Your Brain Exhibit · The Franklin Institute
The scope of the project was to develop and design an 8,500 square foot interactive exhibition on neuroscience and the brain. A unique challenge to the topic is that the key fundamental mechanisms of the brain exist inside your head at a scale too small to see. The exhibit needed to make the invisible both experiential and hands on. It also needed to make the topic accessible, relatable and fun. We decided to create spaces where the design dramatically changes as the narrative unfolds, allowing the design to communicate the content.
The first gallery presents an overview of the brain utilizing big, bold, colorful graphics to ask the questions: What is the brain? What does it do? How does it work? The exhibit design uses modern white cabinetry to allow visitors to focus on the artifacts while vibrant graphics highlight the interactive elements and areas of activity.
The three subsequent galleries focus on taking visitors inside the brain, making the small scale visible. Here visitors learn about the brain as an organ and how it functions at the cellular level. To allude to being inside the brain, the exhibit uses darkened spaces punctuated by colorful back-lit graphics and a changing media wall to accentuate the scientific illustrations and beautiful brain data imagery. The iconic experience inside the brain is a two-story climbing structure that immerses visitors in brain activity represented by a surrounding light and audio show triggered by visitors’ footsteps.
The final series of galleries brings visitors back into the real world starting with a dramatic entrance onto a city street filled with cleverly named storefronts, hidden illusions and filled with natural light. Interactives are designed into scenes from every day life creating opportunities for visitors to see how their brains actually create their world.
Responsibilities:
· Designed and prepped for production all 300+ graphics
· Art directed illustrators and photographers
· Art directed illustrators and photographers
· Integral part of a larger team that established the look and feel of the exhibit.
Including choosing paint colors, carpets, lighting, ceiling treatments,and finishes.
Including choosing paint colors, carpets, lighting, ceiling treatments,and finishes.
· Side-by-side collaboration with the media team to integrate graphics with interactives