MAUD's identity for Making Art Public draws upon the vernacular of maps and calendars

Since 1969, Kaldor Public Art Projects has created groundbreaking projects with international artists in public spaces, in doing so, changing the landscape of contemporary art in Australia. Led by visionary founder John Kaldor AO, they’ve collaborated with an esteemed list of creatives from around the world including Jeff Koons, Richard Long and Sol LeWitt.

To mark their 50th anniversary, Kaldor Public Art Projects combined with British artist and guest curator Michael Landy to create the exhibition Making Art Public, a showcase of 34 ephemeral projects reimagined and presented together for the first time at Sydney’s Art Gallery NSW.; with each artwork reconceptualised inside an oversized archive box.

Kaldor Public Art Projects typically take traditionally gallery-bound art into an inclusive outdoor setting; placing it into public space and time, which flows, fleets and fades. Commissioned to design the exhibition’s visual identity, Sydney and Melbourne-based studio MAUD found inspiration in the importance of time and place; leading them to explore the vernacular of maps and calendars.

“In maps, we parameterise public space using a grid – the grid aids the way we navigate place,” explain MAUD within their case study, “this is also true for calendars, where we also use a grid to navigate time.” From this starting point, Making Art Public’s identity system was born, with the grid becoming a supporting and directional device for both time and place, and therefore, informing the exhibition’s navigation.

Alongside the flexible linework of the grid system, MAUD utilised Optimo’s 2007-designed sans serif Dada Grotesk – a typeface based on the Aurora typeface initially found in a 1918 issue of Dada Paris magazine. As a nod to an archival past, “it felt appropriate for Landy’s archival approach to the exhibition,” MAUD reveal. Aside from the beautifully subtle gold foiled invitation, communications are predominately black and white, allowing colour and richness to shine through the array of contemporary artworks.

MAUD

Kaldor Public Art Projects