That impetus carried on into the 1970s, when Peter Saville‘s cover art for New Order and Joy Division redefined the role of the graphic designer and pushed British designers to the top of the heap. In the following decades, designers like 8vo (whose anniversary poster for the Hacienda has been blown up into an enormous four-foot-high hanging), Tomato and やthe Designer’s Republic would define global club culture with their flyers, posters and album sleeves.

Visitors to the Shanghai leg may have easily missed an addendum to the exhibit, a collection of work by Chinese design students culled from a competition organised by the British Council, that was tucked away in a corner at the very end of the show. Students from Ningbo University, Shanghai Bangde Vocational College and elsewhere produced works on the theme ‘communication’. This resulted in submissions like a large piece comprised of 30 separate panels organised in a grid, by 28 students of Ningbo City College of Vocational Technology that explores the fluid nature of the written word.

In all, Communicate in Shanghai was a tightly curated, smoothly executed exhibition with a wealth of reference material, multi-media stations and a healthy attendance. The only gripe might be the rather expensive RMB40 entrance fee to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall, which, being a major tourist attraction, is understandable. The British Council’s ongoing attempts at cultural transfusion continue to be relevant, enriching and tasteful.

Communicate: Independent British Graphic Design since the Sixties
Date: June 2nd – 19th, 2005
Place: Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center
Address: 100 Renmin Ave, Ren Min Guang Chang, Huangpu, Shanghai
Tel: +86 21 6318 4477
https://www.britishcouncil.org