As part of the founding committee for NGV Artbeat, I had the privilege of designing the group’s identity, as well as all of the related collateral for the many events and parties that we hosted over the 3 years that I was part of the inner sanctum.

Artbeat was the young membership group of the National Gallery of Victoria.

It was created to represent the interests of the 20/30-something professionals who wanted an edgier experience than being part of the traditional gallery membership group which was comparatively staid.

At the heart of the Artbeat identity was the signature exclamation mark that was created over a number of steps.

Firstly, I got a tooth brush and some black ink, which I then spattered onto a blank piece of paper.

I then scanned the page at extremely high resolution before compositing the most satisfying splats to create the overall shape.

I then printed it onto A4 sticker stock which I then stuck onto an A4 piece of plastic film.

Next, I carefully cut out the exclamation mark shape with a surgical scalpel.

And then finally, I sprayed up a few blank sheets with some aerosol paint so as to get that proper street-side ‘graf’ aesthetic.

I scanned the best of these which got fine-tuned for use in all of the related finished art applications.