Magian designed the exhibits for the Portland Maritime Museum. The Museum is located on Victoria’s “shipwreck” coast and was founded to pay tribute to the heroic work undertaken by the crews of the local lifeboat. The central exhibit in the Museum is the Portland Lifeboat which had been used in the late nineteenth century to rescue shipwreck survivors.

As well as designing the exhibits Magian provided professional advice to the Museum prior to the appointment of museum staff who joined the project after its opening to the public.

The exhibits were designed to make full use of the Museum’s collections and Magian assisted in sourcing additional collection to amplify the stories relevant to the colorful maritime history of the region.

The architecture of the building, while inspirational and exciting, was designed well before the exhibits were planned and before the exhibit collection had been formed. As a consequence, designing the exhibits to function within the building presented an aesthetic and practical challenge. Magian was able to provide inventive solutions to a number of problems.

We designed and produced:

• exhibits
• exhibit and promotional graphics
• exhibit furniture
• interactive mechanical exhibits
• an introductory theater
• soundscapes