James Brook / Design

From the Archive: System, Chance by Carson & Miller

System, Chance

Carson & Miller

Published by National Galleries of Scotland, 2016

Designed and typeset by James Brook

ISBN 978 1 911054 03 0

Soft cover | 213 x 148 mm | 32 pages | Printed on 160gsm Vision Superior by Allander

From the National Galleries of Scotland website: ‘This publication is a record of a relationship between an institutional archive and two artists, working in collaboration. The artists Carson & Miller proposed in 2013 that they might pursue their established practice of play and game-playing in the archives of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and a series of games and play took place during 2014 and 2015 before culminating in the exhibition Archive Games, 11 July – 25 October 2015.

Carson & Miller use play and game-play in their collaborative practice as a tool with which to navigate archives and collections, but also as a means of exploring wider archival notions of memory, keeping and caring. These themes are among those investigated in this book.’

This was a really interesting publication to work on: the design brief was extremely detailed and the artists had very clear ideas about how the book should look and function – the artists had already designed a visual essay for the opening pages as well as a cover that marked the start of the visual essay. The brief suggested that the typography and design of the book might reflect the elements of the visual essay. I spent some time thinking about the brief and the contents of the book and arrived at the idea that the book should be set in Courier – the artists had used a collage that included a typewritten text and I liked the connotations of the library and of the archive that the typewritten text carried. As the book was full colour, I was able to use a secondary colour for headings, sub-headings and page numbers: red was the natural choice as it is the second colour on a typewriter – there was also a lot of red in the artists’ visual essay, appearing on storage boxes from the archive.

I typeset the chapter headings at an angle to give a punky, playful feel and to reflect the slightly anarchic hand-written texts that the artists had written on the walls in the exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art. I also liked the secondary connotation of rubber-stamped due dates in library books. In contrast to the chapter headings I typeset the essays in a far more traditional and refined style – the essays included endnotes, references and quotations so this traditional style seemed to suit and created a nice tension on the page with the more playful headings. The essays were aligned left with a ragged right edge and I worked hard to make sure that the line endings were balanced and there were no odd words left hanging.

The artists had indicated where images needed to appear in the essays so, in such a modest publication, it was a bit of a jigsaw that required some juggling to respect their wishes. I wanted the images to be at a reasonable and consistent size throughout the book and placed consistently on the page: this helped create a much greater emphasis and tension when one of the images (at the artists’ request) broke this system and appeared at a larger scale and not placed within the text. To make the image captions more distinct from the essay text I used Akzidenz Grotesk Light, which also had the advantage of being more compact than Courier so I was able to fit more text in the available spaces. I also used Akzidenz for the colophon, which appeared on the last page: as it needed to sit next to the notes and references of the final essay, this change of typeface made the break more clear – as did a change in column width.

This modest publication was printed on Vision Superior 160gsm by Allander, Edinburgh. The same weight of paper was used for the cover and text pages so that there was no break in the artists’ visual essay, which started on the front cover.

Seeing Things by James Greene

Seeing Things by James Greene

Published by Golden Hare, Edinburgh, 2023

ISBN 978 1 8384 0654 7

Paperback with flaps | 210 x 148mm | 32 pages | Printed by Gomer Print, Wales, on 120gsm Munken Pure Rough with anti-scuff laminated cover printed on 280gsm Cartel Lumina Silk single sided board

This small book of poems, Seeing Things, is a farewell collection by James Greene. Previous publications by Greene include the first collection of his own poetry, Dead-Man’s Fall (published by The Bodley Head 1980) and A Sad Paradise (published by Lines Review Editions, Macdonald 1990) as well as a number of translations of poetry by Russian poet Osip Mandelshtam and others. Greene has written the plays Killing Time in the Kremlin and The Bin, and his work has featured in the London Review of Books.

For this publication, I worked very closely with the poet, his partner Nicky Sherrott and his ‘virtual secretary’ Mae Walsh, working through several options for the layout and design of the book. The book is A5, 210 x 148mm, chosen to match another book of poetry published by Golden Hare, and I worked hard to find a layout that accommodates the length of the longest poems on one page and also accommodates the longest line of each poem without breaking at this size – only one very long poem had to be broken across two pages.

The book is typeset in Minion Pro which I selected because of its relatively tall x-height and because of its open character and clarity of reading. The poems are set in 11 point Minion while the secondary information (Acknowledgements, Notes, Contents etc) are typeset in 9.5 point Minion – it was necessary to go smaller on these sections as there was a lot of information to fit in a small space but the positive effect of this is that the poems have precedence because of the larger point size that they are set in. Titles and section headings are typeset in uppercase Century Gothic. A strong underlying grid gives structure to the book and helps unify the different sections. The grid and typography is continued on to the cover and the cover flaps.

