History of Language & Gutenberg Exhibits

The Crandall Museum is a hands-on historic printing press museum. These two new exhibits interpret the museum’s rich collection of artifacts and reproduction printing presses to tell the story of the printed word and Johannes Guttenberg’s

Client
Crandall Printing Museum

The mission of the Crandall Printing Museum is
to connect visitors to the history of printing through hands-on experiences, critical questions, and the relationship between technological advances, all while learning new skills and gaining an appreciation for those who have forged the way before us.

Location
Alpine, Utah

Completed
Winter 2023

Process

This content of these exhibits was originally presented to visitors through two docent-led tours throughout the museum. One covered the history of language from its earliest origins in Ancient Egypt up to the modern day printing presses of the early 20th century; the other tour covered Johannes Gutenberg and his impact on the world of printing.

The museum wanted to create permanent exhibits to display the verbal information from these tours alongside the rich variety of materials in their collection. Covering a vast range of time, from Ancient Egypt up to the mid 20th century, the material for these two exhibits included historic images, facsimile documents, and artifacts. Our challenge was distilling the tour scripts, which were more conversational in tone and relied little on visual information, into a static display that would still be engaging to visitors even if a docent was not present. The final result was an abstracted timeline where a selection of stories relating to language development were highlighted against a punchy Benjamin Moore wall color to contrast the browns, tans, and neutrals seen in many of the historic images and artifacts.

  • Content Organization

  • Color Palette

  • Early Elevation Design

  • Materiality

  • Display Cases

  • Abstracted timeline

  • Gutenberg Exhibit, in progress