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Oliver Long Studio

@oliverlong_

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A graphic design studio based in London.
Art and design direction for @thewiremagazine
Occasional lecturer

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Alchemy and the archive.

It has been an honour to work on the exhibition design for The Symptomatic Surreal, the first institutional exhibition dedicated to Leonora Carrington’s drawings from her Santander sketchbooks.

Now showing at @freudmuseum
Curated by Vanessa Boni
Joinery by Gareth Lindsay

The application of colours and materials (Stained ply, magnets, metallic papers) attempt to create an appropriate atmosphere for an archival show about Carrington. In many cases our choices derive from objects around the show.

The accompanying publication can be pre-ordered from the Freud Museum website.

'British-born Mexican artist Leonora Carrington (1917–2011) is one of the most celebrated figures associated with Surrealism. She was a painter, novelist, and visionary whose sustained enquiry into the psyche informed her interests in mythology, psychology, alchemy, tarot, and other esoteric traditions.

Told through her sketchbook drawings and letters from 1938 to 1941 prior to her permanent emigration to Mexico, this exhibition follows Carrington’s flight from Nazi occupied France, her hospitalisation in Sanatorium Morales in Santander, Spain, and her journey through Madrid to New York, where she was reunited with the Surrealists in exile in 1941. It was then that she entrusted the Santander sketchbooks to collector Julien Levy, which were held in his collection for over sixty years, until the sketchbook drawings were sold in 2004 and dispersed into various private collections.

This exhibition brings together material from Carrington’s stay in Santander, placing her recurring motifs of horses and the underworld in dialogue with Sigmund Freud’s collection of antiquities devoted to these themes. The exhibition is anchored by the presentation of Down Below (1940), a seminal early painting produced during Carrington’s hospitalisation in Santander, offering a rare opportunity to view the work as it has never been exhibited in London before.'

Photography by @lewiser taken in Freud Museum London by @oliverlong_

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6 months ago

Vanity Project

The latest issue of @thewiremagazine sees @space_afrika on the cover and the introduction of a new set of guest capitals digitised by an old classmate of mine @bjoerngiesecke

I was asked again to respond in the letters page of the magazine and contextualise the current method that we are taking with the design.

"Thank you. Our current plan is to change The Wire’s display typeface on a seasonal basis through the use of more experimental lettering. In this issue we
introduce a new series of guest capitals to keep us company. Vanity, over a century old, is a typeface digitised by Björn Giesecke in 2021. Like the previous guest typeface Brinkmann, Vanity was also summoned from a bygone journal. Giesecke explains: “Vanity originated as an additional titling option in 1922 by American art nouveau illustrator Will H Bradley for Hearst’s International magazine (which later merged into Cosmopolitan magazine).” Vanity was originally paired with Garamond, a typeface that was used by Paul Elliman in a number of issues of The Wire in the 1980s. We hope that the layering of this typographic time capsule will show an unusual merging of aesthetics. A merging which often happens among the contrasting artists that feature in the pages of The Wire."

Thanks Bjorn and the team at The Wire for the trust and help.

Amazing images (as usual) comissioned by @sean.cw by @oliverlong_

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2 months ago

A catalogue for the archival show: The Symptomatic Surreal. The first institutional exhibition dedicated to Leonora Carrington’s drawings from her Santander sketchbooks, offering a unique vantage point from which to reconsider the artist’s wartime output.

Edited by Vanessa Boni
Published by @freudmuseum
Photography by @matildahilljenkins by @oliverlong_

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2 months ago

Opening tonight at the @freudmuseum — 'Pleased Beasts' — an intimate exhibition by Senon Williams. @senonwill

Senon returned to sites connected to his family history, tracing ancestral journeys across Eastern Europe. Brought up by a mother born in a refugee camp in Switzerland during the Second World War and a father raised as a sharecropper in the American South, Senon used time spent in Příbor — Sigmund Freud’s birthplace — to reflect on migration, displacement, cultural inheritance, and the lasting impact of historical trauma.

Drawing on histories shaped by war, poverty and survival, Senon explores memory, belonging and resilience. His work resonates with Freud’s experience of exile and draws inspiration from the London Museum’s antiquities, translated into haunting painted portraits.

Presented within Freud’s former homes, Senon’s works become carriers of memory and witnesses to displacement and survival, inviting viewers to consider how personal histories intersect with collective narratives, and how trauma, memory and identity continue to shape human experience. taken in Freud Museum London by @oliverlong_

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3 days ago

This part poem, part diagram, part invitation is found within the pages of 'Fragments of a Queer Radical Mapping Praxis'. A publication designed for the qualitative health researcher, River Újhadbor and the charity @queercircle earlier this year.

