We design books, identities + websites for artists, galleries + organisations.
ALWAYS DIFFERENT, ALWAYS THE SAME
LOUISE GIOVanelli
publication DESIGN
Made possible through generous support from Grimm Gallery and White Cube.
Distributed by Cornerhouse Publications.
Images of the eucharist are central, as well as subtle nods to pub culture in Manchester, where Giovanelli’s studio is based.
The launch event, ‘Verdigris’, was held at the hallowed O! Peste Destroyed, featuring bespoke green cocktails from the expert hand of Helenskia Drinks.
Taking it’s title from British DJ John Peel’s famous description of The Fall, Always Different… documents eight paintings by Giovanelli produced for a unique show held at Moongrove Gallery, Rusholme. The making of the show is described in unconventional and humourous diaristic format, in a short essay by Andrew Hunt.
FEED
art direction, publication DESIGN, web design
CHAIR DESIGN + BUILD – M3 INDUSTRIES
PHOTOGRAPHY – FIONA FINCHETT
Developed from In Certain Places’ research into private vs public space, Feed has grown from an initial project to design and build the Feed Chair – featuring artwork by Jade Montserrat, Nicola Singh, Magda Stawarska-Beavan and Krissi Musiol – into events, zines, a website, a conference and many more outputs currently under devlopment. Already exhibited at The Whitworth and Central St Martins, the Feed Chair will tour several UK cities in 2024, including Preston, Glasgow, Leeds, Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham and Scarborough.
Feed is an ongoing arts-based project that promotes inclusive, sustainable approaches to infant feeding and public space. Working with cultural venues, public health teams, artists and communities, we collaborate closely with In Certain Places to create opportunities for the public to share their experiences and challenge negative social attitudes towards human milk and mothering.
Feed zine 1 + 2
publication DESIGN
The second edition of the Feed Zine documents and continues some of the conversations initiated during the Feeding Futures event in July 2022, held at The Whitworth Art Gallery. It includes the following contributions (which you can read online), alongside feedback and images of the day):
Loose Threads: Fragments of Infant Feeding Histories by Joanna Wolfarth.
Diversity in infant feeding by Louise Oliver.
Missed by Krissi Musiol.
What if ? Why not? by Sally Sutherland.
Click here to download a pdf version of Zine #2 – or email info@feedproject.art to have a free copy of the zine posted to you.
The first Feed Zine was created to accompany the Feeding Chair and explores issues of (dis)comfort, public space, cooperation and care. It features artworks by Jade Montserrat, links to the audio works created for the chair by Krissi Musiol, Magda Stawarska-Beavan and Nicola Singh, alongside the following texts, (which you can also read online):
The art museum is full of chairs by Amy Halliday.
A conversation about breastfeeding in public by Elaine Speight and Professor Gill Thomson.
How not to be alone by Lara Eggleton.
Click here to download a pdf version of Zine #1 – or email info@feedproject.art to have a free copy of the zine posted to you.
the abc of the projectariat
kuba szreder
ART DIRECTION / IDENTITY, publication DESIGN
Whitworth Manuals / Manchester University Press
Functioning as both a critical analysis and a practical handbook, the book speaks to and about the vast cohort of artistic freelancers worldwide.
In an accessible ABC format, the entries expose structural underpinnings of projects that are often the cause of the precarious condition of the projectariat.
Whitworth Manuals is a new book series from The Whitworth that traces the ways in which art and art workers try to change the world.
First in the series, The ABC of the projectariat contributes new thinking on and practical responses to the widespread problem of precarious labour in the field of contemporary art.
coming out:
sexuality, gender & identity
charlotte keenan-mcdonald
identity, EXHIBITION CATALOGUE DESIGN, exhibition design, promotional graphics and social media
The multilayered exhibition catalogue accompanied the extensively researched show at The Walker, with the same graphic approach used across all visitor handouts, signage, and online/offline promotion.
Marking the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of male homosexual acts in England and Wales, Coming Out explores sexuality, gender and identity and will act as a catalyst for discussion of these subjects with a broader audience.
no particular place to go?:
35 years of sculpture at
castlefield gallery
IDENTITY, publication DESIGN, exhibition BRANDING & graphics
An exhibition catalogue to accompany a selection of works highlighting and celebratring many of Castlefield Gallery’s most pivotal and prominent artists, dating back to the gallery’s beginnings in 1984.
Renowned internationally and an important part of Manchester’s contemporary art scene, Castlefield is also known for being a great supporter and catalyst of artist career development, reflected here in some of the artists who have gone on to great acclaim and returned to support up and coming artists in the city.
practising place:
CREATIVE AND CRITICAL REFLECTIONS
ON PLACE
publication DESIGN
In Certain Places /
Art Editions North
Since 2013, the programme has developed relationships between artists and academics from fields such as human geography, landscape archaeology, history and sociology, with a view to generating new understandings of places through the sharing of ideas and approaches.
These conversations have been made public through commissioned essays and a series of events across the north and Midlands in venues such as the Bluecoat (Liverpool), Tyneside Cinema (Newcastle), and Nottingham Contemporary. Building on these activities, the publication features creative explorations of places across the north of England – including a Cumbrian Center Parcs resort, Stanlow Oil Refinery, working-men’s clubs, Manchester Central Library, and the edgelands of Preston and Sheffield – as well as more general themes such as urban planning and digital space.
Foreword by 2017 Turner Prize winner, Lubaina Himid.
This book is the latest project within the wider Practising Place programme, which explores our relationship with place through a collection of co-authored texts, visual essays, creative projects and conversations between artists and academics.