The cover features a drawing by Ken Kiff given to James Greene. The drawing itself had become stained and discoloured so, working from an image of the drawing I Photoshopped away the staining and removed the drawing from its backgound – I also adjusted the colour balance based on feedback from the poet and his partner. I generated a textured coloured background for the cover which wraps around the front, back and flaps of the cover; I gave several options for the colour but it was this orange that appealed to the poet. The cover is printed on 280gsm Cartel Lumina Silk – it is coated on one side only allowing the cover to be matt laminated but I decided that the white tone of the paper would have sat starkly next to the creamy colour of the text paper, 120gsm Munken Pure Rough, so I suggested that the inside of the cover should be printed in a soft off-white colour that is sampled from the Ken Kiff drawing. This sampled colour also appears on the cover typography.

The back cover includes a photograph of the poet, aged two-and-a-half, and there is a reproduction of a drawing by Oskar Kokoschka next to the contents page – both of those images needed some adjusting to make ready for print.

This is the first book of poetry that I have designed and I feel privileged to have had some very illuminating conversations with the poet about the typographic layout and form of his poems including an interesting debate about whether some of the poems should be justified left and right and some ranged left (as specified in the poet’s original manuscript). James Greene died on 19 May 2023. I am delighted to have been involved with this ‘farewell collection’.

Perspectives Issue 3

Perspectives Issue 3: Memorials and Memories

Published by Haileybury, 2023

Editor: Toby Parker

Contributors: Jeanette Wight

Photography: Steve Beeston

210mm x 245mm | 48 pages | Printed on 150 gsm Edixion Offset with 300 gsm machine-sealed soft cover by Gomer, Wales

This is the third issue of Perspectives, a magazine that I designed, published by Haileybury School. The publication was developed from a desire to showcase the school’s heritage, current academic and cultural issues and new research about the school’s collections. Edited by Toby Parker, Director of Learning and Research at Haileybury, the magazine has been established in order to examine its role in a variety of cultural practices and issues, and to think critically about the way in which it interacts with other cultural institutions locally, nationally and globally.

Perspectives is published quarterly with issues in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Each issue is themed, with this one titled ‘Memorials and Memories’. This issue is the biggest issue to date with 48 pages and includes an extended essay, in three parts, that examines the legacy of the architect Herbert Baker. It was interesting to use the design and layout of the magazine – established in the previous two issues – and push it in a different direction. The client and myself are really pleased with the design of this issue and I think it proves the versatility of the original design.

The design is based around a flexible layout that can accommodate different types of information, giving each section of the magazine its own distinct identity. The basic layout is a three column grid with type arranged on one or two columns giving a variety that helps differentiate each article. Titles, body text and images are often hung from a guideline that runs through the magazine giving a sense of order which is occasionally broken to create emphasis or visual energy. I have used type at different sizes, weights and combinations to create interesting titles and headers, arranged in sometimes playful ways with the text and images.

Click here to see Perspectives Issue 1

Click here to see Perspectives Issue 2

Click here to see Perspectives Issue 4

DIY Art: A Float for the Future by Pester & Rossi

DIY Art: A Float for the Future by Pester & Rossi

Booklet | 297 x 210 mm | 14 pages

Printed by Edinburgh Copyshop on 120 gsm matt digital stock

Since 2020, I have been collaborating with Holly Yeoman of the Community Engagement team at Edinburgh Art Festival on DIY Art, a series of activity packs from EAF and selected artists, that invite people to get creative at home. The instructional creativity kits give insights into an artist’s practice, showing how to use their processes and techniques to create unique artworks.

This is A Float for the Future by artists Pester & Rossi, a creativity kit for ages 11+ and their families that presents illustrated instructions of how to make a mini float for the future inspired by outdoor green spaces.

Pester and Rossi’s work, A Float for the Future, was a community made raft created by people from Wester Hailes in response to living, working and playing on the Union Canal. It was launched during their 2022 event Setting Sail, as part of Finding Buoyancy.

www.edinburghartfestival.com

Alberta Whittle Poster

Alberta Whittle: create dangerously

This is a poster I designed as part of an identity for the exhibition Alberta Whittle: create dangerously at Modern One, National Galleries of Scotland, the largest showing of the artist’s work to date. The exhibition includes digital collages, watercolours and new paintings and offers an opportunity to see the artist’s tapestry, Entanglement is more than blood, and film installation, Lagareh – The Last Born, which the artist presented at the Venice Biennale in 2022, commissioned by Scotland+Venice.

