Books: Exhibition Design

Philip Hughes has written a very clear and, above all, practical guide to the process of exhibition design. The book will be very useful for design students and professionals alike.

Hughes, an experienced exhibition designer himself, is to be congratulated on producing such an informative and accessible book given that the process of exhibition design is notoriously complex. As he explains, exhibition design combines a number of different disciplines, from architecture to interactive design.

Exhibition designers need to produce an engaging experience for the audience while fulfilling commercial, legal, ethical and practical requirements. Each client, each location, each audience can differ radically, so no two jobs are quite alike. And, finally, the practice itself has grown and changed enormously over recent years.

To contextualise the practice of exhibition design, the book gives a short historical introduction and brings the account up to date by discussing the impact of digital technologies and virtual environments. It demonstrates the growing scope of opportunities, from designing exhibitions in museums to designing brand experiences.

The book then takes the reader through the logic of the design process, from the formulation of the brief to construction and handover to the client. The structure works well because it allows the reader to browse some areas while exploring others in more detail – not unlike a visitor to an exhibition. Short introductory paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter facilitate navigation of the book.

The tone is helpful and explicitly states that it aims to help young artists and designers avoid disasters and increase the effectiveness of their displays. Each chapter finishes with a Dos and Don’ts list and its direct mode of address should prompt both reflection and action.

The section on the brief and dealing with the client is most welcome. This step is vital to the success of any project and is rarely discussed in detail. Hughes provides key insights and advice. The chapter also offers useful definitions of the documents and conventional vocabulary used in the business.

Students and those unfamiliar with exhibition design will probably be surprised to see how many plans and papers are produced at the start of a project.

The author also points out the need for quite lengthy workshops between the client team and the design team to ensure everyone is agreed on the design strategy, which in turn ensures better display results in the end.

The book assigns a whole chapter to the visitor that highlights the importance of communicating with the target audiences in exhibition design practice. In fact, exhibition design is often described as the design of visitor experiences.

The emphasis has shifted from the physical structure to the mind, body and emotions of the visitor. The book characterises visitors as experts, frequent travellers, scouts, and orienteers; learners as visual learners, auditory learners and kinaesthetic learners.

Whether you agree with these particular categories or not, there is no doubt that visitor behaviour and learning styles are a growing area of research.
 
The book gives very clear accounts of spatial organisational principles and the evolution of the 3D design, graphics, lighting, interaction design, sound, media design and materials. There is a chapter dedicated to technical drawing that underscores the kind of technical skills that are required to enter the field.

The diagrams, illustrations, models and photographs are very well chosen. The book sets out to be a practical professional guide and, as such, it is extremely successful.

Hughes flags up issues of market dynamics, sustainability and ethics that contribute to the critical debate around design practice.

Tricia Austin is the course director for the MA creative practice for narrative environments, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, University of the Arts, London