Exhibition Design: A Beginner’s Guide

Exhibition design is a dynamic and multidisciplinary practice that lends itself perfectly to the power of Vectorworks Spotlight. Using the entertainment industry’s go-to design software can help you create immersive experiences in museums, galleries, and more.

This guide introduces the fundamental concepts of exhibition design and explores how Vectorworks Spotlight can streamline the process.

Exhibition design is the strategic and creative process of planning and organizing an exhibit space to engage visitors and effectively communicate a message or tell a story. Whether for museums, pop-up events, art galleries, or trade shows, exhibition design blends architecture, storytelling, and technology to craft experiential spaces.

When crafting an exhibition design, you and your collaborators would typically consider five key factors: storytelling, spatial planning, graphics and branding, lighting, and interactivity.

First, you might think about how your design is helping tell a story. This can be through your scenic elements or, for something like a museum exhibit, the strategic placement of graphics and placards that inform visitors and offer important context.

Spatial planning may be your next concern. What is the space in which your exhibit is taking place? How will your exhibition and scenic elements fit in? If you’re showcasing a sculpture, for example, you need to make sure it’s the focal point of your exhibit, but visitors can still travel through the space in an efficient way.

The lighting of your exhibition, interactive elements like touch screens, 3D components, and more can further create an immersive atmosphere.

Every design phase considers the key elements of an exhibition to ensure that the exhibit is as impactful and informative as possible.

 The exhibition design phases include:

This phase takes place at the beginning of the exhibition design process. Here, you and your collaborators brainstorm ideas, define the purpose of the exhibit, and establish design goals. This phase includes research, sketches, and initial space planning.

In this phase, rough layouts, 3D sketches, and material options are explored. Here, you’ll continue to collaborate to refine the concept and ensure that all the necessary experiences are accounted for, whether that be the art, artifacts, or any other crucial component of the exhibit.

Lastly, there’s the production stage, which involves presenting and physically constructing your design by sharing floor plans, light plots, and materials selections with fabricators. This phase also includes tracking financials and any other logistical matters necessary to bring your exhibit to life.

As mentioned earlier, space planning is crucial for creating an effective exhibition design. In Vectorworks Spotlight, you can use the Space tool to create objects that feature the characteristics of whatever room or building space your exhibit is taking place.

Click here to learn more about the Space tool.

There’s also plenty of features in Vectorworks Spotlight to plan and design your scenic elements during the schematic phase. 

You can choose from hundreds of symbols in Vectorworks Spotlight’s Resource Manager and drag and drop them into your design. Or, for more custom scenic elements, take advantage of the software’s robust 2D drafting and 3D modeling features.

To learn more about 3D modeling with Vectorworks Spotlight, click here.

The right lighting can take your exhibit design to the next level by adding drama to your experiences or highlighting breathtaking pieces or information. Vectorworks Spotlight provides the lighting designer with all the tools necessary to plan and create a light plot and its associated paperwork.

For an introduction to lighting design in Vectorworks Spotlight, check out the video below:

If you’re using overhead lighting in your exhibit, you’ll likely need to also plan for rigging. Lighting devices and other loads in Vectorworks Spotlight can attach to hanging positions and rigging objects like trusses, lighting pipes, lighting pipe ladders, and the rigging geometry within hanging position objects.

You can use Braceworks, Vectorworks’ entertainment rigging software with 3D structural analysis to perform a rigging analysis on your design. This software add-on module provides an easy way to gauge the performance of temporary structures under load.

Click here to learn more about Braceworks.

When presenting your designs to collaborators during the production phase, you can use Vectorworks Spotlight’s rendering capabilities and Vectorworks Odessey's virtual reality (VR) technology.

Your rendering options include Renderworks, Shaded render mode, and rendering options from the likes of Twinmotion, Enscape, and Lumion. There’s also Showcase, a real-time previsualization option available in Vectorworks Spotlight.

With Showcase, you get intuitive, live DMX control of lighting fixtures, and you can Record, Playback, and Pause DMX streams directly in your model. 

Showcase also provides PosiStageNet (PSN) and Network Device Interface (NDI) live streaming, helping you experience newfound design freedom with your lighting and scenic designs.

There’s also Vectorworks Odyssey, which can help you create presentations and tours as equally immersive as your exhibition design with a VR app for Meta Quest 2 headsets and beyond.

Click here to learn more about Vectorworks Odyssey.

Featured image courtesy of Korins and Drew Dockser.