Barbican

'Jean Dubuffet: Brutal Beauty'

Exhibition Identity

An exhibition celebrating French artist Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985), one of the most singular and provocative voices in postwar modern art. We were invited to create the exhibition identity, signage, catalogue and marketing campaign. The title ‘Brutal Beauty’ describes the strong contrasts within his work and so we used a mixture of very light and very heavy sans serif to illustrate this. We were drawn to grotesque typefaces in particular as they have a slightly crude appearance and a lot of visual character. Texture, layering and use of paper were important to convey the tactility of his work.