Thesis Capstone 2024

This study explores how evoking wonder in exhibitions transforms engagement with difficult histories and content. By harnessing wonder – a sudden, extraordinary, and personal experience – exhibitions create a state of productive uncertainty, fostering new perspectives, empathy, critical reflection, and active remembering. Through objects, artifacts, and exhibition design elements, this approach makes challenging narratives more resonant and accessible, ultimately catalyzing human flourishing amidst complex societal issues.

Client: Smithsonian and The Philippine Center in New York

Venue: National Museum of the American Indian in New York

Audience: Primary: Filipino-Americans, Native Americans, immigrants
Secondary: History educators and students, audience with interest in social justice and history
Tertiary: Tourists

[email protected]

Aian Raquel on LinkedIn

Introverts can feel treated as second-class citizens in society and can be overshadowed by extroverts who typically assume authoritative roles. The world largely thrives on the “Extrovert Ideal,” suggesting that a confident and outgoing way of life is the only path to success. However, the hidden potential and power of introverts are immense. It is crucial to create a space that addresses this issue, highlights the unique perspectives of introverts, and showcases what it is like to be an introvert in a predominantly extroverted world. This would not only be valuable for introverts but also for those who do not identify as introverts, fostering greater understanding and appreciation for different personality types.

Client: Amazon Kindle & Beats By Dre

Venue: The Hole Gallery (Bowery, NYC)

Audience: Primary: Gen Z, millennials, introverts  
Secondary: Extroverts (facilitators), book lovers, experience seekers
Tertiary: Tech enthusiasts (professional hobbyists)

[email protected]

Akshata Chitnis on LinkedIn

Modern museums are increasingly interested in growing their outreach and social presence in their home communities and beyond. Traveling exhibits have long provided a way for museums to connect with diverse and distant audiences outside of their home communities, however many traveling exhibits are designed primarily with peer institutions in mind. There is an opportunity to grow engagement with potential host organizations outside of the typical museum hierarchy and introduce museum content into more facets of our social infrastructure. Locally engaged organizations such as community centers, non-profits, universities, and libraries have rich insights and networks in their home communities and can use traveling exhibitions as a catalyst for developing unique, place-based experiences that enhance the visiting content. By incorporating community centered design practices and encouraging co-creation with traveling exhibit content, designers can adapt traveling exhibitions to be more impactful and accessible to diverse hosting organizations and their communities.

Client: The Museum of Food and Drink, America’s Test Kitchen

Venue: The Museum of Food and Drink

Audience: Primary: Adults interested in food and cooking
Secondary: Students groups high school and up
Tertiary: Tourists

[email protected]

​​Carlos Hernandez on LinkedIn

In the field of experience design, “Immersive” has become a term applied to a wide range of projects with little clarity or definition. What does it mean to immerse? To plunge, or to cover entirely. Immersive environments require that visitors are completely absorbed into the stories we as institutions are telling, and in order to embody these stories, visitors need context. Context is provided through multidimensional design that engages all five senses in an accessible and recognizable manner and allows visitors an innate familiarity of the story, an invitation to participate, and a sense of inclusion.

Client: Audible

Venue: Daryl Roth Theatre

Audience: Primary: Women, ages 12+, experience seekers
Secondary: Explorers, all genders 12+

[email protected]

Claire Caverly on LinkedIn

By seeking the imagination - what we each imagine as our imaginations, by recognizing it as an embodied experience, by considering imagination as a practice, by appreciating the universal impact of imagination on our lived experiences, we generate cultural health, well-being, and the common good. 
Imagination is a skill. 
Developing skill requires practice. 
Imagination can be practiced. 
Imagination makes reality. 
Imagination makes culture. 
Practicing imagination is practicing reality and culture. 
Reality and culture are skills. 
Skills require practice.

Client: AARP

Venue: SI Hall, New York State Fair, Syracuse, NY

Audience: Primary: Anyone aware of their own aging
Secondary: Friends/family/tagalongs

[email protected]

Honey Jernquist on LinkedIn

Brand experience profoundly influences customer perception of brand identity and shapes their lasting memories with the brand. The methods of delivering brand experiences have diversified, encompassing spatial designs, digital interactions, and community building. While some brands successfully create rich content around their identity, others fail to provide consistent experiences despite their strong brand presence, leading to consumer dissonance.
This study specifically explores optimizing brand experience through innovative spatial design and a narrative-driven approach to enhance customer engagement and loyalty by drawing them back into physical stores. The goal is to boost brand equity in a way that benefits brands, customers, and the environment. By developing these optimized approaches, I propose a new paradigm for consumer engagement and a strategic path to elevate brand equity in retail stores.

