Susan Cohn Workshop 300

Susan Cohn Workshop 300

A loose-leaf exhibition catalogue held in a specially folded recycled cardboard cover: this is about as simple as a catalogue gets. He has manipulated both form and typography to produce an appropriate aesthetic mood for the work of Australian jewellery designer, Susan Cohn. The catalogue was designed for a retrospective exhibition of Cohn’s work in Tokyo. The long elegant format matches the elegance of the jewellery celebrated on the pages. Each double page spread contains a single item – ring, bracelet, earrings – with sparse texts in both English and Japanese. Emery has made a virtue of having to include translations: the two languages are counterpoised as compositional blocks held in dynamic tension on the page, each highlighting the other’s otherness, neither taking precedence. Similarly, the relationship between text and photographic image is delicately posed to create a spare, dynamic composition that is spatial in its effect. It produces a contemplative mood, with at the jewellery always the significant focus of attention. The jewellery pieces are reproduced at actual size, without shadows, and float on the page in abstracted space, increasing the effect of sparseness and contemplation. The catalogue is black and white, apart from four bold full colour image. The unconventional page numbering consists of progressively lengthening lines of grouped dots down the side of each spread. Modernist in spirit, simple, clear, dynamic and disruptive: the graphic design of the catalogue speaks of the jewellery.

Garry Emery

Design director of Emery Vincent Design, an established Australian design practice with offices in Melbourne and Sydney. He is a member of Alliance Graphique International and an adjunct professor at Deakin University, and responsible for one of Australia’s largest and most complex graphics commissions, Parliament House of Australia. Other major public projects include the graphics programmes for Australia’s embassies in Tokyo and Beijing, the Powerhouse museum of applied arts and sciences, the National Maritime Museum, the State Library of Victoria, the Royal Melbourne Zoological Gardens, the Melbourne and Brisbane International Airport terminals, the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, the Australia Post pavilion at Expo ’88 and the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, as well as many projects for prominent corporations. Current projects include graphics programmers for the Museum of Victoria, the Kuala Lumpur City Centre in Malaysia, the Public Domain Design Codes at Homebush Bay for the Sydney 2000 Olympics, the Cathay Pacific International headquarters in Hong Kong and the Millennium Common project at Arizona State University in the USA.