Watergate at 50

Congress and the Constitutional Crisis of a Century

I was approached with the task of creating an exhibit for the 50th anniversary of the Watergate Scandal. The exhibit was installed in a special library room dedicated to the deceased senator Stennis Montgomery. One of the requests was that I utilize certain imagery, such as the colors from the Mississippi State flag.

Client
Mississippi State University Libraries

Date
October 2022 - December 2022

The Exhibit Space

The space was challenging to work with as the room is often used for conferences and formal meetings. The space previously hosted an exhibit for the 100th birthday of Senator Stennis Montgomery. The space consists of 17 glass cases in total, with varying dimensions.

Phase 1: Searching for Inspiration

I gathered an assortment of visual reference in order to get a since of style and direction for the project. My project inspiration diverged into four different directions, organized into mood boards, created in Adobe Photoshop. The first direction featured collages of newspaper clippings and minimal colors. The second direction

featured a pop-art style, utilizing various bright colors. The third direction focuses on a modernist look, with simple colors and sans-serif typefaces. The fourth direction goes for a more conservative look, taking inspiration from real-life exhibit spaces.

Phase 2: Narrowing Down Possibilities

After collecting inspiration and organizing it into various mood boards, I presented them to my client. My client pointed me to which aspects of each mood board that she liked. She liked the idea of incorporating a subtle Warhol inspired pop art aesthetic.

She also like the idea of implementing newspaper clippings, along with flat colors and imagery. This mood board gave me enough direction to begin designing the actual material. I only used the mood board as a springboard, however, not as means to copy designs.

Phase 3: Pencil and Paper

After receiving a general direction to move the project towards, I then began brainstorming and sketching to generate ideas for the project. I also considered the layout and display of the panels, along with their measurements. In these sketches, I consider how the images and text will flow together for the individual panels of the exhibit.

I also consider how the panels will work together when placed side by side. In addition, I consider potential imagery to be used for the side panels. I was not given specific images to use for these panels. At this point of the project, I thought of using a portrait of Nixon, along with the Watergate building.

Phase 4: Layout

Here, I created a diagram as a development tool to visualize how the panels will be displayed. The document was created in Adobe Illustrator. In this version of the diagram, I developed a simple layout scheme for the content. On each panel, the image would adorn the top space, while the text would adorn the bottom space.

It would be the simplest solution. However, that design would be a boring and unstimulating solution, due to the repetition of the layout without variety. It was very crucial in this step to image the spacing between and around the panels, as that would affect the visual perception from the viewer.

In this diagram, I created an iteration from the previous one. Here, I experimented with a more explorative and visually interesting layout scheme. Panels would be grouped into pairs, excluding the last due, due to the odd number of the panels in each wall. The left side of the pair of panels would contain two images, whose corresponding information would follow in the right panel. In the first two panels in the back wall, I also considered spreading one of the images to two panels,

due to the long width of the image, to create more visual impact. The biggest issue of this design scheme is that it potentially would create visual confusion due to the images and corresponding text being separated. I decided to reject this scheme in favor of separating panels instead of pairing them like in the previous panel. However, in the final draft, I alternated the layout schemes and included the double-spread image on the back wall.

Phase 5: First Draft

This is the first draft of a panel that I presented to the client. I chose to use an individual panel as a starting point, as it would use this piece as a base for styles, colors, fonts, etc. After the client would be happy with the direction of this piece, I would use this as a template for the remaining pieces to draw graphics, fonts, and colors from.

I decided to create a visual motif inspired from newsprint. I collected samples of public-domain newspaper headlines, photos, and copy from publications during the time of the scandal. I then cut pieces of the newspapers out into various pieces. From the pieces, I created a collage. I applied various colors with an overlay effect in order to give a Warhol-esque pop-art look.

The color scheme is directly inspired by the Mississippi state flag, as per request by the client. The colors’ hex codes are taken directly from the official color scheme for the flag. The color scheme of the flag works well due to it being based on a triadic color combination. However, the most predominant color is white, which plays into the newspaper motif. The three colors compliment the white.

I added the yellow “string” behind the subjects of the photo to imply the idea of “connection.” Along with provided visual flow from one panel to the other, it also further emphasizes how all of the information presented in the exhibit is woven together in the greater event of the scandal. The white rectangle behing the main copy is meant to allude to a newspaper clipping. The red bar to the left of the copy is meant to give the subtle impression of a bookmark. The long yellow line on the right is meant to add depth to the composition by going over and under other elements in the design.

The typefaces are also inspired from newsprint. The font sizes are large enough to read from a distance (Keep in mind that the actual printed piece is around 74 inches tall). Below, you can see a style guide that I used for the project. The typefaces are listed with their sizes.

Phase 6: Development Process

Panels. From the first iteration of the panel, I continued with further panels. I made a few key changes. The most notable being a blur effect added to the newpaper collage, to make it further fade into the background and not compete with the actual content. I also justify aligned the copy, in order to further

play into the newspaper look. I also added a red divider in the caption for the text, which later dropped in favor of one long column. I also replaced the gradient on the white background of the copy with a ragged ridge in order to make it appear more like a piece of newspaper that was ripped out.

Portrait. The original design for the portrait took a newspaper photo of Richard Nixon. I added a paint texture on top of the portrait to further play into the pop-art look. However, this direction would have been awkward, as the middle of his face would be divided into two pieces. I then decided to take the silohoutte of the

portrait and turn it into a silhouette, with the newspaper collage element inside. The silhouette would allude to Nixon without distracting detail. The client then requested that I make the design more monochrome and darker, due to the physical documents placed in front of the panels being white.

Title. The original version of the title features the image of the Watergate building, in a highly stylized color scheme. A challenge arose of trying to make the text work with the panels being divided. It created odd gaps between the words.

Although this was a good starting point for the design, it had serious issues. The building seemed to be floating, due to the stark red jumping out against the darker blue. Also, the typography did not play with the imagery very well. There are also several awkward tangents.

This version of the title panels takes the original concept and refines it. The building reads better against the solid yellow. The solid yellow also makes the white typography more legible.

Although the issue of the gaps between the type is still an issue, I attempted my best to improve the spacing to make it less awkward to read. It also contrasts against the other panels, which are visually busier.