Client: Baccarat / Sponsor: Netflix

Venue: Empire Room in Park Lane Hotel

Audience: Primary: Netflix subscribers, Bridgerton fans, fans of classical aesthetics and classic luxury
Secondary: Design-conscious consumers exploring high-end lifestyle brands
Tertiary: High-end consumers loyal to Baccarat

[email protected]

Hyunji Lee on LinkedIn 

The visitor-centered approach to museum and exhibition design prioritizes the visitor's perspective, enhancing engagement but potentially leaving some individual audiences feeling underserved. To foster true inclusivity and equity for engagement and learning, exhibitions can adopt the Advance Organizer Model (AOM). This customizable framework considers visitors' entry-narrative with their diverse backgrounds, motivations, and interests. By integrating AOM into exhibition design, museums can create personalized, meaningful experiences for all visitors, strengthening connections with the content and promoting greater resonance and enjoyment.

Client: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Venue: Gallery 199, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Audience: Primary: Adults interested in art and culture
Secondary: Family visitors
Tertiary: Individual adults interested in technology and innovation

[email protected]

Jooie Jeong on LinkedIn

Many exhibits today are struggling to progressively keep up with the rest of an advancing world, as well as failing to make the impact that newer generations are yearning for. I am studying the nature and interpretation of dreams and navigating the overall framework of dream scenarios to educate exhibit and experience designers, as well as equip them with tools and methods from understanding common dreams for the individual’s subconscious to design impactful, enriching and personalized experiences for the exhibit visitor journey. I will apply design in the form of curated dream sequences as an opportunity to inspire exhibits to be relatable, emotionally stirring and appreciated by visitors.

Client: Meta

Venue:  St. Ann's Warehouse

Audience: Primary: Gen Z    
Secondary: Young adults, fellow creatives
Tertiary: General population with an interest in dreams

[email protected]

Jude Desinor on LinkedIn

Grassroots liberation organizations are the foundation of change within the U.S. and globally. These groups gain traction in moments of collective trauma, and remain relevant and important sources of local community care, support, and justice-oriented thinking. Collaborations between these groups are often event-centered and rely on the specific expertise of each group. These collaborations provide opportunities for putting theory into practice, bringing communities together to engage the past with the present and future, furthering solidarity amongst groups across generations, cultures, and spiritualities. Utilizing autonomous and participatory design strategies, the role of the exhibition and experience designer becomes integral to bringing these collaborations to life in ways that address knowledge gaps, build in space for disagreement, and give design power to non-trained designers.

Client: Weeksville Heritage Center, Community Voices Heard, For Our Liberation, Interference Archive

Venue: Weeksville Heritage Center

Audience: Primary: Brownsville/Crown Heights public housing residents, families and staff  
Secondary: BIPOC Brownsville/Crown Heights community members
Tertiary: Academics, community organizers, and additional allied communities

[email protected]

Kellyn Nettles on LinkedIn

Written content such as exhibit labels and wall text is a crucial part in museum exhibits that can provide clarity, orientation, and accessibility to visitors. However, at its worst, content within museums can be overwhelming, ignored, and intimidating. 
The conventional methodology of designing museum text is reminiscent of two dimensional mediums such as books and newspapers. The hierarchy of a main header, sub header, and body copy is reliable, but it can become static and unremarkable to the visitor. By acknowledging the spatial nature of exhibits, exhibit designers have the opportunity to go beyond the traditional two dimensional thinking and take advantage of an exhibit's three dimensions. 
With interactive, graphical, or experiential text that responds to the content and exhibit space, exhibit designers are able to enhance the experience of the visitor. The visitor will ultimately encounter content that is easy-to-scan and digest making the information in the exhibit not only more accessible but also more memorable.

Client: The Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundation

Venue: Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration

Audience: Primary: Experience seekers, facilitators
As it is a part of a package with the Statue of Liberty, many groups/families of international and national tourists come to Ellis Island after visiting the Statue of Liberty. Also because of the nature of the museum, the younger guests seemed to be at least of reading age
Secondary: Explorers
Many visitors spent time studiously reading the content and meticulously interacting with the exhibits.
Tertiary: Professional/hobbyist 
With genealogists and official Ellis Island records on the premises, many visitors have the opportunity to explore that side of their history.

