CLIENT
18th Street Arts Center is an artists’ residency program that provokes public dialogue through contemporary art-making. 18th Street’s residencies, exhibitions, public events, talks, and publications encourage, showcase, and support the creation of cutting-edge contemporary art and foster collaboration and interaction.
BRIEF
A catalog to accompany an art exhibition exploring collaborative art practices in the artists’ space movement in Los Angeles, CA, in the 1970s and 80s. The exhibition was part of the Getty initiative “Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980."
APPROACH
A sunburst of bright magenta and yellow ink takes over the cover image, hinting at transformative art practices chronicled within. A riff on 70s book design, Collab Labs utilizes rule lines, an asymmetrical two-column grid, contemporary neon-tubing display type, and contemporary monospaced body type to reference the past and feel like now. Chapter title pages adopt the tactics of the cover with a softened palette and suggest the retinal aftereffect of looking at So Cal sun for too long, or possibly a psychedelic experience. The use of color on the cover and title pages aims to express the ineffable possibility of that space and time.
