Open to The Public!

Opening Night

German Ambassador Matthias Höpfner

Well, we opened on Tuesday and had a great time doing it. The turn out was excellent and we were so happy that so many friends, family, colleagues and museums represented. We drank some German beer and wine courtesy of the Diefenbunker, were pleased to listen to the interesting and kind words of German Ambassador Matthias Höpfner and Diefenbunker Director Alexandra Badzak, and even cleared our throats a little to thank all those who have helped us out over the past year and a half. Graham Iddon, photographer and fellow museum studies graduate documented the night nicely. Thanks to everyone who made it out to Carp for our opening!

Eric Espig - Exhibit: F

Grant Vogl - Exhibit:F

Alexandra Badzak, Director - Diefenbunker Museum
Dr. Dean Oliver, Director - Canadian War Museum, Research & Exhibits

Grant's father inspecting the first video interactive

Exhibit F on CBC Radio

Exhibit F was on CBC Ottawa Morning Radio at 8:15am on Monday, May 11th 2009. You can listen to some of the interview here:

CBC Ottawa Morning

Thanks for all the support and interest in our work.

The Exhibit Team:
Grant Vogl & Eric Espig

Exhibit F Hits the News!

Exhibit F hit the newspaper today with a little positive exposure. Erin Fitzgerald from the West Carleton Review interviewed the team a few weeks ago and the article was published in this week's issue of the local paper. Great to get some press! Thanks Erin!

it was also picked up by the Perth Courier

Original photo by Erin Fitzgerald.
For full article, click here.

Video Interactives III

While Eric was tied up with video editing, I started wiring up the first video interactive unit. I had to teach myself how to connect components, power LEDs, crimp wire and other new skills in order to make everything work...

First mock-up with scavenged wires, keypad and DV-66. While Eric worked on formatting the videos, I began learning how to wire LEDs to a power source, connecting TVs with periphery and other electronic experiments. Having never done anything like this, I welcomed the chance to try new things and work my way through a problem until it was solved.

Custom wiring job...Using scavenged wire, a few connectors, and some trial and error I wired up a power source for the LEDs using a variable voltage AC/DC Adapter at 1.5V. It resembles a bird's nest, but I made sure to colour code each switch with all of its 4 connectors. I also tried to tidy things up with some zip ties and electrical tape.

Once the LEDs, switches and video were all working, I began switching a few settings on the player to achieve the best result for the viewer.

Within the 'guts' of the DV-66, there are 6 dip switches which can be toggled on or off to control aspect ratio, repeat mode and more. Read your manuals!

Final mock-up of first video interactive. All switches, video and LEDs are working. This unit will be partially disassembled and installed in-situ.

-Grant

Opening Night

This is the e-mailable graphic we came up with for our invitation-only opening night. We are also happy to be hosting the German Ambassador to Canada, who will be speaking briefly as well. The invitation is made up of both sides of the 600 postcards we printed for distribution. 9 4x6 double sided colour postcards fit on 12x18 glossy cardstock perfectly for a cost of 0.20 cents a pop.

Installation Video v. 2.0

It feels very strange to watch 5 months boiled down to 50 seconds...

Cases - V

To clean up the acrylic by anywhere from: scraping off paint, to removing surface scratches to polishing it up to show-quality shine we used the following products and they all performed very well.
To remove dried paint from the acrylic we scraped off as much as we could with a blade then used Methyl Hydrate, which is also very effective at helping to remove adhesives. To smooth out surface scratches you can use Novus 1-2-3 and to add a finished polish as well as provide a protective anti-static film we used Spraywash Plastic Cleaner

Video Interactives - II

Construction of the first video interactive was started today. An existing pedestal was first lightly sanded, then, using a printed mock-up, the hole position was determined for button/switch placement.

Pedestal with post holes. The box is hollow underneath the button holes and will house the DV-66, controllers and wiring.

Using a Forstner bit, I cut matching holes into a piece of 1/8" acrylic to cover the final printed text/grapic panel.

