Museum Wall labels provide visitors with a complete visual experience.
Have you watched visitors to a museum admiring the beautiful artwork only to observe them reading descriptions from a sticker or unattractive sign attached to the wall? Doesn’t it in some way diminish the artwork they are viewing? Instead of using word wall cards, custom dry transfer wall labels from Image Transfers enhance the overall museum experience for your visitors. We can help you make sure your exhibit descriptions are more precise and more refined, without being obtrusive. 
Better still, what we provide is easy to apply and produced directly from digital files you supply. Because we work from your files, you’ll receive just what you created with no surprises.
The finished appearance of rub-on museum exhibit labels can play a decisive role in helping to meet today’s attendance objectives for curators and museum professionals. Few things increase people’s enthusiasm as much as knowledge, but sometimes getting their attention is a challenge. When wall labels are more precise and more appealing to read, it’s a given that more people will focus and learn the content. 
To help draw them in consider using a unique font or type style. This added touch of flair might make all the difference. As more visitors become better informed about your exhibition they may be inspired to share their experiences over social media channels. The added buzz can help attract more visitors and build momentum for you.
“Image Transfers provides excellent attention to detail and has color match for when an artist requests it for an installation in the museum.” Jay Ore, the Perez Art Gallery in Miami
Why Use Dry Transfers as Wall Labels to Complement Artwork in your Museum?
Rub-on transfer museum wall labels are clear, concise, and creative. They appear as though they are printed directly on the wall. Equally importantly, they don’t take away from the experience the viewer has in admiring art. Our custom dry transfers are the best way to describe museum artwork. They are applied directly to the wall using a unique burnishing tool that we supply. The clarity of their appearance is unmatched, they are semi-permanent, and even with subtle and delicate fonts, there is no loss of readability. We’re an ideal alternative to the former Letraset lettering, and custom dry transfer letters are superior to anything that can be produced with a printer.
Black lettering applied to white walls is the most popular option. However, we see curators and museum professionals partnering with artists to explore new possibilities. For example, our production artists can match a variety of custom colors and find the Pantone Graphic palette that offers colors that are complementary to most museum and gallery interiors. Our process also allows you to conserve budget dollars by ganging up gallery labels to fill our artboard size areas listed on our published price list. During application, these captions can be cut apart for placement.
High-Quality Wall Labels Have an Upgraded Look to Match the Artwork
Every element accompanying the art in your exhibits should enhance the appearance and be visually appealing. Using our custom transfers as wall labels help a museum encourage more favorable visitor engagement and participation. The high quality of custom rub-on transfers as museum wall text labels reflects the thoughtful and refined experience a fine arts institution needs to portray. In addition to text and descriptions for individual pieces, dry transfers wall labels can be used for other signage connected to the exhibition to maintain a unified look.
Our rub-down letters are opaque, white-backed, and non-translucent. They can be applied to any flat, smooth surface – 
which is useful if you need exhibit descriptions applied to glass or plastic cases. If appropriate for sculpture, they can even be used directly on the base of the piece as long as it is smooth and metal, wood, glass, or plastic. Many first-time users are impressed by the elegant appearance and surprised by the ease of application. If you’re under deadline pressure and need a reliably upscale appearance, we’re confident in our ability to help.
At Image Transfers, rub-on decals are our only business, and their use as art gallery wall labels for museum signage is one of the fastest-growing segments of our business.
For more information on how to use dry-transfer labels for your next museum exhibition, please, call (212) 928-7987 or visit us at https://imagetransfers.com/
Credit for the photos of our transfers at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco, Girl with a Pearl Earring exhibit goes to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; photography by Jorge Bachman; design by Juliana Pennington.
Read our other Museum Label posts:
- 5 Types of Museum Labels
- Museum Labels Transform Vintage Luggage Exhibit
- Museum Labels for Walls & Exhibits
- Dry Transfers for Glass Display Cases
Image Transfers are custom dry rub-on transfer specialists. We make only one thing: custom rub down transfers for graphic designers, artists, and model-makers. A dry transfer (or rubdown) is an image printed on a translucent sheet. The image has a coating of adhesive on its back. The image is transferred from the translucent sheet onto another surface by applying light pressure in a rubbing motion. The dry transfer can be applied to any surface that is free of dust, grease or oil. Dry transfers are referred to as DRY because they are applied dry, without the use of water or solvents. A dry transfer is not a slip-off label or a water decal, instead, the transferred image appears as if it was printed directly onto the item. Our dry transfers are opaque because we back the colors with white, so our rubdowns can be applied to a surface of any color without changing the color of the rub-on transfer. We consider dry transfers a semi-permanent application. A top coat of clear lacquer can make them more permanent. Our production artists can match all Pantone Matching System (PMS) colors including Metallic. Standard transfers are semi-gloss but we also offer matte and uncoated finishes. We deliver within as little as 24 hours. -- Specialties: Custom Rub Down Dry Transfers, Art Gallery Signage & Museum Labels, Custom Transfers for Product Prototypes, Comps & Mock-ups, Dry Transfers for Scale Models. Decals for Glass and reversed transfer decals for inside glass cases.
