A Sneak Peek Into Our Design Studio

January 28, 2013

At the beginning of the new year, the Exhibition’s department rearranged our areas to better encourage collaboration and brainstorming. Over a span of two weeks, we transformed our exhibit storage area into the brand new design studio.Shelves were moved, past exhibit props were organized and all of the design equipment was moved in.

It is my opinion that our new space rivals any Murphy Building or Stutz studio; it has concrete floors and exposed duct work that many designers would drool over. We made it our goal to not spend a dime and only use repurposed materials to outfit our new studio.

Our Fabricator, Roger, built this beautiful workstation for our design interns. Using flooring that was once in the Violin Maker Upstairs “You Are There” exhibit, he sanded the wood smooth and applied many coats of varnish to make it shine. He wrapped the desk in recycled metal and hung it with steel cables from the ceiling. It’s beautiful and large, everything you could want in a workstation.

Our meeting table was also handmade by Roger. He welded a steel base for two vintage doors, a glass top finishes it off so it can be functional for meetings. It’s the first thing people comment on when they visit the space.

I was given the freedom to make my personal work area my own and I took full advantage. I feel that in order to be creative, it helps quite a bit if you are surrounded by objects and images that inspire you. As the exhibit designer, I provide art direction for each exhibit and work with Exhibitions Research and Development and other departments to make sure our exhibit design solutions are well thought out and purposeful. We want to make history come alive for our visitors.

I run a team of four Graphic Design interns from various art schools around the city. Currently, we have twoVisual Communication majors from right across the park atHerron School of Art and twoGraphic Design majors from theArt Institute of Indianapolis. This team already has a great chemistry and maybe the new studio space has something to do with that. It is organized in such a way that impromptu brainstorm sessions occur frequently and we can share our work and ideas easily with one another. We are currently working on many exciting projects. I will share our process with you in entries to come!

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Sarah Anderson is the exhibit designer for IHS. Sarah is a TEDTalk loving, digital artist with a passion for design thinking.

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