Doors open at British Council

The British Council will lose its only in-house exhibition designer at the end of this month – “paving the way for a wide range of jobs for external designers”, according to a spokesman.

Christopher Wade, the council’s exhibitions head, confirms that in-house designer Marsha Lebon has taken voluntary redundancy and will not be replaced.

Emily Hayes, currently senior designer at Pentagram’s US branch, will join in the council in September. “She will become design activities manager, a new post we have created. We won’t take on any more in-house designers,” says Wade.

Giant, Pentagram, Atelier Works and The Partners are on the council’s roster, along with Graven Images, which has recently been added after winning a paid pitch to design Traditions of Respect, an exhibition on the influences of Islam on the West.

“We’ll definitely be looking to expand the designers we work with after Marsha has left,” says Wade, adding that the emphasis of exhibitions is changing.

“We used to do one poster campaign which was distributed to all 109 countries. We now want separate exhibitions, which will lead to more design work,” he says.

Work from London, a council exhibition of the work of 30 graphic designers, will start a global tour in November.

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