Uniting writing with photography: designing a catalogue

Client

Latitude 53 Contemporary Visual Culture

About the project

I had the great opportunity to design even the birds are walking, a catalogue accompanying an exhibition of the same name by curator and scholar Noor Bhangu. With six artist bios, two essays, and photography that needed to be matched to the correct section and also interspersed throughout, I needed to combine my skills of typography and layout to organize and bring order to all of this content so it could become one seamless reading experience.

Initial planning

Starting out, I knew just a few details: first, that the main colours of the catalogue were a lavender and red; second, Noor was hoping that the catalogue could have a gentle and careful tone; and third, she felt that the catalogue could have lots of white space.

catalogue moodboard planning document with sample colours typefaces and spread examples

Because content was still being developed at this stage, I created a ‘moodboard’ document to show the colours and typeface I was thinking of using and how they could come together on sample spreads in the catalogue. This way, I could make sure I was on the right track with Noor and the Latitude team and use this as a guide when I began designing for realsies.

Design decisions

With approval on the moodboard and final content ready, I worked to get it all into a logical order, and then spent the next few weeks obsessing over spacing, typesetting, touches of colour.

In terms of my goals with this design, I wanted to capture Noor’s wishes for a careful and gentle tone by giving space for the content to breathe, and using shades of the lavender for a softness that exists throughout the catalogue. The red was a balancing act: besides the inside cover, it became an accent colour, reserved for details or edges, meant to draw attention towards the content as opposed to taking away from it. The photography varied in terms of proximity to subject, orientation, colours… the challenge was to work with the differences and find places for where their placement could feel deliberate and comfortable beside the text, or when these would be best presented on their own.

Here are a few select spreads of the catalogue.

catalogue typographic cover design with name of exhibition in big text even the birds are walking on dark purple background

open spread view fully red inside cover with small title, curator name and date presented on the bottom right centre of the right page lavender background

inside title page open spread with publishing details credits and title of catalogue even the birds are walking on right page in lavender

open spread of catalogue with table of contents on left page and about the exhibition text on right page presented on lavender background

open spread of catalogue of artist bio with artist name durrah alsaif on left page and bio stretching across both pages with image of artist work golden car seat on right page presented on lavender background

open spread of catalogue showing full bleed image of artist work with caption in lavender text on left page image of gallery space with video projection and red bench to right spread presented on lavender background

open spread of catalogue of artist bio with artist name areez katki and bio on left page with image of artist work embroidery on red block on right page presented on lavender background

open spread of catalogue showing title and text for aiya collective essay possible futures with thin red strip on left page presented on lavender background

open spread of catalogue showing specially formatted text for aiya collective essay possible futures with thin red strip stretching across both pages at the bottom presented on lavender background

open spread of catalogue showing full bleed image of curator noor bhangu speaking with gallery attendees with caption in lavender text presented on lavender background

open spread view of curatorial essay by noor bhangu with large red drop cap on left page and annotations below two columned layout on both pages all presented on lavender background

open spread view of curatorial essay by noor bhangu with image above text on left page and text with annotations below two columned layout on both pages all presented on lavender background

open spread view of curatorial essay by noor bhangu with image below text on left page and image on right page with text annotations below two columned layout on both pages all presented on lavender background

open spread view of curatorial essay ending by noor bhangu with image stretching across three quarters of both spreads with text on left page and text with annotations below two columned layout all presented on lavender background

In conclusion

I am so grateful and proud that I got to work on this project because it challenged me to make intentional and precise decisions. I needed to consider how the layout, typography, use of colour and spacing not only changed the overall flow of one section to another but also whether or not my work was adding to the experience of the content (ie. making it easier to read) rather than distracting from it. What an amazing experience as well to create something that collects so many artists work together.

So thankful to Hannah Quimper-Swiderski and Adam Waldron-Blain of Latitude 53 for trusting me with this opportunity.

Credits

Text © Noor Bhangu, aiya! Collective
Images © Latitude 53
Photography: Adam Waldron-Blain, Latitude 53
Project management: Hannah Quimper-Swiderski, Adam Waldron-Blain
Catalogue design: Jessica Tang

PROJECT TAGS

Editorial design, catalogue, typesetting

even the birds are walking Catalogue Design