Last Friday I visited the V&A museum to see their design exhibit for the Design Week currently happening in London, while I was there I decided to capture some images of the typography that I saw there, and there was a lot, so I’m going to share some of what really stood out to me as good type work.
To start off this post I chose to include this title to one of the exhibits, although it wasn’t actually featured in the design exhibit, I liked this work of typographic art. Not only because of the colour scheme that has been employed helping to give the type a nice bold atmosphere but because of how the letters are askew in the word palace, which I believe takes away from the initial power that would be associated with the word and makes the type, as a whole more effective.
Here is two example of a piece of type which really catches your eye, and not only because it is on the floor as soon as you walk in, but also because of the message that it is conveying, that design is everywhere. This was the theme for the exhibit and therefore this style of type being inside of boxes was repeated throughout the exhibition, which you will see more photos of later on, this really interested me because design is everywhere, something that I have been observing for a number of years and something that has intrigued me for these years, here are some more examples of this style of type being used around the gallery:
These above photographs show what I believed to be a very interesting idea, namely continuing the type on the wall behind the stairs so that the word could be completed and although the photograph doesn’t do the work justice the type lines up perfectly and looking straight on you couldn’t tell that it was two separate words on two separate walls. This was, for me on of the most impressive pieces of type work that I saw at the V&A because even though it is a relatively simple idea it was executed perfectly giving a really nice feel to the piece and really proving the title of the exhibition and also showing that not only is design everywhere but that it can be anywhere.
This work, in my opinion, is another example of the fact that type can be anywhere as this message is printed on what appeared to be string at first glance but what actually seemed to be some form of fine, coated rope. Even though it once again is a sign and not a ‘recognised’ part of the exhibit this was one of my favourite pieces because as it also acted a door when people moved through what I believe was the fine rope and it fell back into place the figure would almost move as the rope moved, creating a really nice looking kinetic artwork.
This, once again, was an exhibition title, (seems to be a pattern going on in this post) and it caught by eye at first mainly because of it’s composition and the fact that it is vertically laid out which is something that I didn’t see a lot of at the V&A and is something that I think can make a piece of type look really effective. Another thing that stood out to me with this piece was the simple colour scheme which I believe helps to give the title a certain form of professionalism through it’s simplicity.
This artist name was featured in the sub-exhibit that you saw the title for above, I am a fan of Noma Bar’s work and seeing some of his name immediately sparked my interest to look at the artist’s signs for their names above all of their work and I really like the inclusion of the arrows and I think that they really help bring your eye to the sign, with the added benefit of bringing along some really nice composition.
Incase anybody else is a fan this is the work of Noma Bar’s which was featured in the exhibition.
Next to the above exhibition there was a group of tables with sketchbooks on for the public to draw in and while flicking through these sketchbooks I came across these drawings and I had to take a picture of then immediately, what drew me to this initially was the bold use of colour featured in the right page, however, after taking this in my eye was instantly drawn to the left page and how beautifully the letter and numbers had been hand-drawn, (something which isn’t seen often now seeing now thanks to the boom in digital design) not only are the characters carried off really well by they’re tidiness they are then made even better by the smoothness of the rendering providing and really nice three-dimensional appearance.
This was a piece which really stood out, once again because it has been hand created, although this time using what appeared to be stencils, which seems to be something which has been resurfacing in design ‘fashion’ over the past few years, (helped of course my graphic design Anthony Burrill and his stunning wood block poster series, which if you haven’t seen I suggest you look into right after reading this blog).
Due to my photographs, once again, not doing something justice I have borrowed an image from Google, (I wont tell if you don’t) as I was really interested in the idea which must have been conjured to created the V&A logo, I have been to the Victoria and Albert museum before and didn’t notice their logo, something I was kicking myself about when I visited on friday because it is clearly nothing short of outstanding understand of typography and execution of an idea due to the fact that it is composed perfectly and I feel that it really ties together the characters as a logo.
Finally, another thing that reached out and grabbed my eye’s attention was this, yes once again, sign. This is because it really stood out from the rest of the directional signs which were just large point type on a white background and it really made you pay attention to what it was pointing out to you, ticking every box on the sign requirement list really, so all-in-all a very successful piece of design.
I know that it may seem like I have only included signs for the rooms and titles of work, but that was so that I could try and really hammer home the idea that design is in-fact everywhere as the exhibition was trying to get across, which in my opinion was achieved very successfully.
Stay tuned for some more blog posts and hopefully soon some of my own work.
Rory Caseberry Design 