Jacob ("Jake") Barton (born November 7, 1972, in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

) is an American

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exper ...

, and Founder of Local Projects, an experience design firm for museums, brands and public spaces based in New York, New York. His work focuses on storytelling and engaging audiences through emotion and technology.

Early career

In college, Jake Barton majored in performance studies (Bachelor in Science of Speech) at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. After graduating, he first worked doing set design work on Broadway productions. Eventually Barton started as an intern at the museum design firm,

Ralph Appelbaum Associates Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA) is one of the world's longest-established and largest museum exhibition design firms with offices in New York City, London, Beijing, Berlin, Moscow, and Dubai.Bradford A. McKee, What's a Museum: What he says it i ...

. Working his way up, he eventually stayed at the company for seven years, and then in 2001 he left his job at Appelbaum and started graduate school at New York University, for a M.P.S. Interactive Telecommunications. He simultaneously launched Local Projects as a design firm for museums and public spaces.

Local projects

Barton was named by Crain's as one of the Top Entrepreneurs of 2013, and his company, Local Projects, which he founded in 2002, has won awards such as the

National Design Awards The American National Design Awards, founded in 2000, are various awards funded and bestowed by the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. There are seven official design categories, and three additional awards when applicable. Any supplement ...

for Interaction Design in 2013, the AIGA Design Competition for Effective Design in 2013 and multiple MUSE Awards in 2013. Barton's work touches on the overlap of physical and digital, creating a range of applications for museums, education, architecture, and memorials. For the

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be List of wealthiest charitable foundations, the third largest char ...

, Local Projects created a next-generation application around experiencing physics on the playground, and has worked with

Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry ( ; ; born February 28, 1929) is a Canadian-American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become attractions. Gehry rose to prominence in th ...

on the

Eisenhower Memorial The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial is a United States presidential memorial in Washington, D.C. honoring Dwight David Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during World War II and the 34th president of the United Stat ...

in Washington, D.C. As the head of Media Design for the

National September 11 Memorial & Museum The National September 11 Memorial & Museum (also known as the 9/11 Memorial & Museum) is a memorial and museum that are part of the World Trade Center complex, in New York City, created for remembering the September 11 attacks in 2001 which k ...

, Local Projects led a team of designers to create multi-media experiences that focus on using visitor's own stories as well as the use of algorithms to curate up-to-the moment journalism around the post 9/11 world. During his time working with the 9/11 Memorial, he also led a team, in partnership with Jer Thorp, to create an algorithm that solved the names arrangement on the panels. The names are not listed alphabetically or chronologically, but through personal relationships between the victims themselves. Jake has spoken about visitor participation in museums and "The Museum of You", and Local Projects credited with bringing emotional storytelling and innovation to architecture. Local Projects has partnered with architects such as Frank Gehry, Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Bjarke Ingels to create new approaches in media and physical spaces. In March 2019, Local Projects was sold to MTM, an independent network dedicated to creating value between people and brands.

Works

References

External links

*
TED Talk: Jake Barton: The museum of you (TEDSalon NY2013)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barton, Jake 1972 births Living people Designers from Brooklyn Tisch School of the Arts alumni Northwestern University School of Communication alumni American designers Museum designers Exhibition designers

Early career

Local projects

Works

See also

References

External links