Each switch came equipped with a locking notch, so each corresponding hole was also given a notch using a 1/4" drill bit, thus locking the buttons from turning and twisting the wires.

Acrylic sheet, complete with notched post holes.

Test fitting.

Mock-up of final pedestal. The buttons will have red LEDs and the final graphic panel with describe each video, have a run time and small thumbnail in English and French.

-Grant.

Lighting Installation - I

Lighting begins...

Lighting installation began today. We are using "fake" track lighting with 4 halogen bulbs. The lights came stock with 50W bulbs, but we will most likely be installing dimmers and new bulbs.

Once placement was determined, holes were sawed into the ceiling tile to fit the lighting boxes. After the lights were set up, it was much quicker & easy for the Electrician to wire them up.

Light boxes were installed using existing ceiling channels (a Diefenbunker speciality), welded bolts and collars and threaded rod cut to length.

View of threaded rod and lighting box from above the ceiling tiles.

Head in the ceiling! Be extremely careful when working in old structures. I wore a respirator, goggles and long sleeves to ensure that I didn't inhale or come into contact with any dust, insulation or asbestos.

Ceiling inserts using custom hardward and existing channels in the ceiling.

Lights up! Currently, the installation is complete but the lights are not aimed or balanced.

Sign Vinyl & Stencils - IV

Weeding out 180 feet of vinyl barb-wire. It was drawn with an illustrator brush (CS3), rasterized and then livetrace-d using "simple trace". We could safely fit 18' of barb-wire onto one 3' x 24" piece of sign-vinyl.

Ready to go - We found out that transfer tape can be used and re-used many, many, many times.

Applying the barb-wire border took approximately 4 person-hours.
***forgot to change the camera's white balance - we installed the halogen "track" lighting today! see tomorrow night's post for details!

Mount Construction - I

Each and every one of our exhibition artifacts requires a custom mount, both to provide proper support and protection, and to work with our existing cases in a functional and aesthetic way.

We chose to work in acrylic and keep the mounts simple. Acrylic sheet was cut to size based on individual artifact needs, and bends were created using a heating element and wooden jig cut to 45 degrees. Additional supports are provided by mylar banding, the addition of support posts and shelves, and padded, and carved extruded polystyrene and muslin mounts.

Simple supports and common bends allowed for ease of production as all artifacts require a custom mount for display.

Custom carved mount for military cap. Construction of carved extruded polystyrene, unbleached polyester batten and unbleached muslin.

Mount and label examples.

More...

A quick snap of what has been done so far. A mannequin is still required for the display of a military uniform, but this was a big step to put a check beside.

The interior of each case is lined with colourfast cotton muslin.

A quick mock-up of one of our case displays.

Video Interactives - I

We began assembling our digital video interactives this week. 2 video kiosks will be a part of the exhibit with 16 videos, 8 per interactive, available at each station. The videos will be displayed on 22" LCD screens wall mounted above the information/selection stations.
To store, play and control the video there are 4 simple and essential components:



The DV66 playback device is a simple and economical solution to meet museum video needs. 2 of the biggest advantages are that it does not use any moving parts as it is designed to playback 24/7, the other being that playback resumes automatically upon power-up. It is capable of playing up t0 99 files in sequence. The DV66 can be plugged into a/v, s-video and vga plugs.


On the inside several limited options are selectable through 6 Dip switches: NTSC/Pal, Aspect ratio, Looping the first file/playing in sequence and a few others.


Video is stored on a seperatly bought Compact Flash card up to 4 Gigabytes. After some trial and error we found that using DVD MPEG-2 with AC3 audio in letterbox format gave the most reliable and best results.



The DV66 can run on its own simply scrolling through the files on the CF card, or an external controller can be connected to it. We used the DV66K, however it has been discontinued and the more versatile TV-66K is available for the same function and more.


The DV66K has 8 push buttons onboard or external switches can be wired into the screw ports for remote control of the video files, which is what we need for our interactive illuminating switches.


