Friday 22 April 2011

More on representation.

I'd like to add some points about the idea of representation in "The Rescuers", but before I explain my idea here, I'd like to make a note on the paper of Svetlana Alpers, "The Museum as a Way of Seeing" (1991).*

Alpers is concerned with what she calls "the Museum Effect": that by heightening and isolating the aspects of an object, the museum turns it into an object of visual interest. It is 'visual interest' that underpins Alpers' view of the role of the museum, and she criticises exhibition design that interrupts and discourages "looking". For instance, she gives an example of a dilemma faced by the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York, when it had to include an educational component for one exhibition to receive funding. Alpers suggests that rather than having a separate informational room at the beginning of the exhibition, as was the museum's solution, the informational room could be placed after the objects, or even provided on a take-home sheet.

Alper's argument that exhibitions should be visual rather than contextual can only be applied to a very small pool of exhibition types, as it only considers one fundamental reason for exhibiting - that is, looking at objects. "The Rescuers" requires a broader framework, as looking and learning are not mutually exclusive activities. Rather, they are dependent upon one another for the viewer to understand the overarching theme of the exhibition. In other words, looking (at the photograph) and learning (through reading the stories) are necessary companions for the active visitor to understand what the exhibition is all about. This is because it is not only the object that is being represented, and here I will discuss further the layers of representation found in "The Rescuers".

"The Rescuers" is, first and foremost, a photographic exhibition. The photographs represent the people within them, yes, but even more than this, they represent the countries they come from, the conflicts they were involved in and, importantly, the aspect of their character that drove them to save people from the 'other side'. This characteristic is what unites them with all the people represented in the exhibition, and more broadly, is the reason why the exhibition is taking place at all: it asks the viewer to connect with this part of themselves, and to question why it goes missing in some people during times of genocide and not in others.

Secondly, it is not only the people's images that are being represented, but also their words. Their stories are as connected to understanding the main theme of the exhibition as the images. Without them, one might get a sense of the people through the images alone, but I doubt they would walk away with any understanding of what happened to them, what acts they performed, or what their ideas relating to the experiences are. In this sense, merely looking at the exhibition is not enough; viewers must also read to understand, and then the photographs take on extra meaning. In this way, the images and the text combine to form layers of meaning that, each without the other, might not create such an impact or mean as much to the viewer.

Thirdly, the photographers' work is also being represented, and makes the exhibition as much about its object as its context. They are powerful images, and deserve a design that allows them to viewed well (and in this aspect I agree with Alpers about it being important the visitor can see objects, and that looking should not be impeded by a design that makes this challenging). However, as we have discussed, the exhibition is not about object alone, and so all elements must work together to create harmony. They must all speak to the visitor as one unit.

The typography is therefore a vital link to all of these elements of representation, and is in itself another form of representation. The typeface is not only representing the words of the people visually, but also the overall message being put across by the curator, in this case that the people represented share a common thread. They saved lives. They chose not to participate in the mass killings going on around them. The exhibition asks us to examine why some people do this, and what part of them we can find in ourselves. Their stories are not always easy to read, but they are important to tell.

How do we represent all of those people and places through one typeface?

The answer is not easy, but there are some definite 'do-nots' already. For instance, using comic sans would be completely inappropriate, by trivialising it through a look that alludes to a type of childishness. The greater message is the capacity for people to seek peace, so an aggressive typeface, such as a grunge font, would also be a bad choice. Also, the typeface must be clearly legible, and by a number of people at the same time, so a decorative type would make this more difficult, and could work against the exhibition by discouraging the viewer's attention.

Unlike Alpers' call for uninterrupted looking, "The Rescuers" requires the viewer to also read. Their eyes will go from the photo, which, as the largest and most dramatic element in each panel, would be challenging not to look at first. Second comes the name, just above the image, which is larger, and more colourful. Then comes the breakout quotes, then, last but not least, the main text.

The type creates a hierarchy of information through size, weight, form and colour. It should draw the viewer in, and make them want to read each story. After reading, the viewer goes back again to look at the photo, to view it with more understanding than the first time they saw it.

This way of seeing is promoted in exhibitions by Michael Baxandall (1991), who argues that labels** are a way of creating a space between the object (the people, the photos and the stories) and the viewer, the latter of which is always active and seeking causes. He says: "Explanatory information affects the way he [the viewer] looks, and problems met in looking give rise to a desire for explanation." (p. 37)

We must assume that the viewer asks a fundamental question when the see "The Rescuers" exhibition: 'Why are these people of visual interest, enough so that they are framed and put in the middle of a large town square?' Is merely looking going to provide them with the answer to these questions, and if so, is what they might decode the intention of the curator?

