This major exhibition at the Design Museum delves into the singular creative vision of Tim Burton. While most famous for his cinematic work, this show explores the full extent of Burton as a multi-disciplinary artist, displaying illustrations, painting, photography and writing, as well as exploring key collaborations with designers.

Featuring hundreds of objects drawn from Burton’s personal archive, the exhibition represents the artist’s creative output from childhood to the present day, focusing on the recurrent visual themes and motifs found in the characters and worlds of his art and films.

Working closely with exhibition designers Hara Clark, Tim Burton Studio and the curators at the Design Museum, Beam developed an immersive lighting scheme inspired by Burton’s unique aesthetic.

Visitors were invited into a series of landscapes reminiscent of Burton’s filmography and personal history. Beam designers played with shadow, colour and scale to evoke the mood and story of each landscape.

The journey opens in a space inspired by the suburban California of Burton’s youth. A large sunset cyclorama was hung, with light playing through the pastel tones of the semi-translucent houses upon which the objects were mounted.

Visitors are taken through a recreation of Burton’s Studio, into a landscape showcasing objects drawn from Burtons’ stop motion animation films. Inspired by the film sets that these fantastical objects were used in, designers sourced reclaimed film lights which were tested and restored. These fixtures were then rigged, illuminating both the objects, which were posed in large custom showcases, and the environment.

Using light to create an unexpected and engaging space, huge shadowboxes were fabricated, with each side of the 4 metre by 5 metre freestanding structures representing a different Burton film.
Lighting these large and shallow boxes posed a challenge, so Beam conducted a series of tests to find the fixture and method that could deliver the clean wash of colour and crisp shadow required. Unable to find a suitable product on the market, Beam opted to design and make their own fittings. High powered RGBW LED chips were mounted on to heatsinks and then attached to the inner structure of the boxes, then linear LED was mounted top and bottom of the structure to wash the fabric front with a contrasting colour.

The hall of illusions, a mind-bending immersive corridor, was created with illuminated bright white door frames and a blue wash leading the visitor to a mirror at the end. The work in this space was carefully framed to avoid any excess light that would detract from the deep blue effect, with Burton’s ‘monster’ statues uplit eerily along the way.

Both critically acclaimed and exceptionally popular, The World of Tim Burton is spooky, witty, dark and fantastical, harnessing design to reflect the creative mind of its subject.


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