Consistency as a property of visual identification of the exhibition

Sonina Ol'ga Eduardovna Postgraduate student, Department of History and Theory of Design and Media Communications, St. Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design 191186, Russia, g. Saint Petersburg, ul. Bol'shaya Morskaya, 18 olga_sonina@list.ru Other publications by this author

Vilchinskaya-Butenko Marina Eduardovna PhD in Pedagogy Associate Professor, Department of History and Theory of Design and Media Communications, St. Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design 191186, Russia, g. Saint Petersburg, ul. Bol'shaya Morskaya, 18 marina.gutd@gmail.com

The exhibition exposition today is traditionally understood as a platform for interaction and exchange of information between viewers, exhibits, organizers and space. This interaction often begins long before the opening of the exhibition and can continue after the completion of its work through the use of various channels of information transmission — printed publications (catalogs, booklets), mass media, social networks, etc. The task of attracting a larger audience has led to the widespread use of marketing tools by cultural and leisure institutions to promote and popularize exhibition projects. Museums, galleries, exhibition centers today pay great attention to visual identification (identity), that is, they build a system where all elements, from the logo, printing products, website to the design of the expositions space are interconnected and represent a single complex. Within the framework of this article, the authors set the task of generalizing the experience of identifying exhibition projects and identifying the specifics of designing an exhibition identity.

Despite the fact that the identity of modern cultural institutions has been the subject of numerous studies in recent years (D.R. Aksyanova, E.A. Bezrukova, S.S. Koretskaya, V.A. Stolyarova, S.Y. Mikhailova, K.S. Susarova, N.L. Shitova, Abbasov I.B., Sanchez K., etc.) ^[1-6], in there is no unambiguous opinion in the scientific literature about what factors influence the formation of the visual identification system of the exhibition. Within the framework of consideration of this subject field, the work of L. Uusitalo and S. Pusa is of the greatest interest, in which the experience of designing identity for museums in Finland is analyzed. The basis of visual identification, according to L. Uusitalo and S. Pusa, can be the "main products" of the museum, such as collections and exhibitions; key figures — artists or museum manager; symbols, such as visual images, metaphors, the name of the museum, buildings and architecture; the museum organization itself – its values, professionalism, style management and network associations ^[7]. Relying on the structure of the museum's visual identification proposed by L. Uusitalo and S. Pusa makes it possible to identify the patterns of the development of the exhibition identity, taking into account the specifics of the exhibition as a special event.

First of all, the exhibition is an operational form of exposition activity, and not necessarily a museum one. Consequently, the image of the site where the exhibition project is located does not apply to it. As a result, the exhibition can be organized anywhere: at the airport, at a metro station, in a library, in a shopping center, at a public transport stop, as well as on the World Wide Web. If, in the case of designing an identity for the museum space, as L. Uusitalo and S. Pusa note, the museum organization itself can become the basis of visual communication, then the increasing number of exhibition projects and great competition between them further dictate the need to develop their own visual identification system that would cover both the exhibition space itself, physical or virtual, and a variety of media about him. In this regard, we can note the steady trend of recent decades: the design of the exhibition and accompanying materials as a single system. An integrated approach allows the organizers to build advertising companies accompanying exhibition projects in a new way. An important aspect here is the expansion of the capabilities of advertising media about the exhibition project and the use of new information transmission channels.

One of the successful examples of the implementation of such a company can be considered the exhibition "Shchukin. Biography of the collection", which was held at the Pushkin Museum in 2019. To create a visual identification system, various media were used: the design of a branded metro train was developed, a series of Troika cards was issued together with Sberbank, a souvenir collection was created, which included accessories from the fashionable young brand Mappa (umbrellas, shawls and travel kits), a tea series from the company "Grass", a jewelry collection from Say More, items created by the Good Local brand team (waist bags and pencil cases), etc. The main motive of all advertising media were elements of famous Impressionist paintings from among those exhibited at the exhibition, as well as drawings of fabrics produced at S. Shchukin's factory. These drawings were also transferred by the authors of the project Kirill Ass and Nadia Korbut to long vertical canvases inscribed in the architectural space of the Pushkin Museum and accompanying visitors throughout the exhibition. A recognizable element of the graphic design was Natalia Toropitsyna's calligraphy, which was used not only for the name of the exhibition, which appears on all advertising media, but also on the explanatory texts of the exposition. In this case, the authors of the exposition took the path of complicating the visual elements of identity – one of the most common approaches in modern design. According to P. Rodkin, "structural shaping in modern identity, even within the framework of one stylistic solution, can be based on different principles. One of these equally common approaches is the complication and simplification of the visual language that determines the plastic and semantic qualities of the logo. Complication and simplification cannot be called methods in the proper sense, but these types of shaping can be quite clearly traced in modern design" ^{[8, p.16]}. 

