Polymode designed This Morning, This Evening, So Soon: James Baldwin and the Voices of Queer Resistance which accompanies the exhibition by the same title at the National Portrait Gallery curated by Rhea L. Combs. The catalogue was edited by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author Hilton Als together with Rhea L. Combs.

The book brings together artworks that feature James Baldwin alongside portraits of other key figures who had an impact on his life and situates him among a pantheon of culture bearers who were instrumental in shaping his life and legacy, particularly in relationship to his advocacy for gay rights.

La Grotesque (designed by Francesca Bolognini and Naïma Ben Ayed) is used as a core typeface on the book cover and for titles and captions throughout the book. La Grotesque embodies stories of queerness and migration which echos the life of Baldwin. More on the typeface design process at TPTQ Arabic. It is supported by Joshua Darden’s Dapifer.

The catalogue was published in hardback (9″×0.6″×12.5″, 112 pages) by DelMonico Books/National Portrait Galley.

B Side is the title of Henry Taylor’s current solo exhibition, on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, through April 30, 2023. Taylor is an artist and painter who lives and works in Los Angeles. The accompanying catalog was edited by Bennett Simpson, with contributions by Wanda Coleman, Karon Davis, Charles Gaines, Harmony Holiday, Bob Kaufman, Walter Price, Bennett Simpson, and Frances Stark; and features a conversation between Henry Taylor and Hamza Walker.

For the book design, Polymode picked two typefaces of local origin that both haven’t been featured on Fonts In Use before. For the title as well as headings and captions, the choice fell on Owners. This sans-serif family was drawn by Jeremy Mickel, taking inspiration from a quirky handdrawn grotesk he spotted on signs in public parks throughout Los Angeles. Extended to a whopping 110 styles, it was released in summer 2021 through MCKL, named after a word included in one of those signs. There are two subfamilies, Owners and Owners Text, both of which are used for the catalog.

The seriffed typeface used for text is an interesting one, too. Reynaldo (2018) is the work of Benjamin Woodlock, founder of the LA-based Abstract Office. Woodlock describes it as “an athletic slab-serif […] inspired by the antics of 19th century Clarendons”. With its sturdy serifs and the mix of sharp and rounded details, it looks a little like Dutch chocolate letters that were briefly exposed to the California sun. Reynaldo has a peculiar family structure: it comes in Serif (upright), Italic (right-leaning), and Lefty (left-leaning) styles, each in four weights. See more images on the Polymode website.

Owners is also used for the wall texts in the exhibition itself, as well as for posters sold by the museum, see the end of this post.

Poster featuring Henry Taylor’s See Alice Jump, 2011, © Henry Taylor, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Joshua White.

Poster featuring Henry Taylor’s Cora, (cornbread), 2008, © Henry Taylor, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Jeff McLane.

Inside the exhibition at MOCA

Owners in use for wall texts in the exhibition