Design Museum — Designs of the Year

2010 — Exhibition Design / Art Direction / Book Design

In 2011 Multistorey worked with Robert Green to design the graphic elements of the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year exhibition at London’s Design Museum, featuring the year’s highlights from all the design disciplines. Working within fairly rigid brand guidelines, our design remit included all signage, wayfaring and captioning within the exhibition space, the accompanying catalogue, invitations and screen-based marketing material. Working alongside David Kohn Architects, our aim was to cohesively integrate the spatial, structural and graphic elements of the show. DKA’s elegant cubic plinth system created a visually lightweight, undulating landscape that flowed invitingly around the gallery. To offset the neutral tones and rigidity of the wire-frame-like structure, we created large fabric banners that were slung over a network of high tensile wires suspended from the ceiling. The vibrant canvases were painstakingly hand-printed, and accompanied by hook-on credit tabs, constructed from printed linen traditionally bookbound onto their rigid core. This texture was carried onto the plinth tops and the printed material, creating a tactile link to all elements.

We created and photographed an abstracted miniature model of the cubic display system, to be used in various formations for the catalogue covers and dividers, and as a playful backdrop to the typography. The logotype and font were overhauled to more closely echo the Design Museum’s branding.