Secondly, speaking about the features of the visual identification system of the exhibition, it is necessary to highlight such specific features of the exhibition project as its democratic nature and orientation to a wide audience. Since the World Exhibitions of the late XIX century ^[9], the organizers considered the purpose of any exhibition to expand the audience and attract more attention to it. Accordingly, we can again talk about an integrated approach in the design of the visual identification of the exhibition, which would allow us to cover all media, both internal, located in the exhibition space itself (design elements, information stands, labels), and external, necessary for the promotion of the project (leaflets, posters, booklets, souvenirs, website, mobile application, etc.).

This list has been constantly expanding for more than a hundred years: the first media of information about exhibitions were advertisements in newspapers and magazines, posters and catalogs, originally representing printed publications, where the authors of the exhibited works, the names of the works and brief descriptions were indicated. At the turn of the XIX – XX centuries, artists did not use images of specific objects of the exhibition, trying to convey the theme through abstract images, making extensive use of the possibilities of font compositions, ornament and traditional techniques characteristic of book art – ornamental decor, axial symmetry, drawing details, laconic color scheme. This was also due to the fact that the culture of transferring photographic images to advertising media was not widespread. To advertise works of art, the same attractive images were used as for the sale of consumer goods, most often – young girls. Thus, the connection between the objects of the exhibition and the visual means of the exhibition posters was absent or represented a kind of metaphorical image. Russian Russian and Finnish artists, for example, K.A. Somov created a poster for an exhibition of Russian and Finnish artists in 1898 in St. Petersburg, which depicted two female figures personifying the Finnish and Russian national schools.

The active development of technology and the emergence of the aesthetics of functionalism at the beginning of the XX century radically changed the visual environment of the exhibition space, and, of course, information media about it. One of the first to propose the idea of compositional and conceptual unity was El Lisitsky, who developed the exposition of the Soviet pavilion at the Press exhibition in 1928 in Cologne. The catalog was a logical continuation of the rhythmic construction of the composition of the pavilion hall, the semantic center of which was a frieze of 24x3.5 meters. Photomontage has become the main artistic technique of building an exhibition and catalog. The history of the formation of the Soviet press was represented by a combination of photographs of various scales, dynamics, angles, and content in the form of a transformer book by El Lisitsky, who deliberately abandoned the classic book format.

The unity of spatial and planar solutions can also be seen in the catalog of Herbert Bayer, created for the exhibition of the German Werkbund (German Section) at the Paris Grand Palais in 1930. The purpose of the exhibition was to show the achievements of the Bauhaus in German industrial production and innovative solutions in architecture and design. The cover clearly shows the relationship between the catalog and the exhibition, and also indicates the approaches common to both. A convenient pocket format with a dust jacket made of plastic (a completely new material for this period), the catalog was at the same time a guide, contained a general plan of the exposition and individual halls. For the first time, a technique was used in which the arrows indicated the direction of movement of visitors, there were explanatory texts in German and French with a description of the exhibits. It was natural for the authors of the exposition that both the exhibition and the catalog are a single tool for transmitting information. The printed page was considered as a space, not a surface on which the compositional finds of the exposition were partially repeated: the rhythmic repetition of the exhibits, the arrangement of images at different angles. With this technique, the viewer was offered the same emotional environment as in the space of a real exhibition. The catalog became an interpretation of the exhibition space – each spread had a unique dynamic composition. Photographs of individual exhibits and entire halls have become dominant. Another design element is axonometric constructions of interiors and individual objects. It was they who were able to convey an innovative design for that time. One of the spreads depicts partitions, pedestals and showcases designed by L. Mokhoy-Nadem specifically for the exhibition, which were both exhibits and used for their intended purpose ^[10]. The drawing showed the construction scheme and the components of the structures. The catalog of G. Bayer not only built a close connection with the exhibition, which was typical for such events, but also "freed" the catalog from the exhibition, ensuring its independent value for a long time after the closing of the exposition. The poster for the German section was also designed by G. Bayer, printed in chromolithography technique using the Akzidenz-Grotesk font, characteristic of the Bauhaus masters.  In the center, a tiny human figure was depicted under a huge white sphere casting a shadow on a white plane resembling a movie screen – a visual metaphor for optical experiments of this period – a technique that logically combined a catalog, a poster and an exposition.

