This Is Studio: Museum of Everything #4

Since the conception of the Museum of Everything in 2009 This Is Studio has worked closely with the organisation, producing books, leaflets, multiple websites and merchandise tailored to the needs of each new exhibition. To mark the occasion of Exhibition #4 at Selfridges, This Is have produced a huge beast of a catalogue that’s bigger and better than its predecessors. We caught up with Barney Beech and Dougal Burgess of This Is to find out more…

The new catalogue is huge, how do you approach a project like this?

Barney Beech: I think the real challenge was to rationalise the huge amount of information in some kind of cohesive format…

Dougal Burgess: Firstly working with James (Brett, founder of the Museum of Everything) we needed to come up with a format that worked with the existing books but had a more classical edge. We knew that the book could potentially include over 400 artists from different workshops all over the world, so coming up with a way of organising it was key. Also, each of those artists would have anything up to 40 images of different works – these needed to be individually cut out before even thinking of layout. At one point we had over 350 spreads with almost 1,000 images in the book! With this book in particular, there was in incredibly tight turn around time on it so we came up with a plan to work from their offices on the design, alongside James and his team. 

BB: We didn’t see Dougal for 4 weeks. 

DB: Other elements such as the open spine utilised the fact that we could print images across a double page spread without any loss of information. Working with printers that are trusted for printing onto uncoated stocks really helps in making the images look their best.

What’s your favourite part of the book?

DB: Some of the pages where we got the works of different artists to interact with each other was great, and being able to print a massive pair of trousers across a centre seam isn’t bad… 

BB: Roland Kappel’s handmade cranes are incredible.

What’s it been like to work with the Museum of Everything right from the start?

BB: I think we’d be lying if I said it was easy. Ultimately though we’ve collaborated and made some beautiful things together.

James Brett, discuss:

DB: He doesn’t sleep – that much I know.