Troika was commissioned to create the exhibition identity for the first series of exhibitions within the new Science Museum Arts Projects program (SMAP), including title, poster, ad, leaflet, and signage.
The first exhibition was of Maurice Bloomfield's photography demonstrating a modern vision of Britain at work in the 1950s and 1960s and was running from January to May 2007. Visiting British factories to create his carefully crafted, beautifully lit images of industries such as nylon, insulation and shipbuilding, Broomfield's works present a glamorous and essentially humanistic view of workers and work in British industry during this period. Troika designed signage, invitations as well as the programme and posters for the exhibition.
The commission is an extension of Troika designing the overall visual identity for SMAP carrying on the banner system of the overall identity thus creating a strong yet versatile anchor. See also 'Listening Post'.
Concept
Overcoming the challenge of the Museum and location of the exhibition space the identity required strong signage capable of guiding people to the right place and be able to stand out in the already visually loud, colourful and overloaded environment. Acting on this we took people from photographs and made them interact with the signage. The people signs were then printed as life-size and applied to several places within the museum.
To allow for the maximum use of the photographs we tried to interfere as little as possible with the photographs while using them in as large a scale as possible. To accentuate this we implemented a removable banner system allowing the visitor to keep an un-altered photograph from the exhibition – a tangible souvenir paying homage to the work rather than the institution behind it.
To compliment the space and the feel of the exhibition the title of the exhibition had been blow up and realized in vinyl lettering in the gallery creating a balance to the works exhibited. Continuing the banner concept no exhibits are hung on the title wall, which was painted grey with the 'SMAP' logo running along the wall. Again the photographs were given a clean surface from which to shine while the institution took it’s rightful place as the foundation on which the work was displayed.