The switches have LED lights inside which will have to be wired up to a separate power supply.



The exposed posts on the bottom-side of the switches are the available connections to the LEDs



Once the switches are connected the white (common ground) wire must be separated and wired into terminal "0" the coloured wire is then screwed into the appropriatly numbered terminal: switch # 1,2,3,4....



If there is insufficient space in terminal "0" (like we have run into here, an adaptation will have to be made to accommodate the 8 wires.

Progress

Here are some snapshots of the progress we have made in the past couple of weeks. We are currently beginning work on the two video interactives and acrylic mount-construction for artifacts. We have run into some unique problems over the past couple of weeks: dealing with customs and border agencies, transportation of large panels, and more and we have made some adjustments here and there (for the better hopefully) which we will document in the near future. Until then...

Cases IV- Pedestal Construction

We've moved onto some basic construction for the exhibit. Two existing cases required pedestal mounts to give them proper height. We wanted the black stripe present on all cases, so the height was measured accordingly. For the pedestals, we've opted to use MDF which is heavy (to avoid tipping) and takes most finishes quite well. It's also relatively cheap when compared to nice Baltic birch plywood.

Ensure that high-strength carpenters glue is used to provide a good bond.

After all the pieces were cut, I decided to use a locking mitre bit on the router table to give a better bond and more surface area for the glue to stick to.

Once the pieces were dry fit, we clamped everything in place then slide out one side at a time, applying glue to all contact surfaces, then tightening the clamps and allowing to set for at least 30 minutes before moving. Its a good idea to use corner templates to ensure a square box.

Our two cases all glued up. All in all, I am quite happy with the results. A little sanding and wood filler and they'll be ready for primer and paint. -Grant.

Panels VI - Mounting

Today was a big day for us as we finally reached the point where we were ready to mount all of our panels to the walls. It was exciting to see the space turn the corner and transform into an exhibit and feel less like a work in progress. We used industrial grade velcro with an adhesive backing to adhere the panels onto the walls. The velcro turned out to be incredibly strong and more than capable of bearing the weight of even the larger GatorFoam panels, even when cut as small as a 3" strip. Heres what it looks like so far!

Grant trimming the large printed photo to fit.
It is always good to have a certain amount of play with really large panels just in case measurements change. -Grant


Wall sized photo of a "Death Strip" ready to mount.
There are 1/2" spaces in between each panel. These areas were painted black and will blend the photo elements and their black Gatorfoam substrates together nicely. With photos of this size, it is better to gap them because any amount of misalignment will stand out if the edges are flush mounted.

"Blackout" stripes will dry for 24hrs, as will the adhesive on the Velcro backings to ensure proper adhesion and full strength.

Applying the industrial strength velcro strips.
Again, give yourself a little play in all directions with the placement of the Velcro. This will give you a little leeway in terms of hanging everything square, flush and level, both to the floor and surrounding elements.

An example of the mounted 2' x 3' panels.

I am hoping that G. took a photo of the finished big picture wall, it turned out quite well...

This is the best one I took today, pre-blackout stripes. -G.

Panels V- Pressure Mounting to Substrate

We began mounting our printed/laminated panels to their gatorfoam substrates this afternoon. The first step was trimming the prints right to the edge. Take your time, straight cuts really count.

The backing was then peeled off of the top 1" or so, aligned and stuck onto the substrates with care. Our prints were made approx. 1/8" larger than the substrates, so we had a small amount of play on all sides.

Keep everything clean! Little bits can get embedded and leave bumps. The same machine laminates and mounts. Pressure mounting required no webbing, just an adjustment of the nip height for 1/2" gatorfoam (see previous diagrams for laminator anatomy).


In this photo the Gatorfoam with red painted edges is coming out of the rollers with the print adhered to the surface. I am holding the backing in my hands as the rollers pull the substrate through the machine and the backing is slowly left behind
~Eric.

