Space Open is an art exhibition at the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design that celebrates the artwork of Space Open, a collective of design professionals who make art outside of the office environment. Hillary Jones art directed and designed the exhibition promotional collateral and gallery signage. The last deliverable, exhibition publication, is coming in the fall of 2016.
Since the Space Open art collective is made up of several talented individuals, each with different creative passions and media preferences, I wanted this project's design to reflect the diversity of the collective. The group meets at least one per month, and on any given meet up you will see a room full of people surrounded by watercolors, oil paints, India ink, pens, charcoal, graphite, cameras, sketchbooks, Exacto knives, books of poetry, musical instruments, records, wine, and beer, making art simultaneously. I designed the three vignettes around a grouping of actual artifacts commonly used by the artists. Honoring the analog origin of Space Open, which was born and grew through word of mouth, I built and painted each vignette by hand. The "Space Open," which I painted on each vignette was intentionally lettered to look organic and quick, complete with obvious brush strokes and paint globs. The color palette selection was a subtle reference to UC Berkeley, where the collectives' founders met and created Space Open over five years ago.
- Hillary Jones
The most fun thing about this project was how much time I spent off the computer designing. I went to a handful of re-use centers in Berkeley and Oakland to collect art supply artifacts to feature in each vignette. I examined all the items I had collected and began designing each vignette around a different set of media: painting, drawing and writing, music and film. I arranged the artifacts on various boards, glued them down and painted each with a different color of mat spray paint. I also spray painted a number of objects that the hand models could hold over the vignettes during the photo shoot. On the day of the photo shoot, I painted the "Space Open" lettering on each vignette, overlapping some of the artifacts. I brought in three friends to serve as the hand models.
- Hillary Jones
We painted everyone's hands and arms with acrylic paint that matched each spray paint color as closely as possible. Then I let the models interact with each vignette's artifacts and took photos while they did this. Room was kept clear in the center of each vignette to accommodate type that I added later about the exhibition. I edited the photos in Adobe Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC. One final photo was selected for each vignette and I designed the exhibition posters in Illustrator. Since these posters were predominantly photography, I worked with a local photography and paper store to select the best photo paper to print the posters on. After test printing and paper selection, I printed all the posters in-house on my own Epson 3880 printer and did final cutting as well. I also designed a series of postcards in Adobe InDesign CC and buttons in Photoshop CC and Illustrator CC that featured assets from the posters.
- Hillary Jones
People responded really positively to the project. I received a lot of really amazing comments during the exhibition and I even got to feature the black vignette in the gallery space as a piece of art!
Online the project has done really well also. It's been recognized on a few design and art accounts on Instagram, and has very recently received a branding award on Behance, where several other designers have sent me positive feedback on the project. Some people still can't believe the vignettes are actually real (instead of built and colored in Photoshop), so I have included some process shots to show that how fun it was to build this project off the computer. What I have learned from this project is value that analog can lend to design. There's an authenticity there that software just can't create. I'd love to explore more ways to combine analog and digital.
- Hillary Jones
About Hillary Jones
Hillary Jones is an independent designer and founder of a small design studio based in Oakland, California, specializing in communication and product design. She has the wonderful opportunity to work with entrepreneurs, artists, designers, inventors, and change makers all over the world, including some of the most prominent and innovative companies of Silicon Valley. She employs a keen design sensibility and a background in business to create beautiful and impactful visual stories. Hillary moved to the Bay Area in 2013 to pursue an MFA in design at Academy of Art University in San Francisco. While in graduate school, she became involved with AIGA San Francisco and served as the communications lead for San Francisco Design Week in 2014 and 2015. Prior to relocating to the West coast, she worked in design and product marketing for a multinational medical device company and earned a dual international MBA from the University of Valencia (Valencia, Spain) and the University of Westminster (London, United Kingdom).