artistic undressings
Visual identity

The largest independent Public Arts programme in Scandinavia in 2018-20, Artistic Undressings of The Royal Seaport is a 2-year project in five acts by the cultural organisation Mossutställningar. Artistic Undressings reflects on alternative models for sustainable city development in Stockholm with a series of public events, talks and artistic performances.

The curators were looking for a distinctive visual identity that could allow the public to navigate the extensive variation of events, as well as to trace the steps of the programme, and we worked from there.

Bringing the ornamental as well as formal explorations at center stage, the identity uses a vibrant color palette with typographical variations and hand-drawn frames made into ephemeral ornamental entities. Colors change between acts to allow the program to stay consistent and recognisable, while offering a fresh look between events.

The graphic profile gives life to a distinctive visual expression that is easily declined across materials and iterations.

Poster for ACT 1 (Earth), 70x100, printed with 3 special inks only

Detail of printed poster and type design

Starting from 3 existing letters by Brita L. Leitmann and Fredrik Sterner, the complete decorative typeface ‟Moss Deco” was designed to support communication

Invitations ACT 1 (Earth) and ACT 2 (Fire)

The use of the curtain throughout references the project’s spoken and unspoken connections with artistic performativity, but also those temporary, migrating architectural structures that are so often at the center of building and making community—as well as being the primary targets of aggressive city development.

The visuals draw from elements of the surreal, the magic, the floating, the ethereal, giving form to a state of flux, where the eye perceives and re-creates movement even through a static image.

Each layout includes ornamental frames designed by hand and interpolated digitally to achieve a refined, unique form. The vibrant color palette uses a range of electric, neo and pastel tones in poetic combinations.

Advertising for ACT 2 (Fire) on the project's newspaper “Stockholms Tidningen”

Flyer ACT 2 (Fire) on Mossutställningar's website

Through this project we carried out new investigations on sustainability through visuality, acting upon the multiple possibilities of form. We adopted an holistic approach taking into account environmental as well as social, cultural, and emotional aspects to develop new strategies and methods.

The work includes visual identity, printed and digital materials, type design and animation, as well as consultancy on visual communication. The identity is currently in preparation of Acts 4 and 5 (December 2020). A publication documenting the project will begin production in 2021.

Project team: Stella d’Ailly and Holly Keasey (curators), Henrik Schmidt (production), Tove Nilson (communications ACT 1), Johan Palme (communications ACT 2–5)

More work ⇣