After the trip to Urbis we walked down to the Cube Gallery to look at the Alan Fletcher exhibition.
" Alan Fletcher was the most prolific graphic designer of the 20th Century and his legacy continues to influence global trends in graphic design. This will be the first time that Manchester and beyond will see such a vast and important retrospective archive celebrating fifty years of the designer’s work (and play). "
Fletcher was a unique figure in graphic design, his visual brilliance has ensured his work has survived the many shifts in graphic fashion and won him an international reputation. I really enjoyed this exhibition as the work was of a style that appeals to me and the typographic pieces were very inspirational. There was a wide variety of work around the gallery from collage pieces to poster prints, including original sketches, objects and archive footage spanning Fletcher’s work from his student days at the RCA to the playful and more personal work he created after leaving Pentagram in 1992. He is described by Peter Saville as having had an ‘open-minded, panoramic view of the world, which always allowed him to see when something was good, regardless of its provenance.’
Technological Graveyard, 1996 - 'Working at the offices of Phaidon Press, Fletcher asked to boroww a pencil. That no one was able to supply such a thing inspired Fletcher to create this collage of redundant technology. The pencils were found in his studio and collected from friends and colleagues.'
Filling a full wall within the gallery the piece above really caught my eye - it shows the 'Alphabet Gates,' 1990 - The gates were designed to replace pair of ordinary wrought iron gates that stood at the entry to the Fletcher family house. The alphabet used was derived from a late 19th century condensed wood typeface, amended to work in metal. The gates opened between the letters M and N.
I love the simplicity of the piece above...using type to spell out the shape of the object - created a very effective piece.
The Cube gallery is a great space and was a great setting for the exhibition - as we are soon to put on our own exhibition I found myself looking at the way in which the work was displayed to best showcase it - there we lovely additions around the space such as the divider above containing a piece of work itself. Creating a nice environment to showcase the work does make it more appealing and pleasurable to look at.
Not being a big lover of exhibitions I did really enjoy the Alan Fletcher work. It is a style of work that really appeals to me and has given me some inspiration for my upcoming projects - I definitely want to experiment more within the field of typography and layout and seeing such great work and spurred me on to do so!
Technological Graveyard, 1996 - 'Working at the offices of Phaidon Press, Fletcher asked to boroww a pencil. That no one was able to supply such a thing inspired Fletcher to create this collage of redundant technology. The pencils were found in his studio and collected from friends and colleagues.'
I love how the piece below is a celebration of the age old 'pencil' something so simple but that is truly becoming less and less used in the design world - I have to admit I do always struggle to find a pencil in my pencil case - it's just something I don't use very often... but maybe I should?!
Filling a full wall within the gallery the piece above really caught my eye - it shows the 'Alphabet Gates,' 1990 - The gates were designed to replace pair of ordinary wrought iron gates that stood at the entry to the Fletcher family house. The alphabet used was derived from a late 19th century condensed wood typeface, amended to work in metal. The gates opened between the letters M and N.
I love the simplicity of the piece above...using type to spell out the shape of the object - created a very effective piece.
The Cube gallery is a great space and was a great setting for the exhibition - as we are soon to put on our own exhibition I found myself looking at the way in which the work was displayed to best showcase it - there we lovely additions around the space such as the divider above containing a piece of work itself. Creating a nice environment to showcase the work does make it more appealing and pleasurable to look at.
No comments:
Post a Comment