The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), a well-known art and design school, has improved its high-profile public exhibitions by replacing heavy and difficult materials with lighter, reusable display systems.
The state university college in New York, N.Y., hosts nearly 100,000 visitors each year at ‘The Museum at FIT’ exhibitions, which teach about the art of fashion. The nine-building campus also features several other large exhibit spaces, including a main-entrance lobby and a major auditorium, which accommodate departmental shows, conferences, open-house presentations and senior student projects.
“These exhibitions often required ‘reinventing the wheel’ each time they were developed, spending thousands of dollars for materials and systems that would be thrown away,” says Craig Berger, assistant professor and chair of FIT’s visual presentation and exhibition design department, who was previously director of education for the Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD) and has written for Sign Media Canada. “Temporary displays were created with structural fibreboard panels that were exceedingly heavy and almost impossible to use for exhibits.”
The department began to envision a better way to accommodate the temporary exhibits. Staff created a reusable, modular system by attaching 3A Composites’ Gatorfoam graphic display boards—which bond polystyrene (PS) foam between layers of wood-fibre veneer laminate—to Autopole fixtures and Octanorm exhibitry pieces that were already on hand.
In total, 50 boards—each 9.5 mm (0.375 in.) thick, in 1.2 x 2.4-m (4 x 8-ft) sheets—were used, featuring white facers and white foam. Some were cut with a table saw to 1 x 2.4 m (3.3 x 8 ft) and some were covered with light grey burlap, using a silicone adhesive, to create a surface for high pin holes.
“The panels are thick enough to handle long pins and durable enough to last five years or more,” says Berger. “They are also light enough to be moved and stored easily. This modular system can be adapted for all temporary exhibits at the school, from photography shows to backdrops behind mannequins. We expect it to have a long, bright future enhancing the image of the college and its departments.”
