Customer Reviews

What is Exhibition Design? (Essential Design Handbooks)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a great introductory book to exhibition design. I keep it at work and my co-workers always want to borrow the "pink book". I was primarily intersted in seeing the way that other firms produce design documents. Since only 6 pages of the book are dedicated to this, it gets 4 out of 5 stars. The book is divided into three sections: Issues (such as "What is exhibition design?", "Who do we design for?", "But is it art?"), Anatomy (types of exhibition design from museums to trade shows to visitor centers), and Portfolios (16 leading firms are covered). The photographs of existing exhibition design are what make this book a must buy if you are interested in the subject. You'll come back to it over and over again when brainstorming to generate ideas for your projects. Happy reading!

Well, overall this book has nice glossy colour pictures. However, as far a guide book to exhibition design and construction, look for another book. As mentioned it has great pictures of concepts and displays already in exhibition around the world but really lacks information, substance and incite on design of exhibitions.

What Is Exhibition Design is just a brief glance at this expansive area of design, and I was generally let down by the book. Full of short, inconsistent explanations of the facets of the field, only further taxed by small images and vague captions, it fails to really illustrate the complexity of exhibition design. The Portfolio section feels constricted by the chosen format and excludes work done by in-house teams, but does survey firms from across the globe. Would serve as a decent introductory overview if better resources were provided. As such, the limited bibliography, references, glossary, and index provide few options to explore the field further.

As a graduate student studying Exhibition Design and totally new to the field, this book gives a fantastic overview of what the practice really is. I find myself going back to the book a lot to find inspiration for projects. The best part of the book is the list of companies and and examples of work they have created. It gives you an idea of who you may want to work with in the future. I also met all 3 authors and Mr. Berger and Mr. Skolnick frequently visit my classes and they are great down to earth guys. They have a genuine interest in meeting with students and helping us to develop our ideas since we are the future designers in this industry. Whether you are a designer or not this book is great read, and has lots of pretty pictures. It provides a foundation of what the practice is about; past, present and future.

Wrong finger!! Or at least it should be a thumb pointing down!! The real title should be "What is a way to waste a week of my life reading a book and learn nothing?" In all seriousness, I was very excited to read this book but found myself thoroughly disappointed and feel like I wasted my $35. While reading, I found myself consistently writing in the notes "already knew that"