Recap: Swash & Serif Two

This year was the second year that we hosted our typography show, Swash & Serif, officially making it annual! The first Swash & Serif was held in November of 2014 at Black Cat Artspace on Dundas West and was a huge success. This year, we returned there to celebrate another fantastic round of artists and designers and the great work they shared with us, and like last year, we had a packed house on opening night!

We had a great number of submissions again this year, and saw a lot of awesome newcomers. Some of this work was so great, we couldn't believe we had never heard of these people! The creativity and level of skill that everybody in the show had was just stunning. Just like last year, of course, we received the majority of submissions at the last minute. Typical. (Hint: start working on your 2016 submissions now!)

A lot of people thought outside the box in creating imaginative lettering and typography work. We had pieces ranging from the huge and heavy to very tiny, incredibly detailed pieces. Wood burning and laser cutting, screen printing, painting and original hand lettering were all well-represented, and the show also included embroidered work and hand made jewelry. We also included prices for each piece on the artist cards for the first time, to try and help designers sell their work; last year there was a lot of interest from visitors and we wanted to help start a conversation about making a purchase by having all the information up front. Last year, we had our first submission from outside of Ontario, but this year marked our first international entry: a piece from sign painter Scott Boms in California! Swash & Serif was born in Toronto but we're excited to see and share work from all over the world.

With the success of year two, we're already looking ahead at 2016 and thinking about how we can keep Swash & Serif exciting for regulars and newcomers alike in year three. More info will be posted online as we make plans, so keep an eye out. We're excited to make Swash & Serif an annual event for the Toronto design community and can't wait to see what everybody comes up with next year!

Thank you to all the people who participated in our show, we couldn't have done this without you.

Alley Kurgan Andrew Robinson Anthony Menecola Ben Weeks Benjamin Lory Brad Pyne Brendan Gore Brett Martin Brian Narayan Kare Cat Walrond Davin Risk Edisson Cajamarca

Campfire Jason Jay Studio Jay Wall + LOKI Jesse Watson Jules Stacey Kiros Chu Lauren Holden L.E. Frost Mark Serrano Marta Ryczko Melanie Abernethy Merrill Liu Natasia Leung

Rilla Fernandez Sam Johnstone Sarah Trafford Saša Djukić Scott Boms Simone Robert Tanya Roberts Tatjana Petkovic Thary Chhom Veronica Wong Walker Ballantyne-Maund William Robinson

The Swash & Serif Gallery Show Recap

Swash & Serif was the first typography-focused art show hosted by Ligatures and the Toronto Design Directory. The show opened with great anticipation on November 13^th at The Black Cat gallery on Dundas West and ran until November 19^th.

If you'd like to see more pictures of the event, please check out the great shots by BongoPix & Black Cat Gallery, as well as this great coverage by Torontoist.

The show was comprised of 40 pieces by 36 artists. We were delighted with the quality of the work that poured in from the creative community. It was difficult to curate the final selections – there was only so much space! It was a pleasure to see so many different mediums which made for an eclectic arrangement of typographic eye candy.

The full collection archive can be found on the Swash & Serif website.  It will also be the first place to find out when we'll be accepting submissions for next show, slated for fall 2015.

The Swash & Serif team would like to extend a thank you to Paul Dotey and Rob Shostak for helping set up the night before the opening reception. Thank you to Black Cat Gallery and Andrew Williamson for all of his help leading up to opening night. Thanks to the public for spreading the word about the show and supporting the artists show during the show's run. But the biggest thank you goes to the 36 artists that submitted their work

Go check them out now!