Heath Robinson Museum

Graphic design, exhibition design, style guides, software design

A ‘Heath Robinson’ contraption is an overly complex system used to solve a simple problem, and at its worst used where no real problem really exists.

The term was derived from the British artist William Heath Robinson’s light hearted and much celebrated illustrations of such contraptions.

For the new Heath Robinson Museum in London I created a graphic based interpretation scheme that chronicled the man’s life, career and artistic journey. The design of the structure that holds this narrative appears as a single sheet of paper draped over a series of platforms that rise and fall as if in motion. The implied mechanism feels as though it has been lifted straight from the page of one of Robinson’s illustrations which adorn the walls.

Being such a prolific artist not all of Robinson’s original artwork is held by the the William Heath Robinson Trust so to supplement the exhibition I designed a digital catalogue of Robinson’s art that can be explored by an iPad application.