Kickstarter x WDC Mexico City
Sevan Gatsby
In an exciting collaboration between Kickstarter and World Design Capital, I was given the opportunity to design an exhibit space to showcase and celebrate socially conscious work by Mexico-based designers. The exhibit, Disenañdo juntos un México sustentable (Designing Together for a Sustainable Mexico), was hosted in Mexico City's Espacio CDMX Arquitectura y Diseño during Design Week Mexico 2018.
Due to the limitations of the space, and the smaller scale of some of the objects we wanted to display, I chose to style the exhibit as a gallery. I worked with photographer Lauren Renner to style and direct a photo shoot featuring ceramics by La Refugio, apparell by Taller Nu, and clothing by Básicos de México.
Project Team
- Exhibit Design: Sevan Gatsby
- Exhibit Build: Sevan Gatsby, Georgina Rovirosa, Celia Vermicellli, & Diego Alberico
- Art Direction: Sevan Gatsby & Lauren Renner
- Styling & Props: Lauren Renner, Sevan Gatsby & Georgina Rovirosa
- Photography: Lauren Renner
- Post Production: Lauren Renner
Challenges
Being based in New York, I had to design the exhibit without knowing the exact dimensions of the space and used guesswork based on photographs and rough measurements offered by the event coordinators. On one side, there was a wall of windows, and two temporary divider walls served as the enclosure for the space dedicated to Kickstarter.
While risky to do without precise measurements, I chose to cover the windows in translucent vinyl to create a stained-glass effect to add interest to the industrial space and play off the colors in the photographs. Painting the walls black made the colorful images and Kickstarter's vibrant logo stand out.
In retrospect, I realized that the colored vinyl should have been applied to the outside of the windows to better create a stained glass effect.
All hands [and legs] on deck
Sticking to a tight budget means doing as much as possible yourself. In the days leading up to the photo shoot, Lauren and I took to task attaining and preparing our props. We borrowed the mannequin and display pedestals from a local set production company and painted them ourselves. Georgina and I also volunteered our limbs for the photo shoot to bring a Maurizio Cattelan-inspired surreal vibe to the images.
Graphic materials
In addition to the graphics mounted on the windows, I designed museum-style labels for the pieces on display, as well as a set of postcards for the exhibit visitors.
