Happy Birthday to Us!

Okay, so a little early—our actual birthday is August 10—but it’s been a weird year and if we want our cake and comics a little early, so be it.

This year, the Smithsonian turns the big 1-7-5! Which according to my notes … is well past human lifespans so I get to make up the traditional gift. I’m going with cake and comics, which works for two reasons:

1. Cake is a timeless birthday tradition in the U.S. (Also, I really want to work on an exhibit about cake, so if anyone out there is in the position to make that happen, please email me. Thanks!)
2. SIE’s very own Evan Keeling was asked to create a birthday comic for the Smithsonian. It appeared in Impact magazine but you can see it here.  (Also, please note that the version in the link is accessible to those using screen readers.)

Impact is written by a team at the Smithsonian’s Office of Advancement. The magazine is for a range of donors and volunteers across Smithsonian’s museums, research centers and the National Zoo. It gives readers a sneak peek into stories they might not have otherwise known. An audience that is just learning about us for the first time would likely have the usual questions:

• Who was James Smithson?
• What was your first building?
• What were the names of the owls that lived in the Castle?

Okay, I don’t think anyone is asking that last one all that often, but it’s a great bit of trivia you can use to impress your friends.

An audience that’s already visiting and supporting the Smithsonian regularly probably had a chance to get those answers before. The Impact group wanted something that would, well, have a little more impact for their readers.

Highlighting Moments Instead of Dates

Elise Walter, one of the writers in Advancement, saw Evan give a presentation about how to effectively use comics as a storytelling device at our Open House in 2019. She already knew that Advancement wanted something a little different for the 175^th anniversary. Using a comic would let them highlight individual moments of Smithsonian history and let each story take on its own point of view.

Elise enlisted Pam Henson at the Smithsonian Archives to help select stories that could be developed into comic panels. As they chased down the best stories for the comic, they knew they wanted to find some of the more obscure bits of Smithsonian history.

Visual Storytelling

The selected stories were interesting—real hidden gems of the Smithsonian. But were they visually compelling? They consulted with Evan throughout the process, who helped them determine what stories would work in a visual way, and what characters could pull a reader in. Different stories required different points of view. Some comics needed multiple panels; some stories benefitted from one larger panel to represent the outcome. Comics can be used to achieve numerous types of storytelling in the same publication, as the examples below show.

Playing with Perspective

The comic about Florence August Merriam and Vernon Bailey shows how the 19^th century science power couple completely changed the study of birds. The literal bird-eye views show the birds up close and the observers far below them. This emphasizes their approach to studying birds—one that radically changed the field and invented modern birdwatching.

Highlighting the Result

The story of how the First Ladies’ gowns were collected for the National Museum of American history is an interesting story—but the strongest way to show it visually is by their success. Showing a bunch of people in conversation over and over isn’t nearly as fun as looking at three of the gowns.

Introducing Complicated Topics

Comics can take a complex topic and make it easier to understand. Illustrating the story of the NMAI Cultural Resources Center makes the it easier for readers to learn how this unique facility works.

First-Person Storytelling

The speech and thought bubbles used in comics let a specific narrator explain (or think through) tough problems. The reader gets to see how a main character approaches a situation.

Be sure to check out the entire comic (here’s that link again) to see more moments of innovation!

In these uncertain times (I had to start with that for my professional writer pandemic bingo card), we are all looking for signs. Signs that things are getting better. Signs that we will actually love the new normal. Signs that we can start doing some of those things we took for granted before.

For SIE, some of our signs are actual signs.

The New Normal

The Smithsonian recently reopened the National Zoo and the Udvar-Hazy annex of the National Air and Space Museum. (For those of you not in D.C., Udvar-Hazy is the museum building near Dulles airport.) In order to reopen as safely as possible, the Smithsonian has made some changes to how people can visit these museums. It’s still free to visit, but visitors need timed passes. Visitors over age six need to wear a face covering. Everyone needs to maintain at least six feet of distance.

Reopening Efforts

This is where Smithsonian Exhibits comes in. We are, first and foremost, here to serve the Smithsonian. Our expertise normally goes into making one of a kind exhibitions, but for this effort we refocused and became the Smithsonian’s one-stop shop for reopening graphics.

Madeline Wan, an SIE graphic designer, developed icons and graphic standards for the reopening effort. Our fabrication team designed and manufactured metal sign holders. The holders suspend the graphic in a frame. (This prevents strong winds from knocking over signs.)

