Day at the Museum

We went on a field trip

Last week we took a class field trip to the Denver Nature & Science Museum. We met the exhibit design team and they showed us a round one of their newly renovated rooms and then spoke to us about how their process works and how responsibilities are divided across their team.

I’d never really considered how museums set up their exhibits before or that they employed designers at all, so this was really eye opening for me. I had always assumed museums would outsource all of their design and art work or that all of the setups were ancient and they never had to make new ones, but we toured the basement level and there was a huge wood-shop and a small materials studio as well! The woman giving us the tour did explain that’s its rare for museums [or at least their’s] to create their own taxidermy or scene’s by scratch anymore, and that work is usually outsourced. But they create all of the signage, posters and visual/interactive elements in the museum.

Their design process was really similar to how it might be at a studio or agency, they get a brief from the scientists or experts about what the exhibit is about and what it needs to communicate, sometimes they also provide set elements and styles from a previous team. Then the design team gets to work on deciding the dimensions of the pieces, where they should go and what color palettes, fonts and images to use. They then work together under a project manager until it is done and their final rounds are approved.

After discovering there is a need for designers and artists in museums, I think that might be somewhere I’d like to work. Being able to combine science, art and user experience design all into one package would be neat.

As for the rest of our visit, afterwards we got to check out the interactive medical exhibit which was both gross and very interesting. I tried to get into the traveling mummies exhibit but you needed a separate ticket, so instead I took a picture of this really adorable stuffed scarab in the gift shop.

so cute, so soft.

I also took pictures of an Echidna and a Platypus taxidermy in the Extreme Animals exhibit.

so cute, so dead.

All in all it was a great experience! I’d love to go back and I’m definitely interested in looking for a career working in a museum now!