Abstract: With the number of the geological museums increasing year by year,special exhibition becomes more and more important besides permanent display.Special exhibition has many characteristics,such as specialization,conforming to science,interesting character,timeliness and continuity.With the prosperity and development of national culture,a large number of geological museum exhibition designs and contents look similar to each other,and hence it is difficult to attract the audience.Staff members from the Geological Museum of China did research on permanent and special exhibition design of the geological museum.This paper summarizes the principles,processes and elements of exhibition design of the geological museum.In the aspect of the principle of exhibition design,the designer not only needs to know the art of design but also should have geological knowledge.In the aspect of the exhibition design process,the designer should make a plan first,determine the number of exhibits,sort out the outline of the exhibition and then carry out the overall planning and art design,thus finally achieving cooperation and optimization.As for the exhibition design elements,the designer has to pay more attention to the spatial design,exhibits selection,art performance,light design,color design and some other factors.The exhibition designer should highlight the characteristics of geology,create innovative art performance so as to promote the development of the geological museums in China.