Exhibit Builder Magazine

In traditional museum exhibits, graphic design is relegated to small lines of text on object labels or on information panels and maybe a gallery name sign or two. The written information is nicely organized, neutral and barely out of the way. Often the text is minimal and has a “just the facts” sense. Or, conversely, the copy is a long, uninterrupted narrative set in too small a font with nary an illustration in sight. And, in spite of curators’ statements to the contrary, no one but the most committed visitor is actually expected to read the copy – and few do.

While this approach may be just fine in a room full of compelling historic artifacts, many of today’s museum topics and displays need more – a lot more. Nowadays, the humble object label has evolved into not only a designed element in its own right but frequently has exploded to become the wall itself, or the ceiling, or even the floor. Large-scale, seamless “super graphics” of typography, images and colors are transforming interpretive information into rich and compelling spaces – the graphics are defining the environment. The visitor is actually inside the information.

Five primary factors are propelling this graphics-driven trend.

Where a landscape painting in a decorative frame can start the viewer imagining himself in the portrayed environment, a floor-to-ceiling or wall-to-wall mural of that same image heightens the effect. The edges or limits of the scene seem to fall away, as if viewing the landscape itself – actually being there. Museum planners are always talking about ‘immersive’ design – placing the visitor literally within an illusionary space that supports the theme or story. This immersive environment can be artfully established by transforming walls, ceiling and even the floor with carefully selected and cropped photomurals.

At Top of the Rock, the visitor center at Rockefeller Center [Exhibit Builder Magazine, July/August 2006 issue], patrons cringe as they walk along a steel beam ‘suspended’ a thousand feet above the street. This unnerving effect is based simply on a cleverly used large historic photograph from the building’s construction. For Faster, a drag racing exhibit at NHRA Motor Sports Museum in Pomona, CA, Hunt Design captured the sense of speed and power of a dragster with a super graphic blow-up that dominates the entire wall of the exhibit.

The creative juxtaposition of otherwise simple, large two-dimensional flats can result in compelling three-dimensional compositions. Illusions of rich sculptural forms emerge when the original flat image is de-constructed printed on several panels and then reconstructed in space. In Once Upon A Time: Exploring the World of Fairy Tales, a 5,000 square foot traveling show, kids and their parents navigate through a series of freestanding displays, each composed of flat cut outs arranged to simulate three dimensions. A careful use of actual three-dimensional objects completes the scene.

Creating a sense of three dimensions with two-dimensional media is not new. Classic proscenium format stage productions have for more than three centuries used cleverly framed cutouts of flat scenery elements to simulate rich and textural environments. In the seventeenth century, wealthy people had illusionary amusement boxes made up of many layers of flat images that, when viewed from the front, aligned to form entire forests or city scenes.

The economical technique is not unlike the time-tested illusion seen in pop-up books. The viewer instantly ‘buys in’ to the effect and ‘accepts’ the scene as a three-dimensional presentation. The edges, or imageless side views of the flats, are ‘forgiven’ by the viewer – in fact, the emergence of the image as the viewer moves from side to front of the scene is engaging, often more so than a full sculptural image, for example, repeating flats that suggest landscape, trees and shrubbery in Once Upon a Time.

The upscale, brand-oriented retail design of leading edge stores like Nike and Apple are heavily influenced by museum design. Now, in an ironic counter trend, museums are stealing back this graphics-driven look and display approach. A typical new exhibit might integrate large illustrative graphics into the displays, often combining interpretive text with scenic and descriptive photographs. Dense, mural-like info walls provide counterpoint for single objects and artifacts. A recent display at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl Museum is dominated by large blow-ups of historic images over-layered with translucent acrylic caption panels.

The new Electropolis exhibit, at El Museo Tecnologico de la Comision Federeal de Electricidad in Mexico City, contrasts colorful information-bearing walls with jewel-like artifact display. The bold super-graphics define and title the individual spaces with energized layouts and forms. Often, small dimensional displays are built into the wall, an ironic twist on the old ‘label on the artifact’ approach.

Sequence-Free Information

Just as the Internet freed us from the fixed page sequence of books, free-form display graphics can loosen up the structure in an exhibit with bold information that reads across spaces. Viewers unconsciously choose from a series of visual units – small screens, photographs or graphic images – that work as starting points leading to more detailed information, but in viewer-selected order.