Panels IV - Design

The panel design was kept to a strict library of colours, font styles/sizes, and templates for borders surrounding images and photos.

I found that consistency was best maintained by always keeping the first and same finished panel copied/pasted & stuck beside the panel design being worked on in order to eyedrop colours and font size, as well as eyeball consistent heights of titles and subtitles (important as the panels will be side by side on some walls).

The red, tan, and 2 shades of gray on the panel are our best match to the actual dry paint on the wall. Hopefully the subtle difference in colour will not be too noticeable. We did extensive print tests of dozens of shades of each colour to try and match up the Pratt & Lambert paint chips to the end result coming out of the printer, however, the monitors we were using were rendering colour very inaccurately and ambient light in the design room was extremely inconsistent. It really was a guessing game and a test of patience to hone in on a shade close enough for comfort. Another factor differentiating the finished printed colour from the dry painted-walls is the UV protective lamination which slightly dulls and darkens the printed result.

*These jpegs of 2 of our 14 text panels have been modified and the quality reduced to prevent copyright infringement.

Panels III- Lamination and Substrate Prep

For "Cold War Berlin" each panel will be effectively turned into a sticker before mounting to the gatorfoam substrate. The bottom layer is a pressure activated adhesive with a paper backing, while the top layer consists of a UV filtering matte lamination, which will protect the panels from fading and damage. The laminator was first webbed and adjusted to the proper tension, then checked for wrinkles, air bubbles etc. It is always good to do a test with a blank or duplicate.

Once your piece begins feeding through the rollers there's no adjusting, so make sure it is square with the feed tray and within the limits of the laminating materials. Our widest panel was 36" wide, and the laminator is 38", so there's little room for error. For an introduction into the world of large scale lamination, see here.


If possible, prepare multiple pieces and begin feeding them in as the one ahead comes through to avoid wasting laminating materials. Each piece must be brushed clean with a soft-hair brush to ensure that no dust/debris is trapped under the lamination. This can marr the professional appearance of your pieces.

Our 0.5" white gatorfoam substrate was prepped for mounting by painting the edges red to match our panel borders. Pieces of similar size were stacked and painted with a roller.

Panels were then stacked with small spacers and allowed to dry. Next, each panel will be thoroughly cleaned with a brush and tack cloth to remove and dust, debris or particles before the mounting begins.

Panels II- Printing

Printing began this week. We don't want to give too much away just yet, but so far progress is good. Panels are being printed using Adobe Illustrator and the HP DesignJet 800PS. At approximately 1 minute per megabite (Post Script processing speed), we estimate a total printing time of around 33 hours. Luckily, most jobs can be set to run over night and on weekends. Keep checking back for more updates.

Panels I - Construction

Before moving your materials into your printing and laminating space, make sure to clean dust and particles off with a brush and/or vaccum. These these little specks can contaminate other "clean" machinery (computers, printers etc.) or get laminated over top of, leaving small bumps on your finished product.


To ensure straight clean cuts, concentrate on the fence, not the blade. Pressure should be exerted on the diagonal towards the fence to the right of the blade. Feeding from the opposite side can cause binding, over-reaching and wobble.


Make sure that your measurements are accurate, and use a rip fence and the factory edge to produce square corners and straight sides. Feed all materials through the blade to the other side.


It also helps to have a pair of extra hands when cutting large materials. Set your blade so that the gullets between the teeth are at the same height as the top of the material.



With large pieces of material, it is very helpful to have something to act as side and through supports. Here we improvised with overturned material carts, boosted to height with scrap wood and held in place with cinder blocks. Please plan your cuts well, keep your space clean, check your access and movement and review safety guidelines.
Panel construction began this week. For "Cold War Berlin" panels are being designed using Adobe Illustrator with a combination of historic photographs, original text and graphics, and custom colours. On of the most important aspects to exhibit development in public institutions is budget, and for construction, that means maximizing use of material. Our substrate, white Gatorfoam, comes in 4' x 8' sheets. Our original panel dimensions were 2' x 3', but were adjusted very slightly to allow for the kerf of the table saw blade (1/8"). AI documents are easily resized before printing, laminating and mounting. Excess material will be used for smaller panels, labels etc.

