Room Service
In 2014, the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden presented »Room Service«, an exhibition about the hotel in art and artists in hotels. The accompanying catalog was designed by us and has been awarded Red Dot and Type Director's Club design awards.
Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden
Room Service
2014
In 2011, Baden-Baden’s renowned Kunsthalle appointed a new director, Johan Holten, who has since drawn attention to intriguing positions in contemporary art, while also interrogating the role of national art galleries today through controversial group exhibitions. Our contribution to this ambitious undertaking has been to design exhibition catalogues and a new visual identity for the Kunsthalle.
»Room Service« traced the historical development of the hotel and its significance in art from the early 19th century to the present. This thematic journey through time was mirrored in the design of the show’s catalog, which draws on a cross-section of typography from 200 years. Dozens of bold and italic fonts draw the reader’s attention to titles and captions. They also caught the eye of the Type Directors Club in New York, who chose our book to receive a 2015 award for typography.
The catalog is a study in glaring contrasts, with headings, decorative letters and bronze accents running the gamut from bohemian to elegant to eccentric. Still amid the commotion, stands the body copy, set in Weidemann. It is design taken to the limit – like with a sugar-frosted pastry, one more bite of it would be too much.
