Faculty Profile

Tim McNeil
Professor of Design

M.F.A. Exhibition Design, University of the Arts, LondonB.A. Graphic Design, Middlesex University, London

Background

Tim McNeil is the Director of the UC Davis Design Museum, and a Professor of Design at the University of California Davis, where he is the primary instructor for courses on exhibition design and environmental graphic design.

Research

His research and creative work defines exhibition design in relation to the curatorial process, and explores the exhibition medium as a
creative space for the effective communication of objects and narratives. Concurrent avenues of inquiry and practice: (1) the role design plays
in the communication of objects, ideas, and information in a museum or exhibition environment, (2) the strategies for audience engagement
with an emphasis on the interpretative exhibition experience, (3) the functionality and aesthetics of exhibition design and their impact on
environmental sustainability.

Publications and Work

McNeil is a principal with Muniz/McNeil, a multi-disciplinary design and research practice in Los Angeles. Recent projects include the exhibition “Home Lands: How Women Made the West” at the Autry National Center, and augmented learning environments for the Huntington Library and Gardens in Los Angeles. He has over 20 years of professional design experience and was previously a senior designer at the J. Paul Getty Museum developing over 70 exhibition, signage and interpretive environments. See Tim McNeil’s website for complete information about his current projects and his creative work.

Read the complete text of selected articles on the Publications page of Tim’s website.

Recent peer-reviewed journals, articles and reports:

2008 Greendesignwiki. UC Davis Design Museum.

2009 Green Museum Initiative. California Association of Museums. www.greenmuseums.info

2009 Green Museums Accord. California Association and American Alliance of Museums. www.calmuseums.info/gmi/Accord.html

2009 “Adaptation, Mitigation, Innovation: Greening the Exhibition Experience”. The Exhibitionist Journal, vol. 28, no. 1, pages 29–35. 
American Association of Museums, Spring 2009.

2010 PIC-Green Strategic Plan. American Alliance of Museums.

2010 “Due Diligence”. Society for Environmental Graphic Design Journal, no. 28, pages 68–71, Fall 2010.

2012 “IGNITE: Museums as Catalysts for Environmental Sustainability”. California Association of Museums white paper.

2012 “The Green Museums Accord”. Lord Cultural Resources, Cultural Capital, Spring 2012. 

2013 “The Sculpted City: In Praise of the Dimensional Map”. Environmental Graphics (eg) Journal, no. 6, pages 52–56, Spring 2013. 

Awards

Tim McNeil has been recognized for design excellence by the Society for Environmental Graphic Design, the University and College Designers Association, the American Alliance of Museums and the International Museum Design and Communication Association. 

An authority on environmental sustainability, McNeil chairs the California Association of Museums Green Museum Initiative, is a founder of the Green Museums Accord, and was inducted into the National Environmental Hall of Fame for his design work on the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Santa Monica Environmental Action Center. In 2003, this project held the distinction as the first “green” exhibition and interpretive center in the nations “greenest” LEED platinum certified building.

His award-winning design research has been featured in multiple publications and he is a frequent speaker on museum and design issues.

Teaching

Studio and lecture courses taught at UC Davis include:

DES185 Exhibition Design: cultural and commercial exhibition environments (10 week course)
DES186 Environmental Graphic Design: universal wayfinding and graphic navigational systems (10 week course)
DES187 Narrative Environments: storytelling and multi-sensory exhibition experiences (10 week course)
DES191 Museum Practicum: professional museum standards and exhibition design techniques (10 week internship)
DES SS187 Design in Britain: historical and contemporary survey of British design and multi-sensory environments (4 week full-time course)

(530) 752-2589
Room 129, Cruess Hall
tjmcneil[remove-this-and-replace-with-at]ucdavis.edu
Announcement

Professor Timothy McNeil Receives Merit Award for “The Exhibition and Experience Design Handbook”

Tim McNeil

Professor Timothy J. McNeil was among the winners at the 2024 SEGD Global Design Awards Ceremony recently held in Dallas. McNeil received a Merit Award for his book The Exhibition and Experience Design Handbook.

Announcement

Professor chairs Society of Experiential Graphic Design conference

Tim McNeil

Professor Timothy McNeil is co-chairing the next Exhibition + Experience Design conference organized by the Society of Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD) held in Washington, D.C. June 20-21, 2024. 

