Opening tomorrow at The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Australia is an exhibition of the work of Belgian artist Wim Delvoye. We are pleased to announce that we have designed the book published to accompany the exhibition, details of which will be revealed soon.

MONA, located in Hobart, Tasmania, is the brainchild of maverick art collector David Walsh and features everything from African art to multimedia installations. Delvoye’s pieces in the MONA collection provoked such a reaction that Walsh decided to hold a larger exhibition of his work. Delvoye’s diverse work ranges from machines that digest food (the Cloaca series) to a tattooed man who has been sold as an artwork (Tim).

We worked in close collaboration with Wim’s studio to produce a book which will be available from the MONA bookshop.

Banbrook will be taking part in the new exhibition curated by text/gallery: Imaginary Menagerie. Text/gallery curates collaborative projects inspired by the printed and written word. Imaginary Menagerie is an exhibition of typographic explorations into language’s labyrinthine pathways featuring the tongue-tripping, unpronounceable, alliterative phrase explored across five languages.

The exhibition runs from 20 October until 22 November, Tuesday to Saturday, 11am till 6pm at: So Far, The Future, 44 Emerald Street (off Lambs Conduit Street) London WC1N 3LH.

Stay tuned for more details on the design of our limited edition print for this exhibition.

TYPO, The famous design and typography conference is coming to London this October. Jonathan will giving a talk on Saturday 22 October, the final day of the three day conference that takes place at the Institute of Education, University of London. For more information visit the TYPO London website.

This November Jonathan will be talking at the Tenth annual St Bride Library conference, Critical Tensions. The conference takes place on Thursday 10 and Friday 11 November 2011 and includes talks by a plethora of typographic talent.

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Critical Tensions – Tenth annual St Bride Library conference

Tension is frequently described as a positive in design, with designers balancing opposing constraints and visual ideas in often ‘perfect tension’. Design work balances a whole series of tensions: analogue–digital; male–female; Twitter–Facebook; art–design; East–West; old–young; interns–employees; global–local; micro–macro; educated–‘feral’; in-house–independent; degree course–short course/apprenticeship; designer–client.

In these uncertain times of economic and educational cutbacks, what of the old adage that from adversity comes creativity? In the aftermath of WWII, the exhibition ‘Britain can make it’ celebrated the potential of design as a tool for national recovery. The political struggles of the 1960s fuelled the portfolios of a generation of our most celebrated graphic designers. So where are seeds of creativity emerging from current struggles? What are the key points of tension today and what possibilities for designerly making and thinking are opening up as a result? Is tension vital to the design process itself?

Embracing history, education and design practice, this two-day event provides a space for meeting and voicing concerns, for collectively exploring ideas, sharing strategies, consolidating knowledge, and for challenging and reaffirming values.

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To find out more including how to by tickets, visit the St Bride website.

We are taking in a poster exhibition which opens this week at The Book Club in east London. Visit the exhibition before the 31st of July to see our poster.

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Information IS Currency
A collection of works from leading designers, illustrators and artists responding to themes generated by the recent wikileaks cable releases and subsequent fallouts from such.
Curated by UP^: Jamie Balliu & Jeff Knowles. Produced by: Chimera Productions & UP^
Exhibitors: Barnbrook, We Buy Your Kids, Erkut Terliksiz, OWNI, David Shillinglaw, Suki Dhanda, Marco Ammannati, 10-collective, Domenico Bartolo; 21-19, Apropos, Matteo Rosso, Jeff Knowles, Jamie Balliu, Nic Zoids.

Special Guest Speaker & Author: Olivier Tesquet
Exhibition Launch: 29th June until 31st July. 6pm-2am at The Book Club, with DJ’s: Mirrorcube, Secondo, Jean-Robert Saintil, Tim Soar, Drum Roll Please

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Information IS Currency
‘Information is the currency of democracy’. Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S President, is credited with these words, which take on ever-broader meaning in the age of the internet. This very same expression is now available to purchase online as a car bumper sticker. Perhaps even more relevant today is a further phrase that is derived from the original: ‘Information IS Currency.’ The WikiLeaks cable releases of the last year and subsequent fallouts have highlighted both the potency and currency of such information together with it’s latent value to individuals.

