There are two audience groups that exhibitions should almost never target. At one end of the spectrum: believers, who already get it. They will come regardless. At the other end: skeptics, who refuse to listen. Don’t aim at either. Aim between them. …

I don’t know why it happens. It’s a mystery. Nobody knows why. In every project, no matter how big, whether an exhibition, experience or something else, one thing is for sure. One part will resist having a design chosen until the bitter end. …

All of us at the table in our planning sessions have one thing in common. We’re not our visitors. But sometimes we act like the project is for us. “I know it’s an exhibit about ferns, but I just personally hate green. Can we see a grey option?” …

We all love good copy. But the text isn't why visitors come. Not what they look at. Not what they remember. An exhibition is not a book on a wall. Any visual medium — exhibitions, documentary films — should get developed visually. Visuals first, text later. …

In the real world, we expect a sound to naturally emanate from its source. The happy toot of a baby elephant emanates from a baby elephant. Not the sky, the ground, or a nearby fern. It should work the same in our exhibitions. …

Warning: indiscreet. May cause light-bulb moment and/or outrage, depending. Which of the following two methods is more common for representing costs, in major projects like museums and exhibitions? …

There is a counterintuitive audio engineering rule about how to make something louder. It sounds completely crazy. But it’s true. To dial something up — don’t dial it up. Dial everything else down. And this rule is especially true in physical spaces. …

This is going to be special. And short. Yay! Happy Birthday, Making the Museum, the Newsletter! You just turned two! It seems like just yesterday, 386 episodes ago, when you sent out your very first email: “Wow, Who Designed That?” You wrote poetry … twice! …

Lighting exhibitions of light-sensitive artifacts is really hard. We often do it wrong — and end up with dimly lit beige objects, on dim beige fabric panels, in dim beige rooms. Artifacts still have to pop, even though almost no light is allowed on them. …

(Part 1 of this two-parter got a lot of fan mail. Why? Hit “reply” and tell me what you think.) Here are the final five, including shockers.
Myth #6: Artifacts have to be real. Fact: Good facsimiles are fine. Build the reason for the replica into the story. …

Artifacts — real, unique things — are the heart of many exhibitions. Yet many myths persist about how to use them. Here are the 10 that I hear the most. #1: You need a lot of artifacts. Fact: A few will do. Ten you'll remember is better than 100 you'll forget.

Ironically, that rare book, that Gutenberg Bible you have on display … nobody can read it. It is beige. Dimly lit. Written in a dead language. Behind glass at an angle. And even if were about Taylor Swift … visitors don’t come to read. So what do we do? …

Can a building tell a story? Can a glass wall become … mist? Alan Reed, FAIA, LEED AP (President and Design Principal of GWWO Architects), joins MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “Story-Based Design.” …

Sometimes our idea is a bad idea. But every once in a while, it’s a good idea, waiting for a better name. The Patagonian Toothfish was a deep-sea species from the Southern Hemisphere that nobody wanted to eat. Until one day, it got a new name. …

I run a design studio. We work with clients who expect us to come up with ideas for things, then design the things. But it’s a rare meeting where I don’t say to one of our clients, “We’re going to steal that idea.” It’s a compliment. But I’m also serious. …

“People always ask me for a boat,” a designer friend once said to me. “I wish they would just ask for a way to cross the river.” We all get two types of requests. Type 1: A problem in search of a solution. Type 2: A solution in search of a problem. For example …

You’ll find the MJT tucked into an anonymous building on Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles. And if you do, you’ll have found one of the great must-sees for any exhibition person. I am not kidding. But the museum might be. …

How would you design an exhibit — if an animal’s life depended on it? Jacqueline Bershad, Vice President of Planning & Design at the National Aquarium, joins MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “Designing with Animals.”

Personal screens today have two modes. The original light mode is dark-text-on-light: good in a bright room, so-so in a dark one.  Thankfully, we now have dark mode too: light-text-on-dark, which is much better in dark rooms. Which brings me to exhibitions. …

So people with color vision deficiency can tell which light means “stop”. (Stop is on top in most of the US.) 5-8% of male visitors, and up to 1% of women, have it. Accommodating differences in color perception is complex, because there are many types. …