Possibilities & Losses: transitions in clay.

At a moment when the British pottery industry seems to be in slow-motion collapse, ‘Possibilities & Losses: transitions in clay’ hit like a Greek wedding. Organised by the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) in partnership with the Crafts Council, the exhibition commissioned new work from four leading ceramicists.

In reference to the transition between raw, unfired and glazed clay, the catalogue is printed on alternating sections of coated and uncoated material. Content is allowed to flow freely across this boundary, the different whites subtly warming and cooling the images. The book is swiss-catalogue bound and covered in an off-white pasted manilla board. A gloss sticker carrying the title sits over the image reflecting the layered nature of the work below.

Signage followed a similar typographic structure to the catalogue. Inspired by the exhibition’s attitude to craft we employed Norm’s LL Replica. From a distance, the typeface feels familiar — a production-line replica of other sans-serif grotesks — but close up you can see it’s different; individual and somewhat hand-made.

Scope of work: Advertising / Invitation / Catalogue / Exhibition signage