Cosmic Light Exhibit Graphics

• Exhibit
• Illustration

CLIENT: Museum of Science

CHALLENGE: I was a member of the exhibit team assigned to design and develop an exhibit in the lobby of the newly renovated Planetarium. The exhibit developer on the team determined that the main message of the exhibit would be: Everything that we know about the Universe we know through studying light. My challenge as the graphic designer was to create a graphic look and feel that reflected (haha) the theme of light, and how it helps us learn about the Universe.

STRATEGY:Color and light: The exhibit designer and I decided that it would makes sense for the gallery to be relatively dark, simulating outer-space. We chose a dark purple for the wall. I knew that a lot of the imagery that we’d be using had accents of purple, orange, yellow and light blue, and I thought that dark purple would be an excellent color for these to pop off of. We used light-boxes for most of the graphics because we wanted them to be splashes of color against a dark background, like stars in the sky.

Organizing icons: I developed two sets of icons, one to show the six different wavelengths of light that the exhibit focused on, and one to show the six “zoom levels” that described where in the universe something was. These icons would be throughout the exhibit as indicators of where you were in the Universe or in the electromagnetic spectrum. Below are my initial sketches of the icons, and a shot of them on the final labels. Also below is one of the planet labels which have a different set of icons.

Large Light Spectrum Graphic: I collaborated with the exhibit developer on this large (8ft x 4ft) graphic that illustrates the different wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum, what their qualities are, how far they penetrate through Earth’s atmosphere, and what satellite telescopes can use them to generate imagery.