Bloomburg New Contemporaries Exhibition

History of the Exhibition 

 The first New Contemporaries exhibition was in 1989 and held in London. Since then the exhibition has occurred annually (for 30 years) and has travelled around the United Kingdom, showing recently graduated artists.

I researched all of the catalogues that were published for the exhibition each year and have inserted some of my favourites, including this year's catalogue.

2015

1996

2019 - this years

2018

2017

There are a lot of catalogues to look through and think about, however, to make the task easier I have focused on the ones that include type - as some simply display an image from the exhibition. I was not able to find any designers as the information is quite difficult to find. However, a large range of type has been used, mostly sans serif and geometric. The 1996 catalogue (my personal favourite) has multiple typefaces arranged across the cover - giving an experimental look (fitting the theme of the contemporary exhibition)

The exhibitors also went through a short phase of colour blocking over the span of three years. They used a simple sans serif (possibly Helvetica?) and used a simple two-tone background. My preferred year that included this phase was 2015, however, I much prefer the more experimental covers.            The exhibition's current catalogue is interesting and I like the tall, elegance of the stretched out type. It adds a sense of 'grown-up' and seriousness to an otherwise quite fun exhibition. It is also illustrating the serious intentions behind the exhibit - to find newly graduated artists work and help them be taken seriously.                                                                                                                                       

When trying to find out who did any of the brandings for the exhibition, I could only find out who re-designed the website for them and took over all of their digital needs. UBX London design study did a full website re-design in 2018. 

One idea linked to the history of the gallery is that I want to take further is using the map as a grid. I plan to take a map of the country into Photoshop (or print it out and do it by hand) and mark on all of the locations that the exhibition was shown in. 

This will give me around 30 points on a map that I can then modify and experiment with to hopefully create a typeface. 

Exhibition Ethos and Aims 

Key Words: 

- Alternative

- Unique

- Emerging

- Developing

- Progression 

- Controversy 

- Opportunity 

- Support 

Architecture of the Gallery 

 Whilst at the gallery I made sure to pick up a map of the entire building from the front desk and I also found a laminated document that was about this history of the exhibition. It included a lot of black and white images of the exhibition's past shows and also the very first floor-plan of the first show.

I thought that this was a brilliant find and I knew that this would become useful when I look at grids.

One idea that I have that is linked to the architecture of the gallery is to tace both maps and play around with combining them. Once I have a few grids or even just elements taken from the plans the opportunities and combinations will be endless.

Specific Artworks and the Ideas Behind Them

Paul Jex - 'She' 

This piece of artwork stuck with me the most out of the entire exhibition and really resonated with me. At first, I was drawn to it because of the neon shapes that I immediately knew I could experiment with in an attempt to make a typeface. However, when I looked closer and began to research the art and the ideas behind it, it struck me even more. The amount of ironic comparisons between the two articles (that touch on two British artists that are married)  is great - and highlights sexism not only within today's media but also the art industry. 

Because of the significant effect that this artwork has had on me, I would like to experiment with this notion as a modular typeface. I plan to purchase some of the sticky bookmarks that Jex has used and create my own reaction in the form of a modular typeface. I could also use newspaper - scanning it into photoshop, or making multiple copies of articles and then modifying these.

Alaena Turner - Secret Action Painting (5)
When going into the exhibition I thought that it would be difficult to be inspired in terms of type. However, I found it easy to generate ideas based on the patterns and shapes within the artworks and particular rules came to mind.

In terms of Turner's work, I wanted to manipulate her arrangement so that it reflected some of my own initial ideas. The first keyword that came to mind when I started to reflect on the exhibition was 'Structure'. I think that this was due to the number of structural elements that were featured as well as structural themes within a lot of the work (including Turner's). I also immediately thought of an overall theme and this was: curated chaos. The exhibit as a whole seemed to neatly and cleanly portray small explosions of chaos which was the artworks. Whether it be social, political, theatrical, or completely random, all of the artworks exuded some sort of chaos to me.

One of my initial ideas was to combine these three elements to create a typeface to create a modified type. I plan to make copies of my photograph of Turner's work and collage them to create a typeface that reflects my chosen word and theme.  

Camille Yvert - Permanent Transit

 Immediately walking into the room that 'Permanent Transit' was exhibiting in it was clear to see that this could be used to make some exciting typefaces from. It immediately made me think of geometric type such as Futura. The curved width contrasting with the tall, straight height when looked at from different angles proposed an array of angular type opportunities.

Furthermore, when looking into the artwork further, I found out that it represents mass construction - this too can also be reflected in type. Maybe repetition or something growing - appearing larger and larger?

To take this idea further I would like to trace my photographs of 'Permanent Transit' digitally and create a typeface based on the curved and straight lines of the shape. To then develop on this, I could find ways of introducing the idea of mass construction into the type.

Key Words

- Structure 

- Curated 

- Chaos 

- Industrial 

- Nuanced

- Expressive 

- Construction 

- Problems 

- Expressive