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CommUNITY Poster Exhibition & Auction.

Manual was recently invited to contribute a design for the CommUNITY exhibition and auction as part of San Francisco Design Week. The exhibition featured original artifacts that had been produced specifically for the event including posters, products, sculptures, digital art, and more.

The brief for the theme asked designers to celebrate the concept of unity. Our submission was a hand-assembled poster made from individually layered sheets of colored card in the A-size format, with rubdown transfer lettering. The poster features the idiom 'The Whole Is Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts'.

Letterform Archive talk: Color as Character

Last week we filled a room at Letterform Archive for Tom Crabtree’s salon talk, Color as Character.

Surrounded by a chromatic array of artifacts pulled from the Archive’s collection, Tom traced a path from early sources of inspiration to the identities we create today, with color as the main character throughout. Along the way: a rainbow sweater from childhood, fluorescent screen prints from college, and a kaleidoscopic mix of historical influences, including David Hockney, Eduardo Paolozzi, Piet Zwart, Otl Aicher, and Wim Crouwel.

The evening offered a personal look at Tom’s relationship with color, and the role it continues to play in shaping the way we design at Manual.

Thanks to everyone who came out, and to our friends and neighbors at Letterform Archive for hosting, especially Stephen and Angie.