For a period of almost a year I participated in the redesign and renovation of the Thessaloniki Cinema Museum. My work referred to the research, design and implementation of several interactive applications and the redesign of the museum's logo.
Logo re-design
The existing logotype provided a strong basis for the new design. Thus, the basic idea behind the logo hasn't undergone significant changes in its essence, merely in its form (note: mouse over the image below to see the old logo). You can read a detailed documentation of the redesign process (in greek).
The solid surface of the logo provides an interesting space for experimentation. An exemplary application (the openings invitation) can be seen in the following images (one color printing, 877 pantone® coated).
Touchscreens
The main part of the interactive applications consisted of a set of 5 touchscreen displays providing bilingual information on different eras of Greek cinema's history. The 5 displays were dispersed inside the museum premises. The design and implementation of the displays' UI aimed at the active involvement of the visitor, allowing for an exploratory view of the provided content to take place (note: one of the constraints set by the museum designers from the start, reffered to the displays being placed in an upright/portrait position; even though it seemed as an unusual decision at first, eventually it allowed for some rather interesting design ideas to come to surface). The content was loaded dynamically and a custom CMS was provided for its administration. You can read an essay discussing the findings, conclusions and guidelines for the design of the touchscreen displays gathered during a research period before the actual design and implementation began (the essay has also been published online by GDA). Exemplary screenshots of the UI are shown in the following images.
screensaver screen: displaying random/inviting questions over a fluid gradient background, whenever the displays rest unused
themes screen: the first screen presented to the visitor when he interrupts the screensaver, displaying rotating images that correspond to selected themes/articles
selected theme screen: zooming into the selected image and presenting the corresponding theme/article whenever an image in the themes screen is pressed
people screen: displaying rotating names of actors, directors, etc.
selected person screen: zooming into a portrait and a concise biography of the selected person, whenever a name is pressed in the people screen. Different color schemes were used for each different era.
Web infokiosk
The content from all 5 touchscreen displays was also presented through a web interface installed in an infokiosk that was placed near the exit of the museum. The design was different in this UI and allowed the visitors to sit down (contrary to the standing position required to use the touchscreen displays) and spend more time performing a thorough exploration of the provided information. Screenshots of the infokiosk UI can be seen in the following images (note: a new custom typeface design was used for the titles and links; soon to be presented at backpacker.gr)
intro screen
themes screen
selected theme screen
people screen (providing name search)
selected person screen
credits screen