Exhibition designer stack
Exhibitions, visitor journeys, narrative devices, signage, labels, display cases and cultural production.
- Selection
- 15 5 optional
- Target budget
- $112 per month
- Profile
- Structuring business stage
Which tool does what?
Core workflow
SketchUp Pro
Useful in this role workflow to produce, approve, or deliver more cleanly.Core workflow
Vectorworks
Useful in this role workflow to produce, approve, or deliver more cleanly.Core workflow
AutoCAD
Useful in this role workflow to produce, approve, or deliver more cleanly.Production
Rhino
Useful in this role workflow to produce, approve, or deliver more cleanly.Production
D5 Render
Useful in this role workflow to produce, approve, or deliver more cleanly.Production
Adobe Illustrator
Useful in this role workflow to produce, approve, or deliver more cleanly.Production
Adobe InDesign
Useful in this role workflow to produce, approve, or deliver more cleanly.Production
Adobe Photoshop
Useful in this role workflow to produce, approve, or deliver more cleanly.Support / finish
Miro
Useful in this role workflow to produce, approve, or deliver more cleanly.
Support / finishNotion
Useful in this role workflow to produce, approve, or deliver more cleanly.
Support / finishIf neededGoogle Drive
Useful in this role workflow to produce, approve, or deliver more cleanly.Support / finishIf needed
Profile Builder 3
Useful in this role workflow to produce, approve, or deliver more cleanly.Support / finishIf needed
Transmutr
Useful in this role workflow to produce, approve, or deliver more cleanly.
Support / finishIf neededChatGPT
Useful in this role workflow to produce, approve, or deliver more cleanly.Support / finishIf needed
Krea AI
Useful in this role workflow to produce, approve, or deliver more cleanly.
Why these tools together?
This stack serves a precise role: Exhibitions, visitor journeys, narrative devices, signage, labels, display cases and cultural production. The right choice is not to own every tool, but to keep a clear chain between research, production, approval, and delivery.
A good fit if…
Exhibitions, visitor journeys, narrative devices, signage, labels, display cases and cultural production.
Look elsewhere if…
You do not yet have a recurring deliverable or client workflow to structure.
Source of truth
The brief, source files, exports and decisions have to stay connected.
Reliable production
The core tools should cover 80% of the work without piling up duplicates.
Clear sign-off
The client has to be able to approve a version, a budget or a direction without ambiguity.
What should you budget?
Rhino$1,159
AutoCAD$222
SketchUp Pro$33
D5 Render$30
Adobe Illustrator$23
Adobe InDesign$23
Adobe Photoshop$20
Notion$11Miro$9
VectorworksNot public
Google Driveoptional$2Profile Builder 3optionalVaries
Transmutroptional$12
ChatGPToptional$20Krea AIoptional$5
The target budget is the recommended starting envelope. The list price adds up each core tool's first paid plan, excluding 1 tool without a fixed price. Optional tools are not included.
What to watch out for
Stacking creative tools without connecting brief, production, approval, delivery, and billing.
Dormant subscriptions
A premium creative tool should map to something you invoice.
Scattered assets
Without organisation, references and source files become impossible to maintain.
AI without intent
AI should speed up a direction, not replace professional judgement.
Recurring volume
The stack pays for itself once the deliverable comes round several times a month.
Several stakeholders
Add collaboration, feedback or a DAM once feedback and assets start scattering.
Questions to ask yourself
Is the final deliverable clearly tied back to the original brief?
If not, the project has no single source of truth.
Does each tool play a distinct role in the chain?
If two tools do the same job, one of them should be conditional.
Does the client know what to approve, and where?
If not, feedback will generate avoidable back and forth.