Hands of Extinction: Musuem Exhibition

Hands of Extinction is an conceptual exhibition about species that have gone extinct in the past 200 years from either direct or indirect human involvement. I chose this time frame because it puts the biological crisis into a more tangible example. It is much easier to grasp the serious implications of extinction when we have video and photo documentation of animals, rather than species of the distant past. I also chose this time frame as a way to empress upon the viewer that this is an ongoing crisis, one that he or she could be directly involved with.

Musuem Exhibits

Environmental Design

Hands of Extinction is my first dip into environmental design. In each step of the process, I had to consider how the audience would interact with the material. A large emphasis is placed upon the narrative feature and the emotion-driven language as a way to draw the audience in.

Below is the proposal and the visual identity for the exhibition. The proposal was made well in advance of the visuals, since I needed to get this project approved before I continued with the design, which is why the typography and color schemes are not consistent with the final design.

Elements of the Design

For this exhibition, I wanted lean into the dire nature of extinction and present the information in a way that invoked a sense of urgency. To accomplish this, I chose black, bright orange, and white to be the primary colors. Later research revealed that green was closely tied to nature exhibits of all kinds, so I added in two shades of green to act as secondary colors. While there is no strict guideline for color, green will mostly be paired with white and orange will mostly be paired with black, to ensure good contrast and consistency with color.

In most of the visual elements, an hand-drawn illustration style is used. For this project, I wanted to push myself outside of my usual illustration style, which is clean and digital based, and try a hand drawn style. The rougher, harsher illustration style was chosen to communicate the urgency and harshness of extinction. This visual technique is also seen in the logo and header typeface used throughout the exhibition. A clean and bold sub-header typeface is paired with the header typeface to ensure readability and contrast with the header.

Custom Handouts

In addition to the exhibition mockups, I also created a narrative handout for the museum. This handout has folds that unfold outward from all sides, forming an "X" in the center where they meet. The handout gives a brief description of the exhibition, a mission statement, a snippet from an exhibition piece, and a description of where to go and who to call to know more about Hands of Extinction.

Orignal Mockups

These were the original mockups for this exhibition. While they are closer in line with the original lighting and atmosphere of the exhibition plan, I decided that the execution of the visuals was flawed and that I would need to implement a more cohesive style.

Initial Sketches

In addition to the exhibition mockups, I also created a narrative handout for the museum. This handout has folds that unfold outward from all sides, forming an "X" in the center where they meet. The handout gives a brief description of the exhibition, a mission statement, a snippet from an exhibition piece, and a description of where to go and who to call to know more about Hands of Extinction.

Click Here For a Better View!