MoMA’s dynamic signage observed.

I finally got a chance to see the MoMA’s dynamic signage in person this weekend. The display system is a horizontal array of 9 high resolution LCD monitors. The MoMA hired the motion graphics and design mega-studio Imaginary Forces to do the design and execute the signage project. Imaginary Forces has a description of the process on their site as well as some images of the installation.

The approach to this project was a bit different than the one we used for our projected signage. The 9 screens at the MoMA act as independent displays to some extent. They play similar content in synch but video/image/text from one display does not cross over onto the other.

I think some of the video (admittedly shakey) I took in the lobby explain the difference. You can see the screens play either an image, striped video or an announcement at first, then all the screens transition to play a welcome message at approximately the same time. You can see the word welcome never spans the two screens, instead it remains on it’s own screen independantly. It’s an interesting solution that chooses to reinforce the gaps and multiple discreet displays in a purposeful way. In this way they’ve cleverly sidestepped the synching issues that can plague multi-display software and addressed the potenial distraction caused by the gaps around the montiors.

Also interesting on the sign is the generation of animated stripes. On this video you see an image starting on the screen then the center 4 pixels expand to create the colorful stripes. So the stripes are images being vertically stretched.