Women at Queen Mary is a major exhibition set in the dramatic Octagon (formerly the library of The People's Palace) at Queen Mary, University of London.
The exhibition celebrates 125 years of women at the college and features rare material from the Queen Mary Archives. DOT were appointed to design and produce the exhibition in May 2007, and the exhibition was opened on October 4th.
We worked very closely with the archive team to produce bold panel designs on a scale to make a big impact in the imposing Victorian venue. At the same time we needed to make sure the panels could be used together or individually at other venues, and we needed to hang the panels in a way that wouldn't fix directly to the structure of the listed building.
36 large format display panels carry visitors around the perimeter of the Octagon exploring five major chronological periods. Each theme features a large portrait of a major figure in Women's history, and each is narrative is brought to life in dramatisations and interviews available through easy to use touchscreen listening posts. The displays feature around 150 reproductions of photographs, paintings, documents and literature from the Queen Mary archives, and a video and screensavers on the listening posts bring life to many more images. Display cases feature sports uniforms, delicate embroidries and archive publications against archive-illustrated backdrops.
DOT designed the exhibition identity around a Venus symbol created from a capital Q with an M communicating Women at QM. The result is an effective wordmark that has been very well received by students, staff and alumni.
The exhibition runs to 20th December 2007. Find out more at the Women at Queen Mary exhibition website.
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