spreee
ng is a cooperative design practice providing graphic design and creative research services to clients within the cultural sector. Our work ranges from books and exhibitions to experimental websites and visual identities.
Working for
Our client list includes institutions like Tate, V&A, Barbican Centre, White Cube, Design Museum, Serpentine Galleries, and UAL, as well as esteeemed publishers such as Prestel, Thames and Hudson, and Meatspace Press. We also collaborate with companies like Netflix and Mozilla Foundation and independent initiatives like Store Projects and BOARC.
[1]
A.R. Penck Paintings 1974–1990. Book design for White Cube, involving the design of a a custom image reproduction techninque for archival imagery.
[2]
LCC Shows 2019. Identity and exhibition design exploring how performance and strategic graphic interventions can activate a complex and visually saturated venue.
[3]
Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror Rooms. Exhibition graphics for Tate Modern.
[4]
How to Run a City like Amazon, and other Fables. Book design for Meatspace Press, edited by Mark Graham, Rob Kitchin, Shannon Mattern and Joe Shaw. The book's typesetting aims to create an uncanny text rendering in the context of digital-let dystopias by combining six very similar neo-grotesque typefaces.
[5]
Data Justice and COVID-19: Global Perspectives. Book design for Meatspace Press exploring the use of surveillance graphics to communicate technologies deployed by governments during the pandemic.
[6]
Making Egypt. Exhibition graphics for the Young V&A exhibition on Egypt for children. Character illustrations by Jean Wei, and photographs courtesy of David Parry (V&A).
[7]
Companion 4. Book design for White Cube, exploring the influence of Cyril Connolly's Horizon and publications from the Little Magazines movement like The Dial, The Criterion, and The Little Review.
[8]
Exhibition design for Concrete Dreams at Farrell Centre. The design explores how to display brutalist architecture emphasising the tensions between dream architectural visions and the disillusion of neglect and demolition.
[9]
Development of a system of sigils for the visual identity of Sadler Wells' Rose Choreographic School. The system pays homage to the rich history of graphic notations for perforamance, dance and movement. These are used in RCS website as a parallel navigation system cross-referencing the work of artists and the institutional voice.
methodology
We combine extensive research, open dialogue, experimentation, and the integration of new tools in design processes. By conducting thorough research and establishing meaningful dialogue, we develop strategies that help explore new design and image-making territories, staying away from dogmatic responses to problems.
[10]
LCC Shows 2019: the floor was the main intervention surface for wayfinding, reflecting the score for the performance, and articulating the six acts structuring the exhibition.
[11]
Fake AI. Book design for Meatspace Press. Adopting the Wizard of Oz Technique, the book explores the limits and contradictions in the use of GAN (Generative Adversarial Network) to generate editorial design.
[12]
A.R. Penck Paintings 1974–1990 features an experimental image reproduction system developed to put in conversation Penck’s works and archival imagery of the artist from a 1983 issue of Artscribe.
[13]
Digi Grotesk AI was developed for Barbican Centre’s AI More than Human exhibition catalogue, reinterpreting through generative design the first digital typeface, Digi Grotesque, designed by Rudolf Hell.
[14]
The visual identity of BOARC was developed through a series of observational methods involving frottage, documentation of carvings, textures and archival materials, aiming to record the place and its complex histories.
[15]
BOARC Courier gathers a range of visual languages obtained from the examination of archival materials, unified into a monospaced typeface evoking the work of (human) computers in recording astronomical data.
[16]
Experimental image making system for Serpentine Galleries' Future Art Ecosystems website.
[17]
Illustrated panorama backdrop of the river Nile for Young V&A exhibition Making Egypt. Photo courtesy of David Parry (V&A).
structures
Our fluid working formations adapt to the specific neeeds of each project, embracing alternatives to the traditional design studio model. In doing so, we establish co-operations that harness the strengths of a group of independent and alternative design practices. With a wide array of disciplines within our team and the high degreee of flexibility we provide, we have managed projects of diverse scale from start to finish.
[18]
Japan’s Best Friend is a book by Manami Okazaki for Prestel Publishing, edited by Ali Gitlow. To expand on the vibrant and diverse content of the book, the CMYK substitutes regular yellow ink for a flourescent yellow ink. Designed in collaboration with Nina Jua Klein.
[19]
Art direction and development of opening credits and props for Netflix original series The Time it Takes.
[20]
Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory. Exhibition graphics for Tate Modern.
[21]
Confinement is an online exhibition organised by PrixPictet, showcasing photographic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibition design explores collectivity, real-time, conceptual space and curated displays in the digital context. Designed in collaboration with Nina Jua Klein.
working closely with
A selection of our projects involve establishing close partnerships with artists and collectives, where a fluid dialogue is an integral aspect of designing the scope of projects. Within these collaborations, we actively interrogate the role of formats and design conventions, leading to develop experimental design and production methods.
[22]
Sketches 2022 is a book developed in collaboration with artist Taher Jaoui reflecting his progression from abstract to figurative compositions.
[23]
The Bittersweet Review, a London-based literary magazine dedicated to queer writing and visual culture, edited by Kole Fulmine, Benoît Loiseau and Louis Shankar.
[24]
Lettering for the film Con mis ojos, a recent example froma long standing collaboration with film production company La breve historia, producing motion graphics, lettering and design props for films.
[25]
Stay Sway Stray is an artist book developed with artist Trevor Yeung using around aquilaria sinensis (incense tree) as a carrier of meaning, which can be found in cages in the wild to protect it from smugglers.
[26]
Stay Sway Stray was conceived as a piece for Trevor Yeung’s solo exhibition Neverending Garden, at Oi! Gallery in Hong Kong.
[27]
New Order. Book design and lettering for Dani d’Ingeo’s photobook, published by Smut Press.
[28]
Gender Disarray. Redesign of the new series for Movement Research Performance Journal, exploring the role of editorial design as a choreographic space. Gender disarray looks back at the issue 3 of the publication, utilising transtextuality as a graphic device to establish connections with the past. Photo by Bobby León.
[29]
My Body’s an Exhibition. “Sexy toys” exhibition graphics for Christopher Matthews’ show at Sadler’s Wells
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