Hosted at Somerset House in London, co-curated by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard and Claire Catterall, The Horror Show! was a journey to the underbelly of Britain’s cultural psyche. The exhibition presented an alternative perspective on the last five decades of modern British history in three acts – Monster, Ghost and Witch. Recast as a story of cultural shapeshifting, each section interpreted a specific era through the lens of a classic horror archetype with thematically linked contemporaneous, new works and a survey of the counter-culture of the time. We were tasked with designing all 2-D aspects of the show. The graphics inside the exhibition, the marketing, publicity and the catalogue. Each one needed to fit seamlessly with the other and explain the complexity of the exhibition in a sympathetic form.

To accompany the exhibition, The Horror Show! catalogue is constructed with a unique, irregular concertina fold. When closed, this features a “Frankenstein’s monster” face, grotesquely confronting the viewer. Whilst once open and fully extended, it is revealed that the face is made up of photographs of artworks and cultural figures from in the show. This collaged cut-up is a metaphor for British society, consisting of the mainstream and counter-culture, the two constantly pressing and grinding against each other. The back of the catalogue features the main collage used in the publicity for the show, with the addition of a very important key, so that you understand who everybody is in the image.

Once you have opened the catalogue, you are confronted with three sections which, as in the show, are designed completely differently from each other with contrasting typography and paper stocks for each. The Introduction section is dark black and takes its styling from the combined spaces in the show. Monster puts on the stinking clothes of Punk DIY. Ghost is grey and washed out, never fully materialising on the page. Witch is bold, proud, modern and old – daring you to disagree.

The catalogue design needed to refer to the decades in the exhibition – the 70s, 80s, 90s and onwards but also be something very contemporary. This meant a selection of fonts which referred to the era of the ‘feeling’ of each section but were used in a contemporary way. They are thrown up against each other in ugly juxtapositions, symbolising how counter-culture needs to push into the mainstream to change us all and move creativity and society forward. The layouts also referred to this historical context. The Monster section is based on the 70s and 80s and is an updated version of the DIY punk fanzine. Ghost is ethereal, with typography almost not there. Witch is bold, alchemic, and strongly gothic but looks towards the future as much as the past.

The title on the spine brings together Ouroboros, Infidel, Trickster, Nylon & Draylon, Bastard, Virus VujaDe, Terminal Grotesque, Tourette Extreme, and Bradley DJR (for the exclamation mark). The O’s are custom drawn pictograms.

Back cover: “A twisted tale of modern Britain” combines Ouroboros, Serpiente Display, Trickster, and Nylon & Draylon.

Text inside the mouth is set in Combat. The fonts used for the “MONSTER” letters include Ouroboros, Bastard, Trickster, Fleshy Font, and Newspeak

Spread with text set in T1 Korium and Combat. “Freak Scene” combines Gandur Alte with Trickster. Year dates are from Zloy.

The “Ghost” letters are taken from Lapicide and Marian Black. The italic for the text on the ear is from Faust.

More Marian Black and Lapicide, with Melancholia Italic used for captions

Captions feature Faust Italic, upright Melancholia, numerals from Gosna, and Tourette Normal.

The text on the left half of the eye is set in Ni Resolution Blackletter. The “WITCH” letters are from Infidel, Nylon & Draylon, Ni Resolution Blackletter, Virus VujaDe, and Prototype.

Titles feature overlapping letters from Ni Resolution Blackletter and Nylon & Draylon. The byline is in Terminal Grotesque, the text in Larish Alte.

More text in Larish Alte, with initials and page numbers from Ni Resolution Blackletter

Poster design for print studio Depression Press run by Chicago based artist Dud Lawson, quoting their “Print Is Dead. Unless You Want It” poster (itself a play on Yoko Ono & Jon Lennon’s WAR IS OVER! (If You Want It) poster). Printed on Riso. Made as part of my BFA program at Northeastern Illinois University. Combat is used for the typographic patterned background, while all-caps Minion is set on a circle to spell out “Depression Press”. The quoted original poster used condensed caps from Franklin Gothic.

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“This is the new mimeo revolution!” — installation with the 100 pamphlets plus protest signs at the HBKsaar.

This is my graduation project made at HBKsaar, titled New Mimeo Revolution. In addition to writing a thesis, I printed one hundred pamphlets on the mimeograph and set up an exhibition. For this, I created a visual identity with Hobeaux as display typeface and Pitch for text uses. I combined those with a very direct and emotional language of forms and symbols.

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Invitation to the exhibition of graduation projects, printed on paper of various colors. Hobeaux is used in all caps and paired with Pitch for the smaller text.

This post shows several images of the project as a whole, followed by a selection of the individual pamphlets. From the project website:

The Mimeo-Revolution was a movement of young American artists during the 50s and 60s, who spread their art and thoughts amongst the people through personal commitment and the use of a stencilprinter, also called a mimeograph.

