Practise is a Providence-based graphic design practice that works across a variety of media in collaboration with a diverse range of individuals, organisations, and companies. Founded in London by James Goggin and Shan James in 1999, the studio’s work includes the design, art direction, and occasional editing of publications, magazines, identity systems, posters, campaigns, websites, videos, typefaces, exhibitions, patterns, signs, and symbols for advertising, architectural, civic, cultural, fashion, and publishing clients across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australasia.
In British spelling, “Practise” is a verb, but sounds like a noun. Our studio name thus represents an important duality: the intention for a graphic design office to operate equally as a useful service (noun: a professional practice) and as a space for research, speculation, contemplation, and experimentation (verb: repeatedly performing activities and learning from them, e.g. “practise makes perfect”).
Shan James is a New Zealand and/or Hong Kong Chinese fashion, textile, and graphic designer from London via Hong Kong, Auckland, Arnhem, and Chicago. She studied architecture and painting in Auckland and ran a womenswear label (with JG) called Shan James from 1998—2002. Shan has exhibited in the UK, US, and Japan, and her eponymous womenswear label was stocked by respected retailers all over the world, including Harrods in London, Barneys in New York, and Journal Standard in Tokyo. Her work has been featured in publications including British Vogue, Elle, the Evening Standard, and the Sunday Telegraph. Shan plays a design and management role in Practise alongside her own work in illustration and textile design.
James Goggin is a British and/or Australian graphic designer from London via Sydney, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Auckland, Arnhem, and Chicago. He received a masters in Graphic Design from the Royal College of Art in London and currently teaches on the Graphic Design BFA and MFA programmes at Rhode Island School of Design. He previously taught at Werkplaats Typografie in Arnhem, The Netherlands, and at ECAL (Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne) in Switzerland. Alongside Practise, James has worked as a consultant to Tate Modern and Tate Britain, art director of British avant-garde music magazine The Wire, and Director of Design and Publishing at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. He designs type for various projects and clients, with a number of fonts available from Swiss foundry Lineto.James has exhibited at museums and institutions worldwide and run workshops, lectured, and served as critic at architecture, art, and design schools in Europe, the US, and Asia. He contributes writing to a range of international publications, serves on the editorial board of Chicago-based architecture magazine Flat Out, and was inducted as a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale in 2010. Works by Practise are included in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Chicago Design Archive.
Some Clients
Arts Club of Chicago
Barbican Art Gallery
British Council
Camden Arts Centre
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
Design Museum (London)
Flat Out magazine
Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture, Chicago
Institute of Contemporary Art Miami
Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia
Kate MacGarry
Krannert Art Museum
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Phaidon, London/New York
Rizzoli
Studio Gang Architects
Tate Britain
Tate Modern
Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago/Paris
University of Chicago
Verso
Victoria & Albert Museum
The Wire magazine
White Cube
Some Teaching, Lecturing
AIGA, Chicago
ArtEZ Institute of the Arts, Arnhem
Barbican Art Gallery, London
Beursschouwburg, Brussels
CalArts (California Institute of the Arts), Valencia
Casco Office for Art, Design and Theory, Utrecht
Central Saint Martins, London
Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills
ÉCAL (École cantonale d’art de Lausanne)
Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland
Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn
Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam
Golden Age, Chicago
Hochschule Darmstadt
Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel
IASPIS, Stockholm
Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
ISIA (Istituto Superiore Industrie Artistiche), Urbino
Norsk design- og Arkitektursenter DogA, Oslo
Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles
Pratt Institute, New York
Royal College of Art, London
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
School of Visual Arts, New York
Split Fountain, Auckland
STGU, Warsaw
Typography Summer School, New York
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Werkplaats Typografie, Arnhem
Yale University School of Art, New Haven
Some Exhibitions
Some Writing
‘The Matta-Clark Complex,’ The Form of the Book Book (Occasional Papers, London)
‘Pop Culture Colour Theory,’ Frank Koolen: United Colors of (Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam)
‘Practice from Everyday Life,’ The Most Beautiful Swiss Books 2008 (Swiss Federal Office for Culture, Bern)
‘On Relational & Social Design’ (a conversation with Europa), Iaspis Forum on Design and Critical Practice: The Reader (IASPIS, Stockholm/Sternberg Press, Berlin)
ColophonThis website and the works shown here are copyright © 1999–2019 Practise. Designed by Practise, running on WordPress with Lay Theme. Typeset in Courier Sans New & Courier Sans New Mono (James Goggin, 1994–2017 and Reymund Schröder, 2015–2017), a fully-revised edition of the original Courier Sans with italic and monospaced cuts, due for release by Lineto in 2019.
