Founded in 2002, Frina Design is a design firm focused on Exhibit Planning & Design. The company provides creative services to a variety of museum, corporate and non-profit clients. The principal, Pattie Smith, has more than 20 years of in-museum experience planning, designing, managing, and installing exhibits, signs and other creative products.

Reviewing artifacts, story lines, and activities while getting input from experts, audiences and stake holders, is key to identifying signature experiences for each exhibit. Developing a conceptual plan is like solving a puzzle; sometimes you turn a piece around a dozen times - and then, suddenly the results are just perfect!

Identifying goals and objectives for an exhibit is the foundation of planning. Working with curators, conservators, and other exhibit planners requires investigating multiple factors that will affect the design. Detailing spaces, objects, images, cases, scripts, utilities, and other tangible assets all come to play in the final plan. Planning fiscally-responsible solutions are also key to achieving success.

Understanding the audience, the topic, its marketing hook, and the museum’s “personality” are important factors to consider when defining a palette for an exhibition. The treatment and legibility of fonts, colors, images, and other visual elements should be cohesive.

Within museums there are service and wayfinding graphics that are part of the visitors experience. Self promotion, event collateral, and invitations are often used in conjunction with an exhibit opening. Understanding how these elements are broadcasting your message and need to be consistent,whether off or on-site, is crucial to setting a high expectation for visitors.

Frina Design offers hands-on training workshops at your museum or site. Available to individuals or small groups the sessions are designed to give your staff skills related to planning, interpretation, design, graphics, disaster planning and collection care. Elizabeth Dunham, former VP of Exhibits and Programs, at the Tampa Bay History Center will present the Collection-centric training.