A publication that aligns editorial restraint with tactile sensitivity—structuring a dialogue between artists through time, space and material encounter.

 

Layers of Time: Morandi & Ralaivao translates a dialogue between two artists, separated by decades, into print. While working in different contexts, both Morandi and Ralaivao explore still life: the quiet intensity of light, surface, and form. Rather than document the show, the design rearticulates its ideas through print. Typography, layout, materiality and image function as a cohesive system – each element working in relation to the others to carry forward the show’s logic while shifting its rhythm. ​

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The typographic system, developed in parallel with the exhibition, carries temporal weight. Its internal contrasts – between historical reference and editorial sharpness, structure and softness – echo the exhibition’s central concern: how influence moves through time. Pacing and layout are equally deliberate. Negative space, sequencing and compositional variation create a measured rhythm, balancing stillness with intensity. Cropped image details draw the eye to surface and texture; shifts in scale and density mirror the exhibition’s spatial dynamics, encouraging close, attentive looking.

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Material decisions extend the book’s conceptual structure. A translucent opening sequence overlays text and image, evoking temporality – influence glimpsed through layers, never fully fixed. Later, uncoated pages, reproduced from Ralaivao’s sketchbook, introduce a tactile shift that gestures toward process. The cover resists imagery, relying on typographic composition alone: “MORANDI” and “RALAIVAO” held in quiet tension – separated, yet in dialogue. Every material and structural choice reflects the exhibition’s meditation on time, attention, and influence. Layers of Time is not a record, but a continuation. A form of looking, made tactile. You can view the exhibition identity in detail here.

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Artists: Giorgio Morandi & Alexis Ralaivao 

Gallery: Nahmad Projects

Art Direction, Design & Layout: Billie Temple

Coordinated by Julia Lucero and Mary Lodge

Text: Lock Kresler, Paul Coldwell, Alexis Ralaivao

Installation Photography: Stephen White & Co 

Production: Roy Killen / Product photography: George House