NMAAHC: 5th Anniversary & The Living History Campaign
Role: Lead Designer / Design Director
Award: MarCom, Gold
To mark the fifth anniversary of the Smithsonian NMAAHC, I led the design of a high-impact campaign that honored inaugural donors while signaling the museum’s future vision. The work was conceived as a strategic bridge that celebrated a half-decade of monumental impact while building the visual momentum necessary for a subsequent comprehensive capital campaign.
The centerpiece of the strategy was a MarCom Gold Award-winning full-page advertisement in the New York Times. The ad's composition was built entirely from the names of the museum's donors; their collective identity literally forms the visual of the museum’s iconic three-tiered corona. This design choice served a dual purpose: it reinforced the institutional brand through the museum's unique architectural silhouette, while allowing donors to see that they are, quite literally, the foundation that "makes" the museum. By balancing this typographic rigor with the gravity of a national landmark, I ensured the anniversary felt like a visceral, living narrative.