An exhibition is a piece of writing you walk through. The objects do the talking, but the labels, panels and wayfinding decide whether a visitor understands what they're looking at or drifts past it. Print quality matters more here than almost anywhere else — a beautiful object beside a curling, colour-shifted label undoes the work.
Interpretive panels and wall text
The main text panels are the backbone of the show. Foam PVC is the standard choice — rigid, light enough to hang on gallery walls with minimal fixings, and it takes fine type cleanly. Where a panel needs to survive being touched by every school group that comes through, ACM is the tougher option and stays dead flat over a long run.
Tip: set body text no smaller than 18pt and mount the top of the panel around 1500mm from the floor. It reads comfortably standing and stays within reach for visitors using a wheelchair.
Object labels
Labels are the highest-volume item in any exhibition and the most likely to change late. Foam PVC cut to size gives you a crisp edge and a shadow line off the wall, while individually cut vinyl works where you want type to sit directly on the wall or a case with no visible substrate at all.
For plinths and case interiors, kiss-cut vinyl stickers come on a backing sheet in the running order, which makes install far faster than handling loose pieces.
Wall vinyl and titles
The exhibition title wall is the photograph everyone posts. Removable vinyl is made for this — it goes up large, reads as painted, and comes off at the end of the season without taking the wall finish with it. Removable fabric (Phototex) is even gentler on delicate surfaces and can be repositioned during install, which matters when a title is three metres wide and has to be dead level.
Where a graphic has to last across several years — a permanent collection wall, a donor board — permanent vinyl with matt laminate is the right call. The matt finish kills the reflections that make glossy graphics unreadable under spotlights.
Wayfinding and visitor flow
Most complaints at a museum are navigational, not curatorial. Visitors want the toilets, the cafe, the lift and the way back to the entrance. Permanent wayfinding on ACM or Signwhite colorbond earns its cost over a decade; temporary directional signage for a touring show is better on corflute, which is cheap enough to reprint per exhibition.
Floor direction using cut vinyl is the quietest way to guide a one-way route without adding more objects to the room.
Promoting the exhibition
Outside, the show has to compete for attention. Mesh banners handle facade and fence installations in wind; PVC banners suit covered entries and internal atriums. Street-level corflute signs and one-way vision window graphics convert people already walking past.
For openings, floor talks and touring versions of the show, pull-up banner stands travel in a tube and set up in under a minute.
Shop, prints and fundraising
Canvas prints of collection highlights sell well in gallery shops, and fridge magnets are the low-price impulse item that pays for the counter space. Business cards for curators and venue hire round out the set.
Working to a tight install window? Send us the schedule — we can sequence the print run around your bump-in dates.
