Carving out an exhibition: Designing colours, forms, and typefaces

Exhibition design isn’t just deciding where and how taonga is displayed and where the labels go. Each exhibition requires deep thinking about how taonga is displayed, how different taonga are grouped together, and ways of connecting stories and information together to guide the visitor, all while making it all look cohesive and seamless. Exhibition design can present unique opportunities for our designers – where their creativity, mātauranga, and training come together to complement and even be part of the exhibition itself.

Here, Graphic Designer Toka Tamihere discusses the process of developing the design and colourways, whakairo-based visual motifs, and designing a typeface for He Toi Whakairo: The art of Māori Carving, the long-term exhibition of over 140 taonga whakairo in the Mana Whenua space on Level 4. 

When developing the graphic language for He Toi Whakairo, I was interested in how we could take inspiration from whakairo without simply reproducing it. I wanted to look beyond the obvious visual motifs and ask: what can we learn from whakairo, and how can those principles inform contemporary graphic design? That thinking became the foundation for the colour, form, typography, and whakarākei throughout the exhibition.

A colour palette based in kauae raro

From the outset, one of the key goals for the colour palette was to communicate that our taonga – and the practice of whakairo itself – are alive and thriving. We wanted to move beyond the expectation that Māori art and whakairo need to be presented through black, white, and what we often recognise as “museum red”.

The palette was inspired directly by the kauae raro pigments within our collection. What struck us was the incredible diversity of colours found naturally within the earth across Aotearoa, from soft pinks and blues through to deep greens.

We also used these pigments as the foundation for the three story zones: ‘He tohu rangatira’ (Emblems of leaders), ‘Wānanga whakairo’ (Living knowledge), and ‘He mana tangata’ (Dignity in all realms). Each zone has its own colour identity: Lake Monowai for ‘He tohu rangatira’, Vinegar Hill for ‘Wānanga whakairo’, and Ōhiwa for ‘He mana tangata’, chosen for their unexpected but vibrant tones.

Turoa Quarter provides a neutral thread throughout, creating a visual break between the stronger colours and materials, while also becoming the highlight colour for ‘Te Toi i Hawaiki’ and ‘Te Maori’. Because the palette comes directly from natural pigments, it also creates a relationship between the graphic environment and the taonga themselves, complementing the different timbers, stains, oils, and paints within the whakairo.

Alongside this, we tested the palette for accessibility, so the colours would be both visually distinctive and functionally legible.

Graphic design requires understanding the type of information we want to communicate and then knowing where to support that to make it easier to understand. In certain cases, the inverse of the main design can be useful when you want that information to be more important. So both language-driven decisions and the use of contrast depend on the information you want people to look at first.

Form and function

From colour, I moved into form. Rather than directly reproducing individual whakairo motifs, I became interested in the underlying visual language, rhythm, structure, weight, verticality, positive and negative space, and the relationships between forms.

I then started translating those principles into graphic shapes. The intention was not to replicate whakairo, but to infer from it, using those qualities to create balance within the exhibition and to guide the eye without competing with the taonga.

The graphics needed to support the objects and allow them to breathe. So, for me, the graphic forms became a way of creating rhythm and balance around the taonga, rather than becoming another object competing for attention.

What makes a typeface Māori?

That thinking around form then naturally led into the typeface. I started asking: if these principles can influence the graphic shapes, can they also influence the construction of the letterforms for this whakaaturanga?

This led me to look at Māori engagement with Western typography, and particularly the different ways serif and sans-serif forms have been used across formal communication, community kaupapa, posters, and protest.

It made me question something quite fundamental: what actually makes a typeface Māori? Is it putting Māori patterns onto a Western letterform? Is it simply using macrons? Is it making the letters look like whakairo? Or can Māori design principles, through rhythm, balance, structure, relationship, and whakapapa, influence the construction of the letterforms themselves?

So the typeface became another exercise in translation. I wasn’t trying to make the letters look like carved forms. I was asking how the qualities I identified within whakairo could influence the way the letters themselves are constructed and relate to one another.

Whakarākei and pattern language

And finally, whakarākei. This is where Māori visual and written language and pattern comes into the graphic system more explicitly. But these elements aren’t simply decorative. They’re there to support, enhance, and extend the kōrero about the taonga, creating another layer of communication between the graphic language, the written kōrero, and the objects themselves.

So across the exhibition, there are different levels of translation. Colour comes from the materiality of the collection. Form comes from the principles and relationships within whakairo. Typography takes those ideas into the structure of written language. And whakarākei brings Māori visual language into the system to enhance the kōrero.

Throughout the process, the intention was never simply to make something look Māori. It was about asking how Māori ways of seeing, making, and communicating could actually inform the design itself.

Rather than making something look Māori, I wanted to explore what it means to design from a Māori point of view.

He Toi Whakairo: The Art of Māori Carving exhibition is in Mana Whenua on Level 4 at Te Papa.