JOHN HEINZ URBAN WILDLIFE REFUGE
Exhibit Design

The John Heinz Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the nation’s first urban wildlife refuge. By updating their visitor center, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service aimed to create an inviting space for visitors to experience their personal impact on the refuge, familiarize themselves with activities available at the refuge, and learn how the refuge personnel are involved with their local community.

As a part of the Graphic Design team at Formations Inc, I designed and produced several panels and interactive elements within the exhibit space. Under the direction of our Creative Director, I implemented a design look and feel that harmonizes urban, man-made elements with organic shapes and textures. I created layouts based off of detailed Auto-CAD drawings, and utilized images and text from our in-house Content department. Throughout the design process, I compiled design deliverables to present to our client, made design updates based on feedback, and created production-ready files to send to vendors.

These panels featured outside the entrance of the visitor center are an example of panels that I helped tweak the design of during the deliverable phases of the project, and created production-ready files for once approved and ready for fabrication. Materials for these panels include aluminum, corten steel, high pressure laminate, and powder coated metal.

I contributed to the design and production of most pieces of this exhibit by either altering the design based on client feedback and/or creating production-ready files.

I created the cut lines and graphically designed the look of the layered cutout forest shown above using colors and textures determined in the look and feel stage of the exhibit design. I designed these to catch the eye of visitors of all ages and entice them to look closer into the trees where they can find cutouts of local birds in the trees.

The panel and flip book (shown below) next to the tree cutouts invite visitors to try to identify the birds perched in the trees. I designed and produced this portion of the exhibit.

I designed the patterns shown on the side of these panels, which are inspired by the organic forms seen up close when looking at leaves.

Cutouts of bird watchers that I created cut lines for and are outside of the visitor center building. The material is corten steel.