For the past two weeks, our blog has focused on establishing an overall exhibit budget for design-build projects and establishing a project schedule. This week we will focus on understanding how the overall exhibit budget breaks down into project phases. This information, along with the project schedule, will allow you to lay out a preliminary plan for your interpretive exhibits when working with an external design-build partner. The exhibit budget project phases can be aligned with the project schedule, which will provide insight into when and how much of the exhibit budget will be needed over the course of a project.

For a design-build project, the exhibit budget can first be broken down into the design fee and production budget. The design fee typically accounts for 15% to 30% of the total exhibit budget, with the remainder allocated to the production budget. The final design fee is dependent on the size of the project and the scope of work to be completed during the design phase. The production budget can be further broken down into four sub-phases: production documents, final graphic design/production, exhibit fabrication, and installation. The weight of each of these four sub-phases is dependent on the particular design details, but the table below provides a good starting place for planning purposes. Here the phases are paired with approximate percentages for each phase and sub-phase in a design-build project.

• Project Phase / Sub-Phase: 15% – 30%

• Production Phase 70%: 85%

• Production Documents Phase: 5% – 10%

• Final Graphic Design /Production Phase: 12% – 18%

• Exhibit Fabrication Phase: 50% – 60%

• Installation Phase: 18% – 22%

Download our budgeting and scheduling tool here. The interactive worksheet includes exhibit budget recommendations based on costs per square foot for each exhibit complexity level and the size of your exhibit gallery space. The worksheet also includes a tool that breaks down the exhibit budget into project phases and a phase duration scheduling tool. This comprehensive tool will help you start your exhibit-design-build project off on the right foot. Simply fill in the highlighted cells when prompted to do so.

As always, we welcome your questions and/or comments. Feel free to email me directly at dlevan@taylorstuios.com.