Platform: 2019
Designed by James Brook for Edinburgh Art Festival, 2019
Leaflet | 210 x 165 mm – flat size 210 x 654 mm
Printed by Allander, Edinburgh, on Horizon Offset 170 gsm
A leaflet that I designed for Platform, Edinburgh Art Festival’s showcase for Scotland based artists at the beginning of their careers. The 2019 edition, selected by artists Monster Chetwynd and Toby Paterson, brought together new work by Anna Danielewicz, Joanne Dawson, Harry Maberly and Suds McKenna. The exhibition ran from 25 July until 25 August and was held at The Fire Station at Edinburgh College of Art, 76-78 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh, EH3 9DE.
I have designed four previous iterations of the leaflet, using a logo and identity that I originally developed in 2015. Each year’s version featured a unique arrangement of the cover elements alongside a new cover colour, taken from the imagery within. For the fifth year of Platform, the Art Festival invited me to refresh the identity: I created a new look that draws on elements of the previous designs with a new size, 210 x 165mm, that aligns it with the EAF commissions booklet that I also designed. The new design includes the circles (taken from the colon that appears in Platform: 2019) with imagery selected from one of the four artists, in this instance, the work of the brilliant Harry Maberly. I used two typefaces, Freight Sans Pro and Adelle Sans, selected for their character and readability, and used different weights of Adelle Sans to create a new logo that echoes the previous logo, which was set in Akzidenz Grotesk. Inside, the layout follows the design of the previous four iterations but the wider page size gives a feeling of space and gives images priority and allows them to breathe.
Click here to see the leaflet that I designed for Platform: 2018
www.edinburghartfestival.com
Sorcha Carey, Director, Edinburgh Art Festival: We have worked with James Brook on a number of different festival design projects since 2014, ranging from substantial exhibition catalogues, smaller interpretation booklets and leaflets, through to devising bespoke identities for discrete projects and initiatives. He has a wealth of knowledge of typography, graphic design, print and book production, is incredibly thoughtful and considered in his approach, and always responds to a brief with creativity and rigour in equal measure. I can’t recommend him highly enough.