gARTen Catalogue

In 2021 I created, designed and wrote two introductions to the catalogue „gARTen. Garden of art. Shows in Bern, Gdynia, Porto and Valencia”, by Barbara El / Leszczyńska (me). I took care of all the stages of production.

Here is how it looks like.

As the project went really well, I decided to give it another boost and invited the co-curators to grow it with me. I invited some foreign artists whose works I found interesting, to participate, and I asked the co-curators to do the same. gARTen got its second edition, gARTen 2021, showing 14 works of artists from 10 different countries located on 3 continents.

My name is Barbara El and I started the gARTen project in 2020. At first I had an idea to make an exhibition of the Science Club, which we could print in three countries the three of us lived at the time, and hang it there. To keep the element of meeting the artist at the show, I asked each of us to make a video in which she’d talk about her work.

As a designer I aimed to create the branding, that would work as a whole piece. I started with creating the logo of gARTen, a sign that would follow the boldening of ART in garten [German: garden]. I then based the layout of the posters on the geometry of the logo’s lines. It then became a base for the catalogue’s cover. Each city in which the project was exhibited got its own colour set for the poster, capturing the vibe of the place through the colour set.

The most challenging part for me as a designer was to create a book that is easy to understand, and brings all the complexicity of the subject. I aimed to give order to two editions of the project, show its growth, and bring pictures of how the exposition looked like in the different places, and highlight everyone’s role in the project: mine, Barbara El, as the main curator, dr hab. Bogna Łakomska, prof. ASP, as the Science Club Supervisor, Olga Wardęga and Wera Grześ as co-curators, Ana Tomás Miralles, Universitat Politécnica de Valencia as the Special Guest.

I was responsible for choosing paper, (great part!) checking colour proofs of the print and taking care of the catalogue during all the printing and bookbinding process. It required many radical decisions made in real time. I chose the printing place and the bookbinder who finished the project with a handmade sewing.