Design
[A]MAZE: Exploratory Journeys Design Guidelines
A comprehensive guidelines for our exhibition design in the Royal College of Art in London on February 28, 2023, including icon design, sign design and more.
Introduction
At the start of the new year in London 2023, eight artists/designers from the RCA, MRes Communication Design Pathway, the world’s leading postgraduate art and design college, collaborated to create [A]MAZE. This new book, published by the RCA, was presented to students and staff of the RCA, as well as to the art and design community more widely.
Exploring this period of development, these eight artists/designers are in the midst of individual interview and research projects that have laid the foundations for their explorations in the field of art and design.
The two years since they first gathered in London has been a complex, critically reflective period of exploration, research, trial and error and innovation.
The exhibition follows the research through individual interview projects focused on students’ cultural explorations as artists/designers from around the world, including English-speaking countries, China, and Japan.
The books on display in the exhibition feature the ongoing work of Labna Fernandez, Zihan Li, Lifei Shan, Zhenyi Wei, Zhiping (Sylvia) Xiao, Fan Zhang (Moira), Yixin Zhang and Zijing Zhong, a series of their individual interview projects or works, complemented by eight concrete cubes. The exhibition tells the story of each artist/designer, their diverse approaches to research and learning, without limitation, and explores their various modes of thinking.
Visual Design
‘[A]MAZE: Exploratory Journeys’ follows the maze game design elements of the book [A]MAZE. From touch to play to reading experience, it is essential to interact with the book and with the mind of the artist/designer to complete the experience all the way through.
The exhibition space provides a visual hub for the book [A]MAZE, where important interactions with the works were born. In addition, eight concrete cubes, hand-built from concrete, present the intriguing creations of the eight artists/designers on each of the six sides of their cubes.
These cubes represent each artist/designer in the exhibition — each artist/designer exists in a flat, square book, while the cubes are their mapping of the three-dimensional, real world. With different views and modes of thinking, their research is like a dense trail through the maze and into the outside world.
Books, creations, mazes, media, space, and constructions, these imaginary elements are in close connection with these heavy and hard-textured cubes and complement the book [A]MAZE. They seem to hold all the key information in the maze game, inspiring each audience to tread lightly and explore the space delightfully.
© 2023 Royal College of Art. All rights reserved. Use of the Design Guidelines PDF file is restricted to MRes Communication Design Pathway and permitted curators and students and may only be used for the purpose of creating RCA-produced exhibitions. Designed by Zijing Zhong.
