Challenge:

Create an activity for children and families to accompany the NOW exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. We were asked to use the artist Pete Horobin’s project DATA (Daily Action Time Archive) as a jumping off point — the project saw him document and archive all of his daily actions from January 1980 to December 1989.

Approach

The artist Pete Horobin, used a utilitarian framework to help document his daily life – simple stencil typography and photocopied prompts – we pulled the same visual languages and techniques to create some engaging activity sheets, risoprinting a simple layout in bright colours with plenty of space to play around and prompts for the kids to respond to.

We also created a poster to make the space part of the project, encouraging kids to to share their creativity around the room and create a collective spatial installation of their own.

Outcome:

“Malcolm and Graham designed a fantastic printed resource for children and families as part of one of our contemporary art exhibitions. They responded creatively to one of the artworks in the exhibition to design activity sheets which were considerate of our audiences as well as legibility and access requirements. The sheets were so popular that they had to be re-printed several times!”

Claire Walsh — Curatorial Assistant

The poster read “Make Your Own Diary. The artist Pete Horobin made a diary using a different sheet of paper every day for 10 years. He used words, photographs, drawings, and other bits and pieces, even his own earwax! Use the sheets on the table to make your own diary for today. You can write, draw, stick things to it… Go wild! We’d love to see what you do so feel free to pin it up on the wall, or take it home.