For this reason, I think those arguing for content over context, or the opposite, are missing the point (Karp 1991: 12). It would be more useful to take a broader approach to exhibiting, by looking at each exhibit individually and asking what is required for its intention to be fulfilled. If its intention is to encourage uninterrupted viewing, then by all means, reduce labelling to a minimum (or none at all, if that's what will work). However, if the exhibition, like "The Rescuers", is working on many levels of representation, then it requires all those levels to work together in harmony. To do less would be to create a watered down exhibition that would no doubt fail to fulfill its goal.

* All references in this post can be found in:
Ivan Karp and Lavine, Steven D. 1991. Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display. Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution.   

** Baxandall writes: "...I use the word label here to denote the elements of naming, information, and exposition the exhibitor makes available to the viewer in whatever form: a label is not just a piece of card, but includes the briefing given in the catalogue entry and even selection or lighting that aims to make a point. To attend to this space, it seems to me, is to attend not only to the scene but to the source of the viewer's activity." (1991: 37) 

Bosnian exhibition - serif type trial continues...

I have been through many, many serif typefaces, but there always seems to be one or more problems with them. Either they don't support Bosnian or, even more curiously, the Bosnian and English sitting beside one another look slightly different (I'm trusting my eyes on this - as did Grandjean, when he referred to his type models as the "the supreme tribunal of the eye").*

To date, the most successful typeface appears to be Adobe Caslon Pro, with Myriad Pro for breakout quotes.

I have also experimented with the layout a bit, but in truth, I keep coming back to the very simple, Gill Sans layout. 

Defining a grid is very important for this design, because the text for each panel is not always the same length. Once the final layout has been decided, I will also make a grid that defines the distance between the breakout quote and the main text. As you can see below, some of the layouts have gone way too close to the edge, and I would prefer there to be more space. Also, I don't want the reader's eyes to have to move too far from left to right, so the grid will make sure this doesn't happen.

Adobe Caslon Pro - serif type with Bosnian language family support. Break out quotes in Myriad Pro.

I think there might be something in these layouts, but I'm yet to hit the 'ah ha!' moment with them.

This layout has so many things wrong with it, but it's worth putting it up for that reason alone.

The idea of this one is to make the two languages work together a bit. The colour helps to define, but then your eye, upon reaching the end of the text, has to make contact with the other language too, before you realise and have to skip to the other column. I liked the idea of connecting readers to language in this way.

Adobe Caslon Pro.

Layout with Adobe Caslon Pro for all text (except name).

English language section in Adobe Caslon Pro. 100%.

Close up of Adobe Caslon Pro in Bosnian - this is what the type will look like at 100%.

Tuesday 19 April 2011

Bergamot Pro

As suspected, using Bergamo Pro was going to be a bit like squeezing a square through a round hole. It was never going to fit. I'll keep it up my sleeve for another day, though, because it's so beautiful to read.

Alas, the big issue really is with the glyphs (and with me, for not properly checking the language family support first! Live and learn). I have now become fixated with family language support lists for all typefaces, and am happily narrowing down my experimentation to this list only.

As you can see below, it all looks great except for two things. Can you spot them? Well, first is the big glaring glyph in the word 'ocima', which has defaulted back to Myriad Pro. Not ideal. As before, I went to find it manually, but it wasn't there, so this was the deciding factor. No go. Also, the inverted commas need kerning. They just don't sit right to me at all. The opening inverted comma sits too far away from the left alignment, while the closing inverted commas sits too far from the full stop. Also, I wasn't really keen on how far away each commas was from each other, which is impossible to kern, unless I use single inverted commas and kern them together manually. Hmm...24 panels later, it's not seeming really worth it to me. So, onward. Bye bye Bergamo Pro.




It seems basic, but until you make the mistake, I guess it isn't so basic after all! Font sites like to make it easy for you, by providing a list of family language support lists, like this one:



Tomorrow, I'll start a list of typefaces that have Bosnian as part of their Family Language support group and go from there.

Bosnian exhibition - serif type trial.

The original Rescuers design was all sans serif type faces, which gave it a particular look. The first prototype in Gill sans was a way of keeping in line with that look, but finding a typeface that can accommodate all of the glyphs needed for the Bosnian language. But, I thought it could be good to play around with serif typefaces as well.