Sign Vinyl & Stencils III

To add more detail and atmosphere to the rooms, several more memorable and/or common border area signs were reproduced using sign vinyl.

Where applicable, fonts were matched or photos were modified using "Live Trace" in AI to produce a workable stencil file. The lines have been thickened for easier viewing. Files must be "clean" (i.e. solid workable lines, without ghosting etc.) to be properly cut with the CAMM-1.

Below are several of the finished stencils which will be place above doorways throughout the exhibit. The effect is quite good.





My personal favourite...


The "Cold War Berlin" logo was also reproduced in this fashion using AI and the Roland CAMM-1. Overall, these pieces will build on the atmosphere of divided Berlin and help to transport visitors to that time and place. I was very pleased with the look of this piece, and after a number of modifications in AI, it was cut out without incident.


Colours must be printed separately and assembled later when using a sign vinyl cutter. More to follow...

Cases III

In order to tie the cases with their surroundings, we have mimicked the black baseboard and stripe. Measurements were taken and marked onto cases using an adjustable square and pencil. Each area was then carefully masked and burnished to ensure a clean line.

Several cases will also incorporate other colours from the wall, such as the "Brown Sugar" tan . Make sure that all measuring and masking is done with care, as we had a few small touch-ups and mis-markings which had to be remedied.

Installation Video Pt. 1

Sign Vinyl & Stencils II

Clear transfer tape to be applied in vertical strips and thoroughly burnished to grab all of the small vinyl shapes.

Covering the surface in transfer tape

Using a burnishing tool and thoroughly applying pressure to the entire surface

We created a hinge out of the tape to adhere the two graphics joined with painter's tape to the wall while we....

...slowly peeled the backing away and burnished the sign vinyl onto the wall.






































After burnishing, the transfer tape is removed slowly and any vinyl stragglers not adhered to the wall are carefully lifted off the tape with blade.

Sign Vinyl & Stencils I

The rooms 2 support columns were originally planned to have watchtower stencils painted onto them, however we chose to use sign vinyl instead. The process for creating a stencil using a vinyl cutter is the same. We just used the inside bits rather than the outside ones.

I used this tutorial: Creating a Custom Stencil using Adobe Photoshop as a rough guide to create the stencil, but took a few shortcuts along the way. Attention to the subtler areas of shading was not as important as it would be in a human face, so I converted it to grayscale right away and then used "live trace" in Illustrator to convert it to a more malleable vector graphic. Once the background was deleted the contrast was jacked up. The image was then chopped into 2 files; top and bottom, to save time printing and to economize vinyl. To print to the vinyl-cutter I used outline mode in AI and sent the file directly from the app. We had to experiment quite a bit with the knife height setting as many of the small details were being picked off as the blade passed over them. You can adjust the blade height while it is operating if you notice problems.

Weeding out the unnecessary bits seemed like it was going to be slow going but wasn't so bad, especially with 2 people. So far we are really happy with the results of the sign vinyl image and if it goes onto the wall smoothly tomorrow, we will surely use this technique again. It has a lot of potential for experimentation with different types of images, lettering and sign vinyl comes in some really eye-catching colours and finishes.

Roland Vinyl-Cutter

Weeding the bottom half of the graphic

Weeding close-up

The top half of the graphic completely weeded.

The Roland CAMN in action.

Cases II

First coat of "Wolf". Cases are a darker grey to compliment the lower portion of the wall colour, and several taller pieces will mimic the black stripe to provide continuity. Make sure you give yourself enough space to work! Cut into corners with a brush, then roll on an even coat, making sure to avoid drips.





