This exhibition and these art works, from a variety of designers, illustrators, typographers and artists, are each a unique and personal perspective on these events, cables and themes. Wider issues are explored here such as those of; information, our freedoms to publish and access it, and how we might filter exponentially available amounts of such. Some works are direct visual responses to a particular cable release, where others explore the scandals and media circus surrounding the figurehead of WikiLeaks. The responses are individual to the exhibitor and the open brief is non-partisan as it remains necessary to best represent the open and somewhat democratic platform that the internet was, and may still remain in part at least, both today and in the future.

Whilst many of the exhibitors are active in the world of fine arts, all work within the commercial design and advertising worlds; producing artwork and branding for the likes of D&AD to Rolling Stone, from the BBC to skate brands. The exhibition is sure to provide a fresh and provocative range of concepts, opinions and reactions. Further to the central themes of the exhibit, the show also acts as a catalyst for discussion and debate about the role of designers, artists and illustrators in social or political spheres.

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Foreword on the currency of Information:
Information as currency has proven itself such in many forms, guises and outcomes. One example is in it’s bringing down of presidents past, the word ‘Watergate’ for example, still resonates today. Social networks have become tools for democratic revolution, but conversely a tool in the trade of users’ personal data between the network providers, agencies and investors. Confidential personal information is sought by media organisations, in some cases illegally garnered, for the spoils of high readership sales. Even latent information carries currency, one that politicians and affiliated corporations value enough to ensure it remains buried. The U.S. Government sees WikiLeaks, or rather; their releasing of further sensitive information as ‘a threat’. Claims of ‘theft’ and information being ‘illegal’ are leveled at Wikileaks who likewise make similar claims against The Guardian sharing this same info with the Times. Who owns information? The information about our government’s actions? About you and your buying habits online? And how do we define illegal versus legal information and the rightful sharing of?

In the last months we have witnessed the expansion of the political fallout into the online world with several major online brands and credit companies cutting off their relationship to WikiLeaks and subsequently these direct portals of financial supply to them. WikiLeaks in turn uses their latent information as ‘insurance files’ to be released ‘should something happen to me or WikiLeaks’. (Assange). Anonymous hackers in support of the organisation have called for ‘…a war of data’. Wherever information lives online; in transit, user profiles, buying behavior, underground bunkers, encrypted or decrypted; it is now beyond being measured in currency, it has become today’s currency.

Next Friday, some of the VirusFonts team will be attending the Ampersand Conference. The one day event brings together such typographic heavyweights such as Jonathan Hoefler and Vincent Connare alongside a number of web experts to discuss the future of typography for the web. Ampersand takes place in Brighton and promises to be “an affordable one-day event for knowledgable web designers & type enthusiasts”. For more information, check out their website.

After successful talks at AIGA and The School of Visual Arts in New York and Jonathan is heading on to Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore and the Rhode Island School of Design, Rhode island. In Baltimore, Jonathan will be talking at 2:00 pm on Monday, February 28, in the Falvey Hall/Brown Center, MICA, 1301 W. Mt Royal Ave, Baltimore. In Rhode Island, the talk will take place on Thursday March 3 at 6:00pm.

Jonathan is embarking on a mini tour of the good old US and A; first stop: New York. He will be giving a talk for AIGA New York at Bumble and Bumble from 6:30 till 8:00PM on Wednesday 23 February 2011. Unfortunately this event is sold out, however, there may be seats available for on-site registration on a first-come-first-served basis. For More details visit the AIGA New York website.

Jonathan will also be talking in other locations around America, details of which will be announced this week.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York had announced the acquisition of 23 digital typefaces for its collection including our typeface, Mason. Considering MoMA had only one digital typeface in its collection, this is significant recognition for the field of digital typographic design. The typefaces were chosen by a panel of experts, who based their decisions on such criteria as aesthetics, historical relevancy, functionality and social significance. The typefaces will be displayed in the MoMA contemporary design galleries from March 2.

For more information on the acquisition you can read the MoMA press release or this piece in the New York Times by Alice Rawthson.

On Friday Jonathan will be speaking at Design Thinkers, in Toronto, Canada. He will be talking about why it is necessary to constantly invent new typefaces, why you shouldn’t name your font after a serial killer and much more besides. You can find out more about the Design Thinkers event here.