This collection of serif typefaces offer different qualities, each which contribute to its legibility. Some, such as Hoefler Text, might not be as nice to read in large blocks as Adobe Garamond might be.




 I went hunting and came across some great trypefaces that I haven't used before. One that struck me as particularly nice is Bergamo Pro (by Fontsite Inc: http://www.fontsite.com/download-fonts-a-b/bergamo-pro/). When highlighting and changing the text from Gill Sans to Bergamo Pro, though, I had to be careful with glyphs, as the picture shows below. I made the Gills Sans glyph red, so you can see where Bergamo had no automatically changed over the letters. I found the right glyph in the type face, but manually changing all of them might not be ideal when dealing with 24 panels of text.

The red glyph is in Gill Sans, left in there by Bergamot Pro when I highlighted the text and changed the font. The glyph to the right of it is the one I manually inserted.

The testing on fonts today in a mock up design has proved very valuable. I can assess how a typeface might behave in a work flow situation, and also test whether or not it can do the job in a multi-lingual application.

In terms of the legibility of Bergamo, I suspect the letter spacing might be a bit too wide for the size the type has to be (large!). However, I do think it's a lovely type, and could work well.

Click on the image to see the type at 100%. Bergamo Pro regular.










Bosnian - Gill sans MT prototype

I like Gill Sans for its legibility and quirkiness. I especially like the lower case p in its italic form.

It has some nice thinning on rounded letters, such as the n, u and r as well, which gives it quite an elegant look.

Monotype says of Gill Sans:


Gill Sans has a relatively small x-height, smaller than Futura and a lot smaller than the Helvetica® or Frutiger® designs. A generous x-height is usually considered one of the prerequisites for a typeface to rank high on the legibility scale, but Gill Sans is an exception. Because the characters of the Gill Sans alphabet are based on classic roman letterforms and not geometric shapes, they are remarkably legible.

Gill Sans also has a more pronounced contrast in stroke widths than most serifless fonts, making the design more appealing to the eye, and ultimately more readable than its monoweight cousins. Rounding out the practical benefits of Gill Sans: The face is space-economical. More information can be set in a given space when using Gill Sans than with most other sans serif designs.

Source: Monotype "Hidden Gems" Gill Sans [online: http://www.monotypefonts.com/Library/HiddenGems.asp?show=gillsans] Accessed 19 April 2011. 



Below are some screen shots of the design set at the size of the pod panels. I have blown the type up to 100%, so that I can see it at what size it will actually be when printed. I've left the heading in Old Sans Black, to keep it in line with the original exhibition. You will notice the anomaly in the lower case a that I have taken a screen shot of. I will manually fix this. It's possible that this type might have to be substituted for something else if we need to use Bosnian glyphs for the names (which is likely).  For now, I've left it as is.




Gills Sans - originally designed by Eric Gill for Monotype.
Old Sans Black Regular, with anomaly in the lower case a.

Gill Sans in Bosnian. Translation is through an online source and not the final translation to be used.

Gill Sans MT in English

A reduced version of the whole panel.

Bosnia being sorted, but Cambodia TBA

I had a Skype meeting with exhibition curator, Leora Kahn, yesterday (18th April). We spoke about the content of the Bosnian exhibition, as well as what is going on with the Cambodian exhibition. Cambodia has hit a bit of a snag, but we'll know more about that soon.

Bosnia
The pods that I mentioned in my last post are looking like a great option, so in the meantime, before the final decisions are made, I will be doing up some prototypes. I want to use this to start testing typefaces in particular. I'll post up a few examples later today.

The order of the pods might go something like this:

Pod 1: 6 x Bosnian panels
Pod 2: 2 x Bosnian panels and 4 Holocaust panels
Pod 3: 6 Rwanda
Pod 4: 2 x Cambodian panels and 4 x title panels (inluding title, introduction to exhibition and photographers, map and conflict info, and introduction from LGen The Honourable Roméo A. Dallaire). 

The main thing we're waiting on now is content from the project coordinator in Bosnia, who will hopefully send us all the translations soon.



Monday 18 April 2011

Bosnian frames - update and some questions.

Below are the suggested prototypes for the Bosnian exhibition. It has been suggested that the exhibition could consist of 6 pods, making up a total of 24 panels - 8 Bosnian, 6 Rwandan, 2 Cambodian, 4 Holocaust and 4 introduction/information panels.

