Case Study

China Design Now

How can a museum make the world smaller?

Seeking continued relevance, the Portland Art Museum has undergone a number of changes in the past four years to help shift the museum experience. They selected China Design Now, an exhibit originally curated by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, to continue their evolution. This exhibition was identified as an opportunity to attract a new audience and extend the dialogue beyond the museums walls. China Design Now would be one of the first design-focused exhibits in several decades. The museum knew they had to adapt the exhibit to ensure that it would be authentic to the audience, and asked Ziba to help.

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China Design Now

BRAND DNA China Design Now Spectacular Creative Energy and creative momentum

TARGET Portland Creative Class

TREND Global Local

Case Study

China Design Now

As the oldest art museum in the Pacific Northwest, the Portland Art Museum usually attracts a tradi- tional art audience, but this exhibit was aimed at a new audience: the Portland design community. We had to shift the experience to ensure that the local design community would connect to the exhibit and its content. China Design Now celebrates the rapid evolution of the Chinese creative class and how it has emerged and flourished in the past 25 years. The exhibit tracks the major shift in China from manufacturer to innovator and spotlights three citiesShenzhen, Shanghai and Beijingeach representative of the major shifts in China from political to commercial, imitation to innovation, production to inspiration. Because of Portlands ongoing trade relationship with China and both

business and government interest in this global force, the museum was confident that the content would resonate with the audience if presented in the right way. At the Victoria & Albert, China Design Now had occupied a space three times larger than the galleries the Portland Art Museum had dedicated to the exhibition. Faced with the large number of artifacts contained in the exhibit, our role was to help develop an overarching story with the museum. The story would tie the experience together to give visitors insight into the magnitude of the shifts occurring in China. The story also needed to give visitors a clear understanding and path through the artifacts and content.

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China Design Now

Insights
We used the concept of a dynastyChinas Design Dynastyas the overarching story for the exhibit. There were three characteristics of a dynasty that we identified. Each characteristic helped generate supporting design elements that appeared within the exhibit. 1. The People: Chinas creative class was personified with a hall full of the designers faces hanging in multiples; large quotes on the exhibit walls gave the designers a voice. 2. The Place: Large-scale imagery of the three cities appeared throughout the exhibit; the dramatic scale was reinforced with China Factsstatistics featured on the walls throughout the exhibit. 3. The Work: Design in China during the past 20 - 30 years was captured in the China Design Now exhibit artifacts, and reinforced with distinctive positioning throughout the space.

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China Design Now

1. Shenzhen exhibit 2. Shanghai exhibit 3. Beijing exhibit

To ensure that each section of the exhibit was unique, we chose distinct metaphors for each city. The metaphors were representative of the cities respective design disciplines and were metaphors that the Portland design community was familiar with. The metaphors we used helped drive concepts for design elements within the exhibit and directed spatial layouts. At each city, we juxtaposed artifacts representing then and now to show visitors how Chinese design has shifted from imitation to inspiration and innovation. Shenzhen, the birthplace of Chinese graphic design, employed a studio metaphor. A political propaganda booklet introduced the origins of contemporary graphic design.

Shanghai, the fashion capitol of China, was inspired by a fashion runway. A Mao-era suit indicated fashions transition from uniformity to a revival of culture and glamour. Beijing, the capital city, was interpreted as a central pavilion space. A bicycle from the former Kingdom of Bicycles signaled the shift to a truly international city. Overall, the layout of the galleries referenced traditional Chinese architecture principles such as building on a central axis. The traffic flow was designed like the purposeful path in a traditional Chinese garden.

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China Design Now

The museum rallied the creative class in Portland to make the content their own

1. Sunshine Generation exhibition at Zibas Portland headquarters.

2 & 3. Jelly Generation exhibition at the Goldsmith Gallery.

The museum also rallied the creative class in Portland to make the content their own. The museum embraced their new role as conversation moderator versus content curator. Community -curated events occurred throughout the city and the museum employed social media, including a microsite, to capture the involvement of over 40 organizations. The microsite encouraged local participation and helped augment conversations at the museum about China, the Design Dynasty and how it affects Portland and the global community.

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China Design Now

Results
The exhibit was an overwhelming success for the Portland Art Museum. Ticket sales exceeded projections by 30% and attracted a new audience to experience and donate to the museum. 1,700 new memberships were generated from people standing in line for the exhibition, and the museum more than delivered on its core promise to inspire conversations through art and culture.