Defining Exhibit Planning & Design

"The Lure of the Mountains" exhibit at Peaks of Otter Visitor Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

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Roles and responsibilities of planners and designers in the development of museum exhibits and interpretive centers for National Park Service areas.

The following lists outline tasks and responsibilities of planners and designers of National Park Service exhibits. While this list places tasks in one category or the other, often the work is accomplished in collaboration. In some cases planners may take on roles usually accomplished by designers, and vice versa. When work is contracted, NPS planners or designers direct the work and remain responsible for quality and effectiveness.

While the distinctions between planner and designer may not hold in all cases, it is useful to distinguish the roles. The planner may be quickly characterized as the interpreter, writer, curator, and content manager. The designer is the manager of the exhibition’s visual, spatial, and technological elements, and the chief liaison with the architect.

Exhibit Planning

• Establish objectives for the entire exhibition and for specific exhibits.
• Assist the park in developing a media strategy.
• Develop a Project Agreement.
• Establish interpretive themes and desired visitor experience goals.
• Assimilate foundation documents such as General Management Plans and Long Range Interpretive Plans. If foundation documents do not exist or are obsolete, additional foundation work needs to be developed.
• Study park resources on site, including examination of artifacts and photo collections.
• Manage media evaluation throughout the project—front-end, formative, and summative.
• Estimate project costs throughout the project.
• Serve as the lead interpreter on the media development team, and insure that NPS interpretive principles are incorporated.
• Collaborate with stakeholders and resource persons to agree on objectives and general content.
• Conduct project research, which for some projects may require original research. Other projects may begin with most of the needed content already at hand.
• Develop preliminary exhibit concepts and techniques, in collaboration with designer and team.
• Create and manage a planning database which organizes and tracks all exhibit elements—labels, graphics, artifacts, equipment, programs, and digital graphic layouts.
• Acquire graphics, beginning with facsimiles, and ending with production-ready images.
• Acquire use rights for graphics, or assign the task to others.
• Manage the creation or adaptation of maps for exhibit use.
• Manage the planning and fabrication of natural history models.
• Write treatments for audiovisual programs, interactive exhibits, furnishings exhibits and other media elements.
• Identify needs for original art and write art treatments, collect reference packages, direct the artist, and manage art contracts.
• Write and edit exhibit label copy.
• Serve as COTR in the Federal acquisition process.
• Prepare copies of exhibit plans for review, and manage reviews and review meetings.
• Insure that conservation guidelines and standards are applied throughout the project when artifacts are included in exhibits.
• Insure that exhibit content is consistent with current academic thinking and NPS policy.
• Write scopes of work for contracted elements of work.
• Insure that Universal Design principles are incorporated.
• Insure that diverse point of view are represented in exhibit content.
• Facilitate meetings required during the planning-design phase of projects.
• Monitor project progress during the fabrication phase to insure that planning intent is being achieved.

Exhibit Design

• Study proposed visitor distribution and circulation in exhibit spaces and recommend alternatives for media design.
• Develop exhibit concepts and the drawings, models, or computer animations that will communicate those concepts to stakeholders.
• Collaborate with clients, planners, and other specialists to insure that designs meet project objectives.
• Develop bubble plans.
• Estimate project costs throughout the project.
• Design and produce professional-quality project documents such as the Schematic Design Plan, Concept Plan, and Final Production Package.
• Integrate audiovisual elements into the overall design.
• Develop or manage the development of an exhibit lighting plan, and supervise its implementation.
• Prepare specifications for all digital graphic layouts.
• Organize and manage all digital files and provide for their proper storage, labeling, and security.
• Work with architects and engineers to insure that facilities design is coordinated with exhibit design.
• Design artifact cases that meet standards for object conservation and security.
• Review and comment on architects’ drawings and recommend revisions. Attend architectural review meetings.
• Recommend applications for original art, and serve as art director and contract manager.
• Create layout designs for exhibits, and build the digital layout files for production.
• Specify typography, colors, finishes, and materials for exhibits.
• Prepare prototype designs for exhibits and manage their fabrication and testing.
• Evaluate the quality of contractor design drawings, samples, and models, and recommend revisions where necessary.
• Serve as COTR in the Federal acquisition process.
• Develop project budgets and schedules based on technical knowledge of design processes.
• Prepare structural drawings of exhibits keyed to the planning database.
• Incorporate Universal Design principles in exhibit designs and drawings.
• Insure that exhibit designs are sustainable and cost-effective.
• Monitor the quality of design work related to energy consumption and environmental concerns to insure that best practices are being used and that regulations are not being violated.
• Insure that NPS visual identity standards are incorporated into media where appropriate.
• Monitor emerging exhibit technologies and introduce them into project work where feasible and appropriate.
• Use graphics and models to their full effect to reduce the dependence on text which is of limited use to non-English speaking visitors and those with learning disabilities.
• Monitor project progress during the fabrication phase to insure that design intent is being achieved.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Exhibits & Museums »

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Museum & Visitor Center Exhibit Design/Build Process »

Museum & Visitor Center Exhibit Planning, Design and Production Process »

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