Platform
Designed by James Brook for Edinburgh Art Festival, 2015 – 2022
Platform is Edinburgh Art Festival’s showcase for Scotland based artists at the beginning of their careers. From 2015 to 2022, I designed eight leaflets and booklets for this annual celebration of emerging talent. The first four leaflets were designed to an identity I generated in 2015 which included a logo that was typeset in different weights of Akzidenz Grotesk; the design featured a series of covers with white circles, enlarged from the dots of the colon in the logo, on a palette of custom colours that changed for each edition.
In 2019, I was invited to refresh and update my original design which was expanded from an 8 page gatefold leaflet to a 16 page self-cover booklet. This new version of the design was used for four further editions of Platform creating a distinct series that was often the first time that the work of many of the emerging artists had been seen in printed material.
For the second iteration of the identity, I used two typefaces, Freight Sans Pro and Adelle Sans, selected for their character and readability. I used different weights of Adelle Sans to create a new logo that echoed my previous logo for Platform, once again featuring circles taken from the dots of the colon that appears in the logo, reversed out in white from an image selected from one of the four artists. Inside, the layout gives a feeling of space, with pared down typography, prioritising the artists’ images and allowing them to breathe. The four artists were given an equal amount of space in the publication and their work appeared alongside essays drawing out themes from the work.
The booklets were 210 x 165 mm, 16 pages with a self-cover, and were printed by Allander, Edinburgh, on Edixion Offset 170 gsm.
Below is one of four posters that I designed for the 2020 edition of Platform. Because of the Covid-19 lockdown, the 2020 edition of Platform was delayed from August – the usual slot for the Edinburgh Art Festival – and became a stand-alone exhibition at the City Art Centre in October. For this edition I was invited to create a series of four posters for the exhibition – based on the booklet cover design – as well as exhibition graphics, signage and captions. The posters appeared around Edinburgh and featured selected images from each of the four artists.
Below is the first version of the Platform identity, with a logo typeset in Akzidenz Grotesk. The design was adapted for four leaflets, designed from 2015 – 2018, with the cover layout shifting around with each iteration. The four background colours were selected from a palette of colours that I created.
Sorcha Carey, Director, Edinburgh Art Festival: We have worked with James Brook on a number of different festival design projects since 2014, ranging from substantial exhibition catalogues, smaller interpretation booklets and leaflets, through to devising bespoke identities for discrete projects and initiatives. He has a wealth of knowledge of typography, graphic design, print and book production, is incredibly thoughtful and considered in his approach, and always responds to a brief with creativity and rigour in equal measure. I can’t recommend him highly enough.