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I tend to worship the style of simplicity and straight forward, tell-it-like-it-is design. That's not to say I abhor sophistication. On the contrary, if you communicate clearly and simply through your design, a visitor's interaction will be deep and valuable which is in fact, sophisticated.
Zeum's mission is to foster creativity and innovation of all young people and that means their families too, a very broad audience to reach. The exhibit design strategy I developed was to dedicate each exhibit space to focus on one core activity: Animation, Video and Sound Production, Visual Arts and Performance. This allowed us to be very intentional about which areas to invest resources in first and to develop successful exhibits through prototyping over several years.
I should stop here to say that when I began working at Zeum in 2000, we had just celebrated a 2nd Anniversary. There was a very small staff of under twenty people, a 28,000 sq. foot facility, a lot of empty space and I was the only person in the Exhibits Department. We had a lot of work to do with under 200k. The core team of folks that I worked with was the Executive Director, the head of Visitor Services, IT, and the Education Manager. There were numerous Program Directors over the years however that position was very difficult to define and hire for; it burned people out like a five alarm fire.
While at Zeum, one major achievement was to clarify the museum's mission and insure that the exhibit experience provided tangible results of the mission's impact on the community.
In plain english:
1. Research. Know your audience. Know your mission. Design for both.
2. Make sure people understand what Zeum is and that they can find the front door.
3. Make sure they have a great time once they're inside. Make sure they'll want to come back.
4. Count how many people come back.
5. Count how many new people arrive.
6. Make kids happy = Makes parents happy = return visits = sustainable programs and exhibits = successful, growing institution
7. Manage your paperwork and your data
8. Make sure it's fun for all parties involved
Fall 2000, San Francisco. I started at Zeum. Here's a story about how important people are: A friend of mine in New York put me in touch with her mom who worked for the Haas Jr. Foundation. She and I met over coffee, chatted about what I was interested in doing and she recommended that I meet David Dial, the ED of Zeum. David responded to my cold call. It turned into a wonderful seven years for me working for Zeum. As a result, I always respond to cold calls and emails from the world OUT THERE. You never know who you'll meet.
Anyhow, Zeum. What an awesome place. I'm not just saying it because I helped to build it for seven years but because I continue to support it, along with many close friends and past colleagues. It's an incredibly supportive, fun, creative place. I'm so proud and inspired by Zeum. I am also equally thankful that I left to grow as a designer in new areas, for other institutions and businesses. I'll have to think about which exhibit to write about first...
1997 - 1998 New York, San Francisco. I have always been fascinated by media, how few people create it and yet, how everyone is impacted by it.
Shape Perception is one of seven interactive art installations about creativity, 
human beings and media (our creative poop.) I specifically wanted to design interactive installations that would explore this theme in the same tactical way that the Exploratorium explains scientific theories and laws. Marshall McLuhan is awesome but you can't really engage the masses with his books on media theory. It ain't Harry Potter. So, here's what I did:
In a totally random environment (public parks), people discover six identical silver blocks on tables, arranged in a circle. Next to each is a mallet and a chisel. Upon closer inspection, they see that the blocks are not exactly the same. They range in density: soft clay, wax, styrofoam, wood, cement and steel.
And someone begins. Someone has to pick at it. They can't resist. It's human nature. They pick their medium of choice and they create a mark. At first a very small, shy mark. They leave. Others come, see the mark, are inspired to create their own, do so, and then they leave. More come and do the same. That first mark shapes the perception of the next person and the next. The medium is no longer a block but something that develops into communication. Techniques appear and people are more sophisticated about what they decide to create. And eventually, by the end of the day, someone eventually decides to mix the media, creating a whole new medium.
People talk about "media" all the time. Rarely do they think of it as just the plural of "medium." Our written languages, music, radio, film, tv, the internet all developed like these six blocks and now we mix and match them, creating ridiculously complex forms of communication which in turn creates elitism which then motivates others to create new forms of media that will be more accessible to even more folks. It's cyclical. That's my take on what human beings do.
My interest in media literacy led me to the Just Think Foundation, a wonderful organization that shares the mission to foster understanding about media. I used my second show of Shape Perception in Union Square as a means to share information about their programs as well as promote the Artist Guild of San Francisco.
Spring 1996. Manhattan. Lower East Side. I got introduced to Jump Start, a very cool organization that aims to build literacy. They were planning a street festival and needed art installations for kids. I was busy designing interactive art installations about media literacy, slated for a fall opening. Why not design and build one about literacy and hang out with kids on 2nd Street for the day? And get paid.
Ta- Da! Glow Tent
Kids came over to check out this funky looking dome tent covered with tin-foil like material. To enter the tent, every kid needs to first decorate a foam core alphabet letter. There's stickers, markers, glue, etc. Eager to enter the tent, most children slapped on a couple stickers and got in line.
A young volunteer stood at the tent entrance and helped kids to exit and enter the tent, about 10 kids each time. BUT HEY, it's pitch black in the tent! So I'd quickly pass out flashlights, enough for each kid and soon someone would smartly point out that their alphabet letters were glowing. Indeed, to their delight, they had decorated them with glow-in-the-dark stuff. But that was nothing. I then pointed out that the ceiling of the tent was covered with letters and that if they turned on their flashlights and used them like small pens, tracing the shape of the letters, it was as if they were writing with light. And the tent floor was like an entire writing surface so they could write a message to their friends waiting outside. Thanks very much, please exit. Fun Fun FUN. We all had a blast and the Glow Tent appeared at two more festivals after that. It also got me into toy design but that's a different story.
An Interactive Exhibit Designer: I like to design and build things that grab people's attention and inspire them to play. My creations are often too big to be sold as toys so I call them exhibits and put them in festivals or museums for people to futz with and sometimes break. In the process, we both learn something. The visitor learns about what the exhibit was about and I learn to design and build better exhibits.
My sister and I made our design and performance debuts by transforming this 4' x 12' hallway into a puppet theater, including a ticketing and cashier system. Entry was mandatory and cost 10 cents. Sprinkle in a few magic shows (staring our pet rabbits), a few lego robots and a degree in Radio, TV, Film from Northwestern University and you've got an Interactive Exhibit Designer.
