The Art of Lace, TextielMuseum Tilburg

The Art of Lace is an exhibition organized by the TextielMuseum Tilburg that ran from 16 November 2019 until 6 September 2020. The show presented a selection of haute couture creations, never showcased before in the Netherlands, and all of them using the delicate craft of lace. Lace has seen a revival in high fashion these last few years and has become an essential of the most prestigious catwalks: from Maison Martin Margiela to Chanel, lace is everywhere.

Studio de Ronners was in charge of creating the graphic design of the exhibition. In order to keep up with the theme without being too illustrative, the studio developed the idea of “typographic lace”: something that would only play with the information to display in order not to be too invasive regarding the subtlety of the objects displayed, and on the other hand, a typographic treatment that would still be visible as a kind of pattern of threads mimicking lace. To do so, Studio de Ronners based their design on Cardinal from Production Type: indeed, the typeface on one hand evokes the classicism of haute couture with its elegant caps, and on the other hand puts its italic letters to their limits, with their dancing rhythm and their tight ligatures.

The titles of the explanatory parts of the exhibition are set in Cardinal, and so are the names of the fashion designers exhibited, which are repeated in columns as high as the ceiling, bringing to mind classical lace rolls to be cut and sewn onto any piece of clothing. Regular text is set in Helvetica, which contrasts with the arabesques of Cardinal and offers stability to the more technical explanations.