The mimeograph was invented at the end of the 19th century, when ever-increasing bureaucracy also intensified the demand for copying documents. Shortly after the mimeograph revolutionized office work, the cheap and simple process also conquered the streets: schools, churches, subcultures and parties printed their own documents independently from professional printers or major publishers. This led to the rise of student groups like “Weiße Rose”, which allied itself against the Nazi regime during the Second World War; or students during the ’68 Revolutions, who resisted rigid structures, oppression, the Vietnam War, and conservative sexual morality all over the world.

Nowadays, I choose to print pamphlets with this traditional technique, because I want to continue to build upon what the generations before me have been able to achieve. It’s important for me to engage myself and get my hands dirty during the process of making a difference.

I am currently interested in topics related to environmental protection, democracy, gender equality and human rights. In addition to political topics, I also deal with artists who use words in a particularly eloquent or emotional manner, or who criticize or speak from the heart.

During my final year at the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar, I printed 100 different pamphlets on the previously mentioned and other topics, on a 1967 ideal stencilprinter and a Gestetner printer from the 1950s.

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View of the exhibition.

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Leaflets are being flung from the top of the building.

Source: newmimeorevolution.smvi.co Chiara Schwarz. License: All Rights Reserved.

Project website.

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“We buy things we don't need, with money we don't have, to impress people we don’t like.” The featured quote by Chuck Palahniuk is shown in caps from Obviously, with a psychedelic distortion effect.

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Route barée means “road closed” and is the perfect metaphor for the hopelessness of the situation and the French people during the strike of the yellow vest movement. The rotated lines are set in Combat.

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Das Wasser stieg (“The waters increased”) is a quote from Genesis 7:17, here referring to the implications of global warming.

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Chiara Schwarz. License: All Rights Reserved.

Chiara Schwarz. License: All Rights Reserved.

Contrary to what one can usually read on plastic bags, the text (in Bookman) here says “Thank You for NOT Using Me!”. The small text below explains that the bag will stay around in the environment for twenty years.

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This pamphlet with an excerpt from Ronald Reagan's famous speech held in Berlin in 1987 is more actual than ever; a response to Trump’s plan to build a wall between the USA and Mexico. The font on this is Sporting Grotesque.

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The “Hymn to the Mimeograph Revolution” from Ed Sanders, set in ITC American Typewriter Condensed Bold and Pitch.

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Treffen sich zwei Kinder mit Interkontinentalraketen … (“When two children meet with intercontinental missiles …”) could be the beginning of a good joke, but it was reality. Friendly Gooper, set on a wavy line, on a pink background, underlines the comedy of this meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un.

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The European Union is tolerant and diverse just as this draft of the Second Article of the Treaties of the European Union. The fonts used (from top to bottom) are: Folio Condensed Bold, Tango, Vulf Mono Bold and Pitch Regular.

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“Macht kaputt, was euch kaputt macht” is a famous song from Ton Steine Scherben and a great reminder to fight all our inner and outer demons! The message is set in historical Eckmann, which fits perfectly with its slighty psychedelic feeling.

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I always loved the Refugees Welcome illustration of the running family with its roots in 1990. But the font could use a makeover: How about Cooper Black? Maybe it is that simple.

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Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland Art. 20a set in Ouroboros, Octopuss Outline, Cooper Black Italic and Pitch Regular.

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Good use of VTF’s Résistance for Article 5 of the German Grundgesetz: “There will be no censorship”.

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Rhetoric of the evil: Hate (Old English), Sex (Cooper Black), Fear (Combat).

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This pamphlet featuring BioRhyme Light, Gill Sans Ultrabold, Gooper in various styles, and Protocol is about the sexism in German football between 1955 and 1970.

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My grandpa says “In the past there was meat only once a week”. Meanwhile he eats it every day. The font used is Plaktur (a modern and groovy interpretation of a fraktur font, still in progress, by Max Holl).

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This is the 100th pamphlet of the series which draws the conclusion from the project. It is made with Letraset in Bookman. “Jan Norling” is added from ITC Bookman Italic [thanks, Jay].

Have you seen them? We mean, the alumnis from HBKsaar, (University of Fine Arts Saabrücken) who are exhibiting their final projects and also celebrating their graduation.

This poster with its loud and flashy design, as a part of a more complex graphic idea, invites you to take a closer look at the event. Inspired by typical Have you seen this cat?-flyers, we riso-printed in large numbers on cheap colored paper and distributed the results excessively throughout the hole city.

How to dress a new emerging brand at the crossroads of cosmetics, clothing and a rebellious and liberated mood, without making it a fabric of banalities? We have chosen the typographical path, working with unexpected associations around a typogram that encapsulates the character of L'Atelier Shelter.

The logo is a monospaced lettering, created for the occasion, endowed with a strong contrast: the design of the characters, structured and rational, asserts the seriousness of the brand. The E, with its free and frenetic layout, expresses the desire for liberty that is floating within the ‘bearded’ community.

This same contrast is reflected in the typographical guidelines implemented in the branding: we have associated the exacerbated casualness of Combat (Velvetyne) with the Swiss rigour of Simplon Norm (Swiss Typefaces). Packaging, stationery, posters, clothing and even skateboards: the graphic style of Atelier Shelter is deployed on different media, which we will develop over time.