About me
Polina Joffe is a Berlin-based graphic designer and art director with a methodical approach to identities, printed matter, websites, and visual communication. Time spent researching legibility and modern reading systems underpins Polina’s typographic-led process and style, which she applies to international projects for a wide range of clientele.
After she completed her MA in Contemporary Typographic Media, Polina began her career in-house at the Tate where she produced graphics, environmental designs, and visualised high-profile exhibitions and campaigns. She left in 2015 to establish her own practise.
Selected clients: Universe Publishing, Tate Modern, Feng Chen Wang, Stenberg Press, Tate Britain, London College of Communication, Tate St. Ives, Museum of Everything
Lectures and workshops: University of the Arts London, Middlesex University, Tate Modern, University of Hertfordshire
Selected Press: It's Nice That, People of Print, Exhibition Art · Graphics and Space Design, Tate Learning, It's Nice That Annual, Imprint · Innovative Book and Promo Design, Art in Book, Etapes, Slanted Magazine, Page Online, Neue Graphic
Projects
- Richard Tuttle, I Don't Know or the Weave of Textile LanguageThe UK’s largest ever survey of the sculptor Richard Tuttle features a sculptural commission I Don’t Know . The Weave of Textile Language in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. The campaign and pre-campaign (shown here) required working alongside the artist to get a sense of the planned sculpture. The finished creative reflects the airiness, gentleness and scale of his work.
- Source DisplayThe visual identity for Source, an exhibition at Tate Britain curated by young people, is based on highlighting similarities between the 17th century salon hang and image-centric social networking platforms like Tumblr, and looks at the mass consumption and availability of visual culture online in relation to the offline experience of looking at art in a gallery. The design includes exhibition graphics, a monthly brochure design, Oyster card inserts, posters and adverts as well as materials for
- Tate TreasureThe treasure hunt identity was created in collaboration with Tate Collectives for the opening of the New Tate Britain. The treasure map design is hip and contemporary while remaining traditional with the use of colour. A gold flex throughout the design reflects traditional pirate maps.
- Be JustSmall piercings underline the text of the whole book that has been printed on bible paper and french folded. For this designed version of the book I opted for subtle colour to emphasise that the story, generally considered horror, is in fact somehow quite light in feel. Kafka’s writing has elements of dark humour and great irony. The colour is hidden in between the pages and is not really noticeable when reading. Sometimes a hint of colour will peek through some of the pierced holes. Bible paper is used to reference the Biblical themes of the novella.
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Work history
Graphic Designer
Selected Clients: Tate, Tate Publishing, Stenberg Press, Irena Haiduk, Universe Publishing, Things Organized Neatly, Ostkreuz Verein, Ostkreuz Agentur der Fotografen, Hatje Cantz Verlag, Marsano Blumen, Dreischeibenhaus, HelloