Joe Donovan is a Senior Exhibit Designer at Ideum specializing in experiential and interactive design. He has designed exhibits and experiences for The Historic New Orleans Collection, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Mizrahi Developments, and has worked on multiple research and development projects, including "Exploring Pueblo Pottery," winner of a Merit Award from the Society of Experiential Graphic Design. Joe is currently leading the exhibit and experience design of the new penguin habitat at the Albuquerque BioPark, opening April 2019, which will invite visitors to place themselves in the boots of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic researchers, and embark on their own expedition of discovery to learn about the diverse environments, food webs, and changing climate of penguin habitats.

Joe Donovan's design focus centers around a "story first" approach, where media and technological mediums are subservient to narrative. Joe believes providing visitors with an emotional and psychological connection to the content of an experience is paramount, and the intentionality of any exhibit or experience should be driven by hiding the presence of technology and medium, and refocusing the visitor's attention on the storytelling, in order to create a suspension of disbelief and lasting memory.

In his spare time, Joe Donovan enjoys music composition and soundtrack production, as well as 3D art, filmmaking, and visual effects. Joe has a BA in both Music and Literature from Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida.

See Joe Donovan's work at Ideum.