Tryon Palace Historic Sites and Gardens
New Bern, NC

Experiential Graphic Designer, ESI Design

Before ESI Design got involved, Tryon Palace was often described as being similar to Colonial Williamsburg, except in North Carolina. While part of our role was refreshing the interpretation of the historic sites, the main scope reached far beyond that; bringing North Carolina history to life for visitors today. We responded to the challenge by designing the North Carolina History Center, a museum where visitors could learn through collaboration, exploration, and study.

Knowing that people learn in different ways, we designed distinct experiences ranging from a traditional artifact- and biographical-based museum to a hands-on, interactive, collaborative play experience. My role was picking up the established look and feel from the 50% design phase and expanding it to include all graphics on the interior and exterior and throughout the gardens. This encompassed large-scale immersive environmental graphics, countless interpretive panels, timelines, donor walls, decorative banners, site maps for the app, and a sitewide wayfinding system.

We know that history is often told through the limited lens of the privileged few. So we developed walking tours of the site that brought a variety of less-heard voices to light. This allowed us to tell many stories and keep the content fresh for repeat visitors.