''Untitled (IUPUI Letters)'', a public sculpture, was designed by the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

firm Two Twelve and is located on the

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th st ...

campus near downtown

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. The sculpture can be viewed at the entrance of the IUPUI Campus Center, at the north-west corner of Vermont Street and University Boulevard. This sculpture consists of five letters. Each of the letters has a height of 7 feet 5 inches and a length of 3 feet 5 inches. The width of each sculpture varies by letter. Widths are the following for each of the letters represented in the sculpture: "I" is 11.5 inches, "U" is 26.125 inches, and the "P" is 25 inches. The fabricator of the letters was ASI Modulex of Indianapolis. They built the sculptures in May 2008 and installed them in June of the same year.

Description

''Untitled (IUPUI Letters)'' consists of a group of five letters spelling out IUPUI, the

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

for

. The five sculpture pieces have been installed at an angle from one another with several feet between each letter. The sculpture can be viewed as individual letters of the

alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syll ...

or together as one large group. The letter enclosures sit perpendicular to the full cabinets, giving each letter a multidimensional appearance. The sculptures are constructed from 10 gauge

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

frames and 16

gauge Gauge ( or ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, es ...

stainless steel sheets. The letter-forms have been designed using

Impact (typeface) Impact is a sans-serif typeface in the industrial or grotesk style designed by Geoffrey Lee in 1965 and released by the Stephenson Blake foundry of Sheffield. It is well known for having been included in the core fonts for the Web Core fonts f ...

and painted with

Pantone Pantone LLC (stylized as PANTONE) is a limited liability company headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, notably graphic ...

finish color, PMS 201C Red. The

stainless steel Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...

cabinet surrounding of each letter is made from thin gauge stainless steel fascia panels with a non-directional brushed finish. These panels provide a "dimple" like protective coating and are attached with a hi-bond adhesive to the frame structure. The frame structure is a 2" x 6" section welded together. The thin gauge painted steel "letter forms" are welded to the monolithic frame. A steel leveling plate was used to mount each letter into a 46” x 18” x ¼” base plate configuration using gussets, vinyl tape, and

silicone A silicone or polysiloxane is a polymer made up of siloxane (−R2Si−O−SiR2−, where R = organic group). They are typically colorless oils or rubber-like substances. Silicones are used in sealants, adhesives, lubricants, medicine, cooking ...

. The leveling plate is attached to a concrete footer. Each of the five of the letters are 7.5 feet in height, 3.5 feet in length, with the main steel cabinet having a depth of 5.875 inches. If all five sculptures were placed side by side the length would total 17.5 feet.

Information

''Untitled (IUPUI Letters)'' was designed as part of the signage package to go with the original construction of IUPUI's Campus Center. September 30, 2005 marked the ground breaking for the $50 million Campus Center. The New York design firm, Two Twelve, designed the metal letters to be used as a

wayfinding Wayfinding (or way-finding) encompasses all of the ways in which people (and animals) orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place. Wayfinding software is a self-service computer program that helps users to find a location, ...

tool to attract visitors to the IUPUI campus and to help people find the IUPUI Campus Center after the building opened in April 2008. The construction intent document was submitted to the Senior Associate University Architect and Director of IUPUI Project Development in June 2004 and the final bid document was issued in June 2006. The fabricator of the letters was ASI Modulex of Indianapolis. They submitted fabricator shop drawings to the University in September and October 2007. ASI then fabricated and installed the sculpture in May and June 2008.

Artist

The piece was designed by Two Twelve a graphic design firm out of New York City. This graphic design firm seeks sustainable solutions to problems of wayfinding, information, and visioning. They have practiced a

communications Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

discipline called “public information design” since 1980. The Principle-in-Charge of the design team was a trained architect called David Gibson. Gibson, author of ''The Wayfinding Handbook: Information Design for Public Places'' has a philosophy to "discover the hidden logic within each design project, the secret structure of a confusing campus, the undisclosed order in a complex body of information, the unknown essence of a new identity.”

Documentation

Museum Studies Museology or museum studies is the study of museums. It explores the history of museums and their role in society, as well as the activities they engage in, including curating, preservation, public programming, and education. Terminology The w ...

course at IUPUI recently undertook the project of researching and reporting on the condition of 40 outdoor sculptures on the university campus. ''IUPUI Letters'' was included in this movement. This documentation was influenced by the successful

Save Outdoor Sculpture! Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!) was a community-based effort to identify, document, and conserve outdoor sculpture in the United States. The program was initiated in 1989 and ended in 1999. History Save Outdoor Sculpture! was initiated by Herit ...

1989 campaign organized by Heritage Preservation: The National Institute of Conservation partnered with the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, specifically the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

. Throughout the 1990s, over 7,000 volunteers nationwide have cataloged and assessed the condition of over 30,000 publicly accessible statues, monuments, and sculptures installed as outdoor public art across the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

References

External links

IUPUI Letters with Campus Center Signage
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