Speak Up! Indigenous Design Exhibit

The Engagement Party designed the inaugural exhibit for the newly sanctioned room for Indigenous musicians and artists at the Studio Bell – National Music Centre. The Speak Up! exhibit is developed to educate viewers on the diversity of Indigenous musicians and artists from across Canada.

The design focuses on two main elements – a four directions emblem and an Indigenous art style developed in the 1960’s.

The modified 4 Directions emblem is representative of the Indigenous nature of the exhibition and allows for a deconstruction of the icon. This enables the ability to build out an array of graphic furniture – shapes, patterns, colours. This technique is demonstrative of the design philosophy of Modern Traditionalism – taking traditional elements and merging with relevant modern styles.

The graphic containers of the the core content is alluding to a well known Indigenous artistic style – Woodlands Art. This was chosen as an easy bridge for viewers to relate to the content and provide a visual structure to the exhibition design.

This project won the Award of Excellence at the 2019 Premier’s Awards of Excellence in Design.