Cases were primed with 2 coats of high-quality 100% acrylic all-purpose primer from Pratt & Lambert to ensure even coverage (most cases started out as dark blue or red in colour)
















Once the acrylic tops were removed and components broken down, cases were cleaned and scrubbed of any residual adhesives, labels etc.



Essential Tools: OLFA blades (for removing old adhesive labels, especially when cross-linking has occured).







Cases were first disassembled; not always an easy task, but that's the price paid for security.

Essential tools: multi-bit screw driver, metric and/or standard allen keys, OLFA knife and patience.

Painting V

Here are several thousands worth of words in picture form from our last, thankfully, painting day in the main rooms until touch-ups before opening! We still need 2 more coats in the theatre.


















Masking went well, despite the numerous "ribs" along the asbestos concrete walls. There was no dripping, and only very little overage, which will be easily touched up closer to the end of the "space preparation" phase of the project.






No complex masking/painting job should be undertaken without a good level, square, wide painter's tape and quality paint and brushes. Also, invest in small rollers to get the job done as they produce cleaner results with no brush strokes.


Our "falling wall" at the end of the exhibition before entering the theater.

Cases I

Every exhibition will require cases to safely house museum artifacts on display. Cases not only provide physical protection from vibration, physical force, handling and theft, but also provide a buffer for temperature and R.H. (relative humidity) during swings in the display environment. For and excellent resource on everything exhibit case, you should look up the "Exhibit Conservation Guidelines: Incorporating Conservation Into Exhibit Planning, Design and Production" by Toby Raphael at the National Parks Service.

We were lucky enough to obtain several professional grade cases second hand from the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation via the Diefenbunker. Once every few years, larger institutions will sell-off or dispose of old cases which are perfectly fine for exhibits on a budget. Take advantage.

In the coming months, we will be discussing case modifications including: construction, painting, lining/sealing and mounts. Keep checking back.

Painting IV

After we finished the second coat of grey, we were finally able to take most of the tape off (good thing because this was our 8th day on 8 day tape.) It was nice to get a good sense of what the finished rooms will look like. We have one more day of painting to do: the black stripe on top of the grey and around the "watchtower", and 2 more coats of red in the theatre. Before we open we will do a round of touch-ups and and some stenciled lettering where appropriate (the stencil above the doorway which is now uncovered is original from the Diefenbunker.)

Onto our last colour for walls "Red Carriage". The theatre will remain very dark, possibly lit only by an LCD screen. The broken grey going into the theatre room will hopefully look sharper once it is masked off and contoured in black, otherwise it may need to be re-designed, or supplemented with other graphics.

Painting III

After the 2nd coat of Brown Sugar, we cut-in and applied the first coat of good old "Durability" grey. The dividing line was traced with pencil and the help of a long level 40" from the floor. A Black stripe will eventually cover where the brown and grey meet so masking was not necesary. We just eyeballed it with a brush and were careful with the rollers.







After we found the first coat of cut-ins somewhat tedious with a brush, we bought some 4" rollers and it made the job much easier and cleaner. Small Rollers can easily cover unusually curved surfaces like the top of this pillar.

















We were really pleased once this corner pillar started to look more and more like a Berlin watchtower. Happy to take advantage of the architectural oddities found in the Diefenbunker.

Traffic Flow

Our original exhibit was designed for installation within one large open space. Drastic redesign was needed in order for it to make sense in the space the Diefenbunker Museum had chosen. The concept of a divided exhibit, East & West with a Wall interactive dividing them had to be scrapped. One of the biggest factors in shaping the current exhibit layout was Traffic Flow.

The biggest issue with the space represented above is the single entry/exit point into the 4 rooms. We decided to change the story of the exhibit to a chronological one. This means that once a visitor reaches the end of the exhibit they will have to backtrack through the rooms they have just seen. Less than ideal. For this reason we wanted to end the exhibit with bang. In this case, a private theatre with interactive video, a bench, and headphones.

