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Isokon Gallery

I’ve had a long involvement with the Isokon building, the famous Grade I listed apartment block in north London. My first contribution was to design a sign for it in 2005. There was no precedent for a sign on the building so the material and finish mattered. Cast aluminium was the hard way, but the right way for durability and quality.

In 2014 I co-founded a micro-museum in the building’s former garage space to tell its remarkable history. I co-designed the permanent exhibition, mentoring an MA student through the work.

Every couple of years we hold a special exhibition focusing on an important resident. Most recently this was Egon Riss, one of modernism’s most elusive characters. I spent my weekends designing a book to tell his story. Uncoated paper, chunky typography and a plywood colour palette capture the spirit of his work.

The white modernist Isokon building (Lawn Road Flats) with cantilevered access balconies, and raised cast lettering on the end wall reading ‘Isokon – Lawn Road Flats’.
The Isokon building (Lawn Road Flats) and the cast sign, designed 2005.
Close-up of the Isokon sign: raised cast letters reading ‘ISOKON / LAWN ROAD FLATS’ throwing long shadows across the white rendered wall.
The cast sign, in detail.
Exhibition view among black timber columns: two Penguin Donkey bookcases, one natural plywood and one painted white, on a low plinth.
Luther | Isokon exhibition at the Museum of Estonian Architecture.
The Isokon Gallery interior: the ISOKON GALLERY wordmark, a lit architectural model in a vitrine, wall text on the company’s founding principles, and Isokon furniture on plinths.
The Isokon Gallery, London.
A printer’s press sheet with two copies of the cover of ‘The Fractured Life of Egon Riss’, a Pantone formula guide alongside.
The Egon Riss book on press.
A copy of the finished book ‘The Fractured Life of Egon Riss / Design, Displacement & Donkeys’, its cover a photograph of Egon Riss in a hat with a white line-drawn question-mark motif.
The Fractured Life of Egon Riss. A book I designed for the gallery.
A closely cropped uncut press sheet, gridded with black-and-white photographs and the covers of several Isokon Gallery books.
Press proof for a book on photographer (and Cold War spy recruiter) Edith Tudor-Hart.
Hands holding an open Isokon Gallery booklet at a spread on Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius furniture, the left page white, the right page red with a Gropius quotation.
A spread from an Isokon Gallery booklet.

White Rainbow

White Rainbow was a gallery presenting international artists, with a focus on contemporary art from Japan. I designed a flexible identity and, over three years, a series of exhibition catalogues, invitations and supporting materials.

Each exhibition was a chance to try something different. Through paper, finishing and binding, we explored what a catalogue could be: a collection of folding posters, a map, a notebook. I was fortunate to work with an ambitious client and a printer willing to experiment. We made some remarkable work together.

White Rainbow roundel shimmerRound grey dots on black, growing and brightening to white as a soft shimmer sweeps clockwise around the ring.
Surface Tension catalogue folder seen from behind, a circular halftone-dot logo blind-embossed at the centre.
Surface Tension catalogue, rear cover: the White Rainbow logo, blind-embossed.
Surface Tension catalogue: a white folder with the title embossed in bold sans-serif type, wrapped in a translucent silver paper band.
Surface Tension catalogue: an embossed A5 folder with a silver washi band, holding five folding posters.
Close-up of the embossed Surface Tension invitation, the raised letters turning translucent over a fine line drawing of a face.
Surface Tension invitation: the paper turns transparent where it is embossed.
A long folding poster from the Surface Tension catalogue opened out: an essay panel and, below the name Masaya Hashimoto, a dark photograph of a pale flower.
Each of the four artists had a long folding poster; this one is Masaya Hashimoto.
Surface Tension exhibition invitation: the title embossed over a Kumi Machida line drawing of two child-like figures, one leaning close to the other.
The invitation, with a Kumi Machida drawing, on a Japanese paper that turns transparent where embossed – its first use in the UK, as far as I know.
The By The Mountain Path catalogue folded shut, soft photographs of clover and grasses above and below a bright orange belly-band lettered ‘by the mountain path’.
By The Mountain Path: a folding-map catalogue held by an orange band with white foil lettering. Cover artwork by Hidemi Nishida.
The By The Mountain Path catalogue opened flat into a large creased sheet, small reproductions of artworks and installation shots scattered across it, one edge orange.
Opened out, the catalogue is a single sheet: artworks on one side, essays on the reverse.
The Shigeo Anzaï ‘Index’ catalogue: a black wire-bound book, the name in white serif type and ‘Index’ in black gloss foil, two section headings set top right.
‘Index’, the Shigeo Anzai catalogue: screenprinted black on greyboard with black foil.
A fold-out page from the Anzai catalogue printed silver on black stock, the word ‘timeline’ and a column of years reading along it.
The Anzai catalogue’s fold-out timeline, printed silver on black.
The front of the Chu Enoki invitation: ‘Chu Enoki Enoki Chu’ in silver and gunmetal foil on a dark metallic card, the White Rainbow dot logo top right.
The Chu Enoki invitation: silver ink and silver-and-gunmetal foils on metallic black stock. The artist made use of gunmetal in the exhibition.
The reverse of the Chu Enoki invitation: a coarse-screened photograph printed twice, the artist with a half-shaved head on one side and long hair on the other.
The reverse: the artist before and after Going to Hungary with Hangari, 1977.

University teaching

I spent 11 years as a Visiting Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University where I taught and mentored around 300 design students over my tenure. I helped them to edit, design and print their year-end publications, from shaping the structure to obsessing over paper stocks and print finishes. It was energising to work with such talented students and, I hope, to help raise the bar for what they thought was possible.

End of year publication produced in collaboration with graduating Fine Art and Contemporary Art Practices students and Leeds Beckett University 2013.

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