Hairy Museum of Natural History

The Hairy Museum is great fun, but as an institution it is nowhere near solvent enough to support even a single employee. Luckily, I get to apply my meager talents, pursue my interests, and collect a paycheck by working a day job in the Exhibits Department of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.

I am one of the Graphic Designers employed by that august institution, and my primary duty is designing, illustrating, and producing signs and labels for the Museum’s exhibits. It’s a great fit for me—all my training is in art and design. I’ve no formal education in the sciences, but fairly early on in my career I discovered I had a real passion for learning and retelling stories about the history of life on this planet. The HMNH was set up as a means to pursue that passion, and working at the NMMNH&S gives me a chance to be involved in a larger part of that grand storytelling tradition.

Why bring this up now? Well, part of my duties at the NMMNH&S is working on the look and feel of the Museum website, and today we went live with a brand new redesign. There are still some issues to address in incorporating the new style sheet on some of the older pages, but hopefully the new front page will make it easier for web users to find out what’s happening at the Museum and plan their visit accordingly.

There is a ton of information on the site that has accumulated over the past decade—I’d recommend the writeup of the New Mexico’s Seacoast Exhibit, articles on New Mexico Dinosaurs and Dinosaur Tracks, the call of Parasaurolophus, an in-depth look at New Mexico’s Volcanoes, downloadable publications, and the resources collected at NMfossils.org.

—Matt Celeskey.

File under: The Day Job.