Exhibit Style Guides: They’re More Than You Think!

This Sunday at 2 pm, I’ll be co-presenting a session about exhibit style guides at AAM, with

• Swarupa Anila, Detroit Institute of Arts
• Susanna Brougham, Peabody Essex Museum
• Juliette Fritsch, Peabody Essex Museum
• Lisa Thompson, Natural History Museum of Utah – University of Utah

I hope to see you there. Please let me know if there’s anything you want us to be sure to include!

Session Description

A style guide is not just a logo lock-up or a list of what fonts to use. It can be more than a guardian of consistency or correctness. A guide’s production can create a chance for curators, educators, content developers, and designers to wrangle with questions both concrete (How long should labels be?) and abstract (What relationship do we want to have with our visitors?). This consensus-building process can minimize future conflict and improve how we serve our visitors.

Learner Outcomes

1. Participants will learn what an exhibit style guide is: What goes in it? How much detail? How does it differ from branding guidelines?
2. Participants will consider how an exhibit style guide can help us improve our internal processes and make our exhibits more accessible to visitors.
3. Participants will learn how to start to create a style guide, including goal-setting, getting buy-in, and gathering resources.