A portfolio designed to capture a historic interruption — where a single gesture of spilt varnish becomes both surface and symbol, marking the moment tradition was broken.

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Varnishing Day: A Moment in Time is a commemorative portfolio created in response to the cancellation of the Royal Academy’s Varnishing Day in 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Bringing together 100 new works by Royal Academicians, the portfolio captures a singular moment of collective creative practice, held within an object designed to reflect the significance of the event without overshadowing the work it contains.

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Rather than privileging any single artwork or introducing new pictorial imagery, the design turns to a single, decisive gesture: the spill of varnish. Embossed and gloss-varnished across the Marrs Green Colorplan box and echoed through the internal layers, this mark becomes the unifying device – a material trace of the day and the act that gives it its name.

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The portfolio unfolds through a precisely choreographed sequence of materials and structures. A telescopic box opens to reveal a Lavender lining, a colour-matched grosgrain ribbon, and a foil-stamped belly band carrying only the Royal Academy’s monogram. Inside, the works are accompanied by a four-page booklet featuring a letter from Her Majesty Queen Camilla (then Duchess of Cornwall), framed between duplexed Colorplan sheets that lend stability and definition to the composition. Typography is used sparingly and with intent. Commercial Type’s Schnyder and Canela bring clarity and refinement to the minimal texts, supporting the material presence of the object without demanding attention.

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More than a container, Varnishing Day: A Moment in Time is a physical expression of a shared event – designed to be opened, held and remembered.

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Artists: 100 Royal Academicians​

Design: Billie Temple

Gallery/Museum: Royal Academy of the Arts

All images courtesy of Hurtwood Press​

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