Today, an exhibit designer is required to do more than design 3-D architecture. Exhibit design is a creative and technical process of crafting immersive spaces (like museums, tradeshows, or marketing centers) to tell a story and convey a message through a blend of architecture, graphics, technology, and interactive elements, that focus on engaging visitors and guiding a visitor to become emotionally involved.
Some basic messaging components are still required for an effective exhibit-big or small. From a distance. Who are you? What is your schtick? What’s your value added feature?
Secondly, don’t make me walk through your maze of balloons to learn about what you do, or to win a prize. What does it take to win your attention? A pleasant experience?
Exhibit designers are required to have a deeper understanding of the blend of architecture and technology to communicate a message and tell a story. Skills dealing with human behavior were hardly emphasized in art or design classes in school. For exhibit design, this is a requirement today. Home grown designers lack much of this kind of training beyond architecture. In any case, good drawing skills are a starting point to be hired, but more is now required in understanding human behavior in space design.
The EDPA member companies have played a strong role in recognizing the need for exhibit design training in the USA. Starting with the EDPA design student scholarships, and designer mentoring programs that were funded by local exhibit design house members, exhibit design education has taken a major leap forward when college level training began.
Past attempts to start exhibit design training at a college level have been made by the EDPA education committee members over the years. Many top universities were very serious about the idea, but starting a new course curriculum was like pulling teeth. Serious discussions took place at Drexel University, University of Illinois-Chicago, Georgia Tech, and UNLV but failed.
Here are the three universities where major success was made for Exhibit Design training. Each has an interesting start to their story.
Auburn University- Alabama
EDPA past president, Gary Stewart was a graduate of Auburn University with a degree in industrial design. He started an exhibit company in Atlanta called Design South. He approached Bret Smith, one of the Auburn Industrial Design professors, to create a course for tradeshow exhibit design. In 1992, their first class assignment was to design an exhibit for Design South for the TS2 show.
Auburn then created a student exhibit design competition to design an exhibit for EDPA for use at the 1993 TS2 show the following year.
A workbook was created for students to follow to complete the design of a tradeshow exhibit.
Professor Smith said, “From my point of view, working with Gary Stewart and EDPA was a watershed moment. By working together with EDPA and the Design South team of professionals, we were able to expose students to the most up to date information in exhibit design. We then created a grading standard that students would be required to deliver as professionals.”
With the success of this exhibit experience Auburn implemented an exhibit design program that continues to this day led by Professor Shu-Wen. “Today’s design training is offered with the class INDD3110- Exhibit & Packaging Design- 6 credit hours. This studio course focuses on exhibit design, POP displays, and branding. They also jump started a program they call- the Exhibit Designer Incubator. The program mentors with exhibit company professionals from Derse in Pittsburg, Exhibitus LLC, and ExpoDisplay.”
Professor Shu-Wen was recently invited to attend the 2025 ExhibitorLive event in San Antonio by EDPA representative Justin Dworak from Star Exhibits. There she met with the directors of both Bemidji State and FIT in NY gaining further insights. The open minds from the staff at Auburn has been a wonderful gift to exhibit design education and career opportunities thereafter. Applying design skills from the variety of exhibit design speciality groups prepares a designer to see solutions beyond the obvious.
“There is no border line when to comes to exhibit design education”, says Professor Shu-Wen.
Bemidji State University-Minnesota
In 1990 the Minneapolis Convention Center opened. A group of professors, led by Dr. Kermit Anderson at Bemidji State University, visited the Center then gathered to explore the creation of a new college course to introduce and train to be an exhibit designer. They examined various fields within the design domain, including Architecture, Interior Design, Industrial Design, and others, to explore their feasibility at BSU.
“With each idea, they spoke with other professors from academia and with industry professionals, and in doing so they noticed a pattern. They realized that when times got tough, and jobs were scarce for Architects, Interior Designers, and other practitioners in analogous fields, they often found their way to one dynamic place: the world of exhibit design and live events,” says Dr. Sachel Josefson- Bemidji Design Program Director.
