After more than 23 years of working in the interpretive design and fabrication arena, I repeatedly hear from clients they want their exhibits to be different and unique from all others.  Of course, every client has a different resource, history and story to tell, yet there are tried and true methods that can work for all visitor experiences.  Often components in exhibits can be similar and there are a few elements that can be unique.  Reasonably, this is how you will be able to effectively utilize limited budgets.  As an analogy, if you are renovating your kitchen, will you go to the expense to have everything custom made?  Maybe you want round cabinets instead of traditionally sized square ones?  Most people will buy base units and customize the finishes to meet their tastes.  You can apply this same creativity when thinking about your new exhibits.

Most exhibits are going to include some type of reader rail or graphic system.   Often these include flip-books, flip panels, systems for mounting objects or other A/V elements.  For our natural history clients, we have seen common elements utilized many times.  These include crawl through logs, doors that open on trees, beehives, movable diorama carts and the like.  We have created standardized systems in all these common elements to make sure they are easily maintained, durable and cost effective for our client.  It’s not a bad thing that you have similar elements that others have.  It leads to telling your story better.  Would you rather have a completely one time only car made for yourself or buy one that has been tested and reliable?  Sometimes completely unique is not the most beneficial.

Here are elements we have repeatedly made.  Think about how common systems can be used creatively in your exhibits.

Flip Doors in a Tree

Beehive

Movable Diorama Carts

Outdoor Graphics

Crawl-through Log

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