We are often asked this question.  Additionally, explaining budgeting to clients is an educational process.  Our service and product is not an everyday thing to purchase and it can be confusing to know what a Woolly Mammoth model or a workshop might cost.  Here are some tools you can use to think about it logically.

HOURS = DOLLARS

For some reason, this seems to be a hard concept for people to grasp.  Yet, if staff are traveling, on the phone, writing, designing or building something those hours have to be paid for.  Much of this time seems to confuse people on why it costs money.  Yet a project manager is spending hours when they are budgeting, getting quotes for materials or spending time with a client trying to find a photo.  These seem to be difficult things for people to pay for and it is necessary for a successful project.  Unfortunately, some hours do not always seem tangible even though they add value to the project.  You can logically think about these hours when trying to think about how much something would cost.  The hourly rates of most firms also include a portion to cover overhead expenses like computers, a building, a desk, phone equipment, accountants (yes, doing tax work adds a lot of expense that is frustrating), and human resources.

MATERIALS = DOLLARS

All projects include some material costs, even design and planning.  Most of the time, things like paper and ink are built into the hourly rate.  Yet, that material is necessary to complete a project.  For fabrication there are many potential materials.  The prices of materials fluctuate with the market, like wood and steel.

SHIPPING = DOLLARS

Whether we are FedExing a document or filling a semi with exhibits, this will cost some dollars.

TRAVEL = DOLLARS

There is travel time which has to be paid for as staff does not work for free.  And there are hotels, dining, mileage, flights and rental cars, too.

DELAYS often = MORE DOLLARS

If a project is delayed months or years, prices tend to go up.  We recently budgeted for purchasing many different props for a project.  We created the budget over six months ago and the fabrication portion of the project was delayed.  Props that were priced at $100 over six months ago are now coming in at $115 or more.  Additionally, if subcontractors give quotes to help you create a budget for a client their pricing is often only good for 30 days.  If their capacity books up and the schedule is not lengthened, there is a cost for a rush on the job.  Maybe they have to pay overtime to get it done within schedule.  Sometimes they just can’t fit it in at a later date at all and then you have to get new quotes.  If a project is delayed it messes with a company’s staff availability and planning.  It can cause overtime and much more.  Inflation, changes in material prices and the cost of labor fluctuate and this can cause prices to change as quickly as 30 days.

Industry Pricing Guidelines^[1]

Listed below are general industry pricing guidelines for interpretive exhibit design and fabrication projects. Certain projects are composed of simple exhibit units at a relatively low cost (price/sq. ft.) and other projects are composed of complex multi-media exhibit units at a higher cost. The majority of projects are a mix of both types. The following cost breakdowns serve simply as range indicators:

$200 – $300 Per Square Foot – Conventional cases, pedestals, panels with printed graphics and copy, mounted photographs, and some artifacts. Simple audiovisuals, in the form of slides and auto-repeaters. Simple dioramas and custom artwork.

$300 – $500 Per Square Foot – Walk-in dioramas or replicated environments. May include some electronic exhibits and/or computer interactives, such as games and/or short films. May include creative artwork and custom background murals. Audiovisual is more complex in this price range with custom photography, and special effects. Controlled climate artifact preservation.

$500+ Per Square Foot – Above, plus highly interactive exhibits and complex audiovisual, multimedia presentations, animated figures, and full sensory immersion exhibits.

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[1] Veverka, John A. Interpretive Master Planning. Tustin: Acorn Naturalists, 1998.

Brochu, Lisa. Interpretive Planning. Fort Collins: Interpress, 2003.

“The greenest thing of all is not to buy or create something new, but to give new life to something that already exists.” – Laurie Faber

Laurie Faber is a co-founder of elise green™ (formerly Greenhouse Design Studio), a haven for information on green living, decorating, and design based in Northern California. The company encourages the ‘green home’ offering tips for small changes that can make a big impact. In addition they also sell a range of great one-of-a-kind, vintage and reclaimed items for the home.

Faber’s quote got me thinking—as designers we are constantly challenged to bring something new and fresh to the table—how can working with what already exists provide an exciting constraint as we create?

We are currently developing a Community Experience Plan (CEP) for our local Rantoul home. One of the ideas proposed is to use elements of the old Chanute Air Force Base buildings in creating an outdoor community space. For example, when the large White Hall gets dismantled, we are proposing to use the existing stone doorframes to create a ‘doorways to the past’ sculpture park. This instillation would provide natural walking pathways that would be incorporated in to the footprint of the building that once existed and provide historical interpretation throughout. It is also being proposed that a large exterior wall be salvaged to create an outdoor amphitheater and projection space, a venue that could serve many purposes— hosting bands, speakers, movie nights, or anything else that the community dreams up!

Finding creative opportunities to make use of the things that already exist is an exciting challenge. What will you do with the resources you have available?

While visiting my parents last weekend, my mom left an article sitting on my laptop from the October 5, 2010 edition of the Wall Street Journal (can anyone say packrat?). The title of the article, How Handwriting Trains the Brain: Forming Letters is Key to Learning, Memory, Ideas. It talks about the increase of brain activity shown via a “functional” MRI scan in children who had practiced printing by hand versus those who were simply shown different letters. The article made me think of the exhibits we create for children across the country as well as changes in school curriculum.

