Exhibit
Projects
Click on the images to see additional project examples.
News Highlight:
National Urban League
Centennial Exhibition
The National Urban League Centennial Empowerment Exhibition opened July 2010 as a commemoration and celebration of 100 years of the Urban League strengthening and improving community members’ lives. I worked with JBK Brand Design LLC (formerly Vibrant Design Group) to design a compelling 4,000 sq. ft. interactive experience to help convey the Urban League’s “I Am Empowered” initiative message of hope and empowerment, as well as to speak to the amazing achievements of the organization as a whole. We worked with musical and visual artists, photographers, and other designers to make this project a reality in an incredibly short period of time—just five months; installation was completed in three days. The exhibition featured interactives, archival imagery, vintage objects (i.e. historical TV, military uniforms, Civil Rights era signage), a custom graffiti wall, and a sixteen-screen video wall.
The exhibit design divided the show into three sections: Past (I Am Fearless), Present (I Am Powerful), and Future (I Am Bold) to demonstrate the layered histories of the Urban League, African Americans, and America as a country. This project provided me an incredible opportunity to hit the ground running in exhibition design, and was a great tribute to the Urban League, which has been dedicated to serving the community for 100 years and counting.
Role: Junior Designer
MEDIA
more than meets the eye
More Than Meets the Eye opened July 2011 as a photography exhibition educating visitors on the diverse work and research performed by scientists at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). These scientists use their enhanced vision, specialized tools, technology and skills to observe, document, and study the natural world and myriad cultures in it.
Through greater than 80 images and objects from the collections, More Than Meets the Eye tells interesting and important stories about the world’s diverse life and culture in greater detail. I used bright, bold colors to help bring the content to life, and visually divide the departments' research as visitors journey through the hall. Videos, interactives, and imagery were also critical in conveying these important stories.
Role: Lead Designer
Evolving universe
Evolving Universe was developed in partnership with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and opened October 2011. This visually-impactful photography show used full-color photos taken by powerful orbiting and terrestrial telescopes to take visitors on a journey from Earth today to outer space and the very distant past, when the universe first began. Evolving Universe invites you to explore how stars, galaxies, and the universe change over their lifespans, and even features a vial of stardust, the material that started it all.
Using the colors found in the universe, beautiful photography, and many original illustrations, the design of the space helped highlight the wonders of outer space. The freestanding structures' design was intended to be easy to manufacture and install/deinstall by making the pieces like puzzles that easily connect and stack.
Role: Lead Graphic Designer
3D Structure Design: Michael Lawrence
Urban bird habitat
The Urban Bird Habitat is a permanent exterior display of panels wrapping around the north, west, and south sides of the National Museum of Natural History. This habitat creates the ideal environment for many bird species with carefully selected plantings and hardscape elements. Each set of panels—featuring carefully type set paragraphs and original illustrations—helps to give context
to this important work in a way that is easy to understand and
visually engaging.
Role: Lead Designer
mud masons of Mali
Debuting August 2013, Mud Masons of Mali, highlighted Djenne, Mali, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its incredible and unique architecture. This architecture is possible thanks to the Boso masons who inherited a historical tradition of expertly crafting buildings from mud, passed down since the 14th century.
There was almost no money available for this show, so I worked with in-house staff to design, build, and create faux “mud” facades as the grounding aesthetic in the space and graphic panels that looked more natural and "unfinished."
Role: Lead Designer
MEDIA
fragile beauty:
The art & science of sea butterflies
September 2013, Fragile Beauty: The Art and Science of Sea Butterflies opened to the public at the Natural History Museum.
This display featured the work of artist Cornelia Kubler Kavanagh and biological oceanographer Gareth Lawson. Together the pair highlighted the predicament of tiny ocean pteropods, also known
as “sea butterflies,” using oversized metal sculptures. Sea snails are actually as small as a grain of sand and are an important part of our ecosystem, but are being greatly impacted by ocean acidification.
I created a unique curved vertical graphic display to divide this
long and narrow case into two sides to better display these beautiful, larger-than-life sculptures and highlight the important science behind the work.
Role: Lead Designer
MEDIA
Cornelia Kubler Kavanagh
unintended journeys
Unintended Journeys—a photography exhibition that debuted February 2014—was created in partnership with Magnum Photos photographers to study the struggle environmental refugees face (especially refugees displaced by global climate change and natural disasters). Through Magnum Photos images and videos, the show helped to educate the public on the challenges these communities and their members must endure, and their ongoing resilience in dealing with these difficulties.
A more muted color palette was used to divide the stories, and large direct-print, full-color images printed on 4' x 8' acrylic panels framed each section. The exhibition included a small theater space and a changeable case showcasing children's art and news stories pertaining to these climate-related struggles.