Guessing the movements of visitors is not always possible, but we have tried to control them somewhat with strategic positioning of display cases and eye-catchers (video, large photographs, models.) One potential problem may be with creating bottlenecks and limiting access to and from each room during periods of high traffic. With this in mind we refrained from putting display cases against certain walls, particularly the East wall in the central room, to accommodate those exiting.

Working relationships and sources.

Develop your contacts! Exhibitions require historic photographs, videos, graphics etc. to present the topic in ways that words cannot do. Copyrights require large sums of money so any contacts that you can make along the way will greatly increase your chances of excellence. Contacts are also great for artifact acquisition/loans, material discounts and outsourcing.

Photos

With a few well placed calls,
one can begin a working
relationship that can provide
many excellent sources for images.



Some possible sources are:
- Local museum personnel
- Instructors/professors
- Historians
- Embassies
- International Museums


Videos
If you are looking for sources of digital video, you can try broadcasters, but be prepared to pay up to $20/second! Instead, check out sources like Archive.org where such material can be obtained for little more than proper citation.

Materials
Take advantage of any all possible contacts to obtain materials at the best possible price. Talk to relatives/family in paint/hardware/lumber businesses, friends with scanners and printers etc. You'd be surprised how many people you know can provide help or advice of some kind.

The important thing is to get out into your local museum community and work/volunteer with other professionals. Its not what you know (well, it is to some extent), but its who you know. One leads to many and soon you will have many sources for affordable and/or free rights images, videos etc.

Title Panel

The title panel consists of a 24" x 36" colour
inkjet print, dry mounted onto white Gatorfoam* and heat laminated. The design is an amalgamation of photographic elements processed in Adobe Photoshop and merged with vector graphics which were created in Adobe Illustrator. The fonts used in the logo reflect the divided nature of Berlin during the Cold War: "Amarillo USAF", "Soviet" and "Distress" (to reflect the Berliners.) The tag line is done in "Violation" script font and positioned on the Wall to represent the voice of the civilians - whom are the focus of this exhibit.

The photograph is taken in the early 1980s from the West side of the Berlin Wall. Between the wall and the building on the other side lies the "Death Strip", a watchtower is visible in the back ground - one of the recurring elements in the exhibit.











the photograph with logo prior to Photoshop and Illustrator flourishes

*Our original choice of material to dry-mount onto was HIPS adhered to Coroplast
with contact cement, however, we found a supply of Gatorfoam which was within the budget. Gatorfoam will not require any assembly, is slightly lighter and the edges will finish cleaner than the corrugated plastic.

Research

The objective of any museum exhibition should be to tell a story. More than that, the story must present accurate historical information to ensure quality education, public and peer respect and true facts. One must take care when preparing information for an exhibit by using a wide array of sources, including primary and secondary sources, films, books etc. Find out what both sides have to say, and read as much as you can! Start here.

The first step should be the development of a curatorial essay. This will allow the team to discover historical facts, interesting sub-themes and the like, as well as develop their interest and knowledge of the subject. This blog will not describe how to write an essay. However, writing skills are essential and will become extremely useful throughout the entire process. The curatorial essay will lead to topics for the exhibit, development of common threads and of background.

Once your essay has gone through several edits and permutations(check here for tips), you can begin developing a storyline or storyboard to start turning words on paper into tangible information via panels, cases, artifacts etc. To follow...

Maquette Making

Perhaps the most important weapon in a planner's arsenal, the maquette, or scale model, of the planned exhibition space will allow the team to test colours, graphics, layout, panel sizes and much more.

Rough mock-up of space.


Maquette- Floorplan
Obtaining blueprints of your proposed space, or taking simple measurements is the place to start.
Decide on a scale that is appropriate to your exhibit space. For example, if you have a large open space that is 40 feet long, do not use 1:10 because you maquette will be 4 feet long. You want something manageable, but that will be easy to work with and big enough to show some detail and get your point across.

