Capstone Project - Nastassia Darby

Senior Design Capstone Thesis Project - Nastassia Darby

I am going to research, develop, and design the identity for the Museum of Ancient Design (MAD) in order to culminate my art history studies and my valuable childhood museum-going experiences into a large-scale design project.

I am thankful to have parents that exposed me to culture and arts as a young child. The awe-inspiring visuals and feeling picked up in museum and gallery spaces, is what ultimately prompted me to pursue a creative field. Creating visual materials as a graphic designer for these spaces will allow me to offer my own contributions in hopes to attract others. While my studies in art history at DePaul will add a layer of cultural and historical awareness in my design thinking process.

The mission of the Museum of Ancient Design (MAD) will be somewhere along the lines of showcasing the history of design, art and visual communication that was prevalent in ancient African, Asian, North and South American civilizations.

I am driven to attract and stir critical thinking through this research and design project. How much information is needed to make one visit a history museum? Can this be done with minimal text? Can shape and line be utilized, much so like ancient designs, to communicate with today’s audiences? My goal is to attract all audiences but to specifically appeal to groups who are often underrepresented artistically in contemporary and design museums.

This identity project will contain multiple pieces that will be neatly organized upon completion as if there was a booth set up within the entrance of the museum. I plan to include the following materials; I may add or replace these materials after more research is done on museum identity.

• Ad Poster – bus/bus station
• Exhibition poser – xl scale
• Folded Map
• Wall Decal of Mission
• Logo
• Ticket – takeaway item
• Bag – takeaway item
• Logo animation

For the web component of this project, I will research social media strategies at museums to be implemented on Twitter and Instagram pages for MAD.

From this project, I hope to develop solid and concise identity materials that showcase my composition and typography skills.  The research I will conduct on museum graphics as they correlate to visitation will be interesting. Overall, this project will consolidate my interests and education in design and culture and will serve as portfolio piece that directly speaks to my target employers in the museum and identity design industry.

The nineteen week timeline for project completion will be as follows:

W1: Research and development  

Short paper/pdf  presenting the following:

Museum design strategies

Attracting target audience

Social media strategies

Successful campaigns/brands with minimal text

W2: Logo Design start

W3: Logo Design finish

W4: Color and Type Development and Ad Poster sketches

W5: Ad Poster Start

W6: Ad Poster Finish - Print

W7: Research and create sketches for exhibition poster

W8:  Exhibition poster Start

W9: Exhibition poster Finish - Print

W10: Develop basic museum layout and map sketches

W11: Map Start

W12: Map Finish - Print

W13: Logo animation Start

W14: Logo animation Finish

W15: Create museum mission and research decal companies to purchase from

Order decal

W16:  Bag design sketches and materials

            Research where to print or create stencils

W17: Ticket start

W18: Bag and Ticket finish - Print

W19: Refinements