I hadn’t intended to see the Lincoln exhibit at the New-York Historical Society. It so happened that as I was on my way to the American Museum of Natural History — planning to first stop by the Extreme Mammals exhibit before joining an SEGD tour — I was distracted by the banners hanging from every single lamppost along Central Park West. Lincoln and New York… Lincoln and New York… Lincoln and New York…
I decided I needed to check it out (those banners were like a siren’s call) and sadly never made it to Extreme Mammals. But no matter. (It’ll come to Boston, I’m sure….) Lincoln and New York is an excellent exhibit, designed by NYHS’s in-house design department with Angela Voulangas (The Graphics Office) as outside creative consultant and graphic designer. (Nicer exhibit photos can be seen in those two links.)
Walking in, I was greeted by these bold dimensional letters:
They look great, don't you think? I like the slab/sans font mix, and I thought the use of saturated colors for area introductions was very nice — it made the walls pop in the low lighting. My one critique about the area introductions: I thought the text was too large for the space, and line length too long. Reading them was slightly uncomfortable for me. (Okay, the other critique would be the exhibit’s almost exclusive use of vinyl, but you knew I would say that, right?)
I was pleasantly surprised by the contemporary design of the exhibit. The designers, Julia Zaccone and Angela Voulanges, made a smart move by incorporating stylish — trendy, really, but good for them — elements like silhouettes and dingbats. Why do historical topics always have to be presented in the same sepia-tinted way? I liked this fresher approach.
Also compelling were the wall structures and layouts. Below are some dramatically angled walls and black and white quotation banners. Nice work all around.The exhibit is on view through March 25, so New Yorkers: you have three months’ time to see it for yourself.
Post updated in January 2021 with minor text edits. Broken links have been fixed or replaced. This post was originally published at theexhibitdesigner.com on 30 December 2009.