The Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums (MAAM) is in Washington October 22-24, bringing together museum professionals from across the region. On October 22, OEC welcomed a group of conference attendees for a behind the scenes tour.

OEC Director Susan Ades led participants from museums, firms, and universities through our facilities. The first stop was the Design/Editing Unit, where Lynn Kawaratani explained our design process and led a lively discussion about exhibition design and development.

 

 

We enjoyed hosting our tour group and hope they enjoy their stay in Washington!

In September, OEC joined in on the fun with over 800 other exhibitors at the New York Maker Faire, the “World’s Greatest Show (and Tell).” The two day festival, held in Queens, NY, brought together all manner of ‘makers’ – scientists, tech aficionados, crafters, educators, and so on – to show what they have made and share what they have learned.

This was OEC’s first time attending Maker Faire. Modelmakers Carolyn Thome and Megan Dattoria set up a display in the 3D printing village. (Yes, there was entire village of people who work with 3D printers.) Armed with miniature lungs, gorilla skulls, enlarged shells, and other goodies, they told attendees of the amazing ways the OEC is using 3D printing technology in exhibitions and outreach programs at the Smithsonian.

 

Maker Faire provided a chance for OEC to show off some of the innovative ways the Smithsonian is using this groundbreaking technology. Carolyn and Megan also got to compare notes with other makers… and check out the first 3D printed car, an enormous human-sized mousetrap game, battling drones, and thousands of people outside the gate waiting to get in both mornings.

 

 

Just how big of a graphic can we make? You’d think that the answer would be simple: as big as our biggest printer is wide. But it turns out that the sky’s the limit. Instead of making artwork fit the panels, the panels can be made to fit the artwork.

The OEC designed five large-scale panels for the brand new Mathias lab at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Edgewater, Maryland. OEC exhibit designer Emily Sloat Shaw’s colorful graphics complement and enliven the lab, designed to be the Smithsonian’s first LEED-platinum building. The panels tell the fascinating history of SERC’s location – from a Nanticoke hunting and fishing ground, to a plantation, and finally a dairy farm before it was bequeathed to the Smithsonian in 1964. Currently SERC’s mission focuses on the connections between people and coastal environments. (Want to know more? Check out their blog when you’re done reading ours.)

It’s a great project for an important new scientific lab. There was just one little – make that really big – catch: their panels are bigger than our biggest printer.

Obviously, this problem has occurred before – we’re not the first place to have to print huge graphics. Previously, panels like this would have been printed, laminated, seamed, and mounted by hand. And if you think that process sounds long and laborious you would be correct.

For the Mathias lab, graphic specialist Jessica Schick printed the panels directly on the substrate. Cutting the panels around the artwork required incredibly precise measurements. Our raster image processing (RIP) program and the CNC router allow for just that – panels cut within 1/100 of an inch! The individual panels were pieced together on-site to create the full-sized graphics.

OEC installed the graphics for the September 19^th opening. It went seamlessly.