Virtual Realms: Videogames Transformed
Barbican, 2021
Global touring exhibition

Exhibition graphics, visual identity and catalogue for Virtual Realms: Videogames Transformed.

An immersive, multi-sensory exhibition that reimagines videogame creativity and reshapes how we can play together across virtual and physical realms, Virtual Realms is co-curated by the Barbican and Tetsuya Mizuguchi

The exhibition is made up of six interactive realms –  Synaesthesia, Unity, Play, Connection, Narrative and Everything. The graphics, developed alongside exhibition designer Chiara Stephenson, focus on the space in-between each of the realms, the indefinable space somewhere between the virtual and the physical. Using colour spectrums, dégradé and contrasting materials, the design transports the visitor into an abstract multi-sensorial experience as they move freely through the exhibition, entering each of the realms through portals.

The exhibition logo finds its roots in Adrian Frutigers Univers, the typeface coined as the model for the emerging world of digital type. Offsetting its original path, the logo is transformed into a computer-generated form inspired by the illusion of the infinity mirror, which is echoed repetitively six times, one for each realm.

The exhibition catalogue brings together different booklets loosely cased in a textured folder. Each uniquely coloured booklet reflect the different realms present within the exhibition, and invites the reader to take a non-linear approach to the content, echoing the structure of the exhibition.

Exhibition photography by Ajam Sali
Catalogue photography by Timothée Chambovet