As well as writing, editing and proofreading text for galleries, museums and heritage sites, I also have experience planning interpretation and working closely with 2D and 3D designers to create a coherent, accessible and memorable visitor experience.
writing, Editing & Proofreading
Writing or editing and proofreading content for all forms of gallery-based interpretation:
Wall text and labels
Digital interactives
Self-guided trails
Timelines
Infographics
Resources for schools, families, young people and adult learners
Scripts or subtitles for AV content
Large print guides
interpretation planning
Big-picture interpretation advice – I can:
Help you to structure the narrative of your exhibition or display and produce a message and/or text hierarchy for you to work with.
Advise on different modes of content delivery – for example, is the story you want to tell better as an object label or an infographic?
Suggest best-practice word counts for your interpretation across different levels of the hierarchy (introduction panel, section panels, sub-section or theme panels, and group and object labels), depending on your target audience.
visitor experience
When you’ve got the words just right, you want to make sure visitors’ physical experience doesn’t let you down. Through my experience at the V&A and based on visitor surveys and accessibility research, I can advise on best practice for:
The graphic design of your interpretation to ensure legibility in terms of typeface, point size and colour contrast.
The 3D design of your gallery text such as height datums and angles of panels and labels, taking into account your target audience to make your interpretation as accessible as possible (i.e. if your text is aimed at little ones, let’s hang it lower!) and making sure labels are located in a logical place so visitors can easily connect them to relevant objects.