The normal practice for hanging valuable pieces of art is to print them to scale and then place them on a wall until your client approves of the positioning. Then, you lock in the specification and coordinate the final installation with an art handler. Looking at pricing to get an entire art collection printed and cut to-scale was looking very spend-forward, so we brainstormed a solution and came up with projection previsualizations of art and different locations.

Working with CVC Art Consulting, we had a solid plan ready to go.

This private client is long-term for us so we've done a lot of work for them and have an intimate understanding of their collection. I'm also a digital hoarder and keep everything. That means that I have all of their art on file already, as well as their dimensions. Now all I needed was to create a uniform system for scale. Using a combination of Vectorworks, Photoshop, and Madmapper, I created a consistent scale that would work across all pieces of art, and then I put in a scale cube so that we could calibrate each wall as we went.

Before showing up on site, I coordinated with CVCAC, the client, and their other vendors to develop a specific catalog of pieces that we could pull from as well as some planned programs for specific rooms. I know it's confusing but in the static art world a "program" is an arrangement of multiple pieces. In graphic design, you might call this a layout or a lock-up, but it's a little different here. Another pro-tip? Analog dimensions are Height x Width - digital dimensions are Width x Height. I had to create a spreadsheet just to keep things from going backwards!

We were able to move through their new home rapidly, and we were even able to audition some new pieces as they came to mind.

In addition to flexing those projection mapping skills, we also needed to produce mock-ups of frames before they were commissioned, as well as art lights to-scale. In the gallery below you can find examples of both 3D renderings and projection mapping.

Alright, let's do the numbers 🎶

• 1 mapping computer

• 2 projectors (thanks Jason)

• 3 pre-production test sessions

• 16 pre-designed programs

• 140 re-scaled art pieces

• 33 3D versions of art pieces