“These academic visionaries, cohorts, or whatever you want to call them, asked the brilliant question, ‘If that’s where everyone ends up… why don’t we just start there?’” During this time, the professors went on a field trip to ExhibitorLive (Exhibitor Media Group) was also a Minnesota company when the event was at Bally’s Hotel in Las Vegas. After that, they formed a class in exhibit design, which then evolved into two, and eventually became the first university in America to offer a comprehensive academic pathway in Exhibit Design, graduating its first students in the mid-1990s. Bemidji State saw a gap and realized that designing for temporary, selling/telling environments, like a tradeshow, is a little like Architecture, a little like Graphic Design, a little like Interior Design, and a little like this and that, but it was its own discipline.
An academic pathway was built with a focus on training designers to fill those concrete boxes, that we call convention centers, with sophisticated temporary selling stations, we call exhibits. Over the years, the Bemidji program has shifted from a focus on exhibits to a more experiential approach, where exhibits, graphics, A/V technology, and other elements are combined to enhance the experience. Our goal now is to focus on making visitors feel alive and bringing crowds to life through storytelling.
Today, the School of Technology, Art, and Design at Bemidji State University offers not only a 4-Year degree in Exhibit & Experience Design, but also, with industry partners like the EDPA, we have built a new academic pathway in Event Management that takes students through detailing, estimating, and project management methodology.
“From 1990 to today, Bemidji leadership went from Dr. Kermit Anderson (Dr. Jim McCracken, and Mr. Steve Sundahl), to Dr. Mark Schmitt, to Dr. Bonnie Higgins, to me… Dr. Sachel Josefson-Program Director. Well, for as long as I can remember, the program has always been a giant sandbox. It’s a place to get your hands dirty. Our facility has allowed us to experiment. To collaborate on real projects, and to go on field trips that get you out of the classroom, because let’s face it, sometimes the classroom gets in the way of the learning,” says Dr. Josefson.
FIT-NYC (Fashion Institute Technology)
After 9/11/2001 the tradeshow industry took a short pause. The leaders at EDPA began searching for additional universities to consider college level training for exhibit design. Approving a new degree curriculum at a major college proved to be a difficult task and failed to happen.
Norm Friedrich became EDPA president in 2003 and declared- “We need to put the “D” back in EDPA.”
In the fall of 2003 EDPA reps were introduced to a staff member at FIT in NYC. FIT was already offering an undergrad degree in interior and retail design, so they were very receptive to the idea of creating a new degree in exhibit design. EDPA conducted a survey with exhibit design directors and exhibit company owners to determine what traits they were looking for when hiring an exhibit designer. One skill to be taught was effective ‘storytelling.’ From this survey, a course curriculum was developed and the Master degree in Exhibit Design was created with the first class of graduating in 2006.
In 2007, Brenda Cowan became the chairperson, and the program began to skyrocket. Four past EDPA presidents worked with Brenda to create a think tank to build the program. The first cohorts were Norm Friedrich, Larry Kulchawik, Mark Johnson, Gwen Parsons, and Rob Cohen. Others EDPA members followed with valuable input and mentorships. Through the years, EDPA professionals nationwide volunteered their time and experiences to teach a class and offer internships with scholarship assistance. The EDPA University Affiliation Program was then created at EDPA which provided an exhibit area for students to show their stuff at the ExhibitorLive tradeshow each year.
“Our students and faculty come from many different design disciplines and cultures. They blur the boundaries that can silo the industry. We cross pollinate bringing together skills, approaches, ideas, tools, and techniques from different experiential design disciplines into our work. This fosters innovation,” says Professor Brenda Cowan. Now, 20 years later, the program continues to be a success and now led by Christina Lyons, the current Chair.
“The collaboration between EDPA and FIT has produced high level graduates, professional growth, and meaningful impact on our industry. It has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my involvement with EDPA,” says Mark Johnson.
Today, each of the many associations that serve the tradeshow and events industry have strongly supported educational programs that train and recruit new talent. They see a bright future and a greater need for training and industry awareness.
For the meetings and convention industry, most only see the tip of the iceberg for opportunities. Uncovering new avenues in experiential design through education will expand our vision to see further below the surface.
Exhibit designer education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know. The steps that each our industry associations are taking to raise the bar for training and education are contributing greatly to increasing the level of professionalism in the world of face to face marketing.
To view the first part in this series: Click Here.