Role: Co-Designed with Kim Moeller
portraits of planet ocean:
The photography of Brian skerry
Portraits of Planet Ocean: The Photography of Brian Skerry opened to the public September 2013. This exhibition showcased both the amazing underwater photography of Brian Skerry and helped to bring awareness to the diverse, beautiful, and endangered environments around the world. The show also featured a companion Flickr page where visitors could share and vote for the five photos that best represented a "vanishing world" to be featured in the exhibit.
My design intention for this long and narrow space in the back of the Ocean Hall was to make visitors feel like they were actually submerged under water. The walls were a dark blue that gradually faded to a lighter blue up to a wavy line about 12’ feet above visitor’s heads, and then a gradient of light blue began to give the illusion of the water’s surface. Through the graphic design of the panels and show lighting, the space was informative and engaging.
Role: Lead Designer
MEDIA
the last American dinosaurs:
Discovering a lost world
In 2014, the dinosaur and fossil hall closed for renovations and reopened fully redesigned in 2019. The Last American Dinosaurs, which opened November 2014, was an interim exhibition to provide visitors an opportunity to see dinosaurs and other fossils during the five years without a permanent fossil hall. The exhibition teaches the story of the last days of dinosaurs as preserved in the Hell Creek Formation of North Dakota. By studying these fossils, researchers can better understand the environment they lived in, the ways in which the planet reacted to dramatic changes, and the demise of the dinosaurs.
The design was intended to look like the space was still “under construction,” with unfinished plywood platforms, and metal pipe railings. The graphics, illustrations, and images were bold, clean, and easy-to-read. The show featured audio and video, touchable models, objects, and a staffed fossil lab.
Role: Lead Graphic Designer
Space and Structural/3D Design: Michael Lawrence
MEDIA
Behind the Scenes video
Objects of Wonder
Objects of Wonder opened March 2017 (ongoing), and explores the diversity and magnificence of the Museum’s collection through some of our most important and amazing specimens and artifacts. Our scientists use our more than 145 million objects in the collections to better understand nature and human culture.
The show’s color scheme is jewel-toned to complement the beautiful and elegant wooden cases. The case riser fabric of choice is ultra suede to keep the higher-end aesthetic, and lighting adds to the overall elegant design.
Role: Lead Graphic Designer
Space and Structural/3D Design: Michael Lawrence
MEDIA
EraGem
Outbreak:
Epidemics in a connected world
Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World, which opened to the public at NMNH in May 2018, was an exhibition that taught how human health is connected to animal and environmental health—especially important as we grow more connected through travel, trade, and technology. It further emphasized that as our population increases, our interactions with other animals and the environment changes and can cause disease outbreaks and epidemics.
This design intended to break the content into sections that focused on different diseases. Almost every section had a vignette display, objects, and or graphics to better tell the stories. The show featured several digital interactives (maps, game), videos, and graphics.
Role: Lead Graphic Designer
3D and Space Design: Julia Louie
MEDIA
Unsettled nature: Artists reflect
on the age of humans
Unsettled Nature opened June 2021 and offers visitors a chance to explore the unique and growing mark humanity is making on the world.Through a series of full-color photographs and original artists’ work, visitors are asked to think about how they are helping to shape ht planet and what they see for the future.
This was primarily an art show, so the design was clean and bright with minimal text to ensure the images and art were the focus.
I used a script style font for large statement text and clean sans
serif type for the graphic panels. The walls are white to create
a clean, blank canvas.
Role: Lead Designer
MEDIA
Lights out:
recovering our night sky
Lights Out, an exhibition that opened March 2023 (ongoing), focuses on how artificial lights have become a common part of our night skies, and how brighter nights have an impact on humans, wildlife, and the environment. The impacts of light pollution are numerous, but the solutions can have immediate and lasting effects.
The design intention for this show was to create a dramatic “night time” space that provides a contemplative journey from beginning
to end. There are more than 100 photos, many objects, original art and illustrations, interactive experiences, touchable models, and a theater fitted with LED lights to create the look of a starry night sky.
Role: Lead Designer
MEDIA
Illuminating Engineering Society
Cellphone: Unseen connections
Cellphone: Unseen Connections educates visitors on how cellphones are intimately tied to our natural world. Cellphone components are created from minerals found in the Earth, and there is a vast unseen global network of infrastructure, people and labor that goes into cellphone creation.
The design intention for this exhibition was developed based on research into our target audience, teens and young adults. The color scheme is reminiscent of the 1980’s and 90s with bright, bold colors, and geometric shapes. The typeface is clean and modern, and the over aesthetic is active and vibrant. There are more than 750 objects, multimedia elements, a graphic novel across three walls, and an interactive group chat experience. The show also highlights the minerals and elements involved in the creation of phones, displayed in four smaller highlight cases and a large, cellphone-shaped case with a programmed light show highlighting phone components and the corresponding elements and minerals that help create them.
Role: Lead Designer
MEDIA