Mars – between fact and fiction

This is an unused proposal for the shop at Design Museum London. It was made in collaboration with 3D artist Kristoffer Moth in the spring of 2019. Unfortunately the project did not materialize but we quite like the proposal so here is the ideas and thoughts behind it: The shop at the Design Museum invited me to pitch in with some posters for their forthcoming exhibition on Mars (called Moving to Mars). The posters were not meant as official promotional material but as artist interpretations related to Mars to be sold in the shop. I started doing research on Mars and ended up realizing that the research was divided into two parallel tracks: one of fact and one of fiction. Mars is both the subject of serious scientific research and exploration while it is also the basis of myths and stories spanning from ancient times to contemporary pop culture. This tension between fact and fiction is illustrated thought an authoritative Wikipedia text on Mars that is getting partially blocked by a fictitious, distorted and psychedelic version of the red planet (beautifully crafted by Kristoffer). Kristoffer based his 3D models on an open source topographic map of Mars. We did two different layout styles: one with expressive typography and one with a really stripped back look, almost like the actual Wiki site.