A couple years ago, I began reading about a number of school districts dropping cursive writing from their curriculum. As the daughter of an English teacher, the news did not delight me. In another WSJ article from January 2013, a North Carolina school board member was quoted, “We’re trying to be realistic about skills that kids are going to need. You can’t do everything. Something’s got to go.” Students now are expected to know how to type by fourth grade! I took typing my freshman year of high school and I think I’ve turned out just fine (I’m also efficient at printing and cursive, too, although I must admit I regularly use more of a hybrid).

My point: why do we push electronics on our youngsters so early? I’m not against kids using iPads, computers, smart phones; I’m questioning why can’t we teach the basics without a screen? Give our kids a good foundation (math without calculators anyone?); then enhance the foundation with electronics as they age. Let’s give them time to develop their imaginations and thinking and reasoning skills before sitting them in front of a screen.

I’m not anti-technology; I simply believe we shouldn’t jump to a high-tech solution every time we want to add interactivity to an exhibit. I think touchscreens have their place, but low-tech interactives are often much more popular with youngsters. I visited the Children’s Discovery Museum in Normal, IL a few weeks ago. We could barely get near the dress-up theater and water table because there were so many kids in these areas. The exhibits we had no trouble using? The high-tech interactives.

Here are a couple engaging low-tech interactives.

I spend the majority of my day in front of a screen as many Americans do, so let’s not give our kids a screen for every game or task. They’ll have the rest of their lives to live in front of a screen. Pull out a game board, gather the family, and provide children opportunities to be creative and hone their fine motor skills the old-fashioned way.

Earlier this week, Drew and I were in the New Orleans area meeting with a potential client. On Wednesday, we had the opportunity to visit the Audubon Zoo. It is one of the best in the country. We visited in the morning and it was swarming with people. It has often been on the leading edge of trying new things. Here are a few we really enjoyed.

Themed Gift Shops
The gift shop near the Zoo’s entry has some of the best sales in the industry. This is attributed to its immersive, themed environment. The gift shop near the swamp even has baby alligators in it.

Cool Zoo
A recent addition to the zoo is a water play area. It has increased attendance and paid for itself in one year. It has a monumental alligator with a giant pail in its mouth that pours water on visitors. There are several slides in the alligator too. There are themed water guns in the shape of animal heads. And other fun things for the youngest of park goers. These include a spinny interactive that is an animal match game and water sprayer. In the toddler area, the water doesn’t spray out powerfully; it is more of a mist. This is great for toddlers. This area was designed as a place for whole families to gather. Many families have wide age ranges from toddlers to teenagers. In the cool zoo there are fun things for all so the family can stay together. There are also cabana like tables and a food area. They know their audience.

Animal Interactions
Most enclosures are very open. You feel very near and connected to the animals. During our visit, a giraffe reached over for a leaf near a viewing area within five feet of visitors. It was a very personal encounter. A big wow! The gorillas seemed to be staring right into our eyes. A parrot on a branch in the open had his own speaker and was dancing to music. In the future, you will be able to compare hand sizes with an orangutan and wade next to elephants!

Animal Enrichment
Many enclosures house several different animals. The South American area had llamas, capybaras, emus and other animals all together. Many animals were munching on food. The sun bear’s food is hidden throughout his enclosure – in logs or in his stream. He spends the day searching for goodies just like he would in the wild. Several areas had toys for the animals. The Orangutan had a rope hammock that I want for my farm.  It was to die for! The giraffes had branches hung way up high they were playing with. These somewhat simple elements are great for visitors and animals alike.

Theming
Each zone of the park had scenic elements that replicated a piece of the geographic region the animals were from. I especially liked the Mayan ruins and walking through a bamboo forest. All the graphic panels utilized a design that was distinctly cultural. There are many play areas throughout where you could stop and climb and have fun. I especially liked the swamp play area where there was a kid trap. This rope tunnel mimicked a crab trap.

What do you do to please your visitors or customers?

With the multitude of fonts available online, it can be overwhelming trying to find a font that is project-appropriate, legible, and still has a bit of character (hehe).

While free fonts can seem like a dream, there are many typefaces out there that are a designers (or readers) nightmare. The websites below offer great selections of well-designed fonts, many of which are available for free!

Lost Type Co-Op is a pay-what-you-want type foundry that provides users the opportunity to pay whatever they like for a font, even zero dollars, but 100% of the payments go directly to the font designers.

Fontfabric is an independent type foundry based in Sofia, Bulgaria. Their goal is, “to create high-quality fonts which stand in a unique class of their own, and which will serve as a good base for any designer project…” New fonts are released weekly that can be purchased or downloaded free of charge.

Font Squirrel does the searching and sifting for you, providing a collection of “only the best commercial-use free fonts.” The website has a handy filter feature and allows browsing by format or style.

The League of Moveable type states, “We’re done with the tired old fontstacks of yesteryear. Enough with the limitations of the web, we won’t have it. It’s time to raise our standards.” In offering well-made, free fonts their hope is to raise digital typographic standards by equipping designers with high-quality resources.

Plan on using any fonts from the resources above? We’d love to see how you’ve put them to work!