SecMoCo (formerly Secondary Modern)
is the working name of London-based independent print and digital designer Simon Josebury
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SecMoCo worked on various design elements for the aesthetic and intellectual powerhouse that is Cabinet on many of their early projects and exhibitions. Here is a selection of publicity material for various artists, and an edition (Pierre Molinier), from that period.
For more on this site on orphan drift and Pierre Molinier go to:
http://www.secmoco.com/index.php/orphan-drift/
http://www.secmoco.com/index.php/pierre-molinier/
SecMoCo were delighted to be approached by the judicious Darren Pih (Curator, Tate Liverpool) with the offer of a dream job – to design the catalogue to accompany the exhibition GLAM: The Performance Of Style (at Tate Liverpool, UK and later Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany). Through an ambitious collection of works and artefacts, it’s drive was to conceptually locate the early 1970’s glam pop style phenomenon in the context of the high /low cultural interchange within the artistic milieu of the time.
The design of the catalogue was an attempt to convey this shrewd engagement with the period whilst resisting the (admittedly very tempting) urge to indulge in the use of glitter, kitsch and overtly ‘bad-taste’ fonts. To revert to such a swift design short-hand would have been to do a disservice both to the the complexity of the creative activity of the time, and this contemporary re-appraisal of it. The design also included a detailed illustrated timeline of the art, culture and politics of the time.
First Published September 2013 by Tate Publishing, UK. Edited by Darren Pih; 215 x 255 mm; 192pp, thread sewn; 4-colour images throughout; 4-colour, 8 page soft cover (inc flaps)
Context from the Tate website:
GLAM: The Performance Of Style is the first book to fully examine the serious cultural influence of one of the twentieth century’s most excessive and exciting pop movements. ‘Glam’ emerged in the early 1970s and remains one of the most instantly recognisable but critically derided stylistic phenomena of twentieth century art and cultural history. Known mostly through the music of the era… the style was also evident in other art forms through its acquaintance with theatrics, artifice, myth and androgyny.
Covering a range of subjects including fashion, music, film, gender in performance and postmodernism, the book moves beyond a nostalgic reception and will reveal the under-acknowledged exchange between avant-garde art and the extravagant style, tracing the glam sensibility to performance and installation art, and to painting and sculpture’.
Context from Noddy Holder (Slade), reviewing the exhibition for The Guardian 20.02.13:
‘You can see Marc Bolan’s leather hat in a glass case. I couldn’t believe how small it was: I knew he was a small man, but this hat is really tiny’.
SecMoCo were appointed by the estimable and inspiring Alan Read (Professor of Theatre in the Department of English, School of Arts & Humanities, Kings College, London, UK) to develop the digital and print identity for the Performance Foundation, based in the Anatomy Theatre & Museum at Kings, on the Strand and the East Wing of Somerset House. As an organisation it seeks to to broker, via a process of creative arts, cultural interventions and practice-led processes, collaborative associations between academics, artists, artisans, architects and the interested public in the areas of performance techniques and technologies, and their operation.
performancefoundation.org.uk
The development of the gallery identity for a contemporary art project space, and accompanying publications. As befitting the name of the space, the stationery, announcement cards and advertising employed the Johnston typeface and made reference to the London Underground signage and tube line colour scheme.
From its inception SecMoCo devised the identity, design and layout of the journal Performance Research, for the Centre for Performance Research, Cardiff. Working closely with its editors Richard Gough, Claire MacDonald and Ric Allsopp, from 1995–1999.
For visual and textual information on each issue go to: http://www.performance-research.org/past-issue.php
I was the Senior Graphic Designer at Routledge, London, UK, until 1995. Here I carried out cover and text design, plus commissioning of illustration, photography and freelance designers, over a range of titles for various lists, totaling over 200 books annually.
I have continued to work for Routledge, and other academic publishers, to the present day on a freelance commissioned basis.
Above are a selection of series designs for Routledge, to see images of individual, non-series, titles see ‘Book design: non-fiction’ on the homepage.
I was the Senior Graphic Designer at Routledge, London, UK, until 1995. Here I carried out cover and text design, plus commissioning of illustration, photography and freelance designers, over a range of titles for various lists, totaling over 200 books annually.
I have continued to design for Routledge, and other academic publishers, to the present day on a freelance commissioned basis.
Above is a selection of individual designs, to see images of series designs see ‘Book design: series’ on the home page.
SecMoco were approached by Tate St Ives’ inspiring Artistic Director Martin Clark, to design a collection of seven artist’s monographs to accompany the exhibition ‘Summer Season 2009’ Tate St Ives, UK, published by Tate 2009.
First published in an edition of 1,500 copies, by Tate, UK, 2009; edited, and with a foreword by, Martin Clark; additional texts: various; 210 x 148 mm, 196pp, 4-colour images throughout; 7x thread-sewn booklets within 1-colour printed slipcase.
From www.specificobject.com: ‘Boxed-set of seven exhibition catalogues published in conjunction with the exhibition held May 16 – September 27, 2009. Each catalogue is devoted to the individual work of each of the following artists: Alfred Wallis, Lucie Rie, Barbara Hepworth, Lawrence Weiner, Carol Bove, Bojan Sarcevic and Katy Moran. Texts by Sara Hughes on Katy Moran; Melissa Gronlund on Bojan Sarcevic; Martin Herbert on Carol Bove; Herbert Read and Edwin Mullins on Barbara Hepworth; Emmanuel Cooper on Lucie Rie; and Billy Childish on Alfred Wallis. Each catalogue includes black-and-white and color illustrations’.