The A0 poster is based on brand guidelines developed by DNCO, a branding agency based in London and New York. I was asked to develop three possible routes for the design using the new logo, brand colourways and bespoke typeface, Caslon Doric NGS. This is the first time that the branding has been put in to action on an exhibition poster and forms part of the National Galleries of Scotland major rebrand for 2023.

Working closely with the NGS marketing team, the curators of the exhibition, and the artist and her gallery, I developed and refined three design approaches, eventually settling on one featuring the visually arresting still taken from the artist’s film, Lagareh – The Last Born as the lead image (this was my favourite image and the strongest of the set of images I was given to work with so I am delighted everyone got on board with it).

Once the design of the poster had been finalised I adapted the design to fit the other elements of the brief: a totem (free-standing signage board), 800mm wide x 1510mm high; a private view invitation; and a roadside hoarding, 17,600mm wide x 1220mm high. The posters, hoarding and totems were produced by large format digital print and signage specialists Mackinnon Slater in Edinburgh, and I was very grateful to Colin Mackinnon for his help and advice during the production of the assets, especially the hoarding which is possibly the widest item I have ever designed!

The new National Galleries Scotland branding was launched at the end of March 2023, coinciding with the opening of Alberta’s exhibition. Installation of the posters and hoarding took place in mid-February so, in order to keep the branding undercover until the date of the launch, I had to devise a series of stickers that covered over the new NGS logo with a ‘coming soon’ flash; these stickers were removed at the end of March. In addition, the private view invitation could not feature the new NGS logo as originally planned so I had to do a last minute re-design to include the old NGS logo (below is the version of the private view invitation as originally designed with the new logo).

The Marvellous Miss Macbeths

The Marvellous Miss Macbeths: Five Victorian Sisters

Angelica Goodden

Published by Golden Hare, Edinburgh, 2023

ISBN 978 1 8384 0653 0

Paperback with flaps | 234 x 156mm | 312 pages | Printed by Gomer Print, Wales, on 120gsm Edixion Offset with anti-scuff laminated cover printed on 350gsm Claro Silk

The Macbeth Sisters are the five strong and resourceful daughters of liberal Scottish parents in a big Victorian middle-class family with art, science and manufacture at its heart. Their lives play out over a hundred years of social and political revolution that sees women’s emancipation, imperial decline and the dawn of modernity.

Angelica Goodden, one of Sheila Macbeth’s four granddaughters, is Emeritus Professor of Modern Languages at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St Hilda’s College. Among her many books on European culture and literature are biographies of the artists Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun and Angelica Kauffman along with monographs on Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Denis Diderot and the writer and thinker Germaine de Staël.

The design of the book is a contemporary take on a Victorian book layout. The text is justified left and right, and typeset in Baskerville with increased leading to allow the words space to breathe. Images are centred on the page with captions typeset in Scotch Roman Italic whose quirky character give a contrast to the more formal chapter titles which are set in uppercase Scotch Roman with fine rules separating the chapter number and title giving another nod to Victorian book design. The book is printed on Edixion Offset, an uncoated paper with a pleasing texture and a clean whiteness that adds a contemporary feel and allows the images to shine.

The images themselves were of varying quality with many of them of quite low resolution and not much detail. Unfortunately, better quality images were not available so I did a lot of work to make the images print-ready, cleaning them up and adding Photoshop filters to compensate for the lack of detail. For the image on the cover, after cleaning up the scratches and dirt that was on the surface of the original photograph, I added a duotone layer to give the photograph a greater depth and to add a bit of colour.

The cover typography uses Scotch Roman in title case for the title of the book alongside the author’s name and subtitle in uppercase following the format of the chapter titles inside. At this size, the lowercase characters of Scotch Roman have an enticing sparkle and friendliness that creates a tension with the more rigid formality of the uppercase letters giving the viewer a sense that this is a history book but one that has a warmth at its core, revealing the extraordinary lives of these five wonderful women.

www.goldenharebooks.com

Angelica Goodden: James designed my book The Marvellous Miss Macbeths absolutely beautifully — in fact nothing I’ve published has ever looked this good. He let me say exactly what I wanted about cover image and general layout plus typographical detail, and where he disagreed with my views he gently (and rightly) persuaded me that his were slightly better. I’ve never had as much input into the look of a publication, and am absolutely delighted as well as deeply impressed by the result.