Shadows, Strings & Other Things:
The Enchanting Theatre of Puppets
Museum of Anthropology at UBC ● May 16–October 14, 2019Awarded Canadian Museums Association Award for Outstanding Achievement — Exhibition, Cultural Heritage · 2020
Shadows, Strings & Other Things brought together more than 250 puppets from around the world, each with its own history and personality. Some were playful, some devious, some ethereal, while others were unconventional even for puppet standards. I developed a graphic language to create cohesion among the differences and inspire wonder and enchantment to the visitors as they wandered between the nine puppet stages.
The design drew on the movement, strangeness and theatricality of puppetry, creating a visual language that made the gallery feel lively and full of character(s).
Role: Graphic Designer · Illustrator
Scope: Visual identity · title treatment · interpretive graphics · typography · illustration · exhibition labels · publication design · production
The exhibition was divided into five sections, and I created a set of illustrations to animate the words and ideas within each one. These became recurring graphic elements throughout the gallery and helped give each section its own rhythm and character while still feeling part of the same visual system.
I treated the graphics almost like performers in the space. Type could jump, roll, tilt or appear in unexpected places, and illustrations moved more organically through the layouts. That looseness helped make the gallery feel active and alive, even when the objects themselves were still.
One of the central ideas behind the graphic design was movement. Puppets are so often defined by the way they move — strange, jerky, exaggerated, funny or mysterious — but the puppets in the exhibition were static. We wanted the gallery itself to carry some of that energy.
The title wall became one of the clearest expressions of the exhibition identity. The title was built through shadow and the suggestion of strings, using the physical language of puppetry to construct the lettering itself. I worked through a number of prototypes to get the balance between legibility, illusion and movement right.
I used a laser cutter to cut the letters out of wood and then worked with the Exhibition Manager, Kate Melkert, to attach them to the wall on a thin strip of wood, each line angled a little different so the letter height stayed consistent while using a single source of light.
Marketing and Communications
Design rationale
The identity for Shadows, Strings & Other Things grew out of three words: play, enchantment and wonder, with a little mystery underneath it all.
I drew the hands, hand-lettered the title and painted the red valances, then built the campaign from those pieces. The strings speak directly to marionettes, while the hands point to something broader: the puppeteer as the hidden force behind every kind of puppet. They are invisible much of the time, but always present.
That felt especially right for an exhibition about revealing puppets and the worlds behind them. The final identity became theatrical, handmade and slightly uncanny, with enough visual strength to carry across posters, print and digital ads, flyers and the museum exterior banner.
Impact
The campaign gave the exhibition a strong, recognizable presence and set the mood before visitors even entered the gallery. The hands, strings and curtains carried ideas of performance, movement and mystery, while the handmade artwork connected naturally to the craft of puppetry.
Shadows, Strings & Other Things:
The Enchanting Theatre of Puppets
Curator
Nicola Levell
Exhibition design
Skooker Broome
Graphic design
Cody Rocko
Exhibition Fabrication
Kate Melkert
Set Illustrator
Erika Balcombe