Blueprints of Hope, Octagon Gallery UCL

Blueprints of Hope: Celebrating LGBTQ+ London was curated by collective Gedney Common in response to UCL Urban Laboratory research evidencing a drop of 58% in London’s LGBTQ+ venues between 2006 and 2017.

Bringing together the work of libraries, archives, community centres, activist groups and contemporary artists, the exhibition presents a snapshot of London’s vital queer cityscape, past and present, and illuminates its role in providing a social and cultural lifeline for queer communities. 🏳️‍🌈

Paraiso (in the Regular style) is used for the large exhibition titles set vertically on the columns, and for section titles in the four areas of the exhibition. There is a formality and a sense of grandeur to these very large and intensely-narrow slabbed letterforms when seen in the exhibition space. The individual letterforms hold space so happily that they comfortably stack.

The classical setting of the University building, with its columns, marble and stone is contrasted by the highly camp gold leaf pattern within the letterforms and across the interpretation panels – the gold echos the gilded signage elsewhere on campus but crucially for the context of the exhibition flips this association, bringing a sense of the domestic, and of the DIY to the design language.

The body copy is set in Petit Frère Narrow, using an array of the OpenType features within the typeface. Slabbed stylistic alternates for the I, J, i and j are favoured, as well as the flatter r and double-storey a. Together these alternates create more horizontal rhythm for its use in these extended text blocks. The floating uppercase Q alternate character of Petit Frère was also used throughout – a design of exquisite form and proportion.

Neue Helvetica was used for captioning within the space, and on marketing materials as this is the main UCL brand typeface.

Curated by Charlotte Flint and Ross Head
Design by Polytechnic with typefaces by Lucas Descroix (Plain Form)
Installation photography by Thomas Adank

Read more about UCL Urban Laboratory on the UCL website