NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
Visual Information Specialist
Great Basin National Park
TASKS
Produced a variety of media products including way-finding signage, exhibits, educational resources, trailhead signs, content writing, social media design, along with digital media designed to engage a broad-spectrum of visitors and virtual audiences to communicate key interpretive concepts in support of the mission of the national park service.
SECTION 1 EXHIBIT DESIGN
The National Park Service believes exhibits enhance the visitor experience; they communicate key interpretive concepts that highlight the importance of preserving our natural and cultural heritage. Creating compelling visuals that engage a wide spectrum of visitors helps inspire and educate individuals, furthering the mission of the NPS.
At Great Basin National Park, one my my major responsibilities was exhibit design. Throughout my four-year term,
I painted and created more than ten exhibits within the park.
INITIAL STEPS
This section will solely be about the build-up to concepts and sketching. Scroll down to jump to artwork.
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Receive the deliverables from the project owner. The deliverables will inform me which parties I’ll be working with, what needs to be included in the artwork—if it’s a multilingual board I know to design with space for double the text; the physical installation location, and the due date.
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I get with the involved parties, we work through what they want to see in the board and I inform them what is and isn’t possible. If I’m unsure, I’ll add a note to check on an idea later.
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Now I am opening books and researching information I am unfamiliar with. Oftentimes, these exhibits and projects are presented by researchers and scientists with PHDs and decades of experience. It’s important that I make myself as aware as I can with the information I’ll be designing.
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Usually I will bounce my ideas off the project owner and involved parties before I begin sketching—as I don’t want to waste anyone’s time. This is when the idea becomes very tight, ready for conceptualization.
NOW I BEGIN DRAWING
STEP 5
The reason I wait so long to sketch is to ensure I’m not wasting time in the long run. If I start sketching right away and none of my sketches hit, it’s time wasted in my opinion. Instead, I target a few ideas and sell them hard—this puts everyone on the same page and when I present my sketches and concepts, there’s no surprises. It saves everyone time, sells my professionalism, and moves the project along smoothly.
Sketch: If you look to my concept and sketch page, you can see there’s really not a lot of ink on the paper. That’s because the idea has already been hashed out. Instead, I get to focus on my central images and layout. So in this case, I have an apricot tree, a basket, and some apricots spilled across the page. I now have a strong idea of how I want the final concept to look.
CREATE THE FINAL CONEPT
STEP 6
The final concept is my three central elements: the apricot tree, the apricot spill, and the apricot basket. I have some smaller tree illustrations at the bottom as well but the focus will be the movement across the page.
Sketch: This is the final sketch. To get to this point, I delivered three other concepts to the parties involved and we all decided this was the best way to communicate the desired information and keep our audience captivated.
WHY THIS LAYOUT?
Remember, it’s important to create compelling visuals that engage visitors. How many informative exhibits or signs have you glanced at without reading? If I only have ten seconds of a reader’s time, I want them to gather as much information as possible.
The design is meant to move the reader’s eyes across the board. As they glance from the middle element to the bottom-right element, they’ll see the T4 and T5 titles, which will give them the general idea of what the sign is all about. Only the interested visitors will spend time reading boxes T1, T2, and T3.
PUTTING PAINT ON THE TABLET
STEP 7
Apricots: The apricots are the movement of this piece. I have painted them in a manner that is captivating to the audience as they will appear to have been spilt across the exhibit.
Orchard Tree: The apricot tree is the main piece to this exhibit; the story hinges around this tree as it is depicted from the original orchard. Yes, this tree is a real tree in Lehman Orchard.
Apricot Basket: The basket is the familiarity piece; visitors will want to know when they can come and gather fruit—this pieces is the emotional aspect of the design.
FINAL IMAGE
Step 8
Layout: Here you can see the final design after the final review—critiques and edits have been made, text has been checked, translations have been inserted, and it’s signed off for fabrication.
The takeaways from this sign are movement, quick-reading titles, and color. It’s impossible to miss the main pieces, and the titles read quickly, successfully giving the reader enough information to decide if they want to read more in a few seconds.
Second Sign: I failed to mention that oftentimes projects have multiple deliverables. In this case, I needed to simultaneously work to create two exhibits for the orchard.
That meant double the research, more parties involved, and double the amount of sketches and concepts. I knew nothing about caring for trees in a historic orchard, I had to research the process and present my findings to the experts—who were busy working on other projects. You needed to be self-sufficient and competent to do this type of work, which is the designer and artist I am.
FABRICATION AND INSTALLATION
Step 9
Orchard Signs: The final steps for this project is working with a fabricator to have the signs produced. It’s always a little different depending on the company you work with but for the most part, it’s submitting the artwork and understanding what hardware will be needed. Most fabrication companies will send a proof (a small chunk of the board) for a resolution and quality check. Once I have verified the quality, I sign off on that and they send the final produce. The last step for me is submitting a work order to have the exhibits installed in the proper place.
SECTION 2
PHOTOS
(rotate phone, please)
SECTION 3
508 C
This is only for federal departments and agencies: This desk was designed for a visitor center at Great Basin to facilitate park staff and comply with 508c. This is not the only deliverable I worked on that was 508 compliant but this is the easiest project to showcase.
For projects like this one, I had to review the federal requirements for ADA Compliance, and then design around those stipulations. I was not familiar with a lot of this information but again, this was a position that requires competence and the ability to figure things out through research.
SECTION 4
TRAILHEADS
I designed the Park’s trailheads to deliver enough precise information so the hikers knew what level or preparedness would be required before they began their journey into the woods. Hikers need the essential information—difficulty rating, distance, trail type, and they need to see the map.
On top of this information, they need to know all of the safety precautions, especially the weather precautions as hiking in alpine areas can turn deadly in a moment’s notice. Furthermore, the NPS wants to ensure their visitors are aware of their standards for using the trails—leave no trace and stay on the trail.
Finally, although the idea background was never meant to grab the reader’s attention, the story was always told to give some sort of cultural or local information for the hiker(s) to connect with.
