NOTES FROM “THE ARTISTRY OF INCONSPICUOUS QUALITY”
What is good design? Something that does the job well? That looks and feels good? That’s environmentally and ethically responsible? That does something new with technology? That enables us to do something we couldn’t do before, or to do it better?
Good design does any or all of those things, and more. But it needn’t necessarily do them noisily or conspicuously. Some of the most inspiring design projects are so gentle and subtle that they go unnoticed. They are what I call “quietly good design” and, despite their modesty, our lives are the better for them. Here are some examples that I’ve come across recently.
[…] 4. CHISENHALE GALLERY GRAPHICS One of the first things you notice when walking into Chisenhale, a nonprofit contemporary art gallery in East London, is the set of big, stripy letters spelling out the name of the current exhibition on the wall. Looking around, you’ll see the same style of lettering on posters, flyers, press releases, invitations, the Web site and everything else associated with the gallery.
The stripy typeface was devised by the graphic designer Frith Kerr founder of Studio Frith, working with Chisenhale’s newly appointed director, Polly Staple. As the defining element of the visual identity for Ms. Staple’s new program, it needed to reflect Chisenhale’s spirit, while being distinctive and memorable, but not so much so that it over-powered the art. It also had to be versatile — and cheap — enough for a small gallery with limited resources to reproduce in print and on screen.
Ms. Kerr hit upon the idea of stripes as a reference to the “lines or layers” of veneer, which was made in Chisenhale’s building in its original guise as an early 1900s veneer factory. “We all loved the identity instantly,” said Ms. Staple. “It looks both a little retro and up to the minute, like warm science fiction.” […] (emphasis added)
(Source: The New York Times)