The ability to deliver information in any kind of space – not just museums – is leading a variety of destinations to tell their stories using this diverse palette of graphics media. Formerly modest displays in libraries, hospitals and civic buildings become dramatic and compelling when executed with graphics media. In Hunt Design’s new ‘welcome wall’ at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital, static and digital graphics and stories come to life in a free-flowing composition without a beginning or end – the viewer ‘self-navigates’ through the information. The information and stories work from a distance, up close and in any order. Static graphics, video and lenticular images have been designed into a rich, but accessible, composition. Guests can access as much or as little of the exhibit as they want or have time for.

In Genome, the Science of Life, an evergreen traveling show designed by Fricker Studios, Lakeport, CA, and Hunt Design, many of the exhibit forms are layered with digital graphics reinforcing the subject matter. Walls and doorways are wallpapered with engaging graphic textures that support the story lines. Interactive kiosks, a staple of museum exhibits, need not be in generic cabinets - the electronics can be packaged in digitally decorated structures, further establishing themes and story lines. And again, visitors can circulate in their own way.

While permanent exhibits made of wood and glass display cases are still a staple of museums, fewer and fewer museums can afford to mount such costly shows. Increasingly, two or more museums are pooling resources and authoring traveling exhibits about topical subjects. And entrepreneurial companies have emerged to produce, author and own exhibits that are ‘leased’ to museums – after four to six ‘stops’ an exhibit will have likely recovered the initial investment.

Demounting, moving and reinstalling are part and parcel to the traveling show, so lightweight components are a must. One of the most weight-efficient techniques is to use graphic design to tell a large part of the story. An excellent example of the graphics-driven lightweight traveling show is Evergreen Exhibitions’ (San Antonio, TX) successful Chicano Now! American Expressions [Exhibit Builder Magazine, July/August 2002 issue], now at its twelfth museum since debuting in 2003. In this colorful show, rich floor-to-ceiling graphics define and create the spaces.

A large digital panel can create a powerful effect without a lot of complex or heavy structure. Lettering and images may be very large and have great impact, while the panel itself may be very light. With creative design and planning, entire scenes can be set with digitally printed backgrounds. Selective use of three-dimensional objects and fixtures completes the space. In Space-a Journey to our Future, the design team integrated large digital graphics with artifacts, limited cabinetry and sculptural sets to deliver a dramatic and immersive visitor experience. This 10,000 square foot exhibit breaks down into small components for shipping and re-installation.

Today, top digital printing companies can print large high-resolution images on nearly any substrate, from gauze-like fabrics to corrugated plastic. Images can wrap around corners, activate surfaces with compound curves and are free from the limits of flat panels and picture frames. Colorful pictorial banners of nearly any length might be draped down over three floors in the lobby of a traditional museum or be ceiling-mounted as a wayfinding tool.

Images can be bright and aggressive or subtle and mood-setting. Lighting, from in front or behind, can further enhance the effects. Hard surfaces may provide huge floor-to-ceiling scenic back drops while printing onto free-hanging drapery might suggest transforming and energizing spaces. Translucent media can receive digital images, resulting in illusionary effects.

Even the floor or ground plane is an opportunity to communicate. The high-durability marketing graphics now seen in super markets can be used in museums to sell not soap, but to provide interpretive information. Digital printing works on carpets, too. At Intersections of South Central, an exhibit at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles, Hunt Design enlarged a map of Los Angeles onto a 200 square foot carpet. Visitors are encouraged to walk on the map and the reference locations of adjacent wall displays. Resolution on pile carpeting is not high, but the effect is engaging and very popular with guests.

Digital media is evolving at a rapid rate – who knows what we’ll be printing on next. What we do know is that the information age spins out new technology and experiences and exhibits need to keep up. As more kinds of places are telling their stories by means of exhibit and interpretive techniques, the role of graphic design in exhibits will only increase.

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Wayne Hunt is one of the environmental graphic design industry’s leading authorities in exhibition design. A recipient of numerous national and international honorary awards and author of numerous articles and books on graphic design’s role in architectural environments, Hunt Design has created more than 40 exhibits nationwide.

Exhibit Credits

Intersections of South Central – Hunt Design for the California African American Museum

Space: A Journey to Our Future – Hunt Design with Clear Channel Exhibitions, a division of Evergreen, and Rick Goodwin Design, Oakland, CA

Once Upon a Time ... Exploring the World of Fairy Tales – Hunt Design with Stacy King, St. Louis, MO, and Fricker Studios.

Electropolis – Hunt Design with Stacy King and Fricker Studio for MUTEC, Mexico City

Faster – Hunt Design for the NHRA Motorsports Museum

Genome: The Secret of How Life Works – Hunt Design with Clear Channel Exhibitions

Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA - Welcome Wall – Hunt Design with Electrosonic, Burbank, CA.