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Modern Activity

@modernactivity

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Graphic design studio led by Matthew Appleton MA RCA.
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Made a set of cyanotypes for a show @thamessidestudiosse18 Gallery, here's one we are using as a show poster.

The Sunworshippers

Seven artists and a graphic designer are invited to create work inspired by the Sun.

andreavwright @meg_shirayama @ema.pina #robertorchardson @modernactivity @jonathanlawes @gabrielagiroletti @phil_ashcroft

Exhibition runs 10 — 19 July, open Thursday-Sunday, 12 — 5pm

Big thanks to @phil_ashcroft for the invite and putting this together, and @peter__harpin for all the help

Set in @abcdinamo #romtypeface

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#cyanotype #typography #abcdinamo taken in Thames-Side Studios by @modernactivity

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15 days ago

It’s a pleasure to take the (very) short walk across the way each year to @royaldrawingschool for the open studios…

After a day of computery things it’s refreshing to be surrounded by some heavy duty drawing, paint and mark making of every sort.

Well worth a visit, on till December 13… @rdsdrawingyear2025 taken in London Fields, Hackney E8 by @modernactivity

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8 months ago

A new publication for Morgan Quaintance @chelseaspace '...exploring the notion of home, alienation and intrusion', this small publication ('Untitled') has a suitably inscrutable cover.

The text takes the form of a dialogue between Morgan and @mariawalsh164, and the generative approach works really well. A favourite moment was finding out about David Hampton (1964-2003). Hampton was a confidence man whose unique apprach was to pretend to be Sidney Poitier's son, conning his way into the lives of New Yorks elite and the likes of Studio 54.

62pp black text on Munken Print
Cover printed on Redeem @fennerpaper
Set in Self Modern — thanks to @lucas.bihan

Well done too to Morgan and Onyeka Igwe who were joint recipients of the 2025 Jarman Award, announced last week @film_london.

Morgan's exhibition 'Available Light' can be seen at Chelsea Space until 12 Dec (Thu–Sat, 11am–4pm) | Free entry

@chelseaual #ChelseaSpace #AvailableLight #morganquaintance by @modernactivity

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8 months ago

VOICED is on for an extra few days @barbicancentre till 4 November ‘25

@samwinston_ and @mccabio1977 have presented something new with this exhibition, a window into a world of communication barely touched by the internet, a huge ecosystem of aural language and writing systems that most of us have never considered.

“We are not just coldly preserving things, we are celebrating language in all its forms: music, poetry, performance, visual art, talks, live events and workshops. It’s a month-long celebration of the vast impact art has on language and language has on art.”

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We worked on the identity, and exhibition design. As well as showcasing the poetry and moving image, we developed custom display ‘stalks’ for @elararchive and @endangeredalphas materials, and a mapping system displaying 3,500 of the worlds most endangered languages on a polar-azimuthal projection — which @samwinston_ proceeded to draw by hand, a lovely way to express an SQL database :)

It felt important not to apply one homogenous typographic ‘voice’ to this very varied material. Starting with the many writing systems that the commissioned poems used, the texts in the exhibition use an ever-changing mix of glyphs, from fonts that support Canadian Syllabics, Tifinagh and so-on. The result could definitely be described as ‘wonky’, but it does hopefully draw attention to a world outside our usual mode of reading :)

Thanks to:

@typotheque who kindly let us use some of their multilingual typefaces
@endangeredlanguagesproject for the world map data
@dafikuhne for the inspiration and advice for the ‘stalks’
@peter__harpin for skill and care

Curated by @samwinston_ and @mccabio1977

Photography by @sewelland @haeinsong_ @modernactivity taken in Barbican Centre by @modernactivity

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9 months ago

@barbicancentre hub space — so good to see this exhibition about endangered languages that we designed with @samwinston_ and @mccabio1977 up. Well done to the whole team! taken in London Barbican Centre by @modernactivity

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10 months ago

In celebration of 20 years in practice, the new Moxon website represents our commitment to high-quality design and innovation – click the link in our bio to explore the new site and our portfolio.

