83 ’til Infinity brought 40 years of Ottawa-Gatineau hip-hop history into the Ottawa Art Gallery. Curated by Kevin Bourne, Regatu Asefa and Rachelle Dickenson, the exhibition traced the evolution of the region's hip-hop community through artwork, photography, archival material, clothing, music, equipment and objects contributed by the people who shaped it.

With decades of stories, artists and cultural references sharing the same space, the exhibition needed to hold a large amount of information without losing the individuality behind it. The graphic design became part of the way visitors moved through that history, connecting objects and stories while allowing the work itself to remain at the centre.

Working within the exhibition's creative direction, my role was to translate curatorial content into the graphic elements that lived throughout the gallery. Large-scale timelines and interpretive panels stretched across walls, while artwork labels, artist information and other printed elements created a consistent system for identifying and contextualizing the work.

Designing at exhibition scale meant thinking beyond individual layouts. Typography, hierarchy, spacing and production all had to work across different surfaces, distances and amounts of information, from something read up close beside an artwork to a timeline experienced across an entire wall.

The visual system extended beyond the gallery into the communications surrounding 83 ’til Infinity, including promotional and social media materials. Across physical and digital applications, the design helped maintain a consistent visual language for an exhibition made up of many different voices, eras and forms of expression.

The result was an exhibition that treated Ottawa-Gatineau hip-hop as a cultural history worth documenting, preserving and experiencing together. Graphic design became one layer within that larger story, helping four decades of material live together in the same space while keeping the community behind it visible.