The frames are brushed steel. It's possible there will be no lighting, as the cost is a lot higher, and Bosnia stays light until 9.30pm at the time of the exhibition.

The panels are printed on translucent white acrylic.

There are still some details to be worked out (i.e. if lighting is used, the original black background might not work), including the content of the introduction/information panels. We're thinking of expanding the information on the background of the conflicts, for instance.

A rough mock up will be done in the next couple of days to test how these panels might look with this frame.

Pods.

Other panel type.


Thursday 14 April 2011

Representation and Re-presentation

"What do exhibitions represent and how do they do so?" (Karp 1991)

Karp's question is so simply put, but the answer is complicated by both culture and the practice of representation.*

Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display (Karp and Lavine 1991) is a series of essays which were first presented at the conference "The Poetics and Politics of Representation", held at the Smithsonian Institution in 1988. On the issue of "Culture and Representation" specifically, Karp explains that the participants of the conference "tended to think of exhibitions as conforming to one of two models: either a vehicle for the display of objects or a space for telling a story." (pp. 12) Karp points out that there is a glaring omission from the debates regarding the exhibition - that is, the interrogation of the fundamental assumptions about exhibitions as a medium and setting for representation.

The Western tradition, from which the museum emerged, has been widely discussed, but less so are the issues that arise when different cultures and perspectives come into contact (Karp 1991). How do exhibitions represent objects or stories from outside the Western tradition,  and how do visitors who are culturally attuned to the Western tradition of viewing exhibitions perceive outside of that? Additionally, how has the Western tradition of museums and representation influenced other cultures?

In Masaaki Miroshita's fascinating book, The Empty Museum: Western cultures and the artistic field in modern Japan (2010), he discusses the evolution of art galleries (bijutsukan) in Japan, in particular the Toyko to Bijutsukan (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum). This gallery, with no curator, no permanent collection and no permanent display, was at times criticised for not following the Western standard model, but nevertheless was very influential on the practices of regional art galleries around the country. Morishita argues that, far from being a failure, this model was a response to the unique demands that were placed upon it within the Japanese culture and art world, in particular, from the art groups that used the space for their annual exhibitions, such as the bijutsu dantai (art groups), iemoto (art schools), the zaiya (unofficial art groups) and the Taisho abangyarudo (Taisho avant-garde).

Morishita points out that Japan did experience a 'transculturation', but that it was not a unidirectional 'acculturation', on the Japanese or Western side, but what happened in Japan "was the development of a new, hybrid form of culture, or neoculturism, through the contingent, mutual relations between various elements from both cultures." (pp 20)

The Rescuers exhibition is based on stories from hugely diverse cultures: Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia and other parts of Europe. The design of the exhibition has to cross borders and still be neutral. The type, in other words, must have its own international passport - one that gives it residency in each panels it lands in. It has to be both dignified and approachable, and honour the people in the photographs and their stories, for the type is their word, alive on the page.

Karp and Morishita's books provide valuable insight into issues regarding the representation of cultures in exhibitions, and will be valuable in the research to come.

* I separate culture and practice here deliberately, as not everyone within a culture practices exhibition curating or design, but perhaps experiences it as a visitor, or as an artist whose works are exhibited by others. This opens the debate of representation to include not only culture, but the power of the operators within each role of the exhibition, and the distinction between culture and the roles of the players is one that deserves more discussion. For this post, a discussion of culture and representation will suffice. 

Masaaki Morishita 2010. The Empty Museum: Western cultures and the artistic field in modern Japan. Surrey: Ashgate.

Ivan Karp and Lavine, S.D (eds.) 1991. Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution.














Friday 8 April 2011

Yale Exhibition

As a reference, I wanted to post up two photos from the exhibition at Yale. This is what the original design looked like. The boxes are 6ft high by 4ft wide (182.88cm x 121.92cm).

The Rescuers Exhibition at Yale University, NY.

Typographic Issues
Some issues have arisen with this design, and I also wanted to make some notes regarding some features of the new design that I would like to include.

The Rescuers Exhibition at Yale University, NY.
Firstly, the typeface had a small anomaly - the lower case a had a small mistake which was visible at a large size. This meant that I had to create outline for the text and use the Bézier pen to correct it manually.

