PROJECTS

EXHIBITION DESIGN | EXHIBITION GRAPHICS

Smithsonian National Postal Museum
Washington, DC

Beautiful Blooms: Flowering Plants on Stamps

October 2017 – July 2019

Christine Lefebvre Design provided comprehensive exhibition design services for Beautiful Blooms: Flowering Plants on Stamps, at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. The exhibition showcased U.S. postage stamps of colorful botanicals found throughout the American landscape.

Exhibition design services included space planning and floor plans, graphic elevations, design of exhibit components and interactives, production/fabrication specifications, and artwork matting specifications. CLD developed the exhibition’s graphics system — including color palette, typography, visual identity, and visual hierarchy — and produced final production artwork.

“It’s always a pleasure to work with you. You bring a graceful blend of strong design vision with a humble responsiveness.”

— Smithsonian National Postal Museum

EXHIBITION MOOD Walls were painted a bright sky blue, and large-scale prints of the titular blooms were applied to the walls, to create a garden-like atmosphere. The existing wall placements and the addition of a custom “T-wall” structure were used to create intriguing views from different vantage points, to evoke the feeling of being on a garden path.

Two “rest areas” allowed visitors a quiet moment to sit and consider the artwork. Lattice paneling and garden benches — selected from the collections of Smithsonian Gardens — contributed to the feeling of being in a garden.

MOVABLE T-WALL The “T-wall” structure was designed in two parts, with lockable wheels, to allow museum staff to move the structure when they needed access to the freight elevator located in the back of the gallery. The wheels were hidden behind baseboards.

GRAPHICS Large-scale botanical “supergraphics” were created from the original stamp artworks and applied to the walls as contour-cut, applied vinyl decals. This process involved some painstaking work in Photoshop.

For the Beautiful Blooms logo, CLD customized the font Regal Swash Black. Regal Swash was also used for wall quotations. The font family Omnes, in various weights, was used throughout the exhibition.

SECTION COLORS Each section topic had its own color: blue for Beautification of America, purple for The Seasonal Garden, yellow for Pollination, crimson for Birds in the Garden, brown for Flowering Trees, sage for The Rose, and turquoise for Botanical Congress. Colors were selected to complement the artworks, and careful color matching allowed us to carry these colors onto mounting hardware, the edges of graphic panels, and mat reveals.

ARTWORK A two-mat package was designed to give depth to the artwork presentation. The inner mat provided an accent in the section-specific color. Interpretive text was printed directly onto the outer mat. A “prop” stamp (one not accessioned to the museum’s collection) was included to show how the artwork was used in its final stamp form.

INTERACTIVE The interactive taught visitors about the collaborative process used by illustrators and art directors to create final stamp art. Visitors slid printed acrylic sheets in and out, building or deconstructing the stamps’ layers (original painting layer, touch-up layer, text layers).

ATRIUM ENTRANCE Design of the exhibition’s entrance was done in collaboration with Smithsonian Gardens. Smithsonian Gardens contributed the plantings, furniture, and landscape design to create a garden setting, while CLD contributed design of the wall graphics and reader rails.

Credits: Exhibition Design and Graphic Design by Christine Lefebvre Design. Exhibition Development/Curation by National Postal Museum. Design of the exhibition’s atrium entrance, and furniture selection, was done in collaboration with Smithsonian Gardens. Landscape Design and plantings by Smithsonian Gardens. Fabrication of the movable T-wall and interactive reader rail by Capitol Museum Services (Manassas, VA). Graphic printing and installation by Colours Imaging (Falls Church, VA). Custom framing by Archival Art Services (Alexandria, VA). Additional exhibit installation by National Postal Museum.

Photographs by FotoBriceno, courtesy National Postal Museum.

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Beautiful Blooms: Flowering Plants on Stamps (print)