Maquette- Materials
The most common materials used in maquette construction are Gatorfoam, Foam-cor, light woods (balsa) and some plastics. The best way to get started is by calculating your total wall length. Once this number is obtained, figure out your wall height and cut out continuous strips of material on a table saw so that all of your walls are exactly the same height. Of course, make sure to check your material for square.

Maquette- Construction
Use simple materials and common tools. The goal of a maquette isn't to build a full exhibit in scale, but to create a planning tool. Test colours and paint your walls. Make sure all doorways, windows, and architectural features are represented in proper scale. This will allow you to test panel sizes, layout, case sizes etc.

Maquette- Panels and Furniture
Again, the goal of a maquette is planning. Use mat board, plastic sheet, round and tubes (available at hobby stores) to make scale show cases and features to discover flow and accessibility issues. For panels, simple rectangles cut to scale will suffice, however, it does add a lot if you have some preliminary design work done, which can be printed onto scale pieces. If you want to go a little to far, you can create "gravity wedges" to hang your scale panels and move them as needed.

Painting II - Priming & First Colour

The original paint in the Governor General's quarters of the Diefenbunker. It was unfortunately masked and applied poorly. One coat of high quality primer used to cover it up.

Most of the walls consist of asbestos-concrete panels with ribbing at semi-regular intervals. The seams between panels had to be painted in prior to using the rollers. Cut-ins were also done along the ceiling joint and corners.

The rounded concrete support footing was left masked to be painted dark grey and as well as some of the original wall stenciling above the door.

We used a little over 1 gallon of the Pratt & Lambert "Brown-Sugar"paint to cover all 3 rooms.













Finishing touches in Room 1. The area below the brown will be painted light-grey once the second coat of brown is dry and can be masked safely.

The first coat is done

Painting I - Lessons Learned

Things to Consider before beginning:

1) Mask, Mask, Mask! - The time it takes you to mask everything, the baseboards/floors, ceilings, fixtures, doors, etc. will be saved many times over once you begin painting. While you are brushing or rolling you do not want to be concentrating on avoiding getting paint on surfaces, you should be concentrating on applying an even and seamless coat. Buy a lot of extra tape.

2) The width of your masking tape - Use wider stuff for ceiling masking and you can use your roller all the way to the top.

3) Masking tape "Days" - The number of days your tape is guaranteed to not get too sticky and remove some of the covered surface usually 7-8 days.

4) Paint & Primer Quality - In a museum environment it is essential to use low V.O.C acrylic paint. We chose high quality 100% acrylic Pratt & Lambert paints. High quality paints and primers may cost more initially but their ease to work with, drying characteristics, overall look, impact on the environment, and "mileage" well outweigh the extra monetary costs.

5) Plan Your Painting Strategy - You can give your walls a more polished look if you do your "cutting-in" around the ceiling, baseboards, corners, door-frames, etc, BEFORE your first coat with the rollers. This may also save you from having to do a 2nd coat of cutting-in after you're done. We used brushes for the the cut-ins, next time we will definitely use small rollers wherever possible, this will result in a more seamless finish. If you are doing multiple colours, plan to paint from the top down.

6) Buy Quality - Spending a little more on rollers, handles, tape, even plastic rolls will make your work that much easier. Your supplies will also last longer and will help ensure that you take care of them. Throwing away cheap rollers is easy, and sometimes may be the better option as washing them out is time consuming, however, good quality rollers will hold more paint and make your work easier. This will translate into a cleaner looking finish. Also consider the impact disposable items soaked in paint will have on the environment.

The Exhibit

This exhibit explores the aspects of the Cold War which had the biggest impact on daily life in Berlin between the years 1945 and 1990. It is being constructed in 4 rooms and 150 square meters (500 square feet) of the "Diefenbunker" in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The exhibit is planned to be opened by May 1, 2009.

The exhibit has been curated, researched, interpreted, designed, developed, and planned by Grant Vogl & Eric Espig beginning in December of 2007. The installation began on November 27, 2008.



Shown on Left: Original title panel. The dates do not reflect the actual opening of the exhibit.