Skip to content
R&P Design Reich & Petch

R&P Design

Creating Curiosity. Delivering Impact.

Creating Curiosity.
Delivering Impact.
  • Projects
  • About
  • Studio
  • Headlines
  • Contact
  • Français
  • Español
  • العربية
  • 中文

Canada

1867 Yonge Street
Suite 1100
Toronto, ON
M4S 1Y5
+1 416.480.2020

United States

530 Seventh Avenue
M2 - Unit 20
New York, NY
10018
+1 212.283.3030

Receive insights and company updates from R&P delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for the newsletter.

We respect your privacy and we will never send you unwanted emails or distribute your email address to anyone else. You can manage your email preferences at any time.

Canada

1867 Yonge Street
Suite 1100
Toronto, ON
M4S 1Y5
+1 416.480.2020

United States

530 Seventh Avenue
M2 - Unit 20
New York, NY
10018
+1 212.283.3030

Canadian War Museum: Air War

Overview

Deadly Skies – Air War, 1914-1918 is a 7,000-square-foot travelling exhibit that immerses visitors in the World's first air war using the unique storytelling medium of a supersized graphic novel.

Details

Client
Canadian War Museum
Project
Deadly Skies – Air War, 1914-1918
Size
7,000 sq. ft.
Scope
Exhibit Design - Aviation, Exhibit Design - Traveling
Location
Ottawa, ON, CA; Traveling Exhibit
Design Completed
2016

Impact

Visitor Attendance at CWM
116,000
No. of Artifacts
80
Characters featured
9

The
Goal

Focusing on the stories of nine real people, Deadly Skies sought to provide an enticing, immersive, and engaging visitor experience through visual narratives in the form of a graphic novel come-to-life. Together with the artifacts and graphic reproductions, visitors would understand how these individual experiences connect to the larger context of the First World War in the air.

Photo courtesy of Canadian War Museum
Photo courtesy of Canadian War Museum
Photo courtesy of Canadian War Museum

The
Design

R&P’s design approach was to break the boundary between the two-dimensional and three-dimensional worlds. Carefully layered and folded cut-outs create an illusion of perspective, allowing visitors to literally walk into the world of graphic novels. The super-sized comic book pages surprise visitors by playing with scale. Whenever possible, the design team inserted artifacts directly into the graphic novel panels, physically connecting objects to the narrative.

In order to be travel-ready, the graphic novel panels were designed as stackable modules to fit into standard-sized crates, ready for shipping. After the original exhibit is dismantled, the changeable graphic system allows the order of the two official languages to be flipped.

Photo courtesy of Canadian War Museum

Canadian War Museum: Air War

Details

Client
Canadian War Museum
Project
Deadly Skies – Air War, 1914-1918
Size
7,000 sq. ft.
Scope
Exhibit Design - Aviation, Exhibit Design - Traveling
Location
Ottawa, ON, CA; Traveling Exhibit
Design Completed
2016

Overview

Deadly Skies – Air War, 1914-1918 is a 7,000-square-foot travelling exhibit that immerses visitors in the World's first air war using the unique storytelling medium of a supersized graphic novel.

Impact

Visitor Attendance at CWM
116,000
No. of Artifacts
80
Characters featured
9

The
Goal

Focusing on the stories of nine real people, Deadly Skies sought to provide an enticing, immersive, and engaging visitor experience through visual narratives in the form of a graphic novel come-to-life. Together with the artifacts and graphic reproductions, visitors would understand how these individual experiences connect to the larger context of the First World War in the air.

Photo courtesy of Canadian War Museum
Photo courtesy of Canadian War Museum
Photo courtesy of Canadian War Museum

The
Design

R&P’s design approach was to break the boundary between the two-dimensional and three-dimensional worlds. Carefully layered and folded cut-outs create an illusion of perspective, allowing visitors to literally walk into the world of graphic novels. The super-sized comic book pages surprise visitors by playing with scale. Whenever possible, the design team inserted artifacts directly into the graphic novel panels, physically connecting objects to the narrative.

In order to be travel-ready, the graphic novel panels were designed as stackable modules to fit into standard-sized crates, ready for shipping. After the original exhibit is dismantled, the changeable graphic system allows the order of the two official languages to be flipped.

Photo courtesy of Canadian War Museum
Photo courtesy of Canadian War Museum
Photo courtesy of Canadian War Museum
Photo courtesy of Canadian War Museum
Photo courtesy of Canadian War Museum
ProjectsCanadian War Museum: Air War