SMCS / Sign system 2
June 2004
Stedelijk Museum CS
Sign system / part 2
Note: this entry is part of a larger group of texts about the SMCS assignment. To read the full story about this project, start at SMCS / Introduction, and click through all the successive pages from there.
On another note – we wrote the texts below quite a while ago. We just reread them, and noticed some of them seem a bit outdated, and might need to be rewritten. Some of the used images need some reworking as well. We'll do this in the near future.
![experimental_jetset_smcs_hall]()
![experimental_jetset_smcs_hall2]()
![experimental_jetset_smcs_hall3]()
![experimental_jetset_smcs_hall4]()
In SMCS / Sign system 1, we explained the general idea behind the signage. In this chapter right here, we would like to show one specific example of this sytem.
We were asked to create a mural for the large wall in the main hall, which is the first thing you saw when you actually entered the museum. Our first plan was to fill the wall completely with A4 document holders. Problem was, if we wanted to fill the whole wall, we would need thousands of those holders.
And since we already used around 2000 holders for the whole sign system, there just wasn't enough time and budget to hang a couple of thousand more. So instead of a whole wall full, we settled for separate panels: four fields of document holders, mounted between the doorways. Inbetween the third and the fourth panel, we placed another large SMCS logo, applied to the wall using sticker material. We also added some diagonal lines, to hold the wall together.
Our plan was to change the prints shown in these holders every few months or so. We could work on different themes and topics, not focusing on specific exhibitions, but on the museum as a whole. That was the plan.
Since it was the opening of the museum, the first theme we wanted to explore was the SMCS graphic identity itself. So the first design we showed in these holders was a simple 'title sequence': the SMCS logo dancing around in red and blue, captured in different stills. The museum as a movie, with its own freeze-frame introduction.
Shown above three of those panels (of the four we created), and the stickered SMCS logo.
Photos (c) 2004 by Gert-Jan van Rooij.
Sign system / part 2
Note: this entry is part of a larger group of texts about the SMCS assignment. To read the full story about this project, start at SMCS / Introduction, and click through all the successive pages from there.
On another note – we wrote the texts below quite a while ago. We just reread them, and noticed some of them seem a bit outdated, and might need to be rewritten. Some of the used images need some reworking as well. We'll do this in the near future.
In SMCS / Sign system 1, we explained the general idea behind the signage. In this chapter right here, we would like to show one specific example of this sytem.
We were asked to create a mural for the large wall in the main hall, which is the first thing you saw when you actually entered the museum. Our first plan was to fill the wall completely with A4 document holders. Problem was, if we wanted to fill the whole wall, we would need thousands of those holders.
And since we already used around 2000 holders for the whole sign system, there just wasn't enough time and budget to hang a couple of thousand more. So instead of a whole wall full, we settled for separate panels: four fields of document holders, mounted between the doorways. Inbetween the third and the fourth panel, we placed another large SMCS logo, applied to the wall using sticker material. We also added some diagonal lines, to hold the wall together.
Our plan was to change the prints shown in these holders every few months or so. We could work on different themes and topics, not focusing on specific exhibitions, but on the museum as a whole. That was the plan.
Since it was the opening of the museum, the first theme we wanted to explore was the SMCS graphic identity itself. So the first design we showed in these holders was a simple 'title sequence': the SMCS logo dancing around in red and blue, captured in different stills. The museum as a movie, with its own freeze-frame introduction.
Shown above three of those panels (of the four we created), and the stickered SMCS logo.
Photos (c) 2004 by Gert-Jan van Rooij.
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