Madeline also created signage catalogs for the Smithsonian museums and stores to use when ordering their signs from us. It’s a win/win/win: It’s easier for the museums to get their signs in place; the Smithsonian as a whole will have consistent signage across all the museums; and that means it will be easier for visitors to navigate the reopened spaces even if some of the pathways through those spaces have changed.

Our project managers have been meeting with the museums as they assess their reopening signage needs. While each museum is responsible for determining their reopening plan, we are glad that we are able to provide this service and make that effort a little easier.

Safety First

And don’t worry, we practice what we preach: SIE has set up our fabrication and graphics shops to maintain distance between colleagues. Everyone is wearing face coverings. In some cases, this isn’t really a change: some of the work requires face covers and respirator masks already.

Those who can work remotely are continuing to do so—because fewer people in the building makes it safer for those who are on-site.

In short, the Smithsonian is taking precautions, and at SIE we are helping each other out however we can both in our spaces and throughout the Institution.

Want to visit?

When you’re ready to spend some time with animals or a space shuttle, we’ll be here. Just remember to wash your hands.

If you’re ready to visit, check out https://www.si.edu/visit for the most up-to-date visitor information and to reserve free timed passes.

If you’re more comfortable waiting a bit longer before venturing to the Smithsonian, https://www.si.edu/ has a variety of online offerings.

If you’ve ever wondered why SIE sometimes has longer breaks between blog posts, there’s a very simple and logical reason for that: we aren’t professional bloggers. We have other jobs at SIE, and those responsibilities come first. So, while we love to keep people up-to-date on the blog, working on the exhibits is more important than writing about working on the exhibits.

The blog posts are, for the most part, written by SIE’s exhibit developer/writers.

This is where I realize there’s a pretty good chance that a lot of people reading this are thinking:

What is an exhibit developer?

Well, like a lot of jobs, it really depends on where you work. At SIE the exhibit developers are also writers. In some places, the exhibit developers are also project managers. I’m sure there’s countless combinations out there that museums developed as they figured out what works best for their process. And as always, if you work somewhere small, the position descriptions get to be somewhat all encompassing. One of my earlier jobs included (among many other things) exhibit research, script writing, bookkeeping, and on Thursday it was my day to take out the trash. My point is, there’s no one-size-fits-all exhibit developer job description.

Because the SIE exhibit developers are also writer/editors, we have a variety of projects that come our way. Everything from copyediting completed scripts to developing and writing an entire exhibit from the ground up. But most people have a sense of what a writer does … for example … this thing you’re reading now? I wrote it.

Exhibit developers, however, are one of those jobs that probably didn’t come up with your high school guidance counselor. I ended up in this field and I didn’t know it was a job until I was in an internship in college.

There are a few key roles, though, that I think define exhibit developers at SIE.

Content Wrangler

Exhibit developers are content wranglers. We work with the subject area experts to figure out the best way to tell their story. This way the subject matter expert (for example: historian, chemist, anthropologist, special agent, civil engineer, horticulturalist, etc.) can provide all the information (and review the exhibit script for accuracy), and let the exhibit developers figure out how to turn that into a holistic experience for the museum visitors. Sometimes that means we do some of the research, other times, someone hands over source material. Most of the time it falls somewhere in between. There’s always a lot of back and forth with the content experts as we figure out ways to explain what they know to an audience unfamiliar with the topic.

Script Editor / Writer

At SIE, we might help edit the script, or in some projects, like The FBI Experience or Mission: DIA, we write it ourselves. We also have to keep in mind that visitors might not know much about the topic. Museum writing is different than writing an article or a book. We need to write in a way that is understandable in more than one order. The main thing to consider when writing for an exhibition is that museums are a spatially driven experience. Visitors move through an exhibition. Museums aren’t textbooks (for a lot of reasons) but let’s concentrate on the order of information for now. In a textbook, it’s fair to assume that the reader will read the chapters in order. By chapter 4, the author can expect that the reader at least glanced at chapters 1 through 3. Exhibitions work more like an anthology: the ideas are all connected, but if you skip around, it should still make sense.

We still make sections clear so visitors can see when they are moving into a new topic. But, while a building’s design might dictate how a visitor gets from one gallery to another, there is no way to guarantee that a visitor will go through the space in any particular order (and even if they do, they might not have a chance to read everything along the way).

Visitor Advocate

We think about visitors. A lot. We heart you, visitors. We try figure out how a visitor would navigate an exhibit. Would they likely follow it in an order? Is there a place where they might have to wait (for example, at an interactive element)? What if that went through it and only looked at the objects? Could they still get a positive experience? What if they only looked at the pictures and read the titles and captions?

