design

2013 Mayor’s Arts Award

| kirsti

It’s always wonderful to see talented people receive recognition for their work, which is the case with the 2013 Mayor’s Arts Award for craft and design, awarded this year to jeweller Dominique Bréchault.

I’ve admired Dominique’s work since I first saw her piece, Homing Device, at the Museum of Vancouver’s Art of Craft exhibition in 2010. And since then I’ve enjoyed her writings on her blog, Metal + Mettle, which explores art inspiration, her process, and thoughts on the process of art making in general, as well as lovely images from her sketchbook).

New work – Museum of Vancouver

| kirsti

My exhibit design partner and I have designed the upcoming Neon Vancouver/Ugly Vancouver exhibition, opening October 13, 2011 at the Museum of Vancouver.

We dropped in at the museum yesterday to have a look at the space and check out the install. Some of the signs are now in place and on (it’s the first time we’ve seen many of them lit).

IMG_6239_sm

Neon Vancouver/Ugly Vancouver | exhibition install | Museum of Vancouver | photo © Kirsti Wakelin 2011

IMG_4155_sm

Neon staging area at the Museum of Vancouver | photo © Kirsti Wakelin 2011

Blue Eagle

Blue Eagle Café | photo © Kirsti Wakelin 2011

IMG_6183_sm

Neon Vancouver/Ugly Vancouver | exhibition install | Museum of Vancouver | photo © Kirsti Wakelin 2011

More on the exhibition (and a couple more photos), over on the Resolve blog. 

New work – Vancouver Art Gallery

| kirsti

The Colour of My Dreams | Vancouver Art Gallery

I’ve just put up a few photos on my website of an exhibition I recently co-designed with Darren Carcary of Resolve Design.

The Colour of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art opened at the Vancouver Art Gallery on May 28, 2011. It is a massive show with around 350 works ranging from photography to sculpture.

I’ll write a bit more on the design process a bit later, but for now, here is a link to a few images on bechance.

Every word has a rhythm

| kirsti

The process of type design, the need for better client culture and for better design on government forms (yes!), how typography is like music, creative collaboration and more, all beautifully said:

Erik Spiekermann – Putting Back the Face into Typography from Gestalten on Vimeo.

I know this film has been blogged in lots of other places, but there are so many great things said in such a wonderful way that I couldn’t help but post it too.

(via www.swiss-miss.com)

Final goodbye to Fox, Fluevog & Friends

| kirsti

Fox, Fluevog & Friends: the story behind the shoes closes at the Museum of Vancouver this week (September 26, 2010).

Curated by Joan Seidl, Director of Exhibition and Collection MOV

We would like to acknowledge the incredible assistance of the display team at the Museum of Vancouver (Sandy Blair, Senior Display Technician; Chris Friesen, Display Technician) who constructed this exhibition (and the Art of Craft). They have been invaluable problem solvers and innovators and have patiently interpreted our sketchup models and my last minute lighting adjustments. Without their knowledge and skill these designs would not have been realised.

Sandy Blair has recently retired. We feel very, very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with him and as sad as we are that we will no longer have the chance to work with him on further exhibitions, we wish him a wonderful, well-deserved retirement.

  • More exhibition photos are archived on my Behance page.
  • More blog posts on the this exhibit and the design process are here.

New work – Vancouver Art Gallery

| kirsti

Ok, so this is not so much new work as it is work I didn’t have a chance to announcing earlier. It’s been a busy spring/summer, so this is a roundup of work completed with Resolve Design on two Vancouver Art Gallery exhibitions. Our roles involved the graphic design, paint scheme (and a little illustration).

.

The Modern Woman: Drawings by Degas, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec and Other Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris

Curated by Isabelle Julia, Musée d’Orsay. The Exhibition Commissioners are Guy Cogeval, président of the Musée d’Orsay; Isabelle Julia, conservateur général du patrimoine, arts graphiques, Musée d’Orsay; and Thomas Padon, assistant director / director of international partnerships, Vancouver Art Gallery.

.

.

In Dialogue with Carr: Douglas Coupland, Evan Lee, Liz Magor, Marianne Nicolson

Curated by Daina Augaitis, chief curator/associate director.

.

New work – Affinity Bridge Design & Illustration

| kirsti

Back in the winter I worked with Vancouver Drupal developer Affinity Bridge Consulting Ltd. to redesign their identity and home page.

Affinity Bridge’s original logo employed the symbol of a bridge and while the company’s philosophy is very much in keeping with the idea of bridges and bridging, they weren’t sure if they felt tied to the literal iconography and were interested in explorations of more abstract iconography for their new logo mark. For the first couple of rounds I focused on aspects of the company’s personality: environmentally and social conscious and playful, with a friendly and social company culture. I worked with ideas of connection and affinity and steered away from the original blue/green colour palette into more juicy and less typical “green” colour options.  For the first rounds of design, bridging and connection was implied without the use of an actual bridge icon.

IMG_8782_a_sm

icon exploration  | focus: connection, affinity, social interaction

Continue reading →

MOV – Fox, Fluevog & Friends exhibit design

| kirsti

The Fox, Fluevog & Friends opening party starts in a few hours. As a little preview of the show, here are two time lapses we shot of part of the install:

Installation of what I’m calling the Wall of ‘Vog – shot over two full shoe-hanging days. Thank you to Chris Friesen (MOV Display Technician) and Rachael Ashe (tireless volunteer) for working on this with me.

.

.
Title wall vinyl being put up by the installers at Arcprint & Imaging.