Secondly, the type was set a little low for people to read comfortably. At the time of designing, I thought that putting the breakout quotes on the bottom would deal with this issue, but visitor feedback has suggested otherwise. Unfortunately, because of the size and cost of printing a proof, it was impossible to test this prior to printing, and this has led me to thinking about ways to correct it for the new exhibition, particularly because the Bosnian exhibition will be set in two languages and require even more economy of space.

Thirdly, on testing the original typeface in Bosnian, it simply did not have enough glyphs to work. This leads me to the only conclusion that a completely new typeface is necessary for the new design in English/Bosnian, and this will have to come first, before I try to find a typeface in Khmer, as it will act as a visual guide in this regard.

New Typography: Issues to Consider
At the moment I'm reading the very funny and informative book Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works, by Erik Spiekermann and E.M Ginger. It's a great book getting an insight into the history of type and the elements that are good to consider when choosing a typeface. It is also incredibly useful for helping me to create a checklist of features that the new typeface for the exhibition could benefit from. 

X-height
The x-height of the type is where your eye focuses when reading blocks of type. Having a good balance between the x-height and width of the letters will create a nice flow for the reader. If the x-height is too high in comparison to the width, it can begin to strain the reader's eyes. 

Ascenders and Descenders
Extended ascenders can give a nobility to a typeface, but they can also distract from the x-height. Likewise, descenders should also strike a good balance with the x-height. 


Font Families
Choosing a font that has a wide variety of members within its family could also be useful. Being able to choose from light compressed to ultra black wide will help to create variety for the reader while still maintaining an overall design unity. 


To serif or not to serif?
Serif fonts are more legible for large blocks of text, while sans serifs can create a nice, modern, sleek look for headings. Experimenting with these types of set ups and how they can work together will be part of the planning for the exhibition. 

Purpose-built
In choosing a typeface, it always has to come back to the task at hand: it must be approachable, friendly, not too serious, but not too jovial. It has to transcend culture as much as possible, and be applicable to people from many parts of the world. It cannot take over from the photographs, but it must be inviting enough to make the viewers want to stop and read the stories of those within the photos. 

The Bosnian Exhibition
The issue of legibility and creating an inviting atmosphere is particularly important for the Bosnian exhibition, which will be in a public outdoor space with an estimated foot traffic of 100,000 people a day. Additionally, as it will be in two languages, the challenge is to keep enough space around the text so that it does not appear cluttered or too challenging to stop and read. 

The Cambodian Exhibition
The Khmer typeface for the Cambodian exhibition raises issues of its own. Firstly, it would be optimal to find a typeface that has a similar character - or 'feel' - to the Bosnian exhibition. However, it is considerably more challenging for two main reasons: the script of Khmer in no way resembles Roman lettering, and therefore the connotations associated with Khmer typefaces are completely unknown to me. Secondly, as Khmer is only emerging in a digital format, there are very few typefaces to choose from, and just as difficult to get hold of. I had some issues installing Khmer Unicode on a Mac system, but after a few weeks found a solution to this problem. This means I can now see Khmer script on my computer, but typefaces still need to be found.








Sunday 3 April 2011

Bosnian Exhibition

At this stage, the materials for the Bosnian exhibition are still under consideration, but this is what has been proposed. Although the images show a silver frame, I have suggested that a black frame, if possible, would better suit the design of the exhibition. We'll see how that goes. These images have come from Leora's phone.

Panels when joined together

Relative height

Dimensions of panels

Friday 1 April 2011

About this blog.

The Rescuers: a research project on the design of typography for exhibitions, is a blog dedicated to documenting the progress of my Honours research into this field. It is a place for me to keep track of my progress and keep in touch with people involved in the project.

About the research
My research will involve both a dissertation and major design work, and will take a three-pronged approach. Firstly, it will look at what literature is already out there relating to the design of exhibitions, specifically in regards to typography and the need for typefaces that can be adapted to multilingual exhibitions. Secondly, I hope to interview leaders in the field of exhibition design in order to gain an understanding of how typography is playing a role in creating narratives within exhibitions, and so creating meaning for visitors. Thirdly, the design of The Rescuers exhibition will be undertaken for both Bosnian and Cambodian showings.

About the exhibition













  

Photo: Riccardo Gangale

The Rescuers is a photographic exhibition the tells the stories of people who saved the lives of 'others' during times of genocide. Included are people from Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia and across Holocaust Europe. The exhibition is curated by Leora Kahn of PROOF: Media for Social Justice. Leora is a Fellow of Genocide Studies at Yale University, and has many years experience as a photo editor.