Announcement

Students design Davis bike scavenger hunt

Tim McNeil

“The Great Botanic Panic” took place on June 1st and engaged 28 teams of riders from the Davis, Sacramento, and Bay Area communities. 

UC Davis design students in DES187 Narrative Environments taught by Professor Tim McNeil conceptualized, planned, designed, and implemented 9 activity stations around the city. Each station was one of the clues on the hunt and celebrated plants that existed in the Mesozoic Era.

Announcement

Professor McNeil Named a Top 50 Museum Influencer
Blooloop

Tim McNeil

The online publication Blooloop named Professor Tim McNeil among the top 50 museum influencers for 2023. McNeil recently published The Exhibition and Experience Design Handbook, and also was the principal designer of the recent exhibition, “Deborah Butterfield: P.S. These are not horses” at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum.

Announcement

Design Students Create Bike Scavenger Hunt

Tim McNeil

Design students from DES187 Narrative Environments, taught by Professor Tim McNeil, created the 2023 City of Davis Bike Scavenger Hunt that took place on June 3. The student team designed the event identity, clues, and activities.

Announcement

Tim McNeil Publishes “The Exhibition and Experience Design Handbook”

Tim McNeil

A new book by Professor Timothy J McNeil, director of the UC Davis Design Museum, is an insightful guide for creating successful museum and gallery exhibitions, and themed environments.

Exhibition

Guardians
Spirits of Protection
October 4, 2021 – April 24, 2022

Ann Savageau Tim McNeil

“Guardians: Spirits of Protection,” is a poignant exploration of the creative relationship between tragedy and design.

The installation showcases a series of sculptures created by design professor emerita Ann Savageau. Made from found objects and flotsam that washed up on the beach coming from unknown places, the sculptures created by Savageau are composites of the disparate castoffs — in response to the tragic events in her life and to the pandemic.

Announcement

Activate the outdoors to Free the Museum

Tim McNeil

This CALL TO ACTION aims to transform everyday places into sites of engagement by unleashing the skills of museum practitioners into the world around us.

Post

Passion and Perseverance: Exhibit design for the California Museum

Tim McNeil

Based on a yearlong reporting project by Capital Public Radio and developed in collaboration with the California Museum in Sacramento, ”Passion and Perseverance: A Year at Encina” explores how the school reflects California’s shifting demographics, education policies, and residential segregation. Through photographs, videos, Instagram posts, and school artifacts, the exhibition challenges the narrative of low-income schools by highlighting the work of tireless teachers and staff who create a safe and supportive campus culture.

Announcement

Faculty and Students Devise “Cycle-delic Scavenger Hunt”

Tim McNeil

Be a part of “Cycle-delic: Davis Bike Scavenger Hunt,” a public bike scavenger hunt in the City of Davis that celebrates 50 years since the installation of the first bike lane in the U.S. in 1967. The hunt was devised by students from the DES 187 Narrative Environments course in the UC Davis Department of Design under the supervision of Professor Tim McNeil, Teaching Assistant Jennifer Cadieux and City of Davis Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator Jennifer Donofrio.

Announcement

Faculty and Students Participate in “Projecting the Past”

Tim McNeil

To coincide with the Davis Centennial Celebrations, students from the DES 187 Narrative Environments course taught by Professor Tim McNeil and teaching assistant Jennifer Cadieux in the UC Davis Department of Design have created eight projected media interventions for downtown Davis locations. The interventions respond to an historical site and its architectural characteristics, or aspect of the Davis community. Each of the two-­‐minute media projections will engage the general public in stories connected to 100 years of the city of Davis.

Exhibition

Conversations with the City: Pete Scully, Urban Sketcher
September 19 – November 13, 2016

James Housefield Tim McNeil

Pete Scully chronicles daily life by sketching the places, people, and things that surround him. He works swiftly and returns to favorite locations repeatedly. This exhibition displays sketchbook drawings captured in sites as varied as Davis and Scully’s native London, UK, to examine drawing’s power to promote urban interactions.

Announcement

Design Students Aid in Davis City Hall Makeover

Tim McNeil

The Davis Enterprise reports on how UC Davis students in an environmental graphic design program offered concepts for new signage within Davis City Hall. 

