Environment and Graphic Design
Environment and Graphic Design
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
I have worked on two projects for the NHM.
First, I was lead graphic designer for NHM's opening exhibit in their brand new Greektown museum. Part of my scope for the permanent exhibit design was to design the logo as well as artwork for the building exterior and the front window. While the museum did fundraising for the permanent exhibit (for which I designed various fundraising collateral), I transitioned to the team creating the preview exhibit: a behind the scenes look at how an exhibit is developed. That exhibit was named one of the best of the year by the Chicago Tribune.
The logo I developed for the permanent exhibit on the left, and then the logo for the Preview Exhibit on the right.
I initially created this piece for the museum’s second floor front window (as seen in above installation photo), by blending elements of the Greek story: the sea, the goddess Nike, the Greek flag, a mosaic of the Emperor Justinian, the Acropolis, and an ancient statue, as well as the logo I developed for the permanent exhibit. The art was so well received that it also became a large-scale banner on an exterior wall, and art for museum postcards.
The Preview Exhibit walked the visitor through the development and design of an exhibit using some of the Museum’s collections, boards of some of our team’s permanent exhibit plans and renderings, and inset stories like the process of designing an exhibit logo. All of that content was displayed in a space that looked like a work-in-progress. Then what gave this preview exhibit a real engaging dimension was the “Curator Voice” for which I used a large red marker and wrote directly on boards and walls making ‘notes’ of content edits, how something should be shown, and what works when telling a story in an exhibit.
A few years later I was part of a two-person team hired to refresh the Exhibit of the Greek Diaspora and Immigration to America. With a small budget and short 2-month timeline from concept to open, a content developer and I took the exhibit from a dark and unengaging series of photos to a bright, dynamic and inviting narrative.