Culture Crops Exhibition Case Study

Overview

As a graphic designer at the Richard and Carole Cocks Art Museum (RCCAM), I worked on 'Culture Crops: Ohio's Secret Gardens and Hidden Food History'. It showcases photographic portraits that celebrate Ohio’s food history through the stories of Indigenous, immigrant, and local farmers. The exhibition explores themes of sustainability, stewardship, community, identity, and heritage. It was through iteration that I refined my ideas into strong design decisions.

Design Iteration

STEP ONE

The first step of the process is to explore the exhibition's themes via sketching. I map themes against imagery in a grid to quickly generate ideas.

STEP TWO

I bring my five strongest ideas into Illustrator and play with color, layout, and texture.

STEP THREE

I narrow my selection down to three designs, prepare a slide deck, and present it to the Culture Crops team. A vote is held to decide the best design.

  • Option F

    Option F uses curved text around an Ohio silhouette, which is resemblant of farmers’ market and small business logos. This captures community and local identity.

  • Option H

    Option H presents a modern, stamp-like mark with a watercolor texture that conveys sustainability and heritage.

  • Option G

    Option G has an overprint style that plays with positive and negative space, which reflects the exhibition’s themes of secrecy and revelation. The team chose this as the final design.

Deliverables

Wall Graphics

I designed multiple iterations of entrance wall graphics to bring the Culture Crops brand to life in the physical exhibition space. One concept featured a collage of exhibition photographs forming the silhouette of a woman and child, symbolizing how identity and culture are built from food traditions that often remain unseen. Balancing visual flow while keeping the women's silhouette recognizable was a key design challenge.

Social Media

I designed social media templates in InDesign for photograph spotlights and exhibition-related events. These templates extend Culture Crops' distinct brand identity, which is separate from RCCAM’s branding, into the digital space to build visibility and anticipation.

Art in a Minute

For RCCAM’s ongoing Art in a Minute series, I created a reusable After Effects template with a custom animated intro. Built for efficiency, it allows staff to easily update names and photos through drag-and-drop placeholders, bringing energy and consistency to each segment. Shown below is a general RCCAM version, adaptable for exhibitions like Culture Crops.

Conclusion

The final designs highlight Culture Crops’ themes of heritage, sustainability, and community while giving the exhibition its own identity that is separate from RCCAM. One of the biggest challenges was ensuring the branding was consistent across social media, motion graphics, and wall graphics. If I were to do this again, I’d get earlier feedback on the large-scale pieces to make sure they read as strongly in the space as they did on screen.

The exhibition is scheduled for spring 2026, with events and visitor attendance to be determined as programming develops.

Other Designed Exhibitions

Through Their Lens: Photographing Freedom Summer (Fall 2024)

This exhibition shone a light on the photographers of Freedom Summer, a voter registration drive organized by SNCC for Black residents in Mississippi. The training took place on what is now Miami University’s campus, making the exhibition historically significant to the Oxford area. The museum also hosted 10 related events during its run.

Drawing on research from my self-initiated independent study on Freedom Summer, I was excited to design the exhibition’s visual identity, including wall graphics, logomarks, and digital marketing materials. At the Ohio Museums Association awards ceremony, I received an Honorable Mention with RCCAM for my design work on this exhibition.

  • Wall Graphics

  • In-Gallery Interactive Material

  • Freedom Summer Catsheet

  • Gallery Guide

  • Spotlight Post

Tooling Around With Jim Dine (Spring 2025)

This exhibition featured the work of American artist Jim Dine, known for his neo-Dada and pop art style. I developed the theming, wall graphics, printed materials, and social media templates. The biggest challenge was adapting Dine’s bold visual style into supporting graphics that complemented his portraits without directly replicating his artwork.

From the Collections (Spring 2025–Spring 2026)

From the Collections was an exhibition designed to highlight culturally significant works from RCCAM’s collection that are rarely on display. The exhibition was simply a showing of pieces in our collections not often displayed, allowing staff to conserve time and resources for other in-depth exhibitions. I created branded materials with template-based designs to streamline the process for future semesterly rotations and reduce the workload for the curatorial team.