Museum Exhibit Design
Jack Rouse Associates (JRA) is widely considered as one of the world’s leading exhibit planning and design consultancies specializing in the design and development of museums and visitor centers. Whether it’s conceptualizing, planning, designing and implementing a new museum or creating a new exhibit gallery for an existing institution, JRA is known for creating experiences that consistently exceed expectations.
Jack Rouse Associates’ approach to museum design is to expand the traditional contextual experience and provide an environment that is engaging, appealing, memorable and informative. We attempt to do this first by focusing not on the design, but on the visitor. For ultimately, museums must be created for a diverse public – a public that needs to grow in size and needs to be encouraged to re-visit the museum often. Therefore, we judge the success of our design efforts partially by how well they meet those two goals.
Focusing on the audience and their desired reaction allows us to educate – for education is most effective when attentions are fully engaged and the experience is positive and memorable. As designers and producers we realize that people must leave any facility with a strong image and a memory. It is that image and that memory that creates good word of mouth and ultimately helps generate attendance.
JRA moves continually between the worlds of entertainment, museums and corporate communications. From that diverse body of work, our design philosophy has emerged. It is simply this. JRA regards design as a very specialized form of communicating messages to an audience. We cannot separate design from writing, for all of our work begins with a story. So, our ultimate goal is satisfying an audience by conveying the appropriate information in an informative and memorable way.
JRA believes strongly in immersive, environment-based exhibits that engage and challenge the visitor. Our work is known for the use of participatory elements and innovative environments. Environments which immerse visitors in a specific subject matter (historic settings, recreated natural surroundings, theaters, etc.) are the ideal medium to deliver story lines. They instill an atmosphere attractive to visitors of all ages and interests. And they get people involved, thus, making the experience immediate and relevant.
By using a variety of exhibit and presentation techniques, our designs are geared to accommodate a variety of learners and learning styles. We are well-versed in both low-tech and high-tech exhibit techniques, including a variety of visual and audio effects and state-of-the-art special equipment. And, thanks to our operating background, we also understand that the maintenance of high-tech exhibitry is a concern for institutions with a limited staff and budget. We pride ourselves in providing our clients with either proven and reliable existing technology or custom exhibitry using ordinary, off-the-shelf equipment, in an extraordinary way.
Innovative technology is critically important. But the underlying story or educational message must drive the technology, not the reverse. We believe that exhibits must facilitate the visitor’s discovery of educational concepts. Things discovered make the strongest, longest lasting impression. Our only real measure of success for an exhibit is the joy of discovery on the faces of our clients’ visitors.