Ideally, we like to think that visitors will read everything, and do every interactive, and watch every video clip. But we also live in the real world and understand that sometimes the kids are just done and you have to leave. Or you were lucky enough to have an extra 30 minutes one day and popped into a Smithsonian and just wanted to see something you hadn’t seen before. We want you to engage with the exhibit however works best for you on that visit. Walking into a gallery, sitting on a bench, and enjoying one piece of art is a fantastic way to experience a museum. So is reading every panel if that’s what you want to do. Museums are for everyone, and exhibit developers want you to have an experience that works for you.

Also, we want to make sure you know where the bathroom is and where you can get a coffee. We’re people, too, and we also need those things.

Those are the highlights of the job, but as with any job those “duties as assigned” always come into play. Sometimes it’s a little extra help editing a press release, or maybe we’ll help select images since we’re the ones immersed in the story. But no matter what, exhibit developers want you to enjoy your time in our museums, learn a cool fact or two, and—if we’ve really nailed it—look at an object, story, topic, or (dare I hope) the world in a different way.

Remember that time SIE got to work on all that top-secret stuff (only without getting to learn any of the actual secret parts)? I mentioned that our work on the Defense Intelligence Agency Museum was going to be done in a number of phases. Previously, I wrote about Phases 1 and 2. Now, we’re able to talk about Phase 3. And I promise to continue with the utmost honesty about this project that may or may not REDACTED REDACTEDs—similar to my previous REDACTEDREDACTED post.

Phase 3 was a big one, roughly four times the size of phase 2. The four sections—Supporting Operations, Bringing Them Home, Enabling Diplomacy, and Staying Ahead— explore critical aspects of the DIA’s mission. Each section uses specific examples to explain how complicated missions came together, although REDACTEDREDACTEDfrom those REDACTEDREDACTEDREDACTED. By highlighting specific stories,REDACTEDREDACTED we could show the breadth of the agency’s work without overwhelming visitors with a play-by-play of everything they’ve done since the 1960s.

Supporting Operations

Supporting Operations explores DIA’s role as the provider of military intelligence necessary for operations to occur. Specifically, the exhibit dives into operations during the 1991 Gulf War, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and efforts in Afghanistan. REDACTEDREDACTEDREDACTED.

Bringing Them Home

Bringing Them Home delves into DIA’s efforts to bring home prisoners of war, those missing in action, and those killed in action. The risk with stories like these is that they are almost too compelling—stories that are this emotional can run risk of being overly sensationalized.

Here, we needed to balance out the drama of the rescues with the often unseen work done by DIA. The intelligence and coordination needed to conduct a rescue mission is what makes those dramatic “made for the movies” moments possible. REDACTED REDACTEDREDACTED. Before someone can rescue an injured soldier, intelligence officers need to figure out where they are, how they can get in and out of the building, how they can assess options in real time, and many other things I’m probably not allowed to know about.  

Staying Ahead

On a lighter note, you should know that we felt the need, the need for speed. Yes, DIA was responsible for Top Gun. You’re welcome, America.

Staying Ahead focuses on the ways DIA uses technology and innovation. For example, the real-life Top Gun program was developed using intelligence DIA gathered by exploiting Soviet aircraft. One of the digital interactives in this section (created by IMG, a partner in this project who handled the audio-visual materials and digital interactives) allows visitors to explore a Soviet MiG aircraft … and another interactive lets visitors take a quiz that asks “what was in Top Gun and what was in real life?” Fun Fact: the DIA exploited MiGs at area 51, where REDACTED REDACTEDREDACTEDREDACTED. By learning about the strengths and weaknesses of Soviet aircraft, a new flight training program was set up for the U.S. Air Force (known as Red Flag) and the famed program for U.S. Navy (cue Highway to the Danger Zone).

Enabling Diplomacy

The section Enabling Diplomacy tells an often overlooked part of military history—using diplomacy to prevent conflict. Truly, what better way to protect the war fighter than to keep them out of harm’s way in the first place. I was really hoping for some REDACTEDREDACTED.REDACTEDREDACTEDREDACTED or REDACTED. In this section, we looked at treaties, negotiations, and international—REDACTEDREDACTEDcooperation.

But wait! There’s more! Well… admittedly, that wait is going to take a bit. Phase 4 of Mission: DIA is built and ready to go, but not yet installed. Our install date is classified. (Okay, like everything else, the install date was moved because of the Covid-19 situation, but it sounds so much cooler REDACTEDREDACTEDREDACTED to say it’s classified.)

Until next time, REDACTEDREDACTED REDACTED!

