PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Poster House launched the exhibition Art Deco: Commercializing the Avant-Garde on September 28, 2023. It chronicles the rise and fall of the Art Deco movement, starting with the 1925 Paris Exhibition where European countries presented new commercial designs distilled from local avant-garde movements, and ending as Deco graphics became more nationalistic in the lead up to World War II.

The exhibition design takes inspiration from the colors and patterns used throughout Art Deco posters, and is constructed to create lines of vision across wall, floor, and sculptural elements. This era of advertising emphasized technology and mankind as machines, replacing facial features with geometric shapes and angles. Metallic patterning is applied as wall vinyl in conversation with posters that use dynamic lines to represent speed, motion, and machine efficiency.

Two temporary walls made from 1x6 inch pine slats within a black steel frame provide a mid horizon to several long viewpoints across the exhibition, and echo the linear patterning in the wall graphics.

The font for the section headings is Bifur, created by A.M. Cassandre in 1929. The font was unusual at the time for its complex mix of fat and thin lines and crossbars, and inspired many experimentations from other artists.

PROJECT INFORMATION

Entry Type: Single Entry

Channel: Immersive

Primary Role of the Designer: Designer as brand steward

Client Relationship: An in-house on-going relationship

Intention of the Project: Introduction of a new product, service, or program

Development Budget: Confidential / Not available

Production/Execution Budget: More than $100,000

Source of Funding: Nonprofit/NGO/trust fund

Typefaces: Bifur

Paper:

Materials: wood, metal, vinyl, paint

CREDIT INFORMATION

Creative Director: Ola Baldych

Art Director: John F. Lynch

Designers: Mihoshi Fukushima Clark

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