FAREwell, MetroCard opened in tandem with the sunsetting of the New York City MTA's MetroCard. The exhibition details the history of the MetroCard’s inception and evolution, featuring 200+ small scale MetroCards, car cards, an Instagrammable Cardvaark, and the original MetroCard Vending Machine prototype.

The challenge in designing the exhibition was giving presence to a few hundred two dimensional – but small scale – MetroCards, as well as drawing visitors into the Screening Room gallery and encouraging them to spend time learning about the card’s history.

Our exhibition design visually plays on the "swipe to pay" action of required to use of the MetroCard. Visual elements from the cards themselves were scaled up to create a dynamic space in the classic blue and yellow MetroCard colors. The large arrows suggest how to navigate through the gallery.

The two doors leading into the Screening Room can easily mean that visitors move in straight line, into and out of the gallery. We rethought the circulation by scaling up the title wall, and locating the wall-mounted display cases of collectible MetroCards to draw people across the gallery. We also used breadcrumbs outside the room – the train facade leading into the gallery, and the back door from the other side of the gallery – to give the show more presence.

Baboo Digital
Full Point Graphics