Thanks to @carocomms and @modernactivity for guiding us through the process. by @modernactivity

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10 months ago

Apparently the ride to and from @studiovoltairelondon last night to see Hilary Lloyd’s new show ‘Very High Frequency’ is worth 2.4 packets of crisps... hard to describe — the show has got upside-down cats, buttocks, brass bands, and rustling things. And it’s all somehow to do with Dennis Potter. His interview with Melvyn Bragg just before he died is worth the trip alone.

We made a small publication to accompany the show, including an essay by @nathalieolah. The publication is 9:16 format, printed with a metallic brown ink. Dennis Potter’s first book was published in 1960 and puts us in a typographical moment shared with the fantastic use of ‘Initiales Film’ on Rudolf Arnhem’s ‘Film as Art’ (1957) — we have used a modern cut of ‘Initiales Film’ for the cover wrap, alongside the Potter-publisher Faber & Faber’s go-to Palatino to set the publication.

‘Initiales Film’ designed by Marcel Jacno in 1927, revived by @haroldlohner / @harolds.fonts taken in Studio Voltaire by @modernactivity

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a year ago

Not yr average book launch. taken in Matt's Gallery by @modernactivity

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a year ago

Book launch! at Matt’s Gallery: Aqueous Humours Fluid Ground

Friday 21st March 6.30-8.30pm
Etc Space, Matt’s Gallery

Free, no booking required

A night of experimental nonfiction, fiction, diagram, scent and moving image.

A book launch with readings, performances and screenings.

Join us to celebrate the publication of ‘Aqueous Humours Fluid Ground’ edited by Kirsten Cooke, published by Matt’s Gallery and the Poorhouse Reading Rooms.

An evening that activates a watery mapping, which denatures cartography through practices of immersion, aquatics, time travel and the posthuman lenses of geological, animal and machine vision.

Editor and Artists in order of publication:

Kirsten Cooke
Linda Stupart
Harun Morrison
Ezra-Lloyd Jackson
Melanie Jackson
Joseph Noonan-Ganley
Charlie Franklin
Michelle Williams Gamaker
Lucy A. Sames
Maggie Roberts
Carl Gent

“Aqueous Humours Fluid Ground is aesthetically and intellectually eye-opening - I highly recommend it”
Isabel Waidner

‘Aqueous Humours Fluid Ground’ was developed through conversations between Kirsten Cooke (research project ‘Fluid Ground’) and Melanie Jackson. Cooke is the commissioning editor of the publication and Jackson is the convenor of The Poorhouse Reading Rooms, an archive, a space for reading and writing and art publishing based in the South West.

Find out more: @kirstensylviacooke @melanie.jjj @lindastupart @harunishere @jacksonlloydezra @josephnoonanganley @charlie_franklin @m.williams.gamaker @lucyasames @maggie_mer @fashion_vacuum
@fineartinplymouth @goldsmithsart ————- - - big thanks to @mariel.nils and @velvetyne_type_foundry for the PicNic type! taken in Matt's Gallery by @modernactivity

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a year ago

Many hands… 🙌

Restoration work is still very much ongoing @kite.dinnet however we had to share the fabulous new signage that has gone up on the building. Beautiful graphics by @modernactivity and incredible fabrication in Corten steel by @the_crooked_shed taken in Dinnet by @modernactivity

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a year ago

Hellscapes and/or future promise? If you get the chance, go see a heavy, dense and magical show of Louis Pohl Koseda @lalit_madhav_ works, on till end of this week only @christiesinc

Small-screens really dont do these justice some are too huge to show on the 'gram, all the drawings are intricately detailed and need to be seen IRL.

History Lesson (detail)
Capital at risk — drawing the City of London (detail)
Bureaucracy for demoralisation in the JobCentre Plus (detail)
Arts Cancel (detail)

#drawing
#penandink
#realthing

Thanks @sebkoseda for the heads-up taken in Christie's by @modernactivity

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a year ago

Heres a little video of a Chromotrope circa 1870 in action with some scanned details. From a current project working with @benjudd16 — first day back to work this year was spent in the fascinating company of Jeremy and Carolyn Brooker (and a scanner courtesy of @enviorentals ), documenting some of his wonderful chromotropes...

#magiclanternsociety
#magiclantern
#chromotrope taken in South London by @modernactivity

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2 years ago