By Ruth Rowland
Exhibiting and helping out at the Type Tasting workshop at the V&A Museum, London as part of the London Design Festival.
I like nothing better than to have the opportunity to get hands on and that's what Type Tasting is all about. Run as part of the London Design Festival at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Type Tasting exhibition and drop in workshops were open to everyone with a love of letterforms.
I submitted a piece of work for the exhibition, we had to choose a word that described London. I was drawn to the word 'expressive' as it reflects what I love most about London - its dynamic, ever-changing cultural scene. In addition, it's a term often used to describe the loose, gestural nature of much of my work.
I like to experiment with mark making, tools can vary from the beautifully hand crafted ruling pen used here, to a piece of old stick from my mother's garden. Pens and brushes are the tools of my trade, I've been collecting them for years, I like the fact that each one has its own distinctive characteristics.
Things can get messy with expressive mark making, the studio looked like an explosion in an ink factory after a morning working on the project. If you'd like to see me in action, check out the videos folder in the header above. Luckily, Sarah Hyndman, type enthusiast and work shop leader extraordinaire, wasn't frightened of a bit of mess when I helped her out at the workshops on the 14th and 15th September.
