Styles Exhibition
A Look at Street Typographic
In fall 2017 I, along with designer Yuriy Kyrzov, were given the task of creating a type exhibition space for an event held by Type Brigade on the new Emily Carr University campus. This exhibit would be open to the public but the viewers were mainly going to be students of the campus or type enthusiasts. Most students have very little typographic design experience and therefore the exhibit would have to provide an introduction to the world of type.
In first contemplating this project we began research in alternative methods of type, things that varied from the traditional steel-cut letters with which we are familiar. Through combined interests this eventually brought us to the world of tagging, an entire style of visual art in the form of hand lettering.
We began by exploring the urban environment, back allies and dumpsters, to research the different styles of writing we could find. This eventually brought us to our name and as we were creating our own style, we began compiling all of the work we had found and dividing them into four unique categories. Though the styles we found flow infinitely through the categories we decided this method was easiest for teaching the fundamentals.
Designing the exhibition we determined that a clean and simple aesthetic would be the best for helping teach the viewers and provide a nice contrast to the usual context of graffiti, raising it to the level of an art form.
After completing all of our research we decided that it would be beneficial for the viewers to compile everything we had found into a a single publication. We determined that the best form of this would be a zine to fit into the counter culture of graffiti. The zine was designed to showcase the art form while also providing context for the work and all 60 were hand produced and sealed with a hand drawn sticker.
We then set up the exhibit, being mindful of the context by adding decoration, to be viewed by the public. Along with the instructional panels we set up a Designated Graffiti Area to provide a space for the public to test their abilities or show off what they already know. The space quickly became a huge success and the blank area was filled in just a day! It was really exciting to work on such a great team to produce and exhibition that educates the public about work that is rarely seen.
Designated Graffiti Wall before and after
