Graeme Swank

Project: Code Verté

Date: Present

Category: Typography/Branding

Issue 1 Typographische Monatsblätter

Code Verté typography and branding is inspired by the central European region, close by to where this Grüner Veltliner is from. The label for the first wine being imported for the Code series of wines uses strikingly modern typography with art by Chet Kempczynski. The typography references the early issues of Typographische Monatsblätter and uses the central artwork to provide texture. The color green is commonly used in Grüner Veltliner labels; Pantone 802C is used in this case in to better capture the viewers’ eyes. This first label sets the groundwork for future bottlings and overall identity.

Graeme Swank

Project: Brasilia typeface

Date: June 2019—Present

Category: Type Design

Brasilia is a typeface that began as part of the ten week Principles of Typeface Design course at Cooper Union. It began as a thin humanistic sans serif font, but departed from that initial idea after the first round of digitization. Brasilia takes on more flavor from neo-grotesk typefaces, but still maintains subtle nods to its humanistic origins, specifically in weight distribution and the tittle on the ‘i’ and ‘j’ characters. Brasilia is still under development, but is intended to have multiple weights and support multiple languages.

Preliminarty sketch of Brasilia.

In progress type specimens, self printed on 18” by 24” newsprint from a large format Epson Stylus 9800.

Graeme Swank

Project: Janeiro Display Font

Date: Dec. 2018 —Present

Category: Type Design/ Type Revival

The Janeiro display font is a self-initiated and ongoing font revival project. This project is based on lettering from a poster originally designed by Kenneth D. Shoesmith in 1920. The letterforms present an opportunity to discover bygone letterforms and offer a way to recontextualize them for contemporary use. Software used include Epson Scan and Fontlab

RIO DE JANEIRO

BRASILIA

OUROPRETOCAMPINAS

Graeme Swank

Project: MetaGeometersdigital presentation

Date: Feb. 2019

Category: Digital Presentation/PDF

The MetaGeometers digital catalog and presentation was commissioned by independent art curator Dapne Anderson-Deeds to showcase and garner interest in her newly curated art exhibition. The design employs a strict grid and precise typography so that the design of the pages is cohesive, but always in the background, allowing the content to be the focus. In order for the content to succeed, image curation and editing was taken into great consideration.

MetaGeometersArt From Mathematics Curated byDaphne Anderson Deedsfine art and museum consultant Artists

Field Kallop

Dorothea Rockburne

Tibetan sand painting; ergonomics; geometry

advanced mathematics; physics

a.

a.

b.

b.

c.

c.

a. I am Pascal, 1986/87, oil and charcoal on gessoed linen, 80 x 107 1/4 x 5 1/2 in.

b. Arena V, 1978, vellum paper, mylar tape, and colored pencil, 58 7/8 x 47 in.

c. The Plan of St. Gall, 1988/ 89, folded paper, watercolor, and gold leaf

on rag board, 60 x 50 1/4 in.

a,b,c. Melody of Structures detail, various materials size adaptable to space

MetaGeometers: Art From Mathematics comprises works by contemporary artists who respond to, or are motivated by various theories, philosophies, and ideas that define and describe the mathematical structure of nature. These examinations of the inherent laws of time and space are embedded in visible and micro-scopic natural structural patterns. Throughout history, artists have responded to these elegant systems that support the fabric of life, making art that ascribes symbolic and sacred meanings to the relationship between geometric shapes and numerical propor-tions. For example, the ancient Greeks associated the Platonic Solids with the four classical elements. Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man is the basis of the Golden Section, a principle still employed by myriad artists and architects. The Fibonacci Sequence appears in biological phenomena, such as phyllo taxis (the arrangement of leaves on a stem, the fruit sprouts of a pineapple, the flowering of an artichoke, an uncurling fern, etc.). More contemporary theories like the Mandelbrot Set, and fractal geometry reveal natural forms under increasing magnification as progressively ever-finer recursive detail. Modern philosophers such as Johannes Kepler, Carl Jung and Robert Lawlor, based their practices on symmet-rical, universal symbols and patterns. The designs of architects such as Phidias, Brunelleschi, Alberti, and Uqba ibn Nati, as well as compositions by musicians such as Bach, Mozart, Bartok, Satie and Reich are founded on mathematical principles. Metageometers: Art FromMathematics will provide visitors with direct and in-depth exposure to artists whose work is based on, or responds to the principles inherent in the struc-ture of the tangible world. The exhibition, catalogue and related programs will be aesthetically dynamic, intellectually compelling, and art historically rich.

