In 2012, Frieze is extending its scope beyond the contemporary works of its Frieze Art Fair. Frieze Masters, to be held alongside the established event in London’s Regent’s Park, will provide an unstuffy presentation of older artworks, spanning from the Renaissance to the late 20th century. The new fair’s fresh approach is expressed in its wordmark: the individual characters are historic (based on Berthold Wolpe’s Albertus typeface), but the asymmetrical all-lower-case setting provides an informal and modern arrangement.
Frieze Masters’ campaign strategy applies similar principles, creating an identity for each annual fair around multiple details of a single important historic artwork. Cropping creates a tension and abstraction that counters the artwork’s familiarity. It also provides a family of details for advertising and marketing applications, each one unique, but consistent in palette and texture. A fresh artwork will be selected from a public gallery for each campaign, beginning this year with the National Gallery’s ‘The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius’, painted in 1486 by Carlo Crivelli.
Reflecting the significant cross-over between the two events, Frieze Masters has adopted many of the brand components familiar from the established Frieze Art Fair. The continuity of secondary typestyle and printed formats is both practical for Frieze and reassuring for its audience.
Photography: Mike Bruce
Courtesy of the National Gallery
