The American Museum of Natural History in New York City is renowned for its exhibitions on nature, science, and culture. The museum’s gift shops feature products inspired by these exhibitions, giving visitors a meaningful way to take part of their experience home.
SCOPE OF WORK
Image Curation
Visual Concept Development
Custom Product Design
Visual Concept Development
Custom Product Design
A collection of custom products was created to blend the historical richness of the museum’s vintage scientific bird illustrations from their archives with a contemporary aesthetic designed to appeal to visitors and drive sales. The process involved reviewing nearly 200 archival images, carefully selecting and preparing the artwork, and then transforming them by interweaving and layering illustrations to create entirely new compositions. This approach elevated the artwork from archival reference to contemporary design, which was then applied across a full range of consumer goods.
The project began when the museum published a special boxed set of reproduced vintage bird illustrated prints from their archives, accompanied by a book on their history (shown below), for sale exclusively in the museum's gift shop. These vintage scientific illustrations served as the foundation for the custom bird product collection.
