Muse­um Sig­nage: Nor­we­gian-Amer­i­can Inspired Design for Donor and Build­ing Sig­nage at Vesterheim

Dec­o­rah, a charm­ing town in north­east Iowa with strong Nor­we­gian roots, says Velkom­men (wel­come) to a stun­ning new addi­tion to the Vester­heim, The Nation­al Nor­we­gian-Amer­i­can Muse­um and Folk Art School.

The new Vester­heim Com­mons build­ing is a 7,600 sq. ft., three-sto­ry struc­ture designed by Snøhet­ta, an inter­na­tion­al archi­tec­ture firm with roots in Oslo, Nor­way. The new build­ing bet­ter inte­grates exist­ing muse­um spaces, pro­vides more acces­si­ble spaces to bet­ter show­case the museum’s col­lec­tion, enables seam­less con­nec­tiv­i­ty between build­ings on cam­pus, enhances the audi­ence expe­ri­ence, and pro­vides for more space for events and the grow­ing folk art and edu­ca­tion programs.

One-of-a-Kind Donor Wall Signage

To fund this project, Vester­heim launched a cap­i­tal cam­paign in hopes of rais­ing $12 mil­lion. Because of the enor­mous sup­port the project received, it was impor­tant to have a donor wall that hon­ored the many gen­er­ous bene­fac­tors. Snøhet­ta designed a donor wall sign in the shape of the museum’s split V logo, it was up to us at Lat­i­tude Sig­nage + Design to fig­ure out how to pro­duce the sign and deter­mine the best mate­r­i­al finishes. 

“One chal­lenge with this project was com­ing up with solu­tions that made it pos­si­ble to install sig­nage on sev­er­al dif­fer­ent sur­faces, such as dry­wall, glass, wood, and brick,” says Bryce Carl­son, Busi­ness Devel­op­ment for Lat­i­tude Sig­nage + Design. 

For the donor wall, our sig­nage experts cre­at­ed a flat cut alu­minum lat­tice to serve as the foun­da­tion for this dis­tinc­tive donor wall sign. On the left side of the V, sol­id white oak donor pan­els list the names of high-lev­el donors. These pan­els click onto the alu­minum frame to cre­ate a dynam­ic inter­con­nect­ed pat­tern. The look is stun­ning and the design offers the prac­ti­cal flex­i­bil­i­ty of adding addi­tion­al pan­els as new donors con­tin­ue to make contributions. 

On the right side of the V, acrylic pan­els paint­ed Cos­mic Gray have the names of every oth­er donor print­ed in Eggshell White. This design also leaves space avail­able to hon­or future con­trib­u­tors to the cap­i­tal campaign. 

Wayfind­ing, Donor Room Iden­ti­fiers, and ADA Signage

A project of this mag­ni­tude also needs a host of prac­ti­cal sig­nage, includ­ing wayfind­ing sig­nage and ADA signs. Our sig­nage experts serve as con­sul­tants on projects like this one, guid­ing the client through design choic­es, mate­r­i­al options, and deter­min­ing the best places to install sig­nage near stairs, ele­va­tors, and through­out the campus.

“We hadn’t under­tak­en a project so com­plex before and work­ing on the sig­nage with Lat­i­tude was great,” says Mar­cia McK­elvey, Vester­heim Direc­tor of Admin­is­tra­tion. ​“Bryce and Andrew have been very respon­sive and help­ful when guid­ing us through pages of com­plex pro­duc­tion notes. There was a lot of back and forth, and they made the process as smooth as possible.”

Col­lab­o­ra­tion is key to mak­ing com­plex projects like this run smooth­ly. ​“Despite work­ing on many sim­i­lar projects through­out my career, it was a new expe­ri­ence for me to work with inter­na­tion­al part­ners,” Carl­son says. ​“Being more con­nect­ed than ever allowed the entire team to col­lab­o­rate, match mate­ri­als and fin­ish­es, come up with the right mix of prod­ucts to achieve the desired aes­thet­ic, and meet the clien­t’s budget.”

With con­struc­tion com­plete and all the sig­nage in place, the Vester­heim held a pub­lic ded­i­ca­tion in Sep­tem­ber 2023. Now com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers and vis­i­tors to Dec­o­rah have a stun­ning new place to vis­it, attend events, and par­tic­i­pate in folk-art edu­ca­tion programs. 

Part­ner with a Sig­nage Expert

Many orga­ni­za­tions only go through a major build­ing project once in a gen­er­a­tion, and man­ag­ing the details of an enor­mous build­ing project can be over­whelm­ing. The Lat­i­tude team is adept at man­ag­ing com­plex archi­tec­tur­al sig­nage projects and will guide you through every step of the process, mak­ing it as seam­less as possible. 

Have ques­tions or want to learn more about what hav­ing a sig­nage for your com­mu­ni­ty project? Con­nect with us anytime.