Wild Exhibition at Manchester Museum

The Brief

Manchester Museum’s new exhibition, Wild, examines our connection with the natural world and the global projects rebuilding and repairing relationships with nature. Open from June 5th, 2024, to June 1st, 2025, the exhibition features audio, film and tactile elements that encourage visitors to immerse themselves in this learning experience. 

The Wild exhibition has several room sets. It examines five wild places that are tackling the climate and biodiversity crisis. The collection includes Manchester, West Sussex, the Isle of Arran, Western Australia and the USA.  

In April 2024, Studio Mutt, an architecture and design studio working on behalf of the Museum, appointed us to elevate the visual displays on show. Impressed by our eco materials, we were assigned to create interpretation panels, wall coverings and vinyl lettering with minimal climate impact. 

The Solution

Once the project began, our team focused on getting the colours and materials right. We went through multiple rounds of testing and collaborated with Studio Mutt to choose substrates (materials) that align with Wild’s environmental exhibition. 

We printed directly on plywood signage, which was placed strategically beside display cases, in interactive zones and along visitor pathways. The plywood arrived already cut for its intended use, so we precisely applied the print to ensure there were no mistakes. 

All other interpretation signage – including railing and wall signs, text panels and small circular signage – was made with SWEDBOARD®. Originally planned for honeycomb cardboard, Studio Mutt switched to SWEDBOARD following our advice on its carbon impact. This eco-friendly material is FSC® certified and recyclable, meaning that after the exhibition ends, the museum will have generated minimal waste.  

We also printed several more graphics on SWEDBOARD, which was intricately cut and installed alongside other artefacts. In one gallery, we filled the walls with 36 realistic images that resembled the artwork they were imitating. 

Across the exhibition, we installed a collection of wall coverings featuring scenic views of each Wild place alongside vinyl-cut lettering pinpointing each location. 

One of the many breathtaking displays was an enormous wall display complete with vibrant posters. Our team produced a single sheet of Titan wallpaper, 7.8m wide by 3.6m high, perfectly aligning every poster together. The wallpaper’s washable finish meant these graphics were well protected from scruffs and fingerprints in a high-traffic area.