A sweeping $12 million overhaul of the Detroit Historical Museum has recently been completed. Met by rave reviews and brisk attendance, the new exhibits are more interactive and vibrant than ever.

My role in the project was to develop the graphics for five new galleries – America’s Motor City, Detroit: The Arsenal of Democracy, Allesee Gallery of Culture, Doorway to Freedom and Innovation Detroit.

Each gallery was given a unique graphic treatment. The various graphics were crafted to compliment the character of each gallery while working harmoniously to create a cohesive visitor experience.

Regarding the renovation The Detroit News wrote, “Always a cool place to visit, the museum reinvented itself as a more interactive experience. Suddenly, there’s a lot more going on.”

^ The renovated museum celebrated 84 years in service in 2012

AMERICA’S MOTOR CITY

Did Detroit make cars or did cars make Detroit? Both, actually. A special mix of manufacturing expertise, resources, capital and entrepreneurs set the stage for a dramatic urban transformation. This gallery takes visitors from the early days of automobile innovation, through the birth of car culture to modern manufacturing.

^ Dimensional type at the gallery’s entrance

^ The King Car was the first automobile to motor down Woodward Avenue.

^ Reclaimed from a decommissioned Cadillac plant, the body drop exhibit entertains visitors.

DETROIT: THE ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY

Detroit’s manufacturing effort during WWII was staggering in its scope. Truly amazing.

Take the Willow Run Bomber plant as an example: The largest factory in the world, Willow Run occupied 80 acres and employed 40,000 people. They were capable of building one complete B-24 Liberator every hour and had manufactured 8,586 by the end of the war. They used 2.7 billion rivets in the process.

Beyond bombers, Detroit produced ammunition, communication equipment, vehicles, weapons, protective gear, tools and field goods. By the middle of the war Detroit made 1/3 of all the materials used by the armed forces.

All this manufacturing had enormous effects on the population, geography and industry of Detroit.

Michael H. Hodges wrote about the gallery for The Detroit News:

“War and its impact lie at the very heart of the Historical Museum’s ‘Arsenal of Democracy’ exhibit, another national story in which Detroit played an outsized role. This well-organized exhibit strikes a great balance between detail and brevity. A three-minute video at the start takes us from the late 1930s into the ’40s, when a Detroit decimated by the Depression turned into a wartime boomtown virtually overnight.”

^ Bold angular type evokes mid-century poster art and speaks to the energy of wartime Detroit.

^ Interpretive graphics accompany artifact vitrines

^ This interactive exhibit invites visitors to try their hand at quality control. Detroit was known for manufacturing the highest quality goods.

^ Life on the home front is explored in this exhibit.

ALLESEE GALLERY OF CULTURE

This tall, round gallery acts as a museum hub while the exhibits recall Detroit’s rich cultural legacy.

^ Refurbished neon letters from the beloved Tiger Stadium add their glow to the Allesee Gallery of Culture.

^ The galleries eight artifact cases provide a home for Detroit’s best cultural treasures and accompanying interpretation.

^ Dense reader-rail graphics feature brief stories, photos, a Detroit timeline and artifact labels.

DOORWAY TO FREEDOM

It’s hard to add much to what Michael Hodges wrote for The Detroit News. He captured the tone of this exhibit nicely in his piece:

“Most significant in the makeover is the deep dive the museum now takes into subjects that once got short shrift, notably Detroit’s importance in the Underground Railroad before the Civil War. Once relegated to two glass cases on a stairway landing, ‘Doorway to Freedom’ offers a far more-absorbing, multisensory experience.

‘It was one of the things that always troubled us,’ Bury says of the former exhibit.

The expanded installation opens with a cappella spirituals and a sobering illustration of how to pack slaves into every last inch of a ship sailing from Africa. From there, we push through tight passages lined with broadsides advertising the criminal penalties for failing to turn in escaped slaves. The physical compression and the legal warnings generate a little of the claustrophobia and anxiety that had to attend every step escaped slaves took on the perilous journey to Canada.

Indeed, the exhibit notes that one runaway slave from St. Louis, Caroline Quarlls, was so apprehensive that on seeing the Detroit River, she mistook it for the Mississippi and assumed she’d been hoodwinked. Throughout the exhibit, we meet specific slaves and hear their stories, like one from Robert Cromwell, whose bass voice confesses overhead, “I don’t mind telling you I’m scared. I’m a runaway.” At exhibit’s end, we learn whether Cromwell and others made the river crossing.”

^ The gallery’s entrance transitions visitors from the museum corridors to an immersive journey experience – from slavery to freedom in the north.

^ A variety of graphic techniques are used to communicate the story of Detroit and its role in the Underground Railroad. Shown here are frosted glass panels with applied text and photos.

^ Thematic exhibit elements and graphics evoke the Civil War era.

^ Period appropriate type is an important factor in setting exhibit tone.

^ Printed-wheatboard graphics compliment the larger exhibit design.

INNOVATION DETROIT

Did you know Paint-by-number was invented in Detroit? It was imagined by Dan Robbins. You can thank Detroiters for the outboard motor, Tupperware parties, traffic lane striping and advancements in industrial architecture. And, of course, we can’t overlook Henry Ford’s contribution to auto manufacturing.

^ Vibrant colors and energetic graphics add to the frenzy of this gallery and evoke the eureka moments sought by so many Detroit innovators.

^ Color changing backlights glow through waterjet-cut metal graphics.

EXHIBIT CREDITS

Graphic Design – Gene Ullery-Smith
Exhibit Design – Good Design Group
Fabrication – Morley
Project Oversight – David Goodman
Client – Detroit Historical Society
Site Mastermind – Tom Wolcott