STRANGE CARGO

Strange Cargo was a touring exhibition of recent acquisitions of the Newcastle Region Art Gallery. Over the past several years, the art gallery has built up one of the best collections held outside of the capital cities galleries of contemporary Australian art and this tour allowed them to exhibit some of the jewels of the collection in other regional centres around the country. There was also a strong educational component to the show, so as much as it was about "showing off" the work, it was also intended to explain and make accessible (sometimes obscure) contemporary art to a wider audience.

Typical of an exhibition of this scale, it was quite a large and multi faceted job for which I designed all the collateral for the show including the invitations, website catalogue, wall text and educational kits in addition to other ephemera such as t-shirts and exhibition signage. The invitation I designed won first prize for an exhibition invitation in the Museums Australia awards and I also received honorable mention in the website and catalogue design awards which was an extreme honour considering I was up against some of the best design companies in Australia.

The design I used made use of the themes of the "strange" and also the idea of the touring of this cargo, so for the exhibition icon, I played with the idea of this dirigible that picks up the cargo box and drops it off in various locations, so that not only is the cargo itself strange, but it also arrives in these locations in a strange way. This was also meant to appeal to the kids and educational angle which was a large target audience for the show. The invitation featured the text stenciled on the front of a wooden crate which was able to be "flat packed" in an envelope and subsequently folded out to make a box shape which on the inside featured a collage of illustrations I created of some of the more recognisable works found in the show. The icon on the front of the invitation featured a blimp carrying a black box - the cargo, which in the exhibition catalogue then got developed further to become a plain white cube out of which sprung a wealth of strange colours which I kind of viewed as being a metaphor for the art gallery and the amazing works to be found inside, as well as the cargo and method of transportation. The cover of the catalogue also featured a spot UV coating which combined an intricately detailed pattern which sprung out of the box being carried, which reflected in the light and made for another subtle level of detail to add to the strangeness of the scene. The job itself was an absolute joy to work on and I think that comes across in the design.