I ventured into Leeds city centre on the look out for any type of creative exhibition that I could find. I wasn't being picky in terms of the shows that I was visiting, I didn't see the point in limiting myself in that context. The first gallery I visited was the Henry Moore institute, which is known for having cutting edge, contemporary shows on throughout the year. The current show, titled 'Lesson's in Sculpture' was no disappointment in terms of the exhibition branding and collateral. It wasn't until I got back from visiting the exhibition that I realised that the exact same typeface that I have been experimenting with had been used throughout the identity of the show. This made me pleased, because it reassured to me that my branding was appropriate and would integrate well within the contemporary exhibition environment.
There were several things that I really appreciated about the branding/identity for this particular show. Firstly, on the outside of the building, large, highly legible vinyl stickers had been employed to advertise the show to the passing general public outside on the busy street. Vinyl stickers are not only a great way of creating effective way finding, but they are excellent tools for promotion/advertisement.
Inside the building, further vinyl had been used to signpost the show and give the audience a brief description of what to expect inside the gallery space. I felt this was a nice touch, and I have seen this tactic used throughout a number of contemporary exhibitions. I find it much more effective that displaying information about the show on a piece of paper or in a booklet. Seeing these effective vinyl stickers in context inspired me to mock some up for my own exhibition branding.
At the front desk of the gallery, I found some useful and well designed gallery brochures and leaflets. These were consistently designed in line with the rest of the branding/identity for the current exhibition. The same typeface as the vinyl sticker has been used throughout the brochure which is effective. The layout is extremely simplistic and minimalistic, allowing space for the information to breath and for the images to really shine and dominate the spreads. I am going to create a very small, fold out A4 brochure for my exhibition branding which will give detail to the concept and content of the show. It will not need to be as extensive as some of the brochures I came across, but it will pull inspiration and influence from some of the best designed examples I found.
An A5 double sided flyer printed on heavy stock. These are nice touches, because they give the audience just enough information about the gallery/show to get them intrigued without bombarding them with visual content. They also double up as small posters which is a great bit of design thinking.
The second gallery I visited was at Munro House. This small gallery hosts regular exhibitions which celebrate local talent from Leeds and the surrounding areas. The show I went to see was titled: 'Leeds through a lens - revisited'. It was a photography exhibition, so even before getting there I had certain expectations concerning the branding/identity and overall aesthetic of the show, because I have been to my fair share of photographic exhibitions. Similarly to the Henry Moore, vinyl stickers had been used throughout the inside and outside of the building to indicate the show. I think that these particular vinyl stickers are very striking and make a great first impact when approaching Munro House. Other than the vinyl, there was very little other branding on show. I became aware of this show due to social media, I saw it advertised on Facebook. On the internet, there were banners and e-flyers promoting the show which were interesting, but I didn't come across any posters or flyers around town, which was a little disappointing. I would have liked to have seen some more exciting, vibrant promotion printed collateral.
Other branding for the Gallery at Munro House:
Another place which usually has great exhibition branding is the Tetley Gallery. Back in March, I attended the International Artists' Book Fair which had some excellent branding. Very clean and functional poster design, featuring Gill Sans and other highly legible sans serifs. I also really like the colour choices that the Tetley use, not too bright or bold, quite subtle and paired back.
An upcoming show at the Tetley: This poster design is pretty 'trendy' and contemporary. The blurred, scanned type makes it feel like it would potentially feature on trendlist, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I don't want to achieve an aesthetic like this in my branding. In fact, I want to get as far away as possible from anything that could in the slightest feature on trendlist. Seeing this poster has motivated me to achieve a very fresh, clean functional aesthetic. After all, my practical works' main intention is to promote a new vision for visual culture and try to lift it out of the state it is currently in.
No comments:
Post a Comment