In 1967, in his article "Aspects of Exhibition and Museum Design", G. Bayer combined graphic design, typography and actively developing exhibition design into the concept of "visual communication": "Exhibition design has evolved as a new discipline, as the pinnacle of all media and communication, as well as collective efforts and effects... The use of all possible plastic and psychological means (to a greater extent than anywhere else) makes exhibition design a particularly intense new language. It combines graphics with the architectural environment, advertising psychology with the concepts of space, light and color with movement and sound. The successful use of this modern tool, which opens up new opportunities, is the task of the exhibition designer" ^[11]. 

G. Bayer's innovative ideas are also in tune with modern exhibition projects. One of the most striking examples is the Faro studio, created by Andrey Shelutto and Irina Chekmareva. Among the studio's projects is "The Henkin Brothers: Discovery. The People of Leningrad and Berlin of the 1920s-1930s" (State Hermitage Museum, 2017), "Laboratory of the Future. Kinetic Art in Russia" (The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and the Manege Central Exhibition Hall in St. Petersburg, 2020), "(Not)mobility. Russian classical sculpture from Shubin to Matveev" (Manege Central Exhibition Hall in St. Petersburg, 2021, "New Skin: the Myth of the Technological Body" (Sevkabel Port, St. Petersburg, 2021), "Beauty and Style. The History of Fashion Photography" (State Hermitage Museum, 2021), "The Henkin Brothers: Discovery. The People of Leningrad and Berlin of the 1920s-1930s" (State Hermitage Museum, 2017) and many others. Faro designers often consider printing and advertising products for the exhibition as a "continuation of the curatorial idea, research" ^[12]: various types of paper, ropes are used – materials and techniques that are more characteristic of unique book publications. An important element of creating a single imaginative solution is working with typography, developing new fonts specifically for exhibition projects. Font compositions and graphic elements accompanying visitors in the exhibition space, advertising printed and digital materials are also a symbolic representation of the theme or image of the exhibition, providing memorability and recognizability of a separate project — a necessary property of any identity.

Thus, designers of the first quarter of the XXI century continue to experiment in the field of visual communication, as new technologies allow using a wide range of information transmission channels, including digital ones. This makes it possible to strengthen the interactive capabilities of the exhibition project, to give more information about it long before its start and after the end, to interest the potential audience, to ensure maximum interest in the project even for those who are physically unable to visit it.

Thirdly, among the specific characteristics of exhibition projects, temporality and the impossibility of repetition should be highlighted. This circumstance attaches particular importance to the use of symbols, visual images, and metaphors. If in museum practice, according to L. Uusitalo and S. Pusa, the name of the museum, buildings and architecture belong to the means of identity design, then in the case of exhibition projects, it is crucial to build a system of visual elements — images, signs, images, styles, typography, infographics that can change while maintaining their main qualities – recognizability and memorability.

Indeed, having one's own visual identity that facilitates communication is especially important for an exhibition event; for this, visual images must be a real expression of the cultural connotation of the exhibition. Thus, the identity for the international exhibition of world and historical architectural cities in Nanjing (China) in 2016 was developed by Thonik Studio (Netherlands). The symbol of the exhibition, combining the cultural traditions of China and modern Western design, became a classic Chinese puzzle — tangram. It was used, firstly, as an element for recreating iconic buildings and cultural icons, and secondly, as a form framing images of urban landscapes and attractions of Nanjing. Thus, the main themes of the exhibition were implemented in the identity: openness, creativity and multiculturalism. Modularity and geometricism made it possible to implement countless variations of graphic solutions on various media, ranging from badges and uniforms of the exhibition staff, to advertising structures in which the slots of the tangram elements were made and through which visitors no longer saw images, but real architectural objects in which the exhibition space was located. One of the most important areas of work of the Thonik studio was also the introduction of graphic elements of identity into the architectural environment. In Nanjing, the image of the exhibition symbol appeared not only on various advertising media, but also on the steps of the classical Chinese building in which the exposition was located ^[13]. 

