Metaphor (designers)

Metaphor's work in museums began with the strategic masterplan of the V & A in 2000. Future Plan delivered a phased 10-year plan, looking at all aspects of visitor experience, events, branding, retail and other revenue. Since the design, these plans have been implemented in a number of stages, most recently the courtyard garden. They have completed a further 25 projects supporting the rolling out of Future Plan.

Metaphor was the masterplanner and lead designer on the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, Cairo from 2003 and 2011. It is one of the largest museums planned anywhere in the world.

Metaphor redesigned 32 permanent galleries at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, opening in 2009. The experience is enhanced by the creation of associative links and sight lines, by the way that objects are placed and windows created between galleries, so that the entire world feels wrapped into the experience. It was a critical success.

Richard Dorment, from The Telegraph said "The galleries are quirky and unpredictable, full of nooks and crannies and yet completely navigable even to the dyspraxically challenged, like me. That’s as much to do with the layout by the exhibition designers Metaphor as with the architecture".[3] Jonathan Glancey wrote in The Guardian that "in this enchanting museum . . . the contents of each gallery can be glimpsed from the one before, through openings and windows. So you get pulled along. And, wherever you walk, on whatever crisscrossing floor or bridge, you will be lured into ever more galleries, each presenting more of the Ashmolean’s rich collection…".[4]

In 2010, Metaphor masterplanned, renovated and displayed the Museum of the Order of St John in Clerkenwell. It tells the story of the Knights of the Order of St John, the Crusades and their later history.

The Holburne Museum in Bath[5] reopened in 2011 after a complete re-design. Metaphor displayed the central collection as if reflecting the mind of its eccentric 18th century collector. The galleries are 'marvellous cabinets of curiosities...the sheer tantalising array is a browser's delight'.[6]

In 2013, Metaphor redesigned the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, a museum of the renewal of the Olympics by Pierre de Coubertin and the Olympic Legacy. They also designed and curated the Parc Olympique, including new routes, sightlines, welcome sequence and lighting.

Metaphor is currently masterplanning the National Museum of Scotland.

Metaphor is currently masterplanning the National Railway Museum.

Metaphor is currently masterplanning and re-designing Shakespeare's Globe.

In 2007, Metaphor designed the Surreal Things exhibition at the V & A, experimenting with different modes of display and interpretation to create a powerful, theatrical experience. Stephen Bayley, writing for The Observer called it "comprehensive, fascinating, engaging and instructive".[7] [Rachel Campbell-Johnston], writing for [The Times], said 'the psychological mood starts to possess you'.[8]

The exhibition was redesigned to appear at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, running from 2007 to 2008. It was seen by 575,000 visitors, making it the most successful V & A touring exhibition ever.[9]

Metaphor first worked at the British Museum when they designed the hugely successful exhibition on Michelangelo in 2005. At the time, it broke the museum's audience records, with 160,000 people seeing it.[10]

The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Warriors at the British Museum in London, was a critical and commercial success. Metaphor used the curved walls of the Round Reading Room to hold projections, acting as a theatrical backdrop. Rachel Campbell-Johnston said that "exhibition designers and curators have to work hard to create a sense of spectacle. But they succeed brilliantly. The museum’s great Round Reading Room has been temporarily adapted into an atmospheric show space".[11] The exhibition was seen by 850,000 people, 37% of whom had never been to the British Museum before.[12]