MUSEUM / EXHIBIT DESIGN SERVICES

We are Museum Architects and Exhibit Designers.   We have been working in the museum field for over 20 years providing planning, design and consulting for museum buildings, exhibits and interpretive sites. Our museum and exhibit work is driven by your content and your mission to connect that content with your visitors.  

We can provide the following museum and exhibit services to our clients:

  • Strategic Planning and Consulting
  • Building Analysis and Research
  • Historic Preservation Services
  • Museum Architectural Design
  • Interpretive Planning 
  • Content Research
  • Exhibit Design 
  • Lighting Design
  • Content Development
  • Copywriting and Script Development
  • Promotional and Marketing Products
  • Museum Wayfinding and Signage Design
  • Fabrication and Installation - if the project is a good fit
  • Design and Management of Audio-Visual Products and Interactives (including aps)

Our museum work is led by Terry Ammons the firm's Principal and Creative Director.  Terry's experience has taken him from work in Norman Foster's Sainsbury Center in England and The Library of Congress to Gio Ponti's Denver Art Museum and the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming, with a wide range of museums and interpretive sites in between.  We are currently directing the re-installation of over 26 galleries containing the permanent collection of paintings and sculpture at The Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia which is set to open in May of 2014. 

Our recently completed Robert Russa Moton Museum project in Farmville, Virginia won the 2013 Excellence in Preservation and Education award from Preservation Virginia for the restoration of the National Historic Landmark school building and won the 2013 Excellence in Exhibit Design Award from the Southeast Museums Conference for the design of the Museum’s permanent exhibits. StudioAmmons provided architectural services for the period restoration of the building as well as interpretive planning, exhibit and lighting design, fabrication and installation, for the museum which opened in 2013. We also designed the marketing and public relations graphics that were used to communicate and promote the project to the public from fundraising through project completion.

We are Architects AND Exhibit Designers: Working as museum consultants or exhibit designers, we have the experience and knowledge to provide seamless coordination with your architectural consultants and contractors as they plan and construct your museum. Our experience as museum architects gives us a full understanding of the issues that must be properly coordinated between the building design and the installation of exhibits.  This understanding helps us develop efficient and economical ways to deliver each project to completion—foreseeing the issues that are important to the smooth coordination of exhibit installation into buildings of all types. Over the years, we have developed strong and lasting relationships with other architectural firms and consultants that we have partnered with on museum projects. We are currently working as the Museum Design Architect on the 53,000 s.f. renovation and re-installation of the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming in partnership with the museum's local architect of record and Carolynne Harris as the museum's consultant.

We are Museum Lighting Specialists: Terry Ammons has moved comfortably between the architecture and museum/exhibit world for over 20 years. For five of those years he specialized in museum and exhibit lighting in Washington, D.C., while working for the firm of George Sexton Associates. Appropriate building and site lighting are key to allowing the architecture to support the exhibit experience throughout the facility an to providing a manageable and sustainable plan for the museum's ongoing operations.  Terry has designed the lighting systems for such national landmarks as Monticello, the Robert Russa Moton Museum, St. Bartholomew’s Church in NYC, and Historic Christ Church in Raleigh NC and has designed the lighting for numerous individual exhibit displays and museum galleries.

Content Research. For many projects StudioAmmons is adept at integrating client-provided text with innovative graphic design and arresting images. For many of our projects, particularly local and regional visitor centers and interpretive planning projects, we do the lion’s share of the content organization. We utilize our in-house expertise to provide the necessary research to create or enhance the project narrative or to fill in gaps in the client’s content. Gibson Worsham, the firm’s Director of Historic Architecture, is an architect and historian who has focused much of his research on the development of farms, villages, towns, and roads throughout the Mid-Atlantic. Most recently, he has developed the local history and interpretive narratives that drove the design of the visitor center exhibits at both Smith Mountain Lake State Park and James River State Park and is currently managing the content and interpretive approach for Maymont, a guilder age estate on the James River in Richmond. Terry Ammons, the project’s team leader, makes sure the level of research and development fit the project, so our process and workflow remain efficient and expectations can be managed throughout the process.

Developing a storyline.  StudioAmmons has a full content development team that includes Terry Ammons as the team leader, Gibson Worsham as the research coordinator, content development specialist and writer, and Ann Adams for final copy review and proofing. We are committed to working with our client's content team to develop the interpretive materials and approaches necessary to create compelling stories that will connect with the museum's audiences. Great story lines make complex ideas and information understandable and manageable for the visitor.  

Writing an exhibit script.  Using our Client’s chosen focus of interpretation we develop the script for all of our exhibit projects. Our strongest skills lie in our strategic and interpretive planning which form the basis of the development of a strong text. Our work on such a wide range of project types, included significant work on heritage tourism sites and regional museums, gives us the experience and understanding needed to target the script to your key audiences to provide a meaningful and engaging experience for visitors.

Designing interior and exterior Interpretive exhibits, fixtures, graphics, and/or maps.  As architects, exhibit designers and information graphics specialists, the StudioAmmons team has been developing exhibits over the last two decades for both buildings and sites (real and virtual). Our extensive wayfinding experience has allowed us to create a wide range of beautiful maps for supporting our exhibits and way finding systems.  

Producing media programs (video or interactive) 

StudioAmmons is has the in-house capabilities to work with the committee and its partners to develop interactive exhibits to enhance the visitor experience and information delivery at the Interpretive Center.  We have recently completed a $350,000 audio/visual contract with the Robert Russa Moton Museum in Farmville, where StudioAmmons provided the scripting, development, editing and production for turn-key installations in the museum galleries.