Wildlife Photographer of the Year is Universal Design Studio’s first exhibition design for the Natural History Museum in London.  The exhibition showcases over 100 large, back illuminated photographs from a competition which is held annually by the museum.  This year’s competition attracted over 43,000 entries from 94 countries.

Situated within one of the magnificent Waterhouse galleries, Universal’s concept was to inhabit the vast space with a contrasting light weight architecture of shadow.  By using black fabric scrim to form smaller, more intimate spaces, Universal has created an experience of shifting transparency and opacity, shadow and light, to poetically reinforce the photographic contents on show.

The 3 youth categories are located on the perimeter walls of the gallery and are outlined by a running floor light of deep Klein blue at low level.  The line of blue is easily visible through the multiple layers of black scrim and helps to delineate the edges of the gallery.  The perimeter walls are also clad in a sound absorbing wood wool material which subtly reinforces the exhibition’s mysterious quality. 

6m high and running lengthwise though the gallery space, the main scim wall creates a dramatic transparent facade, with individual openings formed for each of the exhibition sections.  Vertical Lines of light punctuate the scrim and throw light onto it’s surface, creating areas of opacity.

Universal worked with graphic designers Bibliotheque for the graphic design content of the exhibition.  The two studios have a history of collaboration on exhibition and retail projects, each bringing to the table their area of expertise.

The construction photos above represent another expression of the design, part document and part photographic editorial.  They are views which are normally hidden from the public, but which helps to form a deeper understanding of the overall story.  Photos by Leon Chew.