Yesterday, by a lucky chance, I found out that the Belgian designer Sara De Bondt will give a lecture at KASK (Ghent). I registered as fast as I could. When I arrived the auditorium was almost full, but I've managed to find a place just in front.
She shortly introduced herself, schools she went to and told the story of her decision to stay in UK. When she was about to return to Belgium it was James Goggin who was in search of somebody to work and share his studio with. So she accepted the job. After a period working in a studio she decided to go on her own and started up the "Sara De Bondt studio". Chris Svensson joined in 2008.
She shortly mentioned her work for Wiels (in cooperation with Jo De Baerdemaeker), her work as tutor at The Royal College of Art in London and spoke about 3 latest major projects: exhibition designs for Martian museum terrestrial art, Radical Nature and Nottingham Contemporary.
"Anthropologists from outer space set out on a mission to understand life on earth. Imagine that they begin their mission by examining the curious phenomenon that human beings call ‘contemporary art’. What does Art tell them about human life and culture?"
Martian museum terrestrial art is an exhibition orginized by Barbican Gallery (London) in 2008. The challenge of this project was to create communication between people and martians. Not an easiest task I must say. But the approach and the solution seemed very interesting to me. So how would the martians communicate with us, humans? Therefore she have created a geometrical typeface Futuro ET which would be looking good with the Futura bold italic used by the Barbican Gallery. Everything at this exhibition was in two typefaces/languages: signalisation, names of artists, their artworks and even the catalogue. It looked good and fitted the purpose.
She spoke about the importance of giving the client something more then just a finished product, as for instance logo or poster. It is important to give something that client can (re)use, as it was with Futuro ET typeface which has been given to the client and has been (re)used in newspapers ads and in the comming publication about exhibition.
The Futuro ET font can be downloaded for free as well.
"Radical Nature is the first exhibition to bring together key figures across different generations who have created utopian works and inspiring solutions for our ever-changing planet."
Radical Nature (Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969–2009) is another exhibition at Barbican Gallery (London).
Talking about this project Sara De Bondt emphasized the conscience of us, graphic designers, the choices we make at work, the printing techniques we use and how harmfull are they for the environment. Everything she created for this exhibition was made with recycled materials and has been printed on RISO wich uses soja ink.
She compilled a Radical Nature Manifesto which can be downloaded for free.
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