The Bowhill Smoking Room Book

The Bowhill Smoking Room

Published by Bucchleuch Living Heritage Trust, 2016

Curator | Project Manager Ben Divall

Designed by James Brook

Photography: Phoebe Grigor

Textile Designs: Timourous Beasties

Softback | 220 x 220 mm | 16 pages
Printed by Allander, Edinburgh, on Munken Pure Rough paper

This small book was published to mark the refurbishment of the Victorian smoking room at Bowhill House, the country home of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch and home to part of the famous Buccleuch art collection. The refurbishment was managed by curator and researcher Ben Divall, who commissioned new furnishing fabrics, rugs and curtains from the design studio Timourous Beasties, known for their surreal and provocative textiles and wallpapers. The book was great fun to design as well as a pleasure to work with Timourous Beastie's fantastic designs and Phoebe Grigor's beautiful photographs of the smoking room.

www.bowhillhouse.co.uk
www.timorousbeasties.com

Dummy

I'm very excited to see this dummy of Calvariae Disjecta, the book I have been designing for the artist and academic, Robert Williams. Calvariae Disjecta: The Many Hauntings of Burton Agnes Hall focuses on one of the most ubiquitous of English ghost stories, The Screaming Skull of Burton Agnes Hall. Drawing from his extant library and decades of research, Robert Williams re-presents references to the story from more than 100 popular sources that extend across more than 150 years. The project, conducted in collaboration with cultural sociologist, Dr. Hilmar Schäfer, echoes the transmission of the story as quoted text, oral tradition and downright plagiarism, as it draws together the many references across time to a story that tells us as much about cultural and historical representations, as it does a lurid tale of murder, grave-opening, and screaming skulls.

The book is being printed by Allander, Edinburgh, on Munken Pure 120gsm with a cover of Colorplan Smoke Grey 135gsm lined over 2250 micron board. The book is being bound by Charles Letts & Co. in Dalkeith, a company best known for producing diaries.

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished books in a few weeks but at the moment I'm enjoying the purity of this ghost book with no cover design and no content.

Next of Kin Poster, Inverness Museum & Art Gallery

A4 poster designed and illustrated by James Brook for Next of Kin, a National Museums Scotland touring programme commemorating the centenary of the First World War across Scotland through a touring exhibition, learning programme and online resources.

Find out more about Next of Kin here 

Platform: 2016 Leaflet

Platform: 2016

Published by Edinburgh Art Festival, 2016

Designed by James Brook

Leaflet | 210 x 148 mm – flat size 210 x 592 mm | 8 pages
Printed by Allander, Edinburgh, on Cocoon Offset 100% Recycled Paper

This is the leaflet and logo I designed for Platform: 2016, the second year of a new Edinburgh Art Festival initiative 'intended to showcase Scottish artists at the early stages of their career'. Six artists – Calum and Fraser Brownlee; Dorian Jose Braun; Paloma Proudfoot and Aniela Piasecka; and Jack Saunders – were selected from an open call by Rachel Maclean, Ross Sinclair, Mary Watson and Festival Director Sorcha Carey.

Platform: 2016 was on show at the Festival Kiosk, 9-11 Blair Street, Edinburgh EH1 1QR from 28 July – 28 August 2016.

www.edinburghartfestival.com

Curatorial Practice Degree Show Leaflet

MLitt Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art) Degree Show Leaflet 2016

Designed by James Brook for Glasgow School of Art, 2016

420 x 297 mm folded to 210 x 148 mm
Printed by Allander, Edinburgh, on Cocoon Offset 100% recycled paper
















Find out more: MLitt Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art)

More Lasting than Bronze Book

More Lasting than Bronze

Published by Edinburgh Art Festival, 2016

Edited by Sorcha Carey and Jane Connarty

Designed by James Brook

ISBN 978 0 9929909 2 3

Softback | 210 x 165 mm | 48 pages
Printed by Allander, Edinburgh, on Cocoon Offset 100% recycled paper

This is the third book that I have designed for the Edinburgh Art Festival, it accompanied the Festival's 2016 commissions programme, More Lasting than Bronze, which featured 'new work by seven artists working in Scotland and internationally, More Lasting than Bronze explores what or how we choose to publicly commemorate, through a diverse series of interventions and propositions, whether exploring new forms of monument, or reflecting on those things which we choose to forget (or forget to remember).’

I was delighted to be able to use an ‘eraser drawing’ by Jonathan Owen on the cover of the book: I'm a big fan of Jonathan's work and I think this 'drawing' perfectly encapsulates the themes running through the commissions programme.

