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John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove

Exhibit/Graphic Designer: Gecko Group

Museum Link

The John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove, PA, was home to noted ornithologist John James Audubon for his first four years in America. This historic site comes in three parts:

• The house where he lived and started his family after marrying the girl next door, Lucy Bakewell.
• A brand new Center dedicated to research and bird conservation.​
• Many acres of preserved land for birding, naturally.  

Silhouette card prototypes.

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The Audubon house:

​The walls were painted with elaborate murals that showed birds from Audubon's travels throughout the country. The designers wanted to create an interactive experience where viewers could embark on their own ornithological discoveries. One of the rooms had reader rails installed that had information about each region Audubon visited in America. Each rail had a card with a bird silhouette cut from it. The idea was to hold the card up and identify the bird in the mural by its shape in the card. My role was to understand the designers' vision and then problem solve with the printer to achieve the intended functionality.

Questions considered:

• In what order would each of these steps need to happen to turn wood panels into reader rails: cut to shape, spray with protective clear coat, deliver to printer, get printed, additional protective clear coat, assemble?
• ​How would the ink need to be layered to achieve the designers' intended aesthetics? With or without white underneath?
• What material would be best for the silhouette cards that were attractive, durable, but also affordable and easy to reprint as they needed replacing?

Solutions:

• The wood was cut, delivered to printer, printed, then given a protective clear coat. Then the rails were assembled on site.
• The final printing process had a layer of white under the final ink layer to keep the wood grain from showing through the letters. Registration was important to make sure the final dark ink completely covered the white layer.
• The silhouette cards were printed on 1/4" expanded PVC, which is relatively durable, and fast and affordable to reprint.

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The Audubon Center:

This building had over a hundred graphics of all shapes and sizes. A challenge for the graphics in this building were the large sizes that often exceeded the size of the substrate.  Wallpaper materials come in widths of 58" and sheet materials come in dimensions of 48"x96". Anything with larger dimensions would need to have a seam or be made in multiple parts. Either way there would be a visible line. 

Questions considered: 

• The size of many of the final graphics exceeded the dimensions of the substrates. Did the designers want a seam, and if so, where, or did they want to change the final size of the graphic?
• Many of the built structures, like cabinets, had graphics that exceeded the material dimensions so the question was repeated: to seam or to change the dimensions of its final placement, which could mean changing the total dimensions of the built structures and require redrafting of all blueprints and rebuilding of structures.

Solutions: 

• Some of the final graphic pieces were altered in size, and some of them were allowed to have seams. We negotiated each group of graphics to strike a balance between the designers' aesthetics, the material practicality, and any schedule implications.
• Example: The large bird wall cutouts were reduced in size to be within 58".
• Example: The large book structure at the entrance of the Center was also reduced in size so each page was no wider than 58". Changing the size of the book did not alter the size of the silhouette of Audubon.
• Example: The puffin mural was allowed to have seams but the panel in front was reduced in size to avoid seams.

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Entering the Center for the first time.

The puffin wall.

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