A number of other examples illustrating the special emphasis on the semiotics of the design of the exhibition identity are the projects "Between two Worlds" (2018), "Family. Archive" (2017), "Error is the Art of Imperfection" (2018). Thus, the core of the concept of the large exhibition project "Between Two Worlds", which combined the work of M.K. Escher and the modern design of Oki Sato, head of the Nendo design studio at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, was the principle of contrast. A recognized master of optical illusion, Escher is the creator of iconic images of the twentieth century, intriguing viewers with their visual puzzles and challenging the established ideas about space and time in the everyday world. The project of the exhibition aimed to show the work of M. K. Escher through the prism of modern design and was developed on the basis of graphics and optical illusions of his works, which had a great influence, including on modern design. The exhibition featured 157 drawings and engravings by M.K. Escher from the collection of the Hague Museum of Modern Art. The works of M.K. Escher were arranged not chronologically, but according to separate categories to which the artist addressed in his work. As a result, 10 spaces were created, different in scale and atmosphere, united in a continuous maze. The designers of the Nendo studio, inspired by the two-dimensionality of M.K. Escher's engravings, created three-dimensional objects. This is how installations based on optical illusions appeared: an object consisting of four sculptures in the form of houses, whose roofs alternately open to show the next house; metal black structures forming, if you look at them from a certain angle, houses on which the works of M. K. Escher are located. Three-dimensional installations made of modern materials, made using the latest technologies and developed on the basis of two–dimensional graphics, gave the audience an opportunity to see M.K. Escher's graphics in a new way and the artistic means that he used in his work - rhythm, contrast, nuance, perspective, transformation of forms. To further emphasize the graphic quality of the exhibition, only black, white and gray colors were used, with an emphasis on important details by light, shadows and reflections. The main iconic object of the whole project was the House. It appears in exhibition structures, furniture (long benches for visitors forming a string of houses), a chandelier created from 55,000 small flat houses, conceptual prototypes of Nendo – three-dimensional embodiments of M.K.Escher's optical effects, in black-and-white patterns covering the surfaces of corridors along which visitors move, and, finally, in installations, created by Oki Sato. The "House for Escher" was not created by the artist himself, it is a product of the Nendo company, which was considered as a symbol of the entire exhibition space.

To convey to the viewer the complex ideas of M.K. Escher, the authors of the exhibition chose a three-dimensional motif not only for the organization of the exposition, but also for navigation. The exhibition page on the website of the National Gallery has become an important tool for transmitting information. Its design is based on the same principles as in the exhibition space itself: concise design, contrast of black and white, simple geometric shapes, minimalistic sans-serif fonts. The idea of two contrasting worlds is supported by dividing the page into 2 vertical parts dedicated to the work of M.K. Escher and Nendo, in which M.K. Escher's hand-drawn graphics and Oka Sato's three-dimensional models made of the most modern materials are contrasted. The motive of the modern reading of the artist's work through the prism of modern design can also be traced in the advertising posters dedicated to the exhibition: in the photo, the hand holding the three–dimensional model of Nendo completely repeats the work of 1935 "Self-Portrait in a spherical mirror". The exhibition "Between Two Worlds" is not so much a presentation of Escher's work as an interpretation of his work from a very modern point of view ^[14].

Another example of the emphasis on the symbolism of visual identity is the exhibition "Family. Archive", which was held at the Museum of Modern Literature in Marbach. The purpose of the joint project of S?dstudio and graphic designer Clemens Hartman was to demonstrate the role of representatives of the families of famous poets and scientists in the development of literature, science and art. The exhibits of the exhibition were numerous family stories, photographs and archival documents telling about the formation of traditions and cultural ties between different generations in the family ^[15]. The main element of the design of the entire exhibition space was a graphic composition symbolizing the connection between disparate elements: a scattering of green dots, some of which were connected into a certain group. The elements of the composition, located with varying degrees of concentration on the walls and on the floor, were also a navigation tool: they showed the direction of movement from section to section, provoked visitors to search for more and more new connections. This technique was repeated in one form or another in each of the five exhibition halls. Since the exposition contained a lot of photographs and documents, the design was very minimalistic: the exhibition showcases had a simple cylindrical shape of different diameters and heights, for most texts the GT Cinetype sans-serif typeface was used, consisting only of capital letters. Dynamics was achieved thanks to the chaotic movement of dots and lines on various surfaces — exhibition showcases, floor, ceiling and walls with a pronounced texture of wood and concrete. In the cover of the catalog, only the composition of these graphic elements was also used. Thus, the concept of the exhibition, expressed in minimalistic geometry and graphics, has become the main formative element of the entire exhibition project and accompanying graphic products.

