The new Information Age gallery at the Science Museum in London opened to the public in October 2014. The museum commissioned Topografik to make tactile, replica models of key objects from each of the six zones in the gallery and a centrepiece scale model of the Rugby Tuning Coil. The Coil can be seen on the right hand side of the page, during a visit by HRH Queen Elizabeth II.

Design and production was driven by a core principle to balance the requirement for accurate replication for sight and touch with the robustness needed to withstand handling by millions of visitors.  

The gallery's different zones, and the pieces designed to accompany them, are listed below, and pictured on the right. To see more of the individual pieces, click here.

The Cable -  Morse Key and Sounder

The Telephone Exchange – Gallows Phone

Broadcast – Crystal radio

The Constellation - Satellite

The Cell  - Base Station

The Web - Honeywell

Image of HRH Queen Elizabeth II used with the kind permission of the Science Museum.

This commission from Historic Royal Palaces to produce five tactile interpretations of the Crown Jewels was part of the refurbishment of the Jewel House at the Tower of London. Beginning in the summer of 2011, the finished pieces were installed in the Spring of 2012 in time for the Queen’s Jubilee.

The key objective of this project was to communicate the forms and sizes of the star objects in the collection, not only to visually impaired visitors but the widest possible audience. The tactile are positioned alongside the Crown Jewels’ showcases in the Treasury at the Tower of London.

The ‘half round’ high relief tactiles were modelled in clay and cast in bronze.

A replica of Winston Churchill's childhood rattle, cast in resin with silver details.

This sculpture is a carved block of Frosterley Limestone inset with cast bronze interpretations of the fossils found within it. The fossil installation is displayed on an oak plinth among the Frosterley floor tiles and oak doors and display cabinets in the Marble Hall of the Laing Art Gallery. 

Prominent ‘Please Touch’ and information labels in text and Braille are attached to the plinth.

The sculpture is finished on one side to reflect the smoothness of the floor tiles and the central section shows and explains the unusual shapes seen in the tiles with carved and truncated fossils. The third section is a
representation of a carboniferous sea floor with ‘living’ dibunophyllum bipartitum cast in bronze. The Department of Coelenterates at the Natural History Museum in London offered invaluable advice in establishing the most accurate representation of ‘dibunophyllum’. 

Tactile maps and replica scale models for the D-Day Exhibition at The D-Day Story, Portsmouth

Two tactile maps and three scale models commissioned by Studio MB for Portsmouth City Council as accessible interactives in the exhibition commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day. The exhibition was officially opened by HRH The Princess Royal in May 2018.

The pieces:

How the fleet was organised – painted etched zinc tactile map

Objectives reached – painted etched zinc tactile map

BARV Sherman tank – cast bronze scale model

DUKW amphibious vehicle – cast bronze scale model

LCVP landing craft – cast bronze scale model

Image of HRH Princess Royal opening the exhibition by kind permission of Vernon Nash.

Replicas of Mayoral regalia and symbols of office for the newly re-opened Aldeburgh Museum in Suffolk.

A primary and secondary chain of office, two maces and two seals (commissioned by Frozen Fish Design in conjunction with Elmwood Projects) for the Moot Hall Regeneration Project at Aldeburgh Museum in Suffolk. The replicas are designed for use as both display and handling objects in the newly refurbished museum that opened to the public in October 2019.

The pieces:

Primary chain of office – machined brass shields and a 3D printed pendant with a gold finish and printed illustrative detail

Secondary chain of office - brass chain and 3D printed pendants with a gold finish and printed illustrative detail

Two maces – 3D printed replicas with a silver painted finish

Two seals of office – 3D printed in two different materials. The held element finished to mimic bone and the seal end with a silver painted finish

The Ridoutt dish tactile object was commissioned in 2022 by Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery to be part of the Silver City exhibition. The exhibition tells the story of the city through its silver treasures and one of the treasures is the Ridoutt dish.

To make the fine detail on the original dish accessible for touch it was decided to focus on a scaled-up replica of the ‘Temperance’ motif on the central boss. The original was laser scanned in the Guildhall and the data manipulated to generate a scaled master for subsequent casting in bronze-filled resin.

The text and braille labels are fabricated in painted etched zinc.

Historic Royal Palaces commissioned a set of tactile interpretations as part of the Gold and Glory exhibition at Hampton Court Palace in 2019. The exhibition celebrated the 500th anniversary of the meeting of Kings at the Field of Cloth of Gold in northern France and opened to visitors in the Summer of 2021.

The interpretations comprised three tactile object replicas and a tactile book:

Bristowe Hat replica – fabricated using modern materials and traditional millinery skills

Roundel – 3D printed, moulded and cast in resin with a terracotta infill

Fabric – machine embroidered section interpreted from a fragment of original material from the Field of Cloth of Gold event

Tactile book – a tactile interpretation of the Field of Cloth of Gold painting with large print text and braille

The Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich has been referred to as the ‘Sistine Chapel of the UK’ and following a major conservation project the Painted Hall reopened to visitors in 2019. To accompany the reopening ORNC commissioned a set of handling objects to be housed in two ‘treasure’ chests.

The thirteen handling objects reflected motifs from the painted ceiling and ranged from objects to hold to objects to wear. They are listed below with brief descriptions of processes and materials:

Armillary sphere – hand crafted brass

Crown – hand crafted brass with acrylic gems, artificial ermine and a satin inner

Sword – hand crafted brass

Athena’s shield – cast resin with a specialist nitrate painted finish

Athena’s helmet – cast resin with a specialist nitrate painted finish

Copernican model – hand crafted brass with cnc etched sun face

Hourglass – oak casement and bespoke hourglass

Mirror – hand crafted brass with an acrylic mirror

Leo, zodiac plaque – cast resin with a painted finish

Masks – bespoke handles, CAD designed and 3D printed face-masks

Three hand made hats, four robes and three shirts in different sizes

The brief emphasised the need for ruggedness and longevity of use and specified the incorporation of a mechanism to enable the objects to be displayed when the chests were open and securely stored when closed. The design solution was an easily operated, hand cranked scissor lift system raising and lowering a display platform.

Painted Hall images by kind permission of the Old Royal Naval College