Scottish design agency of the year takes on tartan for V&A Dundee

The design team at the Dundee V&A

SCOTTISH Design Agency of The Year – Form Digital – has won a competitive pitch to create the visual campaign identity for Tartan, the first major exhibition of its kind curated by Scotland’s Design Museum, V&A Dundee

Marking V&A Dundee’s 5th anniversary, this evocative new exhibition offers a radical new look at an instantly recognisable textile and pattern, the first exhibition in Scotland in 30 years to focus solely on tartan. 

Form Digital, a modern creative agency specialising in visual identity and design with offices in both Aberdeen and Glasgow, has racked up an impressive 28 awards since 2014 and work with clients including Glenmorangie, Glenrothes Whisky, Atholl Estates, TAQA & Finn Thomson Whisky to name a few. 

The prestigious exhibition campaign will be designed and developed by Form Digital in partnership with Flux Video and motion designer Tiernan Crilley, encompassing a brand identity across display, sound, motion, merchandise and more. 

Tartan runs from April 1 2023 to January 14 2024 and will bring together a dazzling selection of more than 300 objects from over 80 lenders worldwide, illustrating tartan’s universal and enduring appeal through iconic and everyday examples of fashion, architecture, graphic and product design, photography, furniture, glass and ceramics, film, performance and art. 

Cameron Fraser, Managing Director of Form Digital, said: 

“It’s a huge honour for Form Digital to be entrusted with such an illustrious project celebrating one of the world’s greatest exports.  Our talented team of creatives is busy crafting an exciting and dynamic design campaign for our nation to be proud of and we can’t wait to deliver this exhibition with V&A Dundee.”

Tara Wainwright, V&A Dundee Marketing and Audiences Manager, said: 

“We are extremely excited to work with Form Digital on this brief for the must-see show of 2023 in our 5th birthday year. From a creative perspective, the tartan grid offers a set of rules to be broken so working with such a dynamic, passionate and talented design studio to share this story with audiences around the world makes perfect sense.”

Tartan celebrates the global story of a unique pattern, and how the rules of the grid have inspired creativity from the every day to the sublime. 

An extravagant, exuberant experience featuring loans from around the world, including Chanel, Dior, Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Tate, V&A, National Museums of Scotland, Fashion Museum Bath, the Highland Folk Museum and many more. The exhibition also incorporates ‘the People’s Tartan’ – a changing selection of objects owned and sent in by the public who responded to the museum’s appeal to share their tartan treasures.

Tartan is scheduled to run from April 1 2023 to January 14 2024 at V&A Dundee. Tickets available from vam.ac.uk/Dundee

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