SuiSuisse StudioPaul Gray / Design & art direction
All work_

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Scottish Maritime Museum

Exhibition / Wayfinding

The Scottish Maritime Museum exhibition and interpretation system in its industrial setting.
The setting / Scottish Maritime Museum, Irvine.

The project_

The building was the starting point.

The brief_

A refurbishment of the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine. A very large space, an important collection, and a difficult task. The work needed to help people find their way through the building and understand what they were looking at.

The observation_

I began with an extensive photographic survey, noting the colours and textures already there. Those observations informed the presentations and the direction of the work. Every graphic and colour decision had a reference in the building itself.

The application_

I designed the visitor flow, a 16.5 by 5 metre entrance and exhibit wall, educational totems, three 5 metre zone walls and eight freestanding historical lightboxes. The zone walls had to be built on site. I also proposed a maritime colour for the columns, bringing the building and the interpretation into the same conversation.

The complete grey interpretation totem and red base in its original photograph.
Educational totem / An angled reading surface at a human scale.
The complete white prototype interpretation totem with its red foot.
The prototype / Testing the form before production.
The green exhibition zone wall with machinery and a reading totem.
Green zone wall / Wayfinding at the scale of the building.
The historical lightbox with its photographic front and red side.
Historical lightbox / Eight freestanding stories throughout the museum.
The yellow zone wall, including the boat and visitor in front of it.
Yellow zone wall / Colour and a common graphic language.
A green interpretation panel and its angular metal frame.
The frame / A detail of the interpretation system.
An installed historical portrait lightbox in the museum.
Installed lightbox / Photography and interpretation together.

Credits / Recognition

Exhibition design / Interpretation / Visitor flow — Paul Gray, Suisse.

Scottish Design Awards: Exhibition winner and Design Grand Prix.