Marlon Tate

High-Rise housing and skyscrapers is a very popular type of housing in the UK, which is favoured among the younger generation. On the occasion of an ongoing debate about this type of housing, Marlon Tate was commissioned to design and art direct ’What is the future of High-Rise Housing?’, a book examining the long-term social and financial impacts of residential towers. Published by London School of Economics, the publication consists of a series of essays written by prominent architects, academics and theorists including June Barnes, former CEO of ETHA; Andrew Beharrell, former senior partner of Pollard Thomas Edwards; and London School of Economics’ distinguished policy fellow, Kath Scanlon among others.

The pocket-sized paperback, featuring illustrations and photographs by Londoners assumes a negative stance towards High-Rise Housing and as such, Marlon Tate was brought in to make sure the publication sustains a contemporary look and feel. Our design and art direction draws inspiration from 1960s political manifesto pocket books. The cover references tall buildings as well as demonstration placates featuring visual language that reflects the polemic intensity of demonstrating as well as the schism between different opinions. To further develop our idea of a political manifesto we used the typeface Marche, which is a heavy-weight display typeface. The whole book is printed in two Pantone colours; the green and the purple which we also printed the edges of the book with. Everything else on the inside is black and white or monochrome (purple) to evoke the DIY xerox aesthetic that protesters and squatters employ when communicating their ideas and manifestos.