Shades of Nature is Essig’s newest exhibit located in the VLSB hall. This four by six foot wall-mounted exhibit showcases the role that insects’ iridescent turquoises, startling crimsons, and covert greens and browns play in nature. This exhibit boasts a rainbow swirl of beautiful insects sourced from the Essig Museum Collection and other elements that were carefully curated, pinned, developed, and assembled by several team members and collaborators of the museum. From concept to installation, this exhibit took about one year to finish.
If you can’t visit in person, check out our online companion of the exhibit here.
The Beginning Process
“Behind every exhibit is a Big Idea,” explained Sr. Museum Scientist Roberta Brett, who spearheaded the exhibit. “The Big Idea shapes the content, graphics, and assets that go into the exhibit. It is typically a one sentence statement that guides the team in framing the main messages that will be conveyed in the exhibit. One measure of success is if someone who saw the exhibit can quickly tell you what the exhibit is about. We wanted the new exhibit to showcase the amazing diversity of insects and be attractive, informative and increase awareness about the Essig Museum.”
The Big Idea of this exhibit was about the important role of color in insect adaptation to the environment and had three main messages: one about mimicry and warning coloration, one about how color is made in insects, and one about camouflages and disguises. Along with the Big Idea, other ideas were generated from Cal Students about what they’d like to see in an exhibit about color. Some ideas that students wanted were:
- A vibrant display of the amazing diversity of colorful insects
- Exploring new information about insects that they didn’t know before
- Gaining experience in exhibit design and production
One of the first considerations was making sure the insects displayed were safe from environmental conditions like humidity and UV light, and insect pests. To protect the insects, an acrylic case was fabricated to encase the exhibit. Another crucial consideration for designing exhibits is the size of the space, the size of the exhibit, the amount of traffic, and the audience you are trying to reach. With these considerations come constraints. The exhibit is in the VLSB hallway, a small and narrow space with a high degree of foot traffic, but mostly passersby who might not have time to read everything. The goal was for the exhibit to be impactful, broadly appealing, and easily accessible even for people who don’t know much about insects. Because of the constraints, the team took a tiered approach to the content. The high-level information was strategically placed in the title paragraph that provides an overview of the exhibit.”If you only had time to read the first few sentences you would still get what the exhibit is about” says Roberta. The shorter, but more detailed information was broken up in the sub-messages and insect captions for viewers who want more in-depth information about each of the insects.
VLSB Hallway
The content
The written content for the exhibit was developed over the course of several months and was all derived from research articles on the nature of structural color, evolution of aposematism, mate behavior, thermoregulation, color in social insects, iridescence and avoidance responses, and more. Although the articles covered a wide range of topics, and contained highly specific information, the actual content needed to be within the framework of the Big Idea. Developing the content from this mass of information involved a continual process of distilling, rewriting, and refining the text. What you start with often doesn’t end up in the exhibit.
The visuals
The team thought it was important to create a visual element that suggested movement and would draw the attention of the casual passerby. The first ideas generated by the team included a flowing wave of insects, a central circle of insects and a three dimensional architectural approach. The early visuals for the exhibit swirl and layout were then drafted by museum volunteer Amy Zheng
First ideas by Roberta Brett
First drafts of the layout by Amy Zheng
Hugo Sappington (a recently graduated Cal student) drafted ideas for the structural color section and designed and printed 3D models for the section too.
Layout draft and 3D model by Hugo Sappington
These design ideas and content drafts were refined by professional graphic designer, Eliza Anker, who generously volunteered her time and skills to design the look and feel of the exhibit. Just like the content, the final look of the exhibit went through many iterations.
Drafts by Eliza Anker
Final mock up
Making of the swirl
The swirl consists of specimens sourced primarily from the Essig Museum collection. Most of the beautiful tropical specimens were donated to the museum but didn’t have reliable locality data, making them of very little scientific value, but of great display value. Some of the specimens were sourced from the research collection, especially for the three subsections of the exhibit. The specimens used in the exhibit are from all over the world. Team members Anna Hatzakis and Amy Zheng did most of the painstaking pinning and spreading of the insects.
Swirl mock up
Pinning process
Pinned insects used in the swirl
Installation
Disassembling the old case, cleaning it, fitting the new exhibit board inside, and then individually pinning all the insects to the board, and refitting the glass case took several hours and many hands.
We hope you enjoy our new exhibit Shades of Nature! Our exhibit is on the VLSB’s first floor, located in the hall south of the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton. For building open hours and dates please check here.
If you can’t visit in person, check out our online companion of the exhibit here.
Story by Sloane Sim and Roberta Brett
Exhibit design and text by Roberta Brett
Exhibit graphics by Eliza Anker
Exhibit collaborators – Anna Hatzakis, Hugo Arseguel Sappington, Amy Zheng