Neville Brody tours Peking as part of Converse “Off Canvas” Street Exhibition Tour
In support of Beijing Design Week late last year, Converse presented “Off Canvas” a street-level exhibition of typography design that canvassed the capital city in obscure places that mark China’s thriving creative subcultures.
Neville Brody
With over one hundred years behind the brand, the exhibition celebrated two things vital to Converse’s heritage of storytelling– words and type. “Off Canvas” showcased the work of international and local artists notorious for their artistry of words. Culling from the diverse worlds of graphic design, art, and graffiti, the installations revealed communities and canvases where China’s emerging scenes in indie music, art, fashion and skate are based. The work of artists Benny Luk (Hong Kong), Ying Yonghui (Shanghai), Nod Young (Beijing), Neville Brody (London), Ben Eine (London) and Niels Shoe Meulman (Amsterdam) compose a map that includes the quaint Wudaoying Hutong to the packed streets of Xidan to the art district of 798/D-Park to the façade of the live music venue Mao Livehouse.
Brody is known to many for his cutting edge digital typography and graphic design that helped define the lasting pop culture aesthetic that he still redefines today. As the general public has learned from that time in the 80′s the choice and usage of typography contains many hidden messages. Brody once said, “Typography is a hidden tool of manipulation within society.” Neville Brody studied graphic design at the London College of Printing from 1977 until 1980. In the early 1980s Neville Brody became art director at Fetish Records. Belonging to the fringe music scene, Neville Brody experimented with new typefaces, informed by ideas drawn from the subculture. Neville Brody mixed fonts, ignored typeface sizes and standard distances between lines, interspersing fonts with decorative elements. From 1981 until 1986 Neville Brody was art director at “The Face” magazine, for which he designed a distinctive typography that inspired magazine producers and designers worldwide.
The film was shot and produced by Petter Eldin of Studio Stare in Shanghai, an amazing group of visual storytellers. We hope to feature them more on the Indepependent Media Channel.
