Inchpunch Design | A Multi Disciplined Graphic Design Studio | Selby, Pontefract, Leeds & York
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Welcome and Display Area Re-Development

Client: Leeds Museums and Galleries / Leeds Museum Discovery Centre

The Leeds Museum Discovery Centre (LMDC) is the Leeds Museum & Galleries flagship, state of the art, storage site. It is a purpose-built facility that houses over one million objects and incorporates office accommodation, learning rooms, research labs and corporate hire spaces. 
Though the building is modern and practical, the LMDC team thought there was an opportunity to make the entrance area more engaging to visitors whilst communicating the role, importance and work undertaken within the building. To tie in with the overall re-development the LMDC also wanted to introduce some form of directional signage that would clearly signpost the building's facilities.

Inchpunch were recommended to LMDC by York Museums Trust and as a result were invited to pitch for the project along with several other design agencies. Our tender winning proposal realised all aspects of the initial brief and delivered so much more.

Reception Desk
This is the first port of call for all LMDC visitors and the beginning of their journey. We completely modernised this space by introducing a neutral white / grey colour scheme and all flat work surfaces had colour matched "LMDC blue" toughened glass worktops applied. Our practical solution ensured the reception area not only looked great but could support all the usual everyday practicalities such as signing in, deliveries etc.  

Directly behind the reception desk is a very colourful, wall mounted, acrylic sign which highlights all the various facilities within the building. The vinyl cut directional arrows extend from the sign, clearly indicating which direction the rooms are located.​
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Reception Desk - Before
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Reception Desk - After
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Directional Graphics and Room Signage
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​To help identify individual facilities we gave each one its own unique icon and colour. The icon and colour were applied to the acrylic signage mounted above each room entrance, which is clearly visible from the top of the corridor next to the reception desk. The facility icons also helped non English speaking visitors understand the signage.

​To further aid ease of navigation, each facility entrance / area is also painted in its identifying colour with vinyl cut lettering and icon. This also adds a vibrant splash of colour to break up the large expanses of white walls.
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Feature Wall & Window Graphic
The LMDC houses over a million objects from across all the Leeds Museums and Galleries main collections. However, the vast majority of the items are in storage. While many visitors will inevitably explore the store as part of their visit, LMDC wanted to showcase the variety of objects in their collection to everyone who walks through the door but due to security issues actual objects cannot be displayed.

Our solution was to create a "3D feature wall" that informs the visitor of the main item categories (Natural Sciences, Social History, Archaeology, World Cultures, Numismatics and Costume & Textiles) and also displays object examples from each category. The seven circular category panels were printed directly onto clear acrylic and mounted to the wall via stand off barrel mount fittings. The object graphics were printed to vinyl and cut to shape.

To complete the re-design we created a large window graphic that visually emulated the feature wall illustrations. The window graphic measured 4604 x 2714mm and was applied to the windows next to the main entrance.
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Inchpunch interpreted our brief to perfection. The new look entrance / reception area looks modern, welcoming and engaging and really sets a positive tone for visitors and staff. We are particularly impressed with the clever use of colour acting both as a visual and navigational tool.  From start to finish, the entire project was implemented very professionally and to a high standard.
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Tel: 01977 662 353   /   ​Email: siobhan@inchpunch.co.uk
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