Cover of Merlin James: River

This is the cover of Merlin James: River a book I designed for the Glasgow-based artist, Merlin James. The book accompanies River, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Merlin James, at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. contemporary art gallery in New York, running from 21 November, 2020 to 23 January 2021. 

I have worked with Merlin before: firstly, in 2013, on the book that Merlin wrote about the work of the Franco-Russian painter Serge Charchoune, published to coincide with an exhibition of Charchoune’s work that was shown at Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh and the Smart Art Museum Chicago; and, more recently on the monograph about the work of Merlin’s partner, the painter Carol Rhodes, that was published by Skira, Milan in 2018. 

This is a wonderful body of work of paintings and drawings, mainly of the view from Merlin’s home and studio on Carlton Place, overlooking the River Clyde in Glasgow. It has been a pleasure to work with these images that have become very familiar to me as the book has taken shape. The book is 165 x 240mm, 80 Pages with a soft cover, printed by Allander in Edinburgh on GalerieArt Matt 170gsm with a cover of GalerieArt Matt 300gsm, a coated matt paper with a tactile quality that has allowed the detail in the works to shine through. The book is typeset in a combination of Meta Serif Pro and Meta Pro with pared back typography and layout that prioritises the artist’s paintings and drawings. The photographs of Merlin’s work were taken by Jack McCombe and the book features an interview with the artist with Louis Block, courtesy of The Brooklyn Rail.

www.sikkemajenkinsco.com

Posterspotting!

On a wet Sunday afternoon, I managed to spot and photograph most of the posters that I designed for Platform:2020 in locations around Edinburgh. Platform is the Edinburgh Art Festival’s annual showcase supporting artists in the early stages of their careers to make and present new work. For previous editions of Platform, an 8 page folded leaflet has been the main focus; this year, I was asked to expand the design to include a 16 page booklet; exhibition graphics, signage and labels; print advertisements; digital advertisements; and this series of posters displayed around the city. The posters are 1016mm x 1524mm and are printed by JackArts. Each poster follows the same template with an image from the four participating artists: Rabindranath A Bhose, Mark Bleakley, Rhona Jack and Susannah Stark.

 

Not Going Back to Normal Book Proofs

Here are the printed running sheets, folded and ready for binding by the printers, of Not Going Back to Normal, a book that I have recently designed, published by Collective Gallery, Edinburgh. I am very proud to have been involved in Not Going Back to Normal, a ‘provocation about how things are and an idea for how things could be. This gallery manifesto gathers disabled artists in their diversity, rage, and imagination to call out the institutional ableism in the Scottish arts and picture a future in which disabled artists are central.’ The book has been edited by Sasha Saben Callaghan and Harry Josephine Giles and has been produced by Siobhan Carroll of Collective. It is printed by Gomer in Wales. I am very excited to see the finished book: Collective have received the finished books but my file copies have gone missing on their way from Wales to Scotland – apparently, it looks great. I will post more photos when I get the books and write about the design elements that aim to make it more accessible to people with visual impairments and for people with dyslexia and other neurodiversities.

www.notgoingbacktonormal.com

www.collective-edinburgh.art