Have you ever walked past an exhibit graphic that seemed to move? Or maybe the image suddenly shifted? Your eyes weren’t playing tricks on you … the graphic was playing a trick on your eyes.

These types of graphics are known as lenticular prints.

What Are Lenticular Prints?

Today’s lenticulars aren’t the moving image stickers you used to get at the doctor’s office as a kid (or adult—no judgment here). You know the ones: if you swiveled it a bit it looked like She-Ra was raising her sword, or a transformer was … transforming. Well now that same concept makes things that do this:

2D Print, 3D Effect

One of the advantages of lenticulars is that visitors can get a nice pop of 3D or animation without needing any additional equipment. As cool as everyone looks wearing those 3D glasses, it’s a bit of waste to supply those for one panel. Lenticular prints simulate motion and/or dimension using specially fabricated two-dimensional prints.

How do the 2D prints make it look 3D?

It’s called stereoscopy. It’s a visual effect created by providing slightly offset views to both of your eyes at the same time. When your brain mushes (technical term) the two visuals together, you see the combined image with additional depth and volume. In other words, your brain takes Image 1 and Image 2 and turns into a much more awesome optical illusion. To do that, the designer has to interlace the images.

But why doesn’t the interlaced image look, well, terrible? And what’s up with that term “lenticular?”

Lenticular comes from “lens,” meaning something curved that refracts lights. The lens that goes on top of the interlaced graphic is called a lenticular lens. It’s made of a series of curved strips called lenticules. Those curved strips refract the light so that you can only see images from certain angles. So the short answers: it’s called lenticular because it has lenses, and those lenses decode the interlaced image into the “changing” graphic.

Why use them?

Other than they’re really fun? Lenticular prints add impact to displays of static photographs and other images. They can also create a depth of content. By layering images on top of each other, a lenticular can show a before and after, or a variety of images on a theme in a way that shows shifts. Recently, Smithsonian Libraries worked with SIE to create lenticular prints for their exhibition Magnificent Obsessions: Why We Collect. Visitors could see the image of a prized possession, and then it would shift, showing the collector. Visitors can see a visual connection between the two images, and figure out that the stories behind those two images are intertwined.

Creating a Lenticular Print

The process for creating a lenticular print can be broken down into three phases: design, printing, and mounting.

Phase 1: design

First, decide on the type of lenticular print you would like.

There are three main options to choose from:

• Flip lenticulars create a smooth transition from one image to another using up to 15 frames (think of a flipbook). This type of lenticular can also be used to display 15 distinct images that change depending on viewing angle.
• 3D lenticulars are created using specialized 3D photography to simulate dimensionality and depth.
• “4D” lenticulars include a combination of flip and 3D imagery.

Then establish the viewing distance.

This is critical. Knowing how far away a visitor will be standing determines how the software translates the images when generating the final print. This also determines the appropriate lens material.

Finally, prepare the file.

Depending on the lenticular type, the designer compiles a series of images in a layered Photoshop document, building the lenticular from the bottom up. This means the first layer is the background, and all of the other images are layered on top of the background. The images closest to the background look the farthest away.

The screen shots below show how designer Madeline Wan layered the images to create the Magnificent Obsessions lenticular.

Then, using specialized graphics software, the designer interlaces the the images.

Phase 2: Printing

The interlaced prints are produced on traditional wide format printers. For the Magnificent Obsessions graphic we used a specialty printing company, Parallax Lenticular Printing, to interlace and produce the final print.

Because the graphic is interlaced, it looks odd at this stage. If, for example, the finished product will be an animation composed of 15 images, the print will resemble 15 separate images that have been run through a paper shredder and then reassembled in the wrong order.

Phase 3: Mounting

The finished print is mounted to a clear plastic sheet with a pattern of lenses designed to pull specific images from the composite image.

Each image strip and lenticule must be aligned perfectly. Their proper alignment is what makes parts of the graphic recede back into the graphic, appear to float off the surface, or shift from one image to another.

Alternate Method: Combining printing and mounting

In some instances, the graphic can be printed directly to the reverse side of the lenticular film. This skips the often tedious (and sometimes problematic) step of laminating and mounting the interlaced image onto the lens. Going this route eliminates the risk of things like hair and air bubbles messing up the application of the lens. However, this method typically requires a much more complex printing setup, such as a screenprinter or UV Inkjet.

If you want to see Magnificent Obsessions in person—once the Smithsonian reopens—it’s on view at the National Museum of American History’s Dibner Gallery in 1 West. In the meantime, feel free to check out the Smithsonian’s various online resources.