Fear and Love is the inaugural exhibition at the new Design Museum. The exhibition sets out to present the role design plays in tackling the major issues of our time and features 11 installations by designers including OMA/AMO, Hussein Chalayan, Andrés Jaque and Metahaven, each exploring an issue that inspires both anxiety and optimism. Working closely with curator Justin McGurirk, OK-RM were responsible for the campaign, exhibition design and the publication for a show which sets out to challenge the traditional perceptions of what design is and how it’s presented.The exhibition’s title is intentionally emotive, aiming to communicate an atmosphere in which life is less stable and predictable than we remember.

The exhibition design in collaboration with Sam Jacob Studio features a 190 metre long curtain which winds through the gallery forming rooms, loose enclosures and alcoves which frame the individual installations. The signage structures contrast the horizontality of the curtain with a strong vertical gesture – floor to ceiling iridescent poles clad with a palette of highly engineered insulation materials selected to express a futuristic and unfamiliar mood. In contrast with the emotive qualities of the material palette, the application of system helvetica is dry and mechanical.

The entrance to the exhibition is defined by an oversized animating neon sculpture suspended in a two way mirrored case. In its various stages of animation the sculpture switches between a blank mirrored box and an infinity reflection.