The publication takes the form of a 67-page report. It includes examples of queer counter-mapping from around the globe, composite lyrical poems, analysis of key concepts, as well as the final framework of ‘seven fragments to orient us’.

It is typeset in 'Make Do', a typeface designed by @peternencini and photographed by @matildahilljenkins by @oliverlong_

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2 months ago

'Capital offence'

As @adrian.shaughnessy points out in his latest instagram post, I recently introduced the concept of using seasonal guest capitals in @thewiremagazine

We have been using Edward Wright's Brinkmann over the last two issues. Which feels, at least to me, like a welcome change.

After a reader's letter of complaint regarding this typographic evolution in issue 508, I was asked by the editorial team to respond with a short text in issue 509.

On the second slide you will see the letter and response. On the following slides there are more examples of the typeface in use over the previous two issues.

It was a joy to write the response and I want to thank the aforementioned reader, Fulvio, and The Wire team for opening up an organic opportunity to discuss TyPoGrApHy in print. by @oliverlong_

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4 months ago

A poster for Not Hollows by @joemoss1 at @chemist.gallery

Opening next Thursday, 21 May, 6–9pm and run between 22.5 – 21.6.26. taken in Northwoods Chemist by @oliverlong_

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5 months ago

@sunnofficial on the double cover (bottom left) of Issue 507 of @thewiremagazine

Featuring some (horrible) cover artwork by the one and only @flyzruz

<3 @sean.cw by @oliverlong_

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7 months ago

Some 'type only' posters for 'The Symptomatic Surreal' at @freudmuseum — opening soon.

This project has been a real labour of love with Vanessa Boni. We're looking forward to sharing more soon.

Set in Tradition by @bold_decisions — A digitisation inspired by Percy Delf Smith's calligraphic work. English and eccentric, just like Carrington.

"Gathering together the currently-scattered sketchbook drawings of the British-born, naturalised Mexican surrealist artist Leonora Carrington made between 1939–1941, The Symptomatic Surreal traces Leonora Carrington's experiences of fleeing Nazi-occupied France, her hospitalisation in a sanatorium in Santander, Spain, and her exile in New York. Through these drawings, the exhibition offers a rare encounter with the visions that shaped her early work. In this exhibition, Carrington grapples with geopolitical crisis, transformation of the self, and the underworld, anchored by her seminal painting Down Below (1940), on show for the very first time in London." taken in Freud Museum London by @oliverlong_

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7 months ago

I have been busy recently and haven't posted properly in a while… but I thought this one was worth sharing...

As part of my role for @thewiremagazine I now get to work with some great artists on cover imagery for compilations.

Most recently we got to commission @katjamater for 'The Wire Tapper 70'. The cover (and the CD itself) show images for her series 'The Wheels'. I have loved Katja's work for years so it feels fun to finally work together.

This one comes with the April issue (506) which features the brilliant @wendyeyes on its cover, shot by @meghanmarin

Thanks @katjamater @sean.cw @thewiremagazine @shanewoolman and James Gormley by @oliverlong_

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7 months ago

Back in August I started working with @cathiepilkington @gemmablackshaw and Vanessa Boni on the exhibition design for the Housekeeper – currently on at the @freudmuseum (Go see it if you haven't already!)

In the show, Cathie's works live amongst Freud's possessions, throughout the domestic setting, blending in but also feeling like Freudian slips poking through and haunting us.

Because the show wanted to behave in this less usual way it didn't make sense to caption every artwork throughout. Instead we made a booklet or 'ledger' to accompany visitors as they encounter the different interventions.

This pocket-sized companion was made together with lots of love. It's filled with amazing drawings and annotations by Cathie and wonderful reflections and questions by Gemma and Vanessa. And it is free!

We had been discussing a few references for this, but one that me and Cathie clung onto was the text 'Exhibition Prosthetics' by @josephgrigely — It seemed fun to think of how an object like this could perform a meaningful extension of the shows concept.

Photographs by Perou. taken in Freud Museum London by @oliverlong_

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10 months ago

A few weeks ago me and @lewiser headed down to the studio of @kirafreije to shoot a still life for the '2025 Rewind' issue of @thewiremagazine

Me and Lewis used loose materials as found in Kira's studio to create arrangements that in someway resembled sundials. 'The picking up, turning over and putting with'

Thanks @lewiser @kirafreije @sean.cw and The Wire.

Kira has a show at @hepworthwakefield that just opened, go check it out if you are up that way.

And go subscribe to The Wire as a Xmas present for yourself if you haven't already... taken in Millennium Dome by @oliverlong_

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10 months ago