“The Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum is dedicated to collecting, preserving, and sharing the culture, history, and artistry of Nome and the Bering Strait.”
On this project, I was teamed up with another graphic designer to establish the design direction for this museum. We used modern typography and bold colors to bring the fascinating story of Nome, Alaska to life in a newly-constructed, contemporary exhibit space.
Interpretive panels, interactive exhibits, and recreated historical scenes were used to make the client and exhibit designer’s vision a reality.
Since this was an artifact-focused exhibit, we devised a labeling system using panels that fit the artifact cases top-to-bottom. The use of panels inside the cases allowed us to use images and captions to interpret and explain the artifacts to the viewer.
The use of tinted images was a stylistic choice to bring a sense of cohesion to each exhibit area. The effect also allowed us to establish a visual hierarchy where some images were allowed to stand out and others were tinted to integrate with the background.
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Visitors are greeted by a welcome panel introducing the social history of the area around Nome as well an eye-catching display about seasonal changes in the region.
This landscape mural is supported by panels about cultural history and wildlife in the region. An interactive shows visitors that there is even a story to be discovered under their feet.
This scene shows how a Bering Straight family would use a recreation ‘skinboat’ for shelter. The reader-rail in front offers further interpretation and houses iPads for visitors to interact with.
The red color scheme in this area represents the unique hue of the soil in the area.
This exhibit is about the unique challenges of travel via land, sea, and air in such a harsh, remote region.
This mural tells the amazing story of The Nome Serum Run and features Fritz, one of the heroic sled dogs from that famous journey.
This area uses a cool blue color scheme and inspiring imagery to tell visitors about the Iditarod: “The Last Great Race On Earth”.
In this corner, our team created the warm, cozy feel of a local kitchen to help us show, as well as tell, visitors about the unique cuisine of the region.