Set and Exhibit Designer Design special exhibits and sets for film, video, television, and theater productions. May study scripts, confer with directors, and conduct research to determine appropriate architectural styles.
Set and Exhibit Designer is Also Know as
In different settings, Set and Exhibit Designer is titled as
- Designer
- Display Coordinator
- Exhibit Coordinator
- Exhibit Designer
- Exhibit Preparator
- Historical Society Window Dresser
- Installations Designer
- Projection Designer
- Scenic Designer
- Set Designer
Education and Training of Set and Exhibit Designer
Set and Exhibit Designer is categorized in Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Set and Exhibit Designer
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
Education Required for Set and Exhibit Designer
Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Degrees Related to Set and Exhibit Designer
- Bachelor in Design and Visual Communications, General
- Associate Degree Courses in Design and Visual Communications, General
- Masters Degree Courses in Design and Visual Communications, General
- Bachelor in Illustration
- Associate Degree Courses in Illustration
- Masters Degree Courses in Illustration
- Bachelor in Technical Theatre/Theatre Design and Technology
- Associate Degree Courses in Technical Theatre/Theatre Design and Technology
- Masters Degree Courses in Technical Theatre/Theatre Design and Technology
Training Required for Set and Exhibit Designer
Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Set and Exhibit Designer in different industries are
- Interior Designers
- Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators
- Commercial and Industrial Designers
- Graphic Designers
- Craft Artists
- Fashion Designers
- Merchandise Displayers and Window Trimmers
- Museum Technicians and Conservators
- Architects, Except Landscape and Naval
- Art Directors
- Landscape Architects
- Costume Attendants
- Special Effects Artists and Animators
- Fabric and Apparel Patternmakers
- Curators
- Model Makers, Wood
- Architecture Teachers, Postsecondary
- Layout Workers, Metal and Plastic
- Architectural and Civil Drafters
- Video Game Designers
What Do Set and Exhibit Designer do?
- Examine objects to be included in exhibits to plan where and how to display them.
- Acquire, or arrange for acquisition of, specimens or graphics required to complete exhibits.
- Prepare rough drafts and scale working drawings of sets, including floor plans, scenery, and properties to be constructed.
- Confer with clients and staff to gather information about exhibit space, proposed themes and content, timelines, budgets, materials, or promotion requirements.
- Estimate set- or exhibit-related costs, including materials, construction, and rental of props or locations.
- Develop set designs, based on evaluation of scripts, budgets, research information, and available locations.
- Direct and coordinate construction, erection, or decoration activities to ensure that sets or exhibits meet design, budget, and schedule requirements.
- Inspect installed exhibits for conformance to specifications and satisfactory operation of special-effects components.
- Plan for location-specific issues, such as space limitations, traffic flow patterns, and safety concerns.
- Submit plans for approval, and adapt plans to serve intended purposes, or to conform to budget or fabrication restrictions.
- Prepare preliminary renderings of proposed exhibits, including detailed construction, layout, and material specifications, and diagrams relating to aspects such as special effects or lighting.
- Select and purchase lumber and hardware necessary for set construction.
- Collaborate with those in charge of lighting and sound so that those production aspects can be coordinated with set designs or exhibit layouts.
- Research architectural and stylistic elements appropriate to the time period to be depicted, consulting experts for information, as necessary.
- Design and produce displays and materials that can be used to decorate windows, interior displays, or event locations, such as streets and fairgrounds.
- Coordinate the removal of sets, props, and exhibits after productions or events are complete.
- Select set props, such as furniture, pictures, lamps, and rugs.
- Confer with conservators to determine how to handle an exhibit's environmental aspects, such as lighting, temperature, and humidity, so that objects will be protected and exhibits will be enhanced.
- Assign staff to complete design ideas and prepare sketches, illustrations, and detailed drawings of sets, or graphics and animation.
- Observe sets during rehearsals in order to ensure that set elements do not interfere with performance aspects such as cast movement and camera angles.
- Design and build scale models of set designs, or miniature sets used in filming backgrounds or special effects.
- Read scripts to determine location, set, and design requirements.
- Attend rehearsals and production meetings to obtain and share information related to sets.
- Arrange for outside contractors to construct exhibit structures.
- Provide supportive materials for exhibits and displays, such as press kits, advertising, publicity notices, posters, brochures, catalogues, and invitations.
- Incorporate security systems into exhibit layouts.
- Coordinate the transportation of sets that are built off-site, and coordinate their setup at the site of use.
Qualities of Good Set and Exhibit Designer
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
Tools Used by Set and Exhibit Designer
- Airbrush paint applicators
- All-purpose scissors
- Claw hammers
- Digital still cameras
- Electric arc welding equipment
- Furniture staplers
- General purpose paintbrushes
- Handsaws
- Laptop computers
- Liquid crystal display LCD projectors
- Paint application rollers
- Personal computers
- Pneumatic nail guns
- Portable air compressors
- Portable stepladders
- Rotary saws
- Sewing machines
- Sound mixing boards
- Synthetic web slings
- Tablet computers
Technology Skills required for Set and Exhibit Designer
- Act-3D Quest3D
- Adobe Acrobat
- Adobe After Effects
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Adobe Director
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe InDesign
- Adobe Photoshop
- Apache Subversion SVN
- Autodesk 3ds Max
- Autodesk AutoCAD
- Autodesk Maya
- Autodesk Revit
- AutoDesSys form Z
- C#
- C++
- Computer aided design and drafting CADD software
- Corel CorelDraw Graphics Suite
- Dassault Systemes SolidWorks
- Eclipse IDE
- Figure 53 QLab
- Git
- Graphics software
- JavaScript
- JUnit
- Maxon Cinema 4D
- McNeel Rhinoceros 3D
- Microsoft Access
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Microsoft Visual Studio
- Microsoft Word
- Nemetschek Vectorworks Spotlight
- Oracle Database
- Oracle Java
- Oracle PL/SQL
- Python
- Relational database management system software
- Structured query language SQL
- TestNG
- Trimble SketchUp Pro
- UNIX