The deYoung Museum is a wonderful place to visit, and they have opened that opportunity up by installing a Beam Robot device. Patrons that can’t visit because of a disability can sign up for a tour through the robot’s eyes. Learn more here:
http://www.famsf.org/about/technology/beam
We have a few questions regarding your products. Will it work on glass? If so, What is the smallest size that can effectively be used.
Joyclyn, Yes transfers work beautifully on glass. We recently did white transfers for Prada Glass Display units in their SOHO NY location. We would suggest keeping type larger than 12 point. Also realize transfers can be scratched but past applications held up to time of exhibit. What is great about our transfers is once applied there is no adhesive residue. If you have further questions email us at art@imagetransfers.net. Hope to work with you on this project.
We are curious– can we use your product on painted concrete block (interior wall)? Love the look, but concerned about texture. Thank you!
Marta, Thanks for the compliment – yes they usually look beautiful after applied. I am assuming our transfers will work on concrete block because they have been used on a variety of substrates. We would be happy to send you some samples if you want to email us at art@imagetransfers.com.
What is the removal process for this item? Must it be scratched off? Painted over?
Thanks for your inquiry. Transfers are lacquer ink with lacquer adhesive. Depending on the surface you apply to they can be painted over (on walls) or removed with painters tape. If that is not successful you could use Bestine Solvent but we would advise to “test” in an inconspicuous area first because the solvent might damage the wall. If transfers are put on a plastic, glass or metal surface you might be successful in scratching them off. We would be happy to send samples for you to test if you want to email us your info.
Our church wants to place these words on an entry wall in a clean, sans serif modern script:
“Living out the questions, hand in hand.”
(Or similar)
What would this cost, and how soon can it be fabricated? I realize you will need the dimensions of the wall. Offhand, it’s about 9-10 feet long and 8 feet high.
Gail, Thank you for your inquiry but we are probably the wrong source for you. Yes, our transfers can be applied to walls and yes they look beautiful but they are mostly used for small fonts that can’t be done in vinyl. Your size is quite large. We recommend you “google” vinyl sign companies, give them your specs and I am sure they can help you (usually at a budget conscious cost) to get this done for you. Good luck!
Thanks so much. Very helpful advice.
Hi: Once the letters are applied to the wall, will you be able to feel the letters with your fingers? Will the letters feel raised just a tiny bit?
Gloria, Our transfers are lacquer ink with lacquer adhesive. Since adhesive is only on the image area, after applied there is no adhesive residue. So they are the thickness of lacquer ink. I would assume if the walls were matte you could feel the difference in texture to the transfer but really no thickness like with vinyl lettering. You are also not limited to large point sizes, like with vinyl. We can accommodate a range of small point sizes if that is what you need.
Sorry, one more question, can grayscale photograph also be made as dry wall transfer?
Gloria, We would not recommend using a grayscale image as a transfer. Since gradients would have to be represented as halftone dots it would be difficult to “transfer” that. We could do a clear plate to hold it all together but still believe it would be difficult to apply while keeping the transfer from moving in application. If you want to discuss further please feel free to call the studio M-F 9 to 5 at (212) 928-7987.
Hi,
We would like three dry transfer phrases for an exhibition installing on February 26th. The letters would need to be approx. 200mm high. The phrases are
Art Power
East Midlands – East Asia
Hear Our Voices
Thank you
Tamsin, Your timeframe is fine. We usually turn around custom dry transfers in 24 to 48 hours. We would need you to set up this file with the words/phrases you need. Choose a font, specify the leading and kerning. Adobe Illustrator is perfect software for this. As for cost we cannot quote that because we don’t know how large the second line of copy will be. It seems you need the lettering to be about 8 inches in height. We are limited on the size transfers we do. Tabloid (11″x17″) is the largest size we offer. You will have to determine if your copy will fit on that artboard. Pricing for our transfers is published on our website. Sometimes if clients want the beauty of transfers but they cannot fit copy on one line they sometimes split the line. I hope you understand this. If you needed us to create that file there would be an additional cost. If you have further questions please email us at art@imagetransfers.com or call the studio number at (212) 928-7987. We hope we can work on this project with you.