The exhibition will travel to Bosnia, where it will be in English and Bosnian, and Cambodia, where it will be in Khmer only. This raises some interesting challenges for the type design, particularly in terms of understanding the limitations that some typefaces have when language conversions are attempted.

The designs will be quite independent on one another also in terms of materials and location. The Bosnian exhibition will be outdoor and free-standing, while in Cambodia it will be on wall-mounted panels.

For more information on the exhibition and PROOF, go to http://www.proofmsj.org/rescuers.html#

Below is a more detailed research proposal.

Abstract

This proposal outlines the research that will be undertaken in the field of graphic design, specifically typography for the exhibition space that is bilingually adaptable. Incorporated into this will be a look into contemporary exhibition design practices from the perspective of designers, typographers and commissioners of projects, and why it is necessary to create meaningful text that can be adaptable to various countries/languages. Incorporates the creation of a photographic exhibition, “The Rescuers”, which will be exhibited in three languages in two countries.

Introduction

The research undertaken will look specifically into the current practices of designers who use typography to create meaning for visitors of exhibitions. Furthermore, it will look into the ways in which designers resolve typographic issues when designing for exhibitions that will be shown in various countries in other languages, but still need to retain design conformity. This requires secondary study into the study of exhibiting ‘others’, the display of photography and type, and the design of typefaces for legibility and style.

The research will also include the design of two travelling exhibitions, both titled “The Rescuers”; one that will be designed in Bosnian and English and shown in Bosnia, the other in Khmer and shown in Cambodia. These designs will be informed, in part, by their English-language only counterparts, which were shown in the US in 2010-11, but will require a complete re-design due to large variations in content and printing specifications. In this way, the exhibitions will be new designs in themselves.

Research Aims
To date, research that focuses specifically on typography for exhibition design appears to be somewhat limited. Additionally, as exhibitions increasingly travel to more than one country, it is important to address the need for typographic design to be adaptable across several languages. Therefore, this research has two main aims: firstly, to look into the practices of contemporary designers, typographers and the commissioners of exhibition design projects, with a view of understanding the challenges they face and how they resolve such challenges. Secondly, the research aims to resolve the typographic issues above by designing two versions of a photographic exhibition in three languages (Bosnian/English and Khmer), to be shown in two countries (Bosnia and Cambodia, respectively). An initial English-language only version of the exhibition will be used as a springboard for the two exhibitions, as it usefully contains several errors that must be resolved, including the choice of typeface and legibility issues.

Literature Review
The literature review section of the research will concentrate on issues of visual culture, particularly in relation to the exhibition of ‘others’, museology practices, with particular reference to design practices for the inclusion of visitors, and typographic design for communicating meaning. To date, several key literatures include the list of references found at the end of this proposal.

Interviews
It is vital to this research that new information be sourced from designers and curators in the field, as there is very little research on typography-specific exhibition design. The interviews will seek information relating to the importance exhibition designers and curators place on type as a way of creating meaningful texts for visitors, and type designers on the importance of designing for multilingual application. A specific list of potential interviewees will be compiled, and an interview format created. This aims to provide both quantitive data, in terms of the most frequently used typefaces and issues faced by designers, and qualitative data, in terms of the resolution of issues and the perceived importance of typography in exhibition design.

Interviews will also be conducted with the curator of “The Rescuers” and random visitors to the exhibition (where possible) to ascertain whether or not design issues specific to “The Rescuers” have been resolved.

Tentative overview of dissertation structure
Introduction
Aims of the research
Literature Review
Contemporary practices of exhibition design commissioners
Contemporary Practices of Exhibition Designers
Typography for Multilingual design
“The Rescuers”
o Background Information
o Initial design issues (with images)
o The Bosnian design (with images)
o The Khmer design (with images)
o Conclusions
Conclusion

Exhibition Design
The design of both the Bosnian and Cambodian exhibitions are due to be completed by June, and as such, the initial design, as well as the literature review, will inform the design process. After the design is complete, interviews with visitors to and the curator of the exhibition will be interviewed, as well as other professionals in the exhibition design and typography fields.

It should be noted that there are some aspects of the design that are the responsibility of the exhibition curator, such as final say over production materials and the editing of content.

Timeline 2011
March-April
Reading and research for literature review

May-June
Exhibition design

June to July
Interviews and data collection

August-October
Writing and editing of dissertation