Exhibit Columbus: 2019 Exhibition

Exhibit Columbus is an annual exploration of architecture, art, design, and community that alternates between symposium and exhibition programming each year. For inspiration, Exhibit Columbus looked to the 1986 exhibition, Good Design and the Community: Columbus, Indiana, created when Columbus business leader and philanthropist J. Irwin Miller became the first person inducted into the National Building Museum Hall of Fame. Mr. Miller chose to emphasize the community’s process and involvement in building, rather than the architecture itself.

Thirst was invited once again to participate as the 18th installation, Environmental Design and Wayfinding, creating a suite of 17 kiosks to mark each of the installations. The kiosks, or 'talking barkers', function as silent docents with a primary intent to teach visitors about the installations and provide the historical context of the associated building or site on which they are located.

Rick Valicenti and Anna Mort also designed an exhibition guide, provided free to visitors as a takeaway to supplement the kiosks, commemorative posters, a program, and the second edition of batons to award this year's designers.

The 8' tall kiosks remain visible in a crowd or from blocks away.

Each of the upper panels was engineered with swivel points to allow winds to pass through.

Kiosks on the news!

The Exhibition Guide is 28 pages long and 11.25 x 15 inches large.

Each of the five J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize Recipients has a dedicated spread and illustration.

Alexander Girard's original maquettes from his vision for Washington Street line the gutters of the Civic Projects spreads.

A limited-edition 24 x 36 poster to commemorate the 2019 Exhibition.

Illustrations for the Miller Prize Recipients were produced as 18 x 24 posters.

Architectural drawings, process photos, and materials informed each illustration.

SO-IL's installation, Into the Hedge, utilizes Arbor Vitae trees and nylon webbing to reference Dan Kiley's landscape plan at the Miller House and Garden.

MASS Design Group's Corn / Meal invites the public to reflect on our relationship with industrial agriculture and what we eat in an interactive environment.

Thirst designed birch plywood signs, placed throughout the cornfield, which provide prompts and questions for visitors.

Another edition of anodized aluminum batons was passed to this year's designers. Photo: Ignition Arts

The Columbus logo is shuffled and shapes intermingle on the cover of a four-page Conversations program.

A 3-minute video of the kiosk design process, beginning to end.

Client: Landmark Columbus

Service: Exhibitions; Illustration; Print; Signage

Credits

Graphic Design Rick Valicenti and Anna Mort
Kiosk Design Rick Valicenti with Jonathan Nesci

Fabrication Partners
Printing Graphic Arts Studio, Barrington IL
Kiosks Versteel, Jasper IN
Anodized Batons Ignition Arts, Indianapolis IN
Plywood Signs Matthew Hoffman, You Are Beautiful, Chicago IL
Aerial Photography Hadley Fruits, Columbus IN