Manchester design group Hemisphere has been appointed to design the Imperial War Museum North’s summer exhibition and will also create exhibition graphics and the communications campaign to support the show.
The exhibition, entitled The Greater Game, will be running from July to October. It deals with the role that sport plays in war and examines ‘how sport articulates rivalry and conflict and also how it is used as a peacemaker’, explains IWMN head of exhibitions Michael Simpson.
The ‘family-oriented’ exhibition, which will include original material, film and interactive pieces, plus a performance element, has been designed as a ‘learning’ experience, according to Simpson.
The group’s design ideas ‘concentrate on human stories’, says Hemisphere marketing director Sue Vanden, and aim to reflect both historical aspects and more modern sporting rivalries such as the one between Britain and Argentina.
‘We want to give it relevance today and show how countries relate, and the tribalism inherent in sport,’ Vanden explains.
Working within the architectural confines of Liebskind’s innovative design offers its own challenges, she adds, with a curved floor space and ceiling heights that vary from 2.8m to 10.7m.
The design incorporates an interactive map of sporting rivalries, a running track-style time line running along the floor and up the wall to the ceiling. Visitors will also be able to collect Panini-style football stickers of historically important sports-people around the exhibition.
The communications campaign includes direct mail, press advertising and posters using the football sticker concept. It’s hoped the campaign, which will target sport fans, will ‘bring a new audience to the museum’, Vanden explains.
Hemisphere was appointed to the exhibition design following a three-way pitch and subsequently was appointed to the communications campaign following a four-way pitch.
- Design disciplines in this article
- Industries in this article
