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Museum Exhibition Promotion
Project type
Photography, Photoshop, Museum exhibition
Date
2025
This exhibition poster series was created as a conceptual promotion for the Rosson House Museum, inspired by my appreciation for collecting and preserving vintage items. The project centers on a delicate vanity set: a brush, mirror, and comb used as symbolic artifacts to highlight themes of beauty, ritual, and personal history. All photography and image editing were completed by me, allowing full control over tone, texture, and composition.
The Rosson House felt like a natural setting for this exhibition concept. I vividly remember visiting the museum as a child and being captivated by its historic interiors and preserved objects. That early experience shaped my interest in vintage collections and storytelling through objects, making the museum an ideal context for showcasing these vanity items as exhibition-worthy pieces rather than commercial products.
Sketch: Alternative Title Structure
This sketch experiments with an alternative title treatment and text alignment, testing how the exhibition name could be broken into stacked lines for a more editorial feel. The rounded frame suggests a refined, gallery-style presentation, allowing flexibility for image placement while maintaining a calm, museum-appropriate layout.
Sketch: Image & Typography Relationship
This sketch explores the relationship between the featured object and the exhibition title. The vanity item is positioned vertically to create visual movement and guide the viewer’s eye through the layout. The large museum name anchors the composition, emphasizing the institutional and exhibition-focused tone rather than a commercial advertisement.
Sketch: Initial Layout Exploration
This sketch represents the early layout exploration for the Objects of Beauty exhibition poster. The focus was on establishing a strong typographic hierarchy, with the exhibition title leading the composition and the featured object centered as the focal point. Notes and placement marks helped guide spacing for museum details, dates, and ticket information while keeping the overall design clean and balanced.
First Iteration Photo: Environment Study
This first set of integration photos explores how lighting and environment influence the perception of the vintage vanity items. By placing the brush, mirror, and comb on reflective and textured surfaces, I experimented with how shadows, highlights, and surrounding materials could enhance the objects’ ornate details. These images helped establish a museum-like atmosphere and informed how the items could be presented as exhibition artifacts rather than everyday objects.
First Iteration Photo: Suitcase & Arrangement Study
This set focuses on item placement and storytelling through composition. Using the suitcase and contained arrangement, I explored how grouping and spacing could suggest preservation, care, and collection. The controlled lighting emphasizes material contrast between metal and ivory tones, while reinforcing the narrative of these objects as cherished, curated pieces with historical value.
Typography Choice
The typography for this exhibition is rooted in classic serif letterforms to reflect the elegance and historical context of Victorian-era artifacts. A high-contrast serif was selected for the primary headlines to convey refinement and timelessness, while maintaining strong legibility across large-format posters and smaller informational text. Supporting type remains subtle and restrained, allowing the imagery and exhibition details to take visual priority.
Color Palette Choice
The color palette is intentionally muted and inspired by aged materials and historic interiors found in preserved museum spaces. Soft ivory tones create a calm, gallery-like backdrop, while deep charcoal and warm black hues provide contrast and depth. Neutral accent colors were used sparingly to reinforce a sense of restraint, preservation, and quiet elegance appropriate for a museum exhibition.
Raw Photo: Brush
This raw photograph focuses on the side profile of the vintage vanity brush, emphasizing the contrast between the silver handle and the light-colored bristles. The image documents how light falls across the detailed metalwork and bristle texture, providing insight into depth and material quality. Keeping the image unedited allowed for accurate reference when refining composition and lighting in later stages.
Raw Photo: Mirror
This raw image captures the ornate handheld mirror as it is held in use, highlighting both its decorative craftsmanship and reflective surface. The natural lighting and visible background details were intentionally left unaltered to document the object in context, allowing the engraved metalwork and subtle reflections to be clearly observed. This photo served as a reference for understanding scale, texture, and how the mirror interacts with light before final edits.
Raw Photo: Comb
This raw image presents the vintage comb in hand, capturing its color, form, and decorative detailing in a natural setting. The photograph records the object’s proportions and interaction with the surrounding environment, including background patterns and ambient light. It functioned as an exploratory reference to evaluate positioning, grip, and visual balance prior to any stylistic adjustments.
Edited Photo: Brush
This edited image of the vanity brush highlights texture and craftsmanship through softened lighting and a restrained tonal palette. The adjustments bring forward the engraved handle and bristle detail while preserving a calm, muted atmosphere. The final result supports the exhibition’s theme by presenting the brush as a carefully preserved artifact within a museum context.
Edited Photo: Mirror
This edited photograph emphasizes the intricate metalwork and reflective qualities of the vintage handheld mirror. Through tonal adjustments and soft contrast, the image was refined to highlight surface detail while muting the background to reduce visual noise. The final treatment creates a timeless, archival feel that positions the mirror as a museum artifact rather than a functional object.
Edited Photo: Comb
The edited comb image focuses on clarity of form and visual balance. Color and contrast were carefully adjusted to unify the ivory tones with the silver detailing, while subtle desaturation enhances the vintage character of the piece. The controlled background and refined lighting help the comb read as an exhibition-worthy object with historical presence.
Objects of Beauty: Brush
This poster showcases the vintage vanity brush as an object tied to care, routine, and craftsmanship. The angled composition and close-up detail highlight the brush’s decorative handle and texture, encouraging viewers to slow down and observe its design. By presenting the brush as a standalone subject, the poster elevates an everyday item into a moment of historical storytelling and visual appreciation.
Objects of Beauty: Mirror
The mirror poster highlights themes of reflection, identity, and self-presentation. Featuring an intricately detailed handheld mirror, the design draws attention to how beauty objects once played a role in shaping personal image and social norms. The cropped, centered composition allows the ornamentation to take focus, reinforcing the idea of vanity items as both personal and cultural artifacts within the Rosson House Museum exhibition context.
Objects of Beauty: Comb
This poster focuses on the ornate vintage comb as a symbol of daily ritual and personal care in the Victorian era. By isolating the object against a soft, muted background, the design invites viewers to appreciate the craftsmanship and quiet elegance of an item once used in intimate, everyday moments. The composition emphasizes simplicity and reverence, framing the comb as an artifact worthy of exhibition rather than a functional tool.
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