Some institutions have set up certain barriers with what one would think
as "standard" distances, heights or widths.  Whatever you do, it will
most certainly end up being specific to your institution.  Nevertheless,
we at the Nixon Library use plex barriers for most of the temporary
exhibition spaces, either as tops, or bent pieces to protect pieces on
platforms or directly on the wall.   The permanent galleries were all
designed with glass barriers (cases, floor cases, etc) with minimal use
of low walls and extruded pipe.

Regarding signage, we use vinyls directly on the wall or on a painted
substrate (sintra works better than masonite); for exhibits that are
that are just days old, we use 1/4" to 1/2" white or black foamboard as a
substrate for photographs, color repros or signage.  For travelling
exhibitions we tend to have labels & didactic panels silk-screened.  We
normally pull our own labels using our laser printer using colored paper
as close in color to the painted walls.  If we need to "blow" up a sign,
we'll take it to a commercial copier (the maximum sized sign we can pull
in-house is 11x17 through our copier).   We prefer doing most of our
signage in-house because we have better control of the finished product,
and if we "goof," we can easily correct the problem.  Our designer is
working on achieving optimum height levels for our pedestals; for the
most part our pedestals run about 42" high, with 18"x18" or 24"x24" as
depth and width.  Our plex tops run about 12" high to 40" high, depending
on what we display inside the pedestal.  Security screws are used.  We
also have a variety of low cases, they run about 30" high.

O






Olivia S. Anastasiadis