IDDIS The Norwegian Printing Museum

IDDIS The Norwegian Printing Museum honours the long traditions of package design in the town of Stavanger.

Client:

IDDS The Norwegian Printing Museum

Location:

Stavanger, Norway

Exhibition area:

655 m²

Year:

2021

Scope of work:

Exhibition design and development. Multimedia design and production. Interactive exhibits design and production. Replicas production. Graphic design and project management.

Interior architecture:

Atelier Brückner

Photography:

Anne Lise Norheim and Cathrine Ommundsen / MUST

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About

Norwegian Printing Museum is located in the historical town of Stavanger, known for its prosperous canning industry. Canned seafood is also where the printing industry in Norway started and through time turned the city of Stavanger into a graphic and packaging design hub.The same cannery warehouse, where it all once started, is also where the Norwegian Printing Museum is housed today.

Concept

The concept of the museum came from Atelier Brückner and Motor was brought onto this project as the production partner.

The narrative of the museum starts from the early days of printing and takes the visitor on a journey of different eras in the industry, starting with old printing presses and ending with today’s modern printing equipment.

An important goal was to make the museum simple in nature, but at the same time modular and movable. This required a lot of custom made solutions which made the production an exciting challenge, especially at an unusual time when factories were struggling and travelling was difficult.

Highlights

Inside the museum, visitors' paths are linear and follow a certain path that leads through the evolution of printing. In a way the museum is quite classical, many exhibits with supporting information presented on screens, but the museum also has a few surprises.

One of the most notable attention grabbers is a 12 meters long paper cloud installation that flows over the room and gives a truly unique effect. Producing and setting up the cloud is tricky, but the end result is well worth the effort.

The interior of the museum features a lot of natural materials, giving the exhibition space a cozy and welcoming feel.

Challenges

The ambitious concept was an exciting challenge and really put our production team to test. This project was also majorly affected by the pandemic throughout 2020–2021.

Production of an exhibition relies on being physically present, but the restrictions permitted travel and therefore this became a true learning experience for us as well. With the use of many video calls and very professional and talented partners we managed to stay busy and keep the work from having too long breaks.

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