Category: exhibitions

Way of type – Evolution of Chinese typeforms

17 April – 21 July 2023

An exhibition in the Department charting the development of Chinese type and type-making technologies.

Chinese typeforms are the visual form or shape of Chinese characters in a typeface. They reflect the function of reading Chinese and the aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy. Compared with Latin typefaces, the larger Chinese character set and the complexity and diversity of its typeforms have always presented a challenge to type makers, typeface designers, and typographers.

This exhibition charts the development of type and type-making technologies in China, from the invention of movable type in the eleventh century to the design of digital typefaces of today. It documents the rich variety of Chinese typefaces created in different eras using varied techniques and technologies, presented in high quality digital reproductions.

The exhibition is an abridged version of ‘Way of Type – Modernisation of Chinese typography’, originally curated by Jieqiong Yue and Zhao Liu, and is a collaboration between the University of Reading and the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing. It represents the first exhibition in the UK featuring Chinese typeforms and type design.

Open weekdays, 10 am to 5 pm. Closed bank holidays.

Installation photos

‘Way of type – Evolution of Chinese typeforms’: introduction panel.
Main exhibition. Early Chinese movable type (left wall), Chinese movable type in Europe (right wall).
Main exhibition. Chinese founts of missionaries (left wall); Chinese typewriter (end wall), based on posters by Thomas Mullaney; Type design in modern China (right wall).
Main exhibition. Double Pigeon Chinese typewriter. Donated to the exhibition by Mr Xing Li.
Main exhibition. Typeface specimens and font production materials.
Contemporary Chinese typography. Typeforms shown on screen and in Chinese-language portfolios.
Contemporary Chinese typography. Fifteen-piece puzzle for constructing typeforms.
Exhibition window graphics.

Credits

China team
Academic chair: Di’an Fan
Curators: Jieqiong Yue, Zhao Liu
Coordinators:
 Xi Yang, Ping Ju,
Liping Du, Yanan Zhang
Assistant designers:
 Kui Zhu, Yue Chen, Peilin Song, Congyu Zhang, Kushim Jiang, Yangzhi Duan, Tengqi Zhaoxu

UK team
Academic chair: Eric Kindel
Curator: Xunchang Cheng
Visual designers:
 Xicheng Yang, Huati Wulan, Ahmet Berke Demir
Production: Geoff Wyeth

Special thanks
Thomas Mullaney, Yiyuan Ma, Li Xing

Texts by
Min Wang, Mingyuan Sun, Zhongxiao Cong,
Xunchang Cheng, Guoyan Ji

Guided by
China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration

 Organisers
University of Reading,
Central Academy of Fine Arts,
China Center for International Communication Development

Co-organisers
Department of Typography & Graphic Communication
Co-Innovation Center for Art Creation and Research on Silk Road of CAFA

Special thanks
Hanyi Fonts,
Arts Committee (University of Reading),
Shenzhen Graphic Design Association,
TypeTogether, LiuZhao Studio

Looking at women looking at themselves being looked at

9 June – 9 September 2022

This exhibition, now open in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, explores the concept of the male gaze in twentieth-century British illustration, and is curated by Cătălina Zlotea.

The exhibition analyses the work of the British illustrator, Charles Mozley (1914–1991), through a contemporary lens. It does so by foregrounding two female stereotypes depicted in advertisements, ephemera, and fine art lithographs made by Mozley between the late 1940s and the early 1980s. The exhibition arrangement creates contrast and conflict between the image of the middle-class “virtuous” woman – a virgin goddess placed on a pedestal – and the “loose” woman – an anonymous sex object signalled through hair colour and scanty clothing. This female presence, recurrent in Mozley’s work, demonstrates the quality of the artist’s draughtsmanship while connoting middle-class masculine virtues, follies, and sexual desires. 

The exhibition is open weekdays, 10 am to 5 pm. Closed bank holidays.

About Charles Mozley

Charles Mozley was born in Sheffield where he studied painting and drawing at the Sheffield College of Arts and Crafts. In 1933 he won a scholarship from the Royal College of Art and moved to London to study painting. After graduating, he taught life drawing, anatomy, and lithography at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts. Following the Second World War and for the rest of his career, he worked as a freelance artist. 

Prolific and versatile, Mozley was among the artists commissioned by Frank Pick and Jack Beddington for prestigious London Transport and Shell-Mex advertising campaigns. He also created designs for the advertising agency Colman, Prentis & Varley, for theatre and film production companies, and for many British publishers. He painted a mural for the Festival of Britain, contributed to the popular “School Prints” and “Lyons Lithographs” series, and produced ephemera for restaurants and the wine trade. Alongside commercial work, Mozley continuously painted, made prints, and exhibited in solo and group shows. 

