November 2025
Matali Crasset
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SPIN was founded in 1992 in London by Tony Brook and Patricia Finegan. Their reputation in design is based primarily on the creation of organic identity systems and the innovative creation of experimental typographic forms. They are also founding partners in the publisher Unit Editions, and SPIN has designed the vast majority of the books published by Unit.
Curator: Hi! Could you give our readers a bit of background about your approach to design?
Tony (Spin Studio): The studio exists at the point where art and design meet. This position has evolved naturally and gradually over time; I find that commissioned and non-commissioned outcomes feed into and nourish one another. At this stage in our development they are interdependent, often coming together in surprising ways.
Erika Blumenfeld, Tracing Luminaries: Plate No. I6914 (Small Magellanic Cloud), 2022, intaglio print with starlight exposed cyanotype, chine collé, and 24k gold leaf on Hahnemuhle Copperplate, 17 x 14.75 inches, published by Island Press; Courtesy of the artist and Inman Gallery, Houston. Photo: Richard Sprengler
Erika Blumenfeld, Tracing Luminaries: Plate No. B20645 (Small Magellanic Cloud), 2022, intaglio print with starlight exposed cyanotype, chine collé, and 24k gold leaf on Hahnemuhle Copperplate, 17 x 14.75 inches, published by Island Press; Courtesy of the artist and Inman Gallery, Houston. Photo: Richard Sprengler
Installation view of Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody exhibition at The Broad, Los Angeles, May 27, 2023 – October 8, 2023. Photo by Joshua White/JWPictures.com, courtesy of The Broad.
C: Could you tell us about your design for U ME U?
T: The U ME U identity and the throw both stem from an art project of ours called Symmetrika. The idea was to begin with one shape that works both as a repeatable form for patterns and as an abstract typographic unit, becoming more or less legible depending on its context and exploring the space between representation and abstraction. If the visual for the throw is an abstraction, then the U ME U identity sees Symmetrika used as reductive type.
In addition to the throw, so far we have also made Symmetrika paintings and prints, and are in the process of making an artists’ multiple (watch this space!).
What appeals to you about seeing your design in this format/medium? (throws/textiles)
First and foremost the sensual materiality of the throws — they’re both physically beautiful and (importantly) lovely to the touch. They also have a really nice weight to them, they feel substantial and this means that they fold and lay nicely. This has a wonderful and, to us at least, unexpected effect on the Symmetrika forms which I never tire of seeing: it breaks the rigidity of the structure and adds a feeling of flow.
Erika Blumenfeld, Tracing Luminaries: Plate No. I6914 (Small Magellanic Cloud), 2022, intaglio print with starlight exposed cyanotype, chine collé, and 24k gold leaf on Hahnemuhle Copperplate, 17 x 14.75 inches, published by Island Press; Courtesy of the artist and Inman Gallery, Houston. Photo: Richard Sprengler
Erika Blumenfeld, Tracing Luminaries: Plate No. B20645 (Small Magellanic Cloud), 2022, intaglio print with starlight exposed cyanotype, chine collé, and 24k gold leaf on Hahnemuhle Copperplate, 17 x 14.75 inches, published by Island Press; Courtesy of the artist and Inman Gallery, Houston. Photo: Richard Sprengler
What was the process like for you working on this collection?
It has been an absolute delight, a serendipitous moment. Sometimes, very rarely, these things happen and the stars align. The possibility of creating a rigid and uncompromising graphic statement on a fluid substrate had been exercising me for a while and when I got the call from Dan it was quite a moment. He has been nothing but encouraging and the collaboration has been open, honest and inclusive throughout. We couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome.
Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody
The Broad
Los Angeles
May 27—October 8, 2023
The Broad
@thebroadmuseum
Keith Haring Foundation
@keithharingfoundation
Portrait of Sarah Loyer by Pau Pescador
Sarah Loyer is Curator and Exhibitions Manager at The Broad. Loyer has curated numerous exhibitions, including Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody (2023), the first full-scale exhibition of the artist’s work in Los Angeles, and This Is Not America’s Flag (2022), featuring the work of over twenty artists critically engaging the US symbol. She was the host curator for The Broad’s presentations of Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963-1983 (2019), organized by Tate Modern, London, and Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors (2017), organized by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. In 2020, she received a Curatorial Award for Excellence from the Association of Art Museum Curators. Loyer has a Masters in Public Art Studies from the University of Southern California and a B.A. in Media Studies and Cultural Studies from The New School.