Museum Exhibition Design
Stephane Mallarme, the 19th-century symbolist poet played a significant role in influencing early 20th-century movements such as Futurism, Dadaism, and Surrealism. His poem Un coup de des (A roll of the dice) specifically impacted graphic design and typography in particular. Its seemingly chaotic and fluid typographic treatment has had a direct impact on typographic history as many designers began to consistently challenge elements of page layout, spacing, type size, and more.
Thematically, the poem speaks of chance and evokes powerful images. The idea and use of Artificial Intelligence generated art is widely debated, but what is known is that the images it produces are quite random and can be very moving. As a challenge to honor the past as we move to the future, I developed this mock exhibition as a celebration of Mallarme's work, centering its execution around the exploration of AI art.
An excerpt from Un coup de des
Assets
Process
The main deliverable of this project was a design system for a Galley Exhibition that would be focused on art inspired by Stephane Mallarme's Un coup de des. I developed each asset (Signage, Posters, Catalogue, Social Posts, and presentation) with the intention of it being viewed as one cohesive exhibition design. Thus stylistically, all elements use a similar language. The design concept and exhibition theme are centered around the ideas of intensity and chance as it appears in Mallarme's work.
The two elements I focused most heavily on while designing this exhibition were the poignant typographic treatment of the poem and the stirring images used throughout. Within each asset, I use sporadically laid-out rectangles to mirror the typographic treatment of the poem. Within these rectangles appears horrific and tangled imagery. These images are fragments of AI-generated art. To generate the main image I used, I input the prompt "Raging Abyss" (a line from the poem and a central theme) into an AI. The merging of these two artistic processes - vastly different in time and technology but eerily similar in thematic effect - creates an impactful reimagining of the poem that showcases and honors its beautiful intensity.
This project greatly improved my ability to create a design system and to meld multiple complex ideas. Throughout this process, I tried out many ideas, some without the use of AI art and as a result, I was able to also refine my judgment of AI art in general. I believe it can be utilized as a tool, and like any other tool, it can be welded to our benefit or to poor effect. In the hands of a talented designer, this tool can quickly generate powerful surreal images which can be refined to fit a need. These images, as they are made now, seem to be amalgams of dream images. This quality can be leveraged to push the themes of certain projects. I believe this project in particular, given its themes, truly benefited from the use of AI art.
AI Art Study
Details
Title Wall and Signage | Poster Design | Catalogue Covers and Spreads | Social Posts | Asset Presentation
Medium: Signage, Posters, Social Post layout (PS, AI), AI art generation, photo manipulation (PS), Catalogue and Asset layout (ID)
Mentor: Kevin Lahoda
