Regular followers of this blog will know that my first post of every month is a "job from the past" so that I can show some of the really good work from years gone by...
V&A Zoomorphic Exhibition Literature
2003/2004
Personally, I think this is one of those projects which will be written about in design books and blogs for many years to come as it is a beautifully clever idea, simply executed.
Johnson Banks designed the campaign to promote this exhibition which is on architecture inspired by animal forms that imagined what animals would look like if drawn as architectural pieces. The project is based around a series of three main posters, with the other event literature using elements from each of the posters.
Click on the images above and below to get the full effect.
...and the exhibition blurb is as follows:
Zoomorphic looks at the emerging trend towards buildings that emulate nature, presenting leading contemporary architecture inspired by animal form.
The exhibition shows an eclectic mix of architects’ models and preserved animal specimens to illustrate the zoomorphic analogy, with works by leading British and international architects including Santiago Calatrava, Renzo Piano and Wilkinson Eyre. Some of the architects featured employ animal metaphors quite explicitly to create iconic signature buildings, for others the animal likeness emerges as the design evolves.
Zoomorphic documents a highly significant new trend that will extend and enrich the language of modern architecture and asks: What will it be like to live in zoomorphic buildings and walk around zoomorphic cities? and: How might the buildings of the future be transformed as architects continue to explore the lessons of biology in more depth?
The exhibition was curated by Hugh Aldersey-Williams
The main posters (above) are 760x515mm. Other literature includes the A5 leaflet, below, which folds out like so:
...and down again
to reveal the 594x420mm poster:
a different version of the armadillo poster as 394x594mm folding down to 197x297mm:
Simple A6 invitation/reply card:
Design is by Johnson Banks. Creative director on the project was Michael Johnson and the designer (and, most importantly, the illustrator as well) was Sarah Fullerton (now Dezille).
The posters were all printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled 130gsm with the cards on 315gsm. Redeem 100% Recycled was chosen because a blueprinty/dyeline paper feel was required and this was the paper that did it! Interestingly, it might look like that it is just the natural/neutral shade of the Redeem coming through but although it was just printed one colour offset litho in a bluey/purple pantone colour, it was further enhanced by having a very small percentage tint of the colour printed all over the sheet, thereby reducing the hardness of the edges, especially on the "pencil type" lines.
It was printed by a west London printer called Fernedge who were a very progressive printer and one favoured by many design companies at that time. Sadly they have since ceased trading. Pippa Redmond (Mustoe) who was MD at Fernedge, now runs the Norwich Kall Kwik franchise.(
http://www.kallkwik.co.uk/norwich/aboutus.cfm). - and I'm dead sure it was printed by them, because as you can see from the label, my file copies are still in the original job bag!
Posted by Justin Hobson 06.01.2012
This pioneering special display at the V&A provides insight into the ongoing research into the provenance – or history of ownership – of the Gilbert Collection. In many cases it is unclear who owned these pieces before they were acquired by Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert. This uncertainty can be alarming: between 1933 and 1945 Jewish people in Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe had their possessions systematically taken from them. Art collections were confiscated, sold, scattered or destroyed by the Nazis. Despite significant efforts after the Second World War by the Allies and European governments, many of these objects were never returned to their rightful owners. Instead, many objects ended up in public and private collections, often acquired without knowledge of their background, or whose hands they had passed through. 
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