James Brook / Design

Gareth Fisher Sculpture in Plaster 1980–2024 Catalogue

Gareth Fisher
Sculpture in Plaster 
1980–2024

Designed by James Brook for the exhibition Gareth Fisher Sculpture in Plaster 1980–2024 at Summerhall Lab Gallery, Edinburgh, 8 March – 6 April 2025

Photography by John McKenzie

Paperback with flaps | 205 x 160 mm | 32 pages | Printed by Gomer Print, Wales, on 150 gsm Munken Lynx Rough with cover printed on 300 gsm Munken Lynx Rough

It was an absolute pleasure to work with the artist (and President of the Royal Scottish Academy), Gareth Fisher, on the design of this catalogue for his exhibition at Summerhall – the former Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies of the University of Edinburgh. The exhibition is a retrospective of wonderful sculptures that span a practice of more than 50 years; working in plaster has been a continuous thread throughout it. 

Collaborating closely with Gareth from the very start of the project, I suggested that he commission the brilliant photographer John McKenzie to take images of his work, as I thought the book would feel more cohesive if all the sculptures were photographed consistently, in the same space, and with the same light. The sculptures were photographed against a grey background, painted by Gareth, and are beautifully lit to reveal the delicate detail of each work.

The book is designed with a generous amount of white space and the typography is pared back, with discreet captions and no page numbers or other distracting details. It is typeset in Skolar Latin, a classic book typeface that has some subtle twists that reveal a human touch, echoing the hand of the artist in these plaster sculptures. These quirky, typographic details become more apparent at a larger scale – such as on the exhibition posters that I also designed, based on the design of the cover of the book.

The book is printed on Munken Lynx Rough, an uncoated natural white paper with a very tactile feel. Having looked at several options for paper with the artist, we selected this one as the colour and soft texture felt appropriate for a book of plaster sculptures. The cover is printed on the same material with no laminate – although not as durable, the trade-off is that the cover retains the soft texture of the paper. It was printed by Gomer, in Wales, using LE-UV inks – specially formulated inks that dry instantly under ultraviolet light, meaning more of the colour stays on the surface, giving a far superior result to conventional litho printing.

Gareth’s exhibition in the Lab Gallery was conceived as a complete installation, using the original glass display cabinets of the veterinary school to both protect and highlight the delicate and fragile surfaces of the sculptures, and using specially installed lighting to dramatically light them. It was important for the artist to include installation shots as a record of the exhibition – so the bulk of the book was colour proofed ahead of the installation, with placeholder images for the missing installation shots. 

Once the installation was complete, John McKenzie took photographs on Friday 7 March, ahead of the opening on 8 March. The images were processed over the weekend then dropped in to place in the book, with the final artwork sent to the printers on Monday 10 March. Gomer Print did a fantastic job of turning the book around very quickly – LE-UV inks are, thankfully, very fast-drying allowing sheets to be folded as soon as they are printed – and the book arrived as early as was possible in the run of the exhibition.

Gareth Fisher: Designed beautifully by James Brook, who was a sensitive, perceptive and magnificent support in the production of this important publication. James is an excellent designer with sensitivity to your aspirations. A pleasure to work with.



Gareth Fisher Sculpture in Plaster 1980–2024 Printed Material

Printed material – posters, captions and text panels – designed for the exhibition Gareth Fisher Sculpture in Plaster 1980–2024 at Summerhall Lab Gallery, Edinburgh, 8 March – 6 April 2025. 

It has been an absolute pleasure to work with the artist and President of the Royal Scottish Academy, Gareth Fisher, on the design of printed material for his exhibition at Summerhall Lab Gallery. The posters are based on my design for the cover of the catalogue that accompanies the exhibition – it is currently being printed by Gomer in Wales. The poster features a photograph by the brilliant John McKenzie who has also taken the photographs for the catalogue. Below is one of my favourite works in the exhibition, The Hand, along with the caption that accompanies it.

 


The Improbable City

The Improbable City 

Published by Edinburgh Art Festival, 2015 

Edited by Sorcha Carey and Emily Gray 

Designed by James Brook 

ISBN 978 0 9929909 1 6 

48 pages with soft cover with pockets front and back containing a set of 8 postcards Book size 210 x 165 mm; postcard size 105 x 148 mm Printed by Allander, Edinburgh, on Cocoon Preprint 100% recycled paper with Colorplan smoke grey cover; postcards printed on Cocoon Offset 350gsm 

☞ 

The Improbable City is the second book that I designed for the Edinburgh Art Festival. The book accompanied a programme of commissions that ‘celebrate the work of visual artists who vividly conjure alternative imaginary worlds through their work, and considers how it is often the improbable which illuminates the real’. The programme included work by leading and emerging Scottish practitioners and includes new work by three international artists showing in the UK for the first time. The Improbable City ran from 30 July – 30 August 2015.

The cover of the book was printed on Colorplan Smoke Grey with a map of the old town of Edinburgh by Hanna Tuulikki. The book includes a glyph of a pointing hand on the title page to generate the feeling of a guide book or travel guide; I later learned that this symbol is known as a ‘manicule’ (from the Latin root manus for ‘hand’ and manicula for ‘little hand’) or fist. 

