The use of typography in museum exhibitions: thoughts and experiences in when visiting two USP museums

Abstract

Text in museum exhibitions is an important communication tool between their creators and visitors. Despite the growth of media  spectacularization in museums, texts are still major protagonists in the development of exhibition
narratives and, therefore, in the understanding of the exhibition contents. However, bibliographical references about exhibition design hardly mention
typography and its relations with visitors. For this reason, this article addresses the use of typography in museum exhibitions, reflecting on the reading experience in long-term exhibitions of two Science museums at the University of São Paulo: Museum of Zoology and Museu de Anatomia Veterinária. As a research methodology, visits were made to these exhibitions and typographical analyses conducted based on authors from the exhibition design,  signage, and typography fields. Based on the definition of typeface legibility, analyses of the spatial challenges of the exhibition were conducted together with their support materials regarding text reading, and the challenges imposed on visitors not inherent to the exhibition space were verified, but the visitors’ nature and their relationship with other
individuals present in the exhibition space.