Course Description

DES 187: NARRATIVE ENVIRONMENTS (4)
Spring 2015

Tim McNeil

Narrative environments are public spaces that are designed to communicate a story, deliver a message, provide entertainment, create a sense of place, or sell a product. Examples include exhibitions (museum ortradeshow), transaction experiences (store or restaurant), entertainment venues (theater or theme park), or special events (festivals or parties). Designers for these spaces are articulate storytellers who use strategies to engage, inform and entertain multiple audience types.

Course Description

DES185: Exhibition Design (4)
Fall 2015, Winter 2016

Tim McNeil

Exhibition Design is primarily concerned with how to communicate an object led narrative to an audience in an engaging manner. Interpretive strategies using spatial planning, furniture, lighting, images, typography, activities, audio, film and interactive media help to embellish the story. Content is relayed through multiple levels (intellectually as well as participatory) and applied to a variety of environments from museums to trade show exhibits. Teamwork is crucial in the exhibition design process and includes curators, writers, educators and technical specialists.

Course Description

DES186: Environmental Graphic Design (4)
Fall 2015, Winter 2016

Tim McNeil

Environmental Graphic Design (EGD) communicates information in three-dimensional forms and integrates messages into the built and natural environment. These messages are geared towards finding a way from one place to another, identifying a location or a specific destination, or gaining orientation in unfamiliar surroundings. This spatial problem solving process is termed wayfinding. The designer is charged with creating the tools (signs) that facilitate wayfinding, and the physical result of a wayfinding problem is a successfully concluded journey. 

Announcement

DES 185 tackles exhibition design for the new Manetti Shrem Museum
Site Visit

Tim McNeil

With the new Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art rapidly taking shape, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to put the under-construction gallery spaces to the test. Professor Tim McNeil’s exhibition design class is originating exhibition themes and designs that advance an inclusive approach to the display of visual arts. Each student team must collaborate with another non-arts discipline on campus to develop an exhibition, ranging from hydrology to animal science.

Announcement

Designed by Students for Students
Manetti Shrem Museum will feature a range of student-centric furniture

Tim McNeil

Lolling platform mockup takes shape as part of the ongoing design development of furniture pieces for the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. Under the guidance of Professor Tim McNeil, design students Sara Kim, Sydney Patterson and Sam Block helped to detail a range of student-centric custom furniture elements for the new museum. Including seating, tables, soft furnishings and signage pylons. The designs are currently being assessed for production and eventual installation in the museums plaza, lobby and gallery spaces.

Exhibition

Rattled
September 21 – November 20, 2015

Tim McNeil

One of the earliest toys devised for children, baby rattles have evolved over the centuries into a variety of shapes and sizes. They are symbolic of how design responds to socio-economic factors and cultural identity, and represent a design chronology of style, function, sound and materials. This exhibition features over 100 rattles from the important collection of Lu and Maynard Lyndon, the founders and owners of Placewares+LyndonDesign in Gualala, California.

Curated by Lu and Maynard Lyndon and Tim McNeil 

One of the earliest toys devised for children, baby rattles over the centuries have evolved into a variety of shapes made from many materials. We began collecting in 1967. What fascinates us is the seemingly infinite number of forms that people in many cultures have used to produce an object to amuse a child, make a sound, be nice to touch and hold in a small hand that reaches out to explore and grasp. Shaken, the rattle makes perhaps a tinny sound of a bell or perhaps a softer sound of seeds inside. In any case, what results is a smile or maybe a giggle and probably soothed tears—a universal experience. We’ve had great pleasure searching and finding these gems one by one, and now we’re sharing them with you.

—Maynard and Lu Lyndon

Media

Caught in the Middle:
The Reality of Exhibition Designers
Museum Life, Guest Speaker Tim McNeil

Tim McNeil

An upcoming episode of “Museum Life,” hosted by Carol Bossert, will feature Design Professor Tim McNeil, discussing “The Reality of Exhibition Designers.” You can listen online on October 3, 2014 and after that date.

Course Description

DES191: Group Study
Furniture for a Museum of Art

Tim McNeil

191A-D. Workshops in Design (4-12): Seminar—1 hour; studio or field experience—3 hours per unit (units determined by instructor and student); field trip. Prerequisite: course 14, 15; upper division standing and consent of instructor. Faculty initiated workshops featuring advanced studies and applications of original work in Design: (A) Costume; (B) Environment; © Graphics; (D) Textiles. Credit limited to 12 units in one section or a combination of sections. Letter grading by contract. Field trips included.

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