A Cock or Two

Since graduating in graphic design from St Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London, Jonathan Barnbrook has developed a multifaceted practice that includes activism, graphic design, typeface design, industrial design and motion graphics. He has become one of the leading typographic designers in the world, working from his own London-based studio. Barnbrook believes that design shapes the environment, changing the way we perceive things and informing our choices. In this sense, design is a ‘culturally valid form of expression’ with something to say. In marking this responsibility, Barnbrook has art directed for the anti-corporate collective Adbusters.

For the 17th Biennale of Sydney (2010), he created a series of challenging site-specific typographic phrases on vinyl, entitled A Cock or Two (2010), to appear across Cockatoo Island. Barnbrook was also commissioned to create an expansive visual identity for the 17th Biennale of Sydney, including the catalogue.