to do; from researching the subject well, anticipating potential problems and sharing the briefing with important project workers.
Just as the engagement of user is important in any other design field — the engagement of the visitor is the most significant part of the exhibition designer. Engagement of the visitor addresses stimulating the visitor to create lasting positive memories of the exhibition and giving them new insights. There is a real difference between showing exhibits to a visitor and engaging them. As engagement creates a deeper experience or understanding that is easier to create the link with the goals of the exhibition
The most effective way to engage with the visitor is to understand them. Thus the exhibitor’s work is to research the target audiences’ interests, motivations, preoccupations and ideals and classifying them into groups (such as age, socio-economic, sex, intellectual or social barriers). So the audience feels “fit in” with the area or crowd inside the designated exhibition. The exhibition designers work is to be clear through proper advertising graphics and visual/virtual messages that the display is for them. There are 3 points to take into consideration when understanding the visitor.
1. Visitor InterestGroup
Exhibitions, especially large ones, usually addresses a wide range of visitors who are in various levels of interests in the theme. Layering for diverse audience adds a variety into the exhibition that are divided into interest groups:
The ExpertThe expert is the specialist who is knowledgable of the theme and wants to supplement his knowledge — via reference materials or deeper exploration of certain items and giving easier access for further research needs.
The Frequent TravellerA person who has foundation in the field and willing to discover more with exploration, fed by curiosity over specifics. The designer has to plan an informal level of enquiry and different levels of explorations from the main idea.
The ScoutThe scout does not know the terrain but tries understand the main idea of the exhibition. Legible signage and labelling should identify a cleared information path.
The OrienteerThe orienteer are usually the person who is brought in by another visitor, someone who has no idea where to go and looking for something relevant to them. The dinosaur bone, for example, would satisfy an adults interests while the child will be stimulated by a simulated ride on the back f the dinosaur-yet both of them are providing important aspects of dinosaurs behaviour.
2. Visitor LearningProcess
Learning is a varied process, to engage with a broad range of audience understanding levels, all 3 learning styles are preferably combined in the exhibition for the 3 different learners.
Visual learners — intercepts information through visual stimulation
Auditory learners — intercepts information through speech, commands and other sound stimulations
Kinaesthetic learners — intercepts information through a hands-on experience of touch feedback.
It is the designer’s job to meet the client’s requirements to strengthen, alter and reinvigorate visitor perception through the experience of the exhibition. When the exhibition is held; the perception of the visitor is altered, rethought and reconstructed by how visitors react to the show. It is the designer’s job to meet the client’s requirements to alter or direct the visitors perception through the experience of the exhibition. And to do this correctly is is essential for the designer to understand from the clients two points:
How the client is currently perceived in the market.
What the client whats to achieve in the market they operate in.
And depending on the clients aim, the exhibition designers job is to make the visitor feel the brand. Through different approaches that appeal to their emotional relevance with the exhibition.
In a car show for example, the high-quality lightning and clear graphics will show us the car and its features. However the brand-environment approach will appeal to our gut feelings about the car. This is played through the various aspect of displays from sight, sound, touch and smell to showcase the brand values (such as for example, “elegance” “speed” and “reliable”).
In summary, understand everything about the client’s current and future audience. Research car-fully their interests and learning styles and the different levels of engagement in the exhibition to help them create links between the exhibition and the client’s end goal.
