Practise


Passport Colour Photo Tests: Auckland, Tokyo, London, LA, 1997—ongoing

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.

“Practise” is a verb, but sounds like a noun (British spelling). 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.

Downtown Providence sign with lilac skyscrapers pictogram and directions to Brown University and RISD in white on a bright green background, against a blue summer sky with a single white cloud.


Contact
Email Studio
Call +1 401 365 4015

Elsewhere
Instagram
Twitter

Mailing Address
Department of Graphic Design
Rhode Island School of Design
2 College Street
Providence, RI 02903
United States

Some Clients

  • Arts Club of Chicago

  • Barbican Art Gallery

  • British Council

  • Camden Arts Centre

  • Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts

  • City of Chicago

  • David Kohn Architects

  • David Zwirner

  • Design Museum (London)

  • Flat Out magazine

  • Harvard Committee on the Arts

  • Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture, Chicago

  • Institute of Contemporary Art Miami

  • Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia

  • Kate MacGarry

  • Krannert Art Museum

  • Letterform Archive, San Francisco

  • London Development Agency

  • MIT Press

  • Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

  • Phaidon, London/New York

  • The Renaissance Society, Chicago

  • Rizzoli

  • Studio Gang Architects

  • Tate Britain

  • Tate Modern

  • Tate St Ives

  • Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago/Paris

  • Transport for London

  • 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

  • Harvard University, Cambridge

  • Hochschule Darmstadt

  • Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel

  • IASPIS, Stockholm

  • Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia

  • ISIA (Istituto Superiore Industrie Artistiche), Urbino

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

  • 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

Colophon
This website and the works shown here are copyright © 1999–2020 Practise. Designed by Practise, running on WordPress with Lay Theme. Typeset in Recollection Text (Vincent Chan, Matter of Sorts). 

Practise


Passport Colour Photo Tests: Auckland, Tokyo, London, LA, 1997—ongoing

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.

“Practise” is a verb, but sounds like a noun (British spelling). 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.

Downtown Providence sign with lilac skyscrapers pictogram and directions to Brown University and RISD in white on a bright green background, against a blue summer sky with a single white cloud.


Contact
Email Studio
Call +1 401 365 4015

Elsewhere
Instagram
Twitter

Mailing Address
Department of Graphic Design
Rhode Island School of Design
2 College Street
Providence, RI 02903
United States

Some Clients

  • Arts Club of Chicago

  • Barbican Art Gallery

  • British Council

  • Camden Arts Centre

  • Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts

  • City of Chicago

  • David Kohn Architects

  • David Zwirner

  • Design Museum (London)

  • Flat Out magazine

  • Harvard Committee on the Arts

  • Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture, Chicago

  • Institute of Contemporary Art Miami

  • Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia

  • Kate MacGarry

  • Krannert Art Museum

  • Letterform Archive, San Francisco

  • London Development Agency

  • MIT Press

  • Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

  • Phaidon, London/New York

  • The Renaissance Society, Chicago

  • Rizzoli

  • Studio Gang Architects

  • Tate Britain

  • Tate Modern

  • Tate St Ives

  • Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago/Paris

  • Transport for London

  • 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

  • Harvard University, Cambridge

  • Hochschule Darmstadt

  • Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel

  • IASPIS, Stockholm

  • Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia

  • ISIA (Istituto Superiore Industrie Artistiche), Urbino

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

  • 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

Colophon
This website and the works shown here are copyright © 1999–2020 Practise. Designed by Practise, running on WordPress with Lay Theme. Typeset in Recollection Text (Vincent Chan, Matter of Sorts). 

Practise
Practise