The son of escaped slaves, Lewis Latimer was a self-taught inventor, draftsman, artist, and poet. His seminal invention made the production of the carbon filament, the key component of the electric light bulb, more efficient, making electric light broadly accessible to the public.
We collaborated closely with the Lewis Latimer House Museum, as well as Latimer’s descendants, local community members, advocates, and artists, to help realize a decades-long goal of creating a sophisticated new permanent exhibition at his home in Queens, NY.
The brilliance of Lewis Latimer's mind is evidenced in his patents and blueprint drawings, which are on display, as well as his trailblazing career. Our team studied primary source material such as Latimer's blueprint drawings, his extensive handwritten narratives in his journals, and his artwork to develop a distinctive visual identity and a custom typeface called Filament.
Both the graphic design and the architecture had to be carefully calibrated to complement a compact space, providing opportunities for close observation and narrative while creating space for large student groups to gather and for accessible flow through the house.
- Partner
- Andy Chen
- Partner
- Waqas Jawaid
- Content Director
- Kate McBride
- Senior Designer
- Paolo Fabbri
- Architectural Designer
- Abhishek Thakkar
- Graphic and Architectural Designer
- Jack Tufts
- Graphic and Architectural Designer
- Ana David
- Graphic Designer
- Junyi Shi
- Graphic Designer
- Jasmine Silang
- Graphic Design Intern
- Nikki Stanke
- Museum Director
- Ran Yan
- Strategic Planning
- Brocade Studio
- Exhibit Writer
- Josh Epperson
- Exhibit Interactives Designer
- KASA Collective
- Conservator
- A.M. Art Conservation
- Fabricator
- Levi Murphy Communal Objects
- Renovation Architect
- Rojas AP
- Graphics and Screenprinting
- Full Point Graphics
- Title Neon Sign
- Noble Signs
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