Jake Barton

Jake Barton (born November 7, 1972 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American designer, and the Principal and Founder of Local Projects, an experience design and strategy firm for museums, brands and public spaces based in New York, NY. His work focuses on storytelling and engaging audiences through emotion and technology.
As the head of the Media Design team for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum,Barton 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.
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, Local Projects is creating a next generation application around experiencing physics on the playground, and is working with Frank Gehry on the Eisenhower Memorial in Washington D.C.

Barton was named by Crain’s as one of the Top Entrepreneurs of 2013, and his company, Local Projects, has won awards such as the National Design Award for Interaction Design in 2013, the AIGA Design Competition for Effective Design in 2013 and multiple MUSE Awards in 2013.
Jake has spoken about visitor participation in museums and “The Museum of You” and is credited with bringing emotional storytelling and innovation to architecture. Jake has partnered with architects such as Frank Gehry, Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Bjarke Ingels to create new approaches in media and physical spaces.
In college Barton majored in performance studies (Bachelor in Science of Speech) at Northwestern University in Chicago. 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. 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.

• "'Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum", 2014
• "National September 11th Memorial Museum", 2014
• "Frank Gehry designed Eisenhower Presidential Memorial", Present
• "Gallery One, Cleveland Museum of Art", 2013
• "Spotlight on Broadway, NYC Mayor’s Office of Movies & Entertainment", 2013
• "BIG HEART NYC, Times Square Alliance", 2012
• "Welcome Home, National Building Museum", 2012
• "Six Films, National Building Museum", 2012
• "SeaWorld Rescue, Seaworld San Diego", 2012
• "9/11 Memorial Names Arrangement Software, 9/11 Memorial", 2011
• "Change By Us, CEOs For Cities, Local Projects", 2011
• "9/11 Memorial Guide, 9/11 Memorial", 2011
• "The Immigration Experience, It’s Your Story, Innovation and Expansion, The Synagogue Experience, Competing Visions, Contemporary Issues Forum, Dreams of Freedom, National Museum of American Jewish History", 2010
• "Urbanology, BMW/ Guggenheim Lab", 2011
• "GE Showcase, GE", 2010
• "StoryCorps, StoryCorps", 2002

• "Renovating the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum". New York Times Online. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "New Museum Uses Algorithms To Visualize How 9/11 Still Shapes The World". Fast Company Design. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "'Reflecting on 9/11' at Sept. 11 Memorial Museum". AOL On News. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "Panel introduces education videos promoting Eisenhower Memorial". WashingtonPost.com. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "Eisenhower Memorial to include high-tech features". CNS News.com. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "Gallery One: Collaborators". ClevelandArt.com. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "NYC Plastic Heart Glows With Love". ABCNews.com. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "Seaworld Rescue". LocalProjects.net. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "Seaworld San Diego". LocalProjects.net. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "The Near-Impossible Challenge of Designing the 9/11 Museum". Wired.com. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "The Immigration Experience". LocalProjects.net. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "It's Your Story". LocalProjects.net. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "Innovation and Expansion". LocalProjects.net. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "The Synagogue Experience". LocalProjects.net. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "Competing Visions". LocalProjects.net. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "Contemporary Issues Forum". LocalProjects.net. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "Dreams of Freedom". LocalProjects.net. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "National Museum of American Jewish History". LocalProjects.net. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "Urbanology". LocalProjects.net. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "BMW/ Guggenheim Lab". LocalProjects.net. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "GE Showcase". LocalProjects.net. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "GE". LocalProjects.net. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 
• "Story Corps". LocalProjects.net. Retrieved 2014-08-19. 

• TED: Jake Barton: The museum of you Published on Sep 10, 2013
• TEDxHarlem: What Change Looks Like on Jul 27, 2012
• LISA Conference 2012
• Cooper Hewitt: Collaborative storytelling, museums, and design in this video from Cooper-Hewitt.
• Future of Storytelling Talk

• Inside the Tech of the 9/11 Memorial Museum Jul 8, 2014
• Interview Jake about Cleveland Museum of Art 2013
• Jake Barton accepted the National Design Award in Interaction Design for 2013 on behalf of Local Projects
• Story(Us): The Power of Collaborative Storytelling: Jake Barton for the Future of StoryTelling 2012
• Design Matters Podcast with Debbie Millman: Jake Barton
• Emerging Designer: Jake Barton Dwell Feb 28, 2008