‘fabric’ is a proposed community of artist studios based in Bernat Klein’s iconic modernist studio in the Scottish Borders.
It establishes art as a serious profession while remaining welcoming. This tension line between warmth and work runs throughout the brand.
The identity constantly refers back to Bernat Klein’s practice, with a motion language inspired by his ‘power looms’.
SCOPE
Motion identity system
Custom tool
Brand design
BRIEF
Bernat Klein was a Serbian textile designer and painter based in the Scottish Borders. His studio building, which later fell into disuse, is
category A-listed.
In the summer of 2025 the Klein Studio was acquired to be restored and returned to its original purpose, a working studio.
CLIENT
‘fabric’ is a proposed community of artist studios based in the Klein Studio, with a focus on overlapping talent from local artists and residencies. In Klein’s book Eye for Colour, he divides the autobiographical section into two: the Warp and the Weft. The Warp is the thread that runs length-wise along the cloth, while the Weft runs across.
‘Until the weft interweaves with
the warp there can be no cloth.’
Bernat Klein, 1965
The Warp are the permanent studios, and the Weft are residencies. Overlapped, they form fabric.
WORK
For this organisation’s identity, it had to establish art as a serious profession, while feeling welcoming as a community. This tension line between warmth and work runs throughout the brand, for example in the angular yet curvy wordmark.
The heart of the identity is the motif of the overlap, with a motion language inspired by the movement of a ‘power loom’, the machine used in Klein’s textile factories. Created with a custom-coded motion tool, the wordmark is woven together, creating endless patterns.
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