The long list of commissions, as well as the works held by the Charles Mozley Trust, provide evidence that Mozley’s pictures were widely seen in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century. As Nicolas Barker has remarked, Mozley’s work is “a graphic-mirror of the post-war era”, making it a valuable resource for the study of visual culture.

Credits

Curator: Cătălina Zlotea
Exhibition design: Cătălina Zlotea, Hannah Smith
Exhibition consultant: Eric Kindel
Archive consultant: Sallie Morris
Production: Geoff Wyeth

Thanks to the Charles Mozley Trust, which has supported this exhibition and the doctoral research by Cătălina Zlotea that informs it.

Installation

Selected works by Charles Mozley highlighting key projects.
Overview of the exhibition space contrasting the “loose” woman and the “virtuous” woman, as subjected to the male gaze.
Illustrations by Mozley depicting the “loose” woman.
Illustrations by Mozley depicting the “virtuous” woman.

Real Jobs: Celebrating over five decades of professional design practice on our undergraduate course

Alongside our degree show opening last week, we also launched a new exhibition celebrating our ‘Real Jobs’ scheme.

Real Jobs has been our flagship professional experience programme for as long as Typography has existed as a department. It allows our students their first taste of working alongside clients to co-create, and deliver on, a design brief. Our graduates regularly tell us that their experiences on these projects exposed them to unique and powerful moments that helped them secure their first paid positions, and continue to inform their professional practice today.

Standout projects on display include the Tomos Jones’ recent gold medal-winning University display at the Chelsea Flower Show and Maddi Davies’ collaborative project on Margaret Atwood, Second Sight. But a full range of work is on show, everything from books to branding, and we hope it is a fitting tribute to the students, staff and clients who have contributed to making Real Jobs such a successful part of the curriculum here in Typography.

The exhibition runs until 28 June. If you’ve ever been a client of Real Jobs, or if you’d like to know more about how the scheme could help your project or organisation, please do stop by to enjoy this celebration of five decades of students’ first steps into the world of professional graphic design.

To see our archive of recent Real Jobs, click here. If you think you have a project that would benefit from student design support you can also book in your own project here.

“I believe this is a great scheme, both supporting students with real life projects and work experience and also providing great value to small companies in need of professional design support” – Sirin Myles, International Education Consultant

“The Real Jobs scheme is an excellent way for students to get experience working towards a brief and is a great way to help everyone involved gain experience that will be useful when transitioning into a working environment. I will be recommending the scheme to my employer as I believe it provides unique opportunities for all involved.” – Isabel Cash, Holland House Books

A selection of projects led by current students, including: animations, branding for charities and voluntary organisations, art catalogues and hockey stick graphics.

 

Production processes ranges from letter press posters to the latest digital printing techniques.

 

The exhibition includes (almost) every Typography degree show invitation ever produced, shown together in chronological order.

 

 

—brace the space: Typography degree show 2019

We’d like to thank everyone who attended the private view of our degree show on Thursday evening. Our graduating class of BA Graphic Communication and MA Book Design students hosted a fantastic event which showcased not only their outstanding design work, but also their truly exemplary sense of teamwork and studio culture. Every aspect of the show – from promotion through to signage – is led by the students, and this year’s huge attendance and impressive co-ordination is testament to their efforts.

We’ll publish photos of the standout work on our flickr site shortly, and the student-run instagram is likely to fill up with more content soon. Meanwhile, if you’d like to see some of the work right away (including projects that won our coveted annual examiners awards), please do head over to the Department and ’embrace the space’ to enjoy the public view between Monday 17 and Saturday 22 June. The show covers everything from cutting edge UX to traditional book crafts, and there is an especially strong sense of experimentation and individuality this year.

For more information, visit https://embracethe.space

Undergraduate work by June Lin and Siu Yen Lo, including the award-winning ‘Second Sight’ book, produced in collaboration with students in English Literature.

Richard Bird: National Theatre posters

Richard Bird (1948–1993) worked under Ken Briggs at the National Theatre 1972 to 1975. In 1975 Bird became resident head of graphics at the theatre’s new South Bank location. Some of these posters were also worked on by Michael Mayhew, who took over from Bird in 1986.

Further reading: Rick Poynor National Theatre Posters: A Design History, which can be found in the Reading Room

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