Display/Exhibition Design- 2013
I recently completed the construction of this year's exhibition booth for Carnegie Mellon University's Spring Carnival 2013. As Exterior Chair, I was responsible for constructing the entire exterior shown in pictures below based on the initial booth plans, and overseeing the overall project to make this vision become a reality. The construction of every stem, leaf, and flower took a total of three weeks, and the installation process took place within a 24 hour time slot. The theme of the booth this year was Thumbelina, an experience intended to make visitors feel small and compact as they traverse through an interior that closely follows the childhood story of a girl the size of a thumb and every event that occurs throughout her journey.
The flowers were primarily constructed out of cardboard. I made the dandelions out of a foam center, cooking skewers, and cotton batting.
When you first walk into the booth, you find yourself in a cross section of the garden. A garden snake hisses at you from the corner of the room and a large storybook at the front tells you that you have been transformed into the size of a thumb and must break the curse!
Mason jar lights hang from the walls of the cozy mole tunnel stairwell. The walls are draped with textured brown fabric, intended to look like dirt. The voice of the mole calls out from the walls, reminding you to look for the next clue.
The larger than life mole stares down at you from the top of the stairs, his flickering eyes made from two iridescent lights.
The Mole has collected a number of odds and ends in his tunnel. On the wall he has hung a map of the underground tunnels at Carnegie "Molen". Not shown in the picture are his sunglasses, (moles are blind), his giant spool of thread, and his handmade rug created out of fabric he has collected from here and there.
At the top of the stairs, you take the clues that you have collected in the storybook room, the frog room, and the mole tunnel, and place them into one of the giant tree trunks. Suddenly the curse is broken and the entire room lights up. Larger than life wisteria hang from the ceiling amongst a tangle of fairy lights and forest life.
As you eventually come across the hidden exit in the Enchanted Fairy Room, you walk down the outdoor stairwell and find that the flowers are getting smaller, the curse is broken, and you are now returning to your normal size.