Design for museums & exhibitions

We provide a comprehensive end-to-end design and production service for museums and exhibitions, beginning with branding, working through concept and content production to installation on site and promotion and support in print and online.

Branding
We can help develop themes and positioning that communicate the concept clearly and give the project a clear identity.



Well-positioned branding provides a strong visual identity and a design framework that means quicker design development for graphics, multimedia and promotional material from the start of the project. It helps give the team a focus at the very earliest stages, for instance when you're securing HLF funding.



We work with the team to design the visual identity, then provide digital artwork and straightforward guidance for use of logos, typography, photography and colour palettes. This makes the design process quicker and means the exhibition team, 3rd party suppliers and press can all apply the identity quickly and consistently in any medium.

Visualisations and plans
It's often useful to photograph the exhibition space and prepare photographic mockups of how the design will work. Our outline design plans and photorealistic visuals are often used as stimulus to explore ideas. They bring bid documents to life, quickly communicating the ideas behind the design.



Content production
We work closely with curators, archivists, researchers, museum officers and education specialists to gather and shape the exhibition content. We can help digitise and photograph archive material, and secure support material from external sources to produce highly relevant and engaging content.



We provide easy-to-use online tools for asset management so team members can upload and manage copy, images, audio and video and review work in progress over the internet.

Displays and graphic design
We can help lay out and dress display cabinets to show off exhibits at their best. Aesthetics and clarity of labelling go hand in hand with environmental sustainabiliity and security.



Graphical displays, signage and labelling are designed in keeping with the venue and (working with visual identity guidelines) styled to sit seamlessly alongside display cases, digital and interactive exhibits and printed material. Layout is designed to communicate content clearly, accessibly and confidently. Artwork is produced and delivered digitally, allowing us to work with the most appropriate production house for each project.

Hands-on interactives
Entertaining low-tech interactives provide a practical hands-on illustration that makes otherwise abstract concepts easier to understand. We work with skilled craftspeople to produce durable, uncomplicated, safe exhibits.



Schools
We design resources for schools that make visits more fun for children and provide structure for teachers that relate directly to specific stages of the National Curriculum. Resources can be used before, during and after a visit to get the most from the experience.




Mutimedia
We bring archive photography and printed materials to life with subtle photoanimation. We script and shoot video and audio, and conduct interviews, capturing memories for oral history exhibitions, or bringing charaters to life through dramatisation. We can illustrate and animate complex processes and sequences to make them acessible and easy to understand.




We design intuitive interfaces for touchscreen-driven multimedia, creating games and quizzes to add another dimension to interpretation. Our installations are extremely robust, delivered using highly cost-effective and reliable hardware that requires little or no attention from exhibition staff. We design with the audience in mind, talioring the content and means of delivery to provide maximum enjoyment for users and minimum intrusion for others.

Web design and development
Web content can be developed to publicise an exhibition and encourage people to visit in person. Digital content can also be developed to provide virual exhibits and interactives that extend accessibility and give an exhibition a life after they have closed. An exhibition web site (or pages on your main web site) is also a highly effective medium for inviting contributions to from the public.



Over the longer term, interaction through a web site can help you build a relationship with your vsitiors, and can allow visitors to add their own interpretation to exhibits.

Promotional print
Digital assets can be readily re-purposed for use in print to help promote an exhibition, or to produce an exhibition programme.



Working with the visual identity guidelines, posters, postcards, invitations and adverts can be quickly and cost-effectively produced to help you raise awareness, and to give your visitors something tangible to take away.



If you'd like to discuss a museum or exhibition project, please call Peter Warren on +44 (0)1273 477700

See also:
Anthony Caro exhibition
Living in Kent CDROM
Motorboat museum
Southwark Discovery Centre
Florence Nightingale Museum
Women at Queen Mary