In 2025, the 80th anniversary of Victory in the World War II was celebrated in Russia. To commemorate this, the organizers of ARCH Moscow exhibition approached us with a proposal to create a stand that would simultaneously tell a story about the Moscow city and commemorate the significant date. Stories about the Moscow Metro during the war were chosen as a suitable subject. Despite it was barely opened then, yet already functioned as a separate city.

Colleagues approached me as a cartographer and as someone interested in the Metro, so I worked on the design, layout as well as helped with the factual background for the texts. We also selected many amazing archival photographs for a collage.

The result was two stands, each five meters tall. Both were created using collage techniques. One of them featured a stylized reproduction of a Moscow city map from the early 1940s with information about the stations that opened during the war. Each station featured a short text taken from the 1945 Moscow City Economy magazine, supplemented by architectural elements of the stations.

The second stand explored the unusual aspects of life in the "underground city" during that period. The fonts and navigation elements (signs and lightboxes) were selected to reflect the systems used in the Moscow metro.

The stands were highly praised by colleagues in the department, the Institute's management, and the exhibition organizers.

Organization
Moscow General Planning Institute
for ARCH Moscow Exhibition, 2025

Idea and text
Ekaterina Gnezdilova

Prepress assistance
Vitana Sosnovskaya

Head designer
Nikolay Zotin