Featuring new and existing artworks and covering a range of themes, including rural mythologies, urban noise, boundaries and seaside nostalgia, this highly visual book demonstrates the value of interdisciplinary discourse and presents an approach to the study of place as a creative and critical practice.
john mooreS painting prize at 30
60th anniversary
ART DIRECTION, EXHIBITION CATALOGUE DESIGN
Exhibition catalogue for The John Moores Painting Prize – a biennial event which brings together the best in contemporary British painting. Founded in 1957 by Sir John Moores (1896 – 1993) JMPP is the UK’s longest-established painting prize.
Supporting artists from all over the UK – whether undiscovered, emerging or established in their careers – the prize provides a platform for artists to inspire, disrupt and challenge the British painting art scene today.
The competition culminates in an exhibition held at the Walker Art Gallery every two years, and 2018 marked the art prize’s 60th anniversary and its 30th exhibition, having championed contemporary British painting for over two decades longer than any other art prize of its scale.
The exhibition catalogue is divided into two parts, past, and present, showcasing artwork by previous prize winners and contextualising the show as it stands today. The sleeve on the cover features original artwork to mark the occasion by Sir Peter Blake, and historic imagery from the Walker archives, inviting readers to select their own cover, or insert their own artwork.
in conversation
LOUISE GIOVanelli
publication DESIGN
Paintings, both contemporary and spanning the history of art, are Giovanelli’s primary subjects within her own paintings. Picking out sections or details from existing works – some well-known but mostly lesser-known – she reworks and represents them, focussing on aspects that attract her eye and critical attention. These might be unusual or odd formal elements – a neckline or a detail on an item of clothing – or can equally be things that are extraneous to the original, such as how candlelight might fall on it, or how it might appear during restoration work by a conservator. Considering the position of the viewer as much as the painter, Giovanelli explores the history of painting as object, the context of its display and reception, and the very mechanics of painting itself to investigate languages of painting both past and present, resulting in works that are cryptic, other-worldly and strangely enchanting.
Louise Giovanelli (b.1993, London) is one of Britain’s most promising young painters. This, the artist’s first monograph, documents her first three solo exhibitions, staged in 2016-17 at The International 3, Salford, the Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, and Touchstones, Rochdale.
Featuring a foreword by Paulette Terry Brien, co-founder and co-director of The International 3, and an essay and an interview by Charlotte Keenan-McDonald, Curator of British Art at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
fruitful futures:
imagining pomona
publication DESIGN, risograph print + production
LiFE group, MMU /
Gaia Project
Pomona Island is a city hinterland – a vibrant, semi-wild brownfield area of land adjoining Manchester, Salford and Trafford in North West England. Escaping decades of encroaching ‘urban development’ Pomona is home to abundant wildlife and has a rich social and industrial history. At the time of publishing, it was earmarked for development and ‘regeneration’.
Inspired by Pomona, this publication presents both poetic and practical sci-fi visions for designing a culture for the ‘art of fruitful living’ across disciplines in Art, Design, Ecology, and Urbanism.
Fruitful Futures is a creative compendium of paradoxical stories about biodiversity and urban planning, carbon-free air miles, invasive species for healthy living, and old toolkits to design new natures. It reflects the passion of the LiFE collective to inspire a holistic interpretation of the future that draws on multi-disciplinary knowledge to critically propose visions for the Future City.
This book embraces the spirit of activism: A limited edition artists’ book, created with eco-ethical materials and printed with an experimental, three-colour riso process (commonly applied in the making of radical, activist material), it questions and challenges the neoliberal agenda for urban development. With variations in ink aesthetic, each copy is beautifully unique.
Founded in 2015, LiFE (Living in Future Ecologies) is an interdisciplinary research group that provides opportunities for academics and students with a desire to shift the way we think about and create our futures, by engaging with ecological arts and sustainable design practices.
Cloudwater brew co.
branding, LOGO DEsign, art direction, packaging, merchandise, web design, 3d renders.
(Ongoing)
We love working closely with Paul and the Cloudwater team for their progressive vision and innovative approach to craft beer, and have helped them realise many ambitious projects over the years, including high profile collaborations, and several hugely successful beer festivals, including Manchester Brew Expo, Friends, Family & Beer and Blockparty. Below we will add a few current bits, and some of our favourite Cloudwater moments to date.
We have worked with Cloudwater and founder Paul Jones since it’s inception in 2014. Initially working on the now instantly recognisable Cloudwater logo mark, our work has gone on to incorporate everything from branding, strategy, packaging including bottles, cans and labels, art direction, creation of unusual merch, photography, 3D can renders, web design, event planning, interior design of the brew taps in Manchester and London, and so much more.
Cardinal Rule
branding, LOGO DEsign, art direction, merchandise, web design.
In 2023 we branded worked with founders Gabi and Dustin to develop the branding and visual work for Cardinal Rule - fluffy, buttery American biscuit with Fried Chicken.
Since then we have developed artwork, logos, pattern work, web design and merchendice.
QUEER BREWING PROJECT
branding, LOGO DEsign, art direction, Can Design, web design.
Lily described the project as: “opportunity to steer Queer Brewing in the direction it needs to go, with the help and guidance of an established, highly capable, and experienced team. I’ve got a number of big ideas for my project, so who better to work on them with than a brewery with big aspirations, loud voices, and strong values?
I’m incredibly excited to be working with the team at Cloudwater from October to December, and for the work we can undertake together, and as well as helping equip me with the skills and knowledge I need to step Queer Brewing up a level (or two!), working on future Queer Brewing plans, we’ll also be brewing some delicious beer.”
In 2020 we worked with Lily and Charlotte to rebrand the Queer Brewing project as part of the Cloudwater Wayfinder initative. We developed a new logomark, can lockup and artwork system that Charlotte and Lily could take forward as the brewery grew.
