Artist Engineering Hardware

The vision for AE Hardware springs from a critical review of current artwork-handling practices, uncovering a clear need for a vastly improved ‘best-practice’ system spanning the entire process of art handling. Key risk points were identified across every stage of handling - from packing to installation - and these informed a five-year program of design, prototyping, and testing.

Practical workshops were conducted with curators, conservators and technicians, validating the concept of a fully integrated system and leading to an integrated function set that provides for all aspects of non-contact handling: storage; crating; shipping; staging and installation - using just three core components.

One by one, shortcomings in current art-logistics practices were addressed and concepts tested in collaboration with art technicians to validate performance under real-world conditions and ensure intuitive use in the field. Feedback led to refinements in ergonomics, tolerances, and visual design, resulting in a system that is intuitive to use and robust in operation.

Components were meticulously refined against artwork sizing, shipping and installation constraints, and materials were specified for performance and archival stability. Prototypes were rigorously tested in lab and practical environments, to ensure infallible performance.

The final solution reduces risk, simplifies logistics, and integrates seamlessly with standard crating and hanging systems. The design aims to set a new professional standard, with precision-machined parts, integrated safety features, and high-grade materials selected for long-term use.

Each aspect of the AE Hardware system was designed to reflect the precision, clarity and care expected when working with priceless artworks. Each component is engineered to be robust and purposeful, inspiring confidence in technicians, conservators and artwork owners.

Form/Function
AE Hardware is expressly designed to execute and communicate function. Visual hierarchy - Touchpoints use a ‘full-round’ cue, while mechanical interfaces are polished stainless-steel, communicating precision and reliability.

Aesthetic
Understated geometry, a considered, greyscale palette, and true-to-material finishes impart discretion appropriate to the system’s supporting role; typography emphasises technical capability.

Modularity
AE Hardware can be configured to suit a range of artwork sizes and installation, shipping, and archival requirements. Installation hardware is readily swapped out to deal with on-the-wall levelling adjustments or to suit grid storage.

User Experience
Function leads form throughout - even the seemingly simple arc of the grip results from user trials, enabling smooth transition between hand positions. Self-aligning, captive mounting hardware streamlines crating, while built-in feet eliminate the need for polyethylene foam blocks when staging works prior to installation. AE components are universal - with no top, bottom, left or right versions - so ordering and configuration is simple.

Safety/Quality
Security is mission-critical – AE Clips have multiple safeguards: inherent geometry that draws latches closed under load; dual-trigger activation for release; and lock-flat triggers preventing unintended actuation. Metallurgy is optimised for rigidity/toughness through laboratory testing, and polymers are carefully specified in archive-compatible engineering grades.

Responsibility/Serviceability
AE Hardware is engineered as a reusable, configurable system. Hardware components can be serviced, swapped, shared and re-circulated, reducing cost to the user and the environmental footprint of manufacturing. The system also reduces reliance on single-use gloves and disposable polyethylene foam blocks. High-cycling parts are retained by screws, allowing access for repair. Packaging, by Contain Design Studio, is minimal and readily recycled.

AE Hardware is an entirely new and unique system for handling artwork. Eliminating hands-on contact is an unequivocal, fundamental innovation in art handling and maintaining this protocol end-to-end so that the work never has to be touched at any stage of its journey genuinely redefines ‘best practice’.

The system has been developed from a totally original concept and has seen a substantial engineering and design effort to ensure performance under load while dovetailing neatly into the norms of shipping, storage and exhibition. Over a five-year program, numerous design variants were explored and prototypes trialed to assure secure attachment, intuitive use, maximum compatibility with crating dimensions and to drive the installed profile to an ‘invisible’ minimum.

Each of the three core components was rigorously refined for usability. From the simple yet effective safeguards of the clip action to the self-aligning crating point with integrated hardware and the twist-to-lock hanging rings and hooks, every element aims to simplify the job at hand and fit seamlessly into the handler’s workflow.

AE Hardware also includes a bespoke installation tool kit with a bag by Crumpler Australia attached securely inside the shipping crate, accompanying the artwork wherever it goes.

Importantly, the innovation is not only technical but procedural. The system redefines industry workflows, allowing major galleries, museums and logistics firms to adopt a repeatable, scalable approach to object handling that reduces risk and technician stress.

This is a meaningful innovation that solves a longstanding industry problem with elegance and precision. AE Hardware demonstrates the capacity of industrial design to power innovation and address specific, high-stakes challenges.

Preventative conservation of works of art is the principal impact of AE Hardware. The system delivers an unprecedented mitigation of critical risk to objects of incalculable cultural (+monetary) value, through a fundamental rethinking of handling, shipping, and installation practices.

AE Hardware has been lauded by major institutions and logistics firms in North America and Europe and is positioned to fulfil a major transformation in the way that art is handled globally by changing the baseline for what’s considered acceptable handling practice. It achieves this while offering an extremely appealing value proposition.

AE Brackets are priced competitively so entire collections can be fitted out economically, while modular AE Grips & Clips need only quantities sufficient to fulfil logistics.

At a practical level, the responsibility of safeguarding invaluable artworks during handling falls to art technicians, often working long hours to install or ship objects of immense value on a tight schedule. While reduction of damage risk is paramount, it was also central to the design brief that the design solution would not be just another precaution to be taken by these professionals.

Rather, AE hardware has been designed for positive impact in this challenging workspace, simplifying all tasks in the technician’s workflow, supporting better ergonomics, and enabling consistent best practice across collections.

Beyond its practical impact, AE Hardware sends a powerful message about the value of professional design. Rethinking a longstanding industry problem from first principles shows how thoughtful design can mitigate risk, support users, and streamline operations.

It demonstrates how a Victorian design and engineering collaboration can develop a globally relevant product with significant cultural and commercial impact.

AE Hardware is engineered as a reusable, configurable system. Hardware components can be serviced, swapped, shared and re-circulated, reducing cost to the user and the environmental footprint of manufacturing.

The system also reduces reliance on single-use gloves and disposable polyethylene foam blocks. High-cycling parts are retained by screws, allowing access for repair.

Packaging, by Contain Design Studio, is minimal and readily recycled.