[email protected]

Meredith Newman  on LinkedIn

My project will investigate authenticity as a critical part of a temporary experience and what it means for the visitor in the context of creating strong, positive, memorable associations. It will seek to demonstrate how ruins can lend this connection to place and history and act as a framework for thinking about the design and implementation of temporary experiences and ephemeral architecture.
One can improve positive associations with exhibitions by creating a more natural and serendipitous experience that taps into an innate longing for authenticity and meaning that form truly memorable events.
Authenticity is seldom as apparent as it is in ruins, which are the ultimate ephemeral spaces; they tie us back to authentic contexts and act as a space of imagining rebirth and new possibilities and participation and connection. Ruins both act as ideal venues for ephemeral experiences and also as ideal teaching tools for building memorable and meaningful authentic experiences in non ruinous contexts. Ruins allow new ideas to stand out.

Client: MUBI, Atlas Obscura, Commune Pozzaglia Sabina

Venue: The Ruin of Santa Maria del Piano

Audience: Primary: Local Italians 60 and up seeking entertainment and connection  
Secondary: Younger Italians interested in learning more about old times and connecting with their grandparents and parents in a new way
Tertiary: Foreign travelers looking to learn more about Italy

[email protected]

Rob Reuland on LinkedIn

This exhibit seeks to transform the perception of luxury by transcending its traditional associations with excess and extravagance. It centers on the true essence of haute couture—the pinnacle of luxury—characterized by unmatched quality, expert craftsmanship, and lasting durability. The vision is to harness artistic expression to create a luxury lifestyle perceived as not only visually stunning but also sustainable, accessible, and built to endure, heralding a new era in quiet luxury.

Client: KVIC (Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), sponsored by Vogue

Venue: Park Avenue Armory

Audience: Primary: Creatives from luxury industry
Secondary: Creatives from design institutions
Tertiary: Gen Z enthusiasts

[email protected]

Saher Sahni on LinkedIn

This project explores the perception of exhibition subject matter by children with ADHD through sensory stimuli such as light, sound, touch, smell and color. It also discusses the impact of ADHD on childrens’ decision-making and their ability to enjoy a designed branded experience. My project aims to provide design parameters for an inclusive space that welcomes all children to enjoy intuitive play. This is achieved via a puzzle play project for Hasbro in an escape room environment.

Client: Hasbro, CHADD, American Montessori Society

Venue: St. Ann’s Warehouse

Audience: Primary: Children with ADHD aged 7-10 yrs
Secondary: Parents, facilitators, guardians, siblings, educators
Tertiary: All children aged 7-10 and families

[email protected]

Sakshi Lokhande on LinkedIn

Domestic violence can have profound and lasting effects on individuals, affecting almost every aspect of their lives. Distinguishing the various stages of an abusive relationship can be difficult to recognize due to their layered complexities and subtleties. Understanding these stages can help in recognizing the pattern of abuse and encouraging individuals to seek appropriate support in breaking free from the cycle to find safety and healing.

Client: The New York Women’s Foundation

Venue: The Bellevue Hospital Ambulatory Care Facility

Audience: Primary: Female victims of domestic violence ages 16+ (professional hobbyists)
Secondary: Supporters of victims of domestic violence (facilitators)
Tertiary: General public (explorers)

[email protected]

Sarah Agudelo on LinkedIn

Places such as museums, cultural institutions, zoos, aquariums, and themed entertainment spaces are integral to the human experience and one’s search for knowledge, growth, community, and well-being. Designing these spaces to be accessible for those with unapparent disabilities such as ADHD and autism is a challenge in our field. My project leverages universal design principles in addition to designing for well-being to create more inclusive spaces.

Client: The Walt Disney Company and The Disney Conservation Fund

Venue: The Elmwood Park Zoo

Audience: Primary: Children with ADHD and autism
Secondary: Caregivers and parents

[email protected]

Sarah Miorelli on LinkedIn

Outdoor wayside exhibits in natural parks provide historical and ecological information to visitors as they encounter the park landscape. While these exhibits offer site-based information, they fall short in facilitating a sense of connection and emotional investment between visitor and place.
As a mediator between visitors and the environment, wayside exhibits can be designed to accommodate both entities through integrative placemaking strategies, enacted through site-specific engagements, propagation of local ecologies, and incorporation of specific biophilic principles.
Implementing these placemaking strategies can connect visitors to their environment and cultivate a grounded connection to the park landscape in tandem with the experience. In doing so, wayside exhibits can provide a sense of place that contributes to a deeper understanding of local ecological narratives for multi-generational visitors.

Client: Friends of the Everglades, AIRE

Venue: West Lake Trail, Everglades National Park, Florida

Audience: Primary: Multi-generational families
Secondary: Adventurer / campers park visitors (hobbyist, experience seekers)
Tertiary: School groups (age 6-13) with staffed facilitators, educators, etc.

 [email protected]

Steven Coward on LinkedIn