The set of postcards was an attempt to include last-minute images of the installations that were being created specially for the Art Festival and that were still being made when the book had to go to print to meet the deadline of the opening of 29 July; as the postcards had a shorter production time we hoped to include images of the finished installations that were not ready in time for the book. The postcards slot in to pockets on the front and back cover.

There are eight postcards in the set with work by the seven artists featured in the exhibition – Charles Avery, Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Julie Favreau, Emma Finn, Ariel Guzik, Kemang Wa Lehulere, and Hanna Tuulikki – as well as an eighth postcard by Neil Mulholland, which features a text written in response to Marvin Gaye Chetwynd's work. The reverse of the postcards featured another manicule and the legend ‘Postcard from the Improbable City’, further strengthening the idea of a book as a guide for visitors to ‘The Improbable City’.



Towards the Improbable City


The Improbable City 

Published by Edinburgh Art Festival, 2015 

Edited by Sorcha Carey and Emily Gray 

Designed by James Brook 

ISBN 978 0 9929909 1 6 

48 pages with soft cover with pockets front and back containing a set of 8 postcards 
Book size 210 x 165 mm; postcard size 105 x 148 mm 
Printed by Allander, Edinburgh, on Cocoon Preprint 100% recycled paper with Colorplan smoke grey cover; postcards printed on Cocoon Offset 350gsm 

☞ 

The Improbable City is the second book that I designed for the Edinburgh Art Festival. The book accompanied a programme of commissions that ‘celebrate the work of visual artists who vividly conjure alternative imaginary worlds through their work, and considers how it is often the improbable which illuminates the real’. The programme included work by leading and emerging Scottish practitioners and includes new work by three international artists showing in the UK for the first time. 

Above are a series of iterations exploring ideas for the cover of the book which layer various glyphs with settings of the word ‘Improbable’ against backgrounds of different textured papers. The final design for the cover of the book was printed on Colorplan Smoke Grey with a map of the old town of Edinburgh by Hanna Tuulikki. The printed version of the book includes a glyph of a pointing hand on the title page to create the feeling of a guide book or travel guide; I later learned that this symbol is known as a ‘manicule’ (from the Latin root manus for ‘hand’ and manicula for ‘little hand’) or fist. 

The set of postcards was an attempt to include last-minute images of the installations that were being created specially for the Art Festival and that were still being made when the book had to go to print to meet the deadline of the opening of 29 July; as the postcards had a shorter production time we hoped to include images of the finished installations that were not ready in time for the book. The postcards slot in to pockets on the front and back cover.

There are eight postcards in the set with work by the seven artists featured in the exhibition – Charles Avery, Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Julie Favreau, Emma Finn, Ariel Guzik, Kemang Wa Lehulere, and Hanna Tuulikki – as well as an eighth postcard by Neil Mulholland, which features a text written in response to Marvin Gaye Chetwynd's work. The reverse of the postcards featured another manicule and the legend ‘Postcard from the Improbable City’, further strengthening the idea of a book as a guide for visitors to ‘The Improbable City’.



Work in progress with Gareth Fisher

Work in progress with Gareth Fisher, artist and President of the Royal Scottish Academy for a catalogue for an exhibition at Summerhall Lab Gallery, Edinburgh, 8 March – 6 April 2025. 


Manipulate Festival 2025 Final Bits

Some final bits of work that I designed for Manipulate Festival 2025, Edinburgh’s international festival of animated film, puppetry and visual theatre. Above is the slide that I designed that was projected as a background at the various discussion panels and film screenings that took place duiring the festival. Illustration by Yifei Xiang. Below is the advert that I designed which appeared in The Skinny magazine. It’s always exciting to see things that I have designed on my computer appearing in the non-digital world!
   

Friends of the Institut français d’Écosse Leaflet

This is a leaflet that I designed, along with other printed items, for the Friends of the Institut français d’Écosse. Based in Edinburgh, the charity was formed twenty-five years ago to support and promote the deep ties between Scotland and France. Drawn from across Scotland and run by a management committee which meets regularly, their aim is to raise funds on behalf of the French Institute. 

As part of the design work that I have been undertaking, I have updated and digitised the Friends logo – which was originally designed by Dalrymple – to include the additional word d’Écosse. The original logo was typeset in Caslon Doric but I have re-typeset it in Founders Grotesk, a more freely available typeface. For the leaflet, I selected Minion Pro as a complementary typeface to be used alongside Founders Grotesk.

6 page DL roll folded leaflet | Finished size: 99mm x 210mm | Flat size: 297mm x 210mm | Printed By Halcyon Print on 150gsm offset



Manipulate Festival Lanyards

Here are some lanyards that I designed for Manipulate Festival 2025 which starts today, Wednesday 12 February. Go Team Manipulate!


Manipulate Festival 2025

Here are the posters that form part of an identity that I designed for Manipulate Festival 2025, Edinburgh’s international festival of animated film, puppetry and visual theatre, bringing the very best of international and Scottish work to audiences across Edinburgh and beyond. This is the third time that I have worked with Manipulate Arts, the organiser of the festival. It is always exciting to spot the posters as they appear around Edinburgh in the run-up to the festival.

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