National Library of Ireland
““In harmony with the Library’s broader mission, our projects aim to stimulate interest in and engagement with Ireland’s literary and documentary heritage…””
Tandem has developed an excellent on-going relationship with the National Library of Ireland (NLI), supplying a range of interpretive installations that convey aspects of the NLI’s varied collections in a concise and engaging manner. In harmony with the Library’s broader mission, our projects aim to stimulate interest in and engagement with Ireland’s literary and documentary heritage as well as broader cultural and historical themes.
The National Library of Ireland first contracted Tandem in 2009 to design an exhibition to commemorate the immense success of the Lifelines project, started by pupils in Wesley College, Dublin in 1985.
Tandem has since worked for the Library to produce temporary exhibitions for the same space.
Tandem has completed the design stage of Homecoming, which has been commissioned in partnership with the Embassy of the United States to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of US President John
F Kennedy’s visit to Ireland in 1963.
We designed a high-impact graphic language that makes the most
of the extensive photographic archive resources for the event, and presents the main narrative content for the exhibition, which will sit alongside artefacts displays.
The graphic language has been replicated on a dedicated commemorative website administered by the US Embassy.
This exhibition was followed by The Dublin Lockout, which the Library commissioned in partnership with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions
to commemorate the centenary of the 1913 Lockout.
This project was later developed into a travelling exhibition in partnership with our multimedia partners Noho.
We produced four travelling exhibitions, which were aimed at schools and libraries and needed to be suitable for loan and display in a variety of spaces. The exhibition content was based on existing learning resources previously developed by the NLI, which required updating and drawing links to the current school curriculum:
Gallant Sons: Irishmen & the Great War
Ireland From Maps
The Past From the Press
In Shield or Banner
Each travelling exhibition consisted of 8 to 10 collapsible banner stands, promotional print material including A5 leaflet, a range of collectible A6 postcards, A1 and A2 Posters and bookmark, as well as a mini website
or ‘microsite’, which linked off from the Library’s main homepage and includes relevant links to other parts of the National Library’s website and online catalogue.
In addition to providing descriptive information about each of the exhibitions for prospective hosts, these websites acted as a one-stop repository for downloadable PDF activity sheets and educational resources, to maximise audience engagement and promote further exploration of the library’s holdings, both online and in-house.
Tandem has designed a
number of high-impact temporary exhibitions
that make the most of the
Library's extensive archive.
IDI Design Awards 2013
National Library of Ireland, Temporary Exhibitions
Highly Commended