PhD researcher Lisa Marie Sneijder will be presenting her research at the Design History Society conference at Ankara Bilim University in Turkey on 6 September 2025.
Her presentation called 'Visualising Design: the transition from decorative arts museums to design museums through poster and catalogue design' will explore the transition from a decorative arts museum to a Design Museum told through the changing visual identity found in the visual language of exhibition posters and catalogues. The notion of a design museum and its subsequent emergence in Europe and the US aligned with a postmodern shift from an educational approach towards trade to an experience-oriented approach towards the general public. As posters and catalogues are the main communicative tools directed to visitors, they are exemplary formats to consider how the museums transitioned towards the postmodern and how they used visual language to commodify a brand identity to attract a non-specialist public. The research is conduced based on 2 case studies: Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and Design Museum Gent.
Find the full conference programme here.