Meeting Point Within the Lewisian

Meeting Point Within the Lewisian

Sgeir a’ Chòmhdhalaich San Gneiss Leòdhasach

Jake Harvey · Helen Douglas

Published by Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum + Arts Centre, 2025

Photography by Antonia Reeve, Glen Shepherd, Andy Mackinnon, Helen Douglas, Jake Harvey

Texts by Murdo Macdonald, Alan McKirdy, Juliet Kinchin, Joel Fisher, and Beth Williamson

Designed by James Brook 

ISBN 978 0 9535814 9 8

Casebound in Wicotex Brillianta fabric with foil blocked titles | 210 x 220 mm | 96 pages | Printed by Gomer Print, Wales, on 150 gsm Horizon Offset with 135 gsm Colorplan endpapers

This is a publication that I designed with sculptor Jake Harvey and book artist Helen Douglas for an exhibition at the Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre in Lochmaddy, North Uist, 19 July to 27 September 2025. The exhibition will then tour to various venues including the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh. 

Meeting Point Within the Lewisian is inspired by the travels and work of Dr James Hutton (1726–1797), widely acknowledged as the founder of modern geology, and has led the artists to Uist to experience the Lewisian gneiss complex, the planet’s oldest rock. The publication includes sculptures, book works and photographs that take the stone and coastal landscape of the Western Isles as a starting point, alongside texts by Murdo Macdonald, Alan McKirdy, Juliet Kinchin, Joel Fisher and Beth Williamson. 

It has been really interesting working on the book with these artists – who are both highly experienced in publishing – after I had finalised a layout and grid for the book, the artists went away and created an actual size paper mock-up of the book pages using images printed to scale alongside print-outs of the essays and texts which I had typeset. From this guide, I then developed the layout of each page in InDesign, following the placement given by the artists, but making subtle changes and interventions to sit within the original layout and grid, and to accommodate page numbers, captions etc. 

After further refinements and adjustments with the artists, the book was sent to the printer for printed proofs. Once we had recieved the proofs, I adjusted – in close collaboration with the artists – the colour, brightness and contrast of some of the images before proceeding to print. The book was produced on a very tight timetable but I am pleased to say that the finished books were ready ahead of schedule, in good time for the opening of the exhibition.

The book is printed on 150gsm Horizon offset, an uncoated paper that takes ink well, with printed endpapers in the same material. The cover is foil blocked with Foilco 612 Metro Grey on Wicotex Brillianta BRI4003 Light Grey fabric with grey head and tail bands. The book was printed and bound by Gomer in Wales who have taken great care and attention to do a great printing and finishing job – everyone is delighted with the book. 

Logo for Writer Adrian Ross

This is a logo that I designed for the writer Adrian Ross who had initially approached me to design a cover for his book, Sons of Great Men. During the design process for the cover it transpired that he also needed a simple personal logo; as a starting point, Adrian suggested a circle with his initials in lowercase. After trying out various typefaces (mostly ones that had literary or bookish connotations) that I set tightly within the circle and touching or overlapping the edges of it, I settled on Museo, a typeface that I have used before and like very much because if its distinctive quirky character. 

When tightly spaced, some of the extended semi-slab serifs of Museo connect. Other than changing the width of the bar of the letter ‘t’ to make it connect to the serif of the ‘w’, this design came together almost by magic – a case of serendipity when the letters joined together, with the ‘w’ becoming a dynamic design element. The logo is designed in two weights, regular and bold – Museo 300 and Museo 700 – and in positive and negative versions so it can be used in multiple ways. Myself and the client are really pleased with the abstract quality of the logo, which transcends the initials themselves to become visually arresting and slightly enigmatic.