t. +44 (0)20 7939 0920 | e. contact@dhadesigns.com
We are using Google Analytics on our website to follow user engagement & to improve the way our site works for visitors.
As a result, we have updated our privacy policy, and the updated document can be viewed here.
Please do take a look, and ensure you feel comfortable with the data we are collecting, which is purely to improve the way we do business with our clients
We were delighted when Eithne Owens, creative director at Event Communications, mentioned our work on the 2022 exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, Tiffany: Vision & Virtuosity in her recent Design Week article, What will exhibition design look like in 2023?
Eithne described our lighting for the exhibition as ‘absolutely stunning’, in particular the way we lit the ‘Blue Book’ room, where pieces were individually haloed by light to best display the form and materiality of some of Tiffany’s most precious and delicate pieces.
It’s a great boost when one of our clients has spotted some of the work we have done, and to be mentioned in an article relating to the future of design is really very pleasing, so thank you to Eithne and Design Week for this.
Our latest project for Tiffany, the Vision & Virtuosity exhibition, or ‘a journey through 185 years of innovation, craftsmanship and heritage’ has opened at the Saatchi Gallery on London’s King’s Road.
The exhibition is a magnificent tour of Tiffany’s history, showcasing not only the in-house jewellery skills that have made them justly famous worldwide, but also the remarkable collaborations with other designers and creators that has kept them at the forefront of creativity since they were founded in New York in 1837.
With over 400 objects and seven exhibition sections to explore, the exhibition really does showcase the incredible range of craftsmanship the company has produced – not only in diamond jewellery, but in silverware & of course, iconic Tiffany lamps.
DHA worked with the set designers, Agence NC & video designers, La Meduse to produce seven very different rooms, each one dedicated to a key part of Tiffany’ history, from a study of their collaboration with key designers of their renowned window displays, to the role the company plays in Truman Capote’s novella, and later film, Breakfast at Tiffany’s that provided the best-known role for Audrey Hepburn: displays include her iconic Givenchy dress, the script he used and even a first draft of Capote’s novella.
The exhibition runs until the 9th August at the Saatchi Gallery, and remarkably, the exhibition is free; tickets are booked on the Saatchi app that can be downloaded from various app stores & also acts as your digital guide to the exhibition once you are there.
We are delighted that no less than three of our recent projects have been shortlisted in the Best Permanent Gallery category at the Museum + Heritage Awards for 2022.
Each project (the Second World War & Holocaust Galleries at the Imperial War Museum, the Wordsworth Trust Museum in Grasmere & the Manchester Jewish Museum) have quite distinct content and tone, but all represent the absolute best in contemporary museum design, and we are pleased to have had a role in their creation. We particularly like to thank the designers for each project: Casson Mann for the Holocaust Galleries, Ralph Applebaum Associates for the Second World War Galleries, All Things Studio for the Manchester Jewish Musem and Nissen Richards for the Wordsworth Trust Museum for making us part of their design teams.
Beyond the designers, we worked with an excellent team of curators, conservators, interpretation consultants & contractors across all of these projects, so it is fantastic to see their work being recognised in this way. The awards will be presented on 11th May at an actual, live ceremony, so it’s even more good news that industry events are finally returning to normal!
A perfect example of how lighting can add enormous value to a gallery project can be seen at our recent work on the V&A Museum’s series of three linked gallery spaces that form the Design 1900 – Now collection. The galleries have recently been refurbished to great effect & the process was recently featured in the BBC2/Blast series, Secrets of the Museum.
Project designer, David Robertson, worked with the V&A’s lead curators, Corinna Gardner & Johanna Agerman Ross to re-light and refresh the spaces, originally designed in the 1980s. The challenge was to retain all of the cases and setworks, which featured a lighting system so dated – relying mainly on halogen sources – that it could easily have featured as one of the gallery’s exhibits. An initial attempt had been made to replace some of the halogen with retrofit LED lamps, but the results were inconsistent: the lighting, from simple overhead lightboxes, was bland and in many cases had failed, leading to a patchy and dull appearance.
The first part of the refurbishment was to understand what the museum needed: a flexible system that could light large objects, down to tiny pieces, creating modelling on the three-dimensional pieces, but equally able to light large flat pieces, such as signage and wallpaper samples.
DHA proposed the existing egg-crate louvred light boxes were upgraded with a high-quality LED behind a diffusing acrylic for a fresher, more contemporary feel. The LED sources were chosen for their colour performance and quality; dimming was introduced so that light levels could be varied from bay to bay to suit the background level of illumination required. A series of mock-ups showed that an ambient light at 4000K worked extremely well with the daylight available in the galleries, and avoided the ‘yellowing’ appearance that a warmer LED source might have introduced.
By contrast, and to create the modelling on objects, a miniature track system was introduced at the front of the case using 3000K warm white sources, as concealed as possible while working within the constraints of the original case framing. This system can carry a number of re-configurable LED spotlights that can have their colour and beam adjusted to suit the objects, and is fully individually dimmable. This approach suits a series of displays where many of the objects can only be illuminated to 50 lux to protect their delicate materials. The spotlights also allow the museum to re-configure displays to suit their Rapid Response collection: displaying and rotating objects as they are acquired.
The final step was to commission the cases: DHA’s experience with dealing with a full range of objects means that we can balance the required light levels into a cohesive visual composition, making each object have its own weight and significance while maintaining the correct light levels. The results speak for themselves.
The cases are again fit for purpose in a museum of art and design: objects and graphics can be clearly seen in a good quality of light with the correct colour rendering; the system is fully adjustable to suit the changing displays, and the control is logical and simple to operate. This is a great example of how good lighting can aid in museum sustainability: old cases need not be discarded, they can be refreshed and made suitable for the demands of C21st display, while reducing energy costs and maintenance demands at the same time.