Synopsis Exhibition Labels and Catalogue

Public Programs

MetaGeometersArt From Mathematics

MetaGeometers: Art From Mathematics will include extended object labels and wall text to convey each artist’s sources and process. Content from these didacticstate-ments will be included in the exhibition catalogue, also titled MetaGeometers:Art Inspired by Mathematics. The publi-cation will feature an essay by one of theforemost experts on mathematics and art, such as Dr. Linda Dalrymple Henderson Ph.D., David Bruton, Jr., Centennial Professor in Art History and Regents Outstanding Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, or Dr. Anna Lovatt, currently Scholar in Residence at Southern Methodist University. The catalogue will include images of all works in the exhibi-tion, a preface by the hosting museum director, and an intro-duction by Guest Curator, Daphne Anderson Deeds.

Educational programs might include a children’s workshop employing basic geometric and symmetric patterns; using origami, gyroscope, and simple geometry to construct simple sculptures; an adult concert series featuring compositions by Bach, Satie, and Bartok, Reich or Glass, all of whom employ mathematics to orchestrate their compositions; gallery talks presented by exhibition artists; and a symposium or panel dis-cussion with philosophers, mathematicians, art historians and artists. Artist Field Kallop’s large scale installation is also a performance. The artist invites an audience to witness the con-struction of her sand drawing based on Tibetan sand painting, Jungian symbolism, and mathematical patterning. Various videos that define and describe sacred geometry can be looped and played on a computer screen in an education area.

Graeme Swank

Project: graemeswank.com

Date: Dec. 2019

Category: Website

In December 2019, I redesigned my personal website determined to have a site both designed and coded by me. Taking inspiration from minimalism and brutalism, the website showcases what I want to be known for: typography, simplicity, and ingenuiity. The website landing page (pictured above) are simple declarative statements, laid out in simple type, and put into motion using a combination of Cinema 4D and After Effects. The video is a link to the most up to date PDF version of my portfolio. Currently I am updating the motion graphic to run natively from the site, rather than from an imbeded video.

Graeme Swank

Project: The Human Crisis

Date: December 2018

Category: Typographic Layout/ Book Design

The Human Crisis gives form to Albert Camus’ speech originally given in 1946. The book was typewritten by cross referencing a 2016 performance of the speech with a transcription. The design takes its cues from Camus’ time as a newspaper editor during World War II and was hand typed in its entirety using an Underwood No.5.

Graeme Swank

Project:Dr. Seara Personal Website and C/V

Date: June 2018

Category: Web Design/ Typographic Layout

Fisheries social scientist and professor Dr. Tarsila Seara’s branding was initiated upon our realization that outreach in academia is often discussed but rarely achieved on a personal level. The branding and website reconsider the way scientists communicate with each other and with the general public. It takes formal inspiration from technical manuals and academic journals of the mid twentieth century and takes form as a responsive website and printable c/v.

Graeme Swank

Project: State of Abstraction

The State of Abstraction catalog and postcard were created for an art exhibition curated by Daphne Anderson Deeds and Jacquelyn Gleisner hosted by the Washington Art Association in Washington Depot, CT. Custom lettering abstracts the letterforms of the show’s title, while the supportive neo-grotesk typeface provides clarity and sets the style for the remainder of the catalog.

Winner of the Connecticut Art Directors Club Silver Award in 2019 for catalog design.

Date: May 2018

Category: Typographic Layout/ Custom Lettering

Graeme Swank

The ICARUS font is a display font that takes a subtractive approach to letter creation rather than the more usual additive method. Each letter and number began with a positive form. A negative form was applied with varying scales in order to create the letterforms. The font pushes the readability of the letterforms and asks the viewer to consider the norms of letterforms in general.

Project: ICARUS Display Font

Date: March 2018

Category: Type Design

Graeme Swank

Project: Design is a Humanism

Date: December 2017

Category: Typographic Layout/ Book Design

Design is a Humanism is a self published zine that was created as a manifesto of sorts and speaks about the importance of human involvement in design for both the designer and the viewer. Its formal objective was to use typography and interrupt it with organic forms and abstracted letterforms.

Graeme Swank

Project: Poéme ÉlecroniquePosterSeries

Date: November 2017

Category: Typographic Layout/ Poster Design

This series of posters is made up of abstract artwork made in response to specific sounds that appear in Edgard Varése’s Poéme Électronique. These forms had text overprinted on them. They were then scaned, enlarged, and printed onto 24” by 36” posters.