Artists included in the commissions programme, which was located in diverse venues throughout the city, were: Bani Habidi; Roderick Buchanan; Graham Fagen; Sally Hackett; Jonathan Owen; Ciara Phillips; and Olivia Webb.

www.edinburghartfestival.com

Proofs of Curatorial Practice Degree Show Leaflet

The proof arrived yesterday for the leaflet I have been designing for the MLitt Curatorial
Practice (Contemporary Art) Degree Show at the Glasgow School of Art. The leaflet is A3 with the exhibition, reading room and events details on one side and the individual curatorial projects by eight graduating students on the other. The image is a still from Holylands by Seamus Harahan, presented as part of Both Together, curated by Eilidh Ratcliffe, one of the students.

The leaflet is folded to A5 with half of the image appearing on one side and 'MLitt Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art) Graduate Degree Show 3-8 September 2016' on the other. I think it should make quite an interesting and attractive package and I look forward to seeing the two sides of the leaflet displayed alongside each other.

The design builds on an identity that I have been developing for the course that previously appeared in print in an advertisement in Art Monthly and also on material generated from the course. The typeface used throughout is Univers, in various weights, styles and sizes to create a hierarchy of information.

Having considered various paper options, the leaflet will be printed on 140gsm Cocoon Offset 100% recycled paper; a tactile paper that feels substantial but without feeling too precious.

The MLitt Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art) Degree Show runs from 3-8 September at Glasgow School of Art, The Tontine Building, 20 Trongate, Glasgow G1 5NA. Further information can be found here.

Proofs of Platform: 2016 Leaflet

This is a proof of the leaflet that I designed for Platform: 2016, an Edinburgh Art Festival initiative dedicated to providing greater opportunities for artists at the early stages of their career. The artists – The Brownlee Brothers, Dorian Jose Braun, Paloma Proudfoot & Aniela Piasecka, and Jack Saunders – were selected from an open call by artists Ross Sinclair and Rachel Maclean working with Edinburgh Art Festival Director Sorcha Carey and Mary Watson, Programme Assistant.

This is the second year that I have designed the leaflet, using the logo and identity that I developed in 2015. This iteration has a different arrangement of the cover elements and introduces a colour, selected from a range of similar colours, that may appear on future iterations of the leaflet.

Platform: 2016 runs from 28 July – 28 August and can be found at the Festival Kiosk, 9-11 Blair Street, Edinburgh EH1 1QR.

More information can be found here.

Proof of 'More Lasting than Bronze' Book

It's been a busy six months since I last posted on this blog and I have a backlog of projects to share. Amongst other things, I've been working on a third publication for the Edinburgh Art Festival for their 2016 commissions programme, More Lasting than Bronze. ‘Featuring new work by 7 artists working in Scotland and internationally, More Lasting than Bronze explores what or how we choose to publicly commemorate, through a diverse series of interventions and propositions, whether exploring new forms of monument, or reflecting on those things which we choose to forget (or forget to remember).’

Here's the proof of the cover, featuring an ‘eraser drawing’ by Jonathan Owen, which, I think, perfectly encapsulates the themes running through the commissions programme. The book is currently at the printers; I am looking forward to seeing the finished result, which should be ready for the opening of the Art Festival on 28 July. Fingers crossed!

More information about the EAF commissions programme can be found here

Dovecot What's On Guide 3

Dovecot What's On Guide | July-December 2016

Designed by James Brook for Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, 2016

210 x 148 mm | 12 pages with half cover
Printed by Allander, Edinburgh, on Vision Superior

This is the third edition of the Dovecot Gallery What's On Guide that I have designed. The guide is twelve pages with a half cover that reveals half of a full bleed image of a detail from a work, Optician 4, by the artist Kevin Harman that was included in Dovecot's The Scottish Endarkenment exhibition. As with previous guides, full-bleed images are used throughout in contrast with pages of pared back typography printed on the clean white of Vision Superior, an uncoated paper that has a pleasant tactility. The format and template remain the same as the previous editions but is always tweaked to accommodate new types of information, in this case, a news section detailing Dovecot's creation of a rug for the artist Linder that became the 'eighth dancer' in a new ballet titled Children of the Mantic Stain, choreographed by Kenneth Tindall, with music by Maxwell Sterling, performed by Northern Ballet with signature sportswear designed by Christopher Shannon. The ballet was performed at Dovecot as part of the Hayward touring exhibition British Art Show 8.