Finally, in the Berlin exhibition project "Error – the Art of Imperfection", typography and font compositions were introduced into the exhibition space both as an independent object and as an element of navigation; along with other artistic means, they became a tool for interpreting meaning and creating a harmonious imaginative solution. In the promotional materials of the exhibition and in all explanatory texts accompanying the exhibits, the BC Liguria typeface was used. This choice was conscious because of the design features of the letters - unusual combinations of strokes, as if incomplete, having lost part of the elements. This font has become a perfect reflection of the theme centered around the art of imperfection in the digital world. The authors of the exposition tried to create a certain algorithm for the exhibition space, reflecting the situation of digital error, when texts are distorted, colors change during recalibration, and completely unexpected results are obtained ^[16].  That is why the starting point of the whole project was the characteristic colors of Windows panels: blue and red. A "pixel pattern" was specially developed, breaking up into separate modules in the exhibition space, repeated on all graphic products — posters, booklets, suspended ceiling structures located around the perimeter of the entire hall. Even the exhibition furniture evoked stable associations with a digital error: visitors could freely move foam cubes around the halls, violating the order of arrangement conceived by the authors. The entire graphic solution of the project was built on the principle of contrast: a black-and-white grid located in the center of the exposition, with clearly structured blocks of explanatory texts embedded in it; minimalistic white walls, black showcases contrasting with bright suspended structures and colored panels located on the fences of the second tier of the exhibition hall.

So, the experience currently available in identifying exhibition projects allows us to determine specific requirements for the design of the exhibition identity:

a) the specifics of the exhibition identity are determined by the peculiarities of the exhibition event itself as such. The exhibition, as a spatially organized and visualized expression of thoughts, things and knowledge systems and largely based on the demonstration of material objects, has many similarities with the museum exposition, but it also has differences. The exhibition event is characterized by great efficiency; temporality; relative independence from the place of exhibition (the venue of the exhibition, buildings, architecture are not of significant importance); democracy and orientation to a wide audience of visitors;

b) designing all exhibition elements in a complex way, as a system, allows not only to attract visitors, but also to form an idea of the project long before the visitor begins to interact with him directly at the exhibition. Graphic design elements, being an important part of the exhibition environment, can independently exist outside of this environment on various media – this is an important channel of communication with the viewer, often provoking the formation of a critical assessment of the project, even before the opening of the exhibition. The design does not directly tell the viewer the story, but encourages each visitor to interpret the concept of the exhibition and form their own ideas about it. Taking into account the specifics of the exhibition, the basis for its visual identification can be:

– the "main products" of the exhibition, for example, specially created works of art that are intentionally included in the exhibition ("Escher House");

– identification through a unique pictorial element or sign that figuratively reflects the idea or concept of the project, metaphor (for example, Chinese tangram, metaphorical imperfection of the BC Liguria headset, etc.);

– building a visual identification system based on the complication/simplification of visual language: contrast of forms, coloristics, textures, provocation of viewers to compare, comparison of elements of the exposition (for example, the design of printing and advertising products from the Faro company, the project "Between two Worlds", which combined the creativity of M.K. Escher and the modern design of Oki Sato);

– architectural solutions of internal exhibition spaces (for example, the exhibition "Shchukin. Biography of the collection").

c) the development of the exhibition identity focuses on ensuring synergy, when each individual element of the identification system (booklet, catalog, label, website, exhibition design, advertising media, etc.) is integrated into the system and complements it, leading to the strengthening of the final result.

All these factors make exhibition design both a dynamic field of design practice and a platform worthy of further study.

Thus, an integrated approach to a modern exhibition project as a system of interrelated elements is a fundamental factor in its promotion and development. These trends are typical both for large museums that have a recognizable brand and an established reputation among visitors, and for small exhibition projects, the organizers of which can spend minimal funds on implementation.