Last Chance for Darwin

This is the final week for the Darwin exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. The exhibit is billed as a "groundbreaking exploration of the life, times, and work of Charles Darwin, the 19th-century English naturalist whose revolutionary theories changed forever how we see ourselves and the world," and that is certainly true. But what they didn't advertise was the design experience—the exhibit is a festival of info graphics, color, sound, texture and the Rosewood fill typeface (which seems a bit played out now but felt surprisingly fresh when the exhibit opened last November). One wall is covered in a Victorian textile pattern that deconstructs like an outdated belief system but also echoes the themes of biological chains and connection—all with metallic animal silhouettes overlaid here and there for texture. Another corner is filled with turtles and trees, the sea of greens and greys broken only by the deliberately placed fire-engine red bird on one of the branches. Closes this Sunday... catch it while you can!

Meanwhile, I'm not the only one who digs the AMNH (I always recommend it as a place to draw): Design Observer recently linked to an AIGA ode to the strangeness of the museum by Nick Currie (Momus).