Versus Rodin (2017) brought the largest collection of Auguste Rodin’s work ever shown in the southern hemisphere into dialogue with 60 contemporary artists from around the world. For the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide, the brief wasn’t just to promote a blockbuster. It was to frame a cultural conversation about how the human form is perceived across time, and to position AGSA as a bold curator of that dialogue. Our job was to design a campaign identity and system that could scale across the city while retaining the nuance and integrity of the exhibition itself.

Art Gallery of South Australia

The Arts

Campaign branding and visual system
Exhibition graphics and wayfinding
Advertising and marketing collateral (print, digital, social)
OOH including tram wrap and large-format billboards
Exhibition book design
Site and entry signage

The exhibition was never “Rodin alone”. It was a deliberate collision of old and new, inviting audiences to consider tension, contrast and reinterpretation. The campaign needed to signal that breadth at a glance, while feeling authoritative enough for a leading state gallery and flexible enough to live on everything from posters to a moving tram.

To communicate the exhibition’s scale and intent, we combined tight crops of Rodin’s sculptures with contemporary, gridded typography—a visual conversation between classical materiality and modern structure. Listing the contemporary artists directly in the graphic field made the scope instantly legible and reframed Rodin as a catalyst rather than the sole subject.

Copper foiling introduced a tactile cue to craft and permanence, while large-format imagery delivered impact in high-traffic environments. The system was built as a brand-like campaign: simple rules, strong assets, consistent use—so memory builds quickly, in line with Ehrenberg-Bass principles of distinctive assets and broad reach.

Versus Rodin demanded a campaign that could honour a master and amplify 60 contemporary perspectives without losing coherence. By designing a distinctive, system-led identity and executing it consistently across mediums, we helped AGSA reach new audiences and deepen engagement with existing ones. If your gallery, museum or festival needs a campaign that connects curatorial vision with public impact, we can help.

Jonathan VDK

Mark Lobo