Design Society, a newly founded design museum in Shenzhen run by Ole Bouman, opened its doors for the first time on December 2nd. The inaugural exhibition is called Minding the Digital. Thonik designed the visual identity and worked together with renowned architecture firm MVRDV, who was in charge of the exhibition design.

Reflect and speculate 
Minding the Digital is a large-scale, speculative exhibition curated by Carrie Chan and her team. The exhibition reflects on the impact of digitalization by showcasing works of over 50 international and Chinese design practices, such as Joris Laarman, Nick Verstand, Iris van Herpen, Jenny Sabin Studio and Ying Gao. 

Playing ping-pong 
Thonik programmed the key visual. RGB colour patches are floating in a white background. The typography is turned into a computer-generated gatekeeper that keeps the coloured blobs in place. This basic mechanism of ping-pong illustrates the transitory interaction between man and technology. The choice of colour, the basic RGB, speaks of the spectrum of the digital era. The combination of three colours also echoes the three sections in the exhibition: encounter, interaction and participation. 

Identity in a digital world 
Thonik designed a transitory and immersive experience. They created a mobile quiz for wechat, so visitors can explore the exhibition in an online environment. Each visitor learns his digital identity: are you a digital tourist, digital native or digital alien? This is captured in a personal avatar. The results of the quiz can be shared on social media and are projected in the entrance hall.

Towards a new visual language 
For Thonik this project fits in an ongoing research on how computers and humans can create a new visual language together.

Labyrinth experience 
MVRDV’s spatial design responds to the exhibition theme by creating a maze-like labyrinth located over two floors. Each room in the maze is coloured differently by LED light. These coloured spaces correspond with the identity Thonik made for the exhibition.