This publication was produced on the occasion of a retrospective of sculptor Richard Reddaway’s work at Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History. The exhibition surveyed his work from the 1980s to his current practice, exploring enduring themes and tracking them in relation to the sociopolitical contexts in which they were made.

The book (a five-part collection including a perfect bound book with foldout, mini story book, sculpture plan and sticker set packaged in a cardboard box referencing Reddaway's sculptures) and associated exhibition graphics were designed by Jo Bailey and Anna Brown from the College of Creative Arts at Massey University, where Richard Reddaway is also faculty. The main lock-up device uses Orientation by Sandrine Nugue, which Jo and Anna chose because its angular stencil form lent itself to the overlapping and slicing they wanted to utilise to nod to Richard's work. It is supported by Graphik (Christian Schwartz) for body copy—like Orientation, a typeface family published by Commercial Type.

A review on EyeContact described it as:

…a remarkable publication, or rather a collection, as there is a lot packed into the box … The aesthetic of the book is a little Bauhaus, a little punk collage, a little Russian constructivist; telegraphing the underlying politics through art history, and this extending to the pageworks inside (some elaborately folded, playfully referencing the avant-garde political aesthetics of the early twentieth century).

More information and images on my portfolio website.

A spread from the booklet, as seen in a version of the publication that is available as a download on the artist’s website.

Massey University Press:

Mervyn Taylor — wood engraver, painter, illustrator, sculptor and designer — was one of the most celebrated New Zealand artists of the 1930s to 1960s. He was highly connected to modernism and nationalism as it was expressed in the New Zealand art and literature of the period. Between 1956 and 1964 he created twelve murals for major new government and civic buildings erected in that era of great economic prosperity, during which New Zealand first began to loosen its apron-string ties to England. Tragically, some have been destroyed and others presumed lost — until now.

Festival Titling, designed in 1950 as the official display face for the Festival of Britain, is a fitting choice for the topic, both in its flavor and its pedigree. Its sharp, streamlined letters, each divided into highlight and shadow, is very reminiscent of Taylor’s murals. The other interior typefaces, Metric and Tiempos, are also appropriate as a local product, designed by New Zealand native Kris Sowersby. I can’t explain why Futura also makes an appearance when Metric would do, but, like Festival, it is period appropriate. This is a very handsome book.

Extraordinary Anywhere is a collection of personal essays, a first of its kind, that re-imagines the idea of place for an emerging generation of readers and writers.
Its design entailed a unique collaboration between authors/editors Cherie Lacey and Ingrid Horrocks and designers Jo Bailey and Anna Brown. The process of designing the book (which is explained through a “colophon essay” hidden inside the dust jacket) informed the way the editors structured the content in the book, and explored the way reading the book’s content allowed ideas for communicating visually to unfold. This included a visual content page/map hybrid inside the dust jacket, and a series of collaged symbols; one for each essay placed as markers throughout the book.

In the colophon, Jo and Anna say of the typeface choices:

We choose two typefaces by New Zealand typographic designer Kris Sowersby: Tiempos and Calibre. As designers we say it’s important that if the words are from here, the typefaces should be too—but this is partly post-rationalisation. Tiempos, our serif font, is based on a typeface for a Spanish newspaper. Calibre, our sans serif, is inspired by street signage, and though this wayfinding lineage feels pertinent, it is happenstance. We choose it because it is a consistent favourite of ours—like a typographic version of our own handwriting. It’s the other way with Tiempos; the chance to explore something familiar but different. Later we add Domaine, also by Sowersby. It is elegantly curvaceous, “Latin detailing on a Scotch skeleton”.

Extraordinary Anywhere is published by Victoria University Press.

Dust jacket reverse

Calibre in use for a series of children’s books for Te Papa, New Zealand's national museum.

The books are themed around letters, numbers and colours, allowing parents and teachers to read the books with children in a myriad of different ways – focusing on the artworks, practising counting, letters or colour recognition, or simply enjoying the quirky combinations of language and image.

Calibre's rational simple geometric quality was the perfect balance of legibility and personality, and retained the uniquely New Zealand thread from the book's content.