blue collar
An Art Exhibition
A collaboration with Clarke & Reilly
I recently had the pleasure of working with esteemed design duo Clarke & Reilly on their latest exhibition Blue Collar. The exhibition was presented at Sized Studio in Los Angeles and featured in various publications including AnOther Magazine, Print Magazine and Flaunt Magazine. The exhibition consisted of 62 handmade t-shirts hanging from the ceiling of the studio, all made from 3 different distinct fabrics sourced from 3 distinctly different parts of the world, and left to age outside in the natural world for 3 months. Inspired by the LA garment district, the exhibition also features a soundscape created by Magnus Fiennes which utilisers the sounds of sewing machines and heavy industry to deepen the sense of immersion. The exhibition restores the humble t-shirt to its former glory of being emblematic of working class status, and leads us to meditate on how our clothes are actually made.
My contribution to the project came in the form of the creation of the promotional poster for the exhibition itself (as seen above). Using imagery of the fabric itself I reinterpreted the textures and patterns to create a custom Blue Collar typeface. Originally only created for the poster, this typeface ended up being used in various different promotional materials, and was used as the anchoring visual identity of the exhibition.