Week in Review: Design Brief, Scale Model, and Labels
- Jessica Craig
- Oct 13, 2016
- 2 min read
This week our class had several goals for our exhibit:
Finish the design brief.
Begin preliminary research for the label content.
Work on the scale model of Booth Library.
Begin discussing the label format- font, color, content, etc.
The first goal took precedence, as the design brief is the guiding document for each step in the design phase. It was designed to be specific enough to keep us on track with our exhibit, but broad enough to where we can make adjustments as necessary. In many ways, the design brief is the mission for the exhibit, and following it is the key to making a good, on-budget exhibit.
A copy of the preliminary design for our exhibit. Sketch Up done by Meagan Patterson.
With our main goals outlined in earlier portions of the brief, one thing that we particularly struggled with was coming up with interesting titles for the cases. Our professor challenged us to search beyond our simplistic themes for something that was more attention grabbing. In an act of desperation, I went to a random word generator. It read Orchard Cruelty. I liked the name, but it had little to do with our subject. We continued using the thesaurus and the random word generator to inspire creativity, and finally we were able to come up with some working titles.
The second and third goals for this week were things we worked on individually. The curator team is hard at work drawing together general information for the label outlines, while the entire class is taking time to work on the scale model (Shout out to Amanda- who has led the effort!)
In our exhibits class we spent some time discussing what types of labels we wanted to include in the exhibit. Our discussion included considering voice, font, format, and content. In the end we decided that we want our exhibit labels to be narrative in nature, and be high contrast in color (probably charcoal on white or the reverse.)
Our final meeting this week was spent discussing programming for our exhibit. Although nothing is set in stone, we decided that we want to host a few programs about how to do public history, such as hosting a genealogy workshop and a round table discussion. We would also like to invite a guest speaker to host a lecture, but the topic of the lecture has not yet been finalized.
In other news, thanks to the generosity of a couple of donors, our program now has the budget to print off the exhibit booklets. Overall, we seem to be making good progress towards the end of the year, and ultimately, the exhibit. Since we have finally turned in the design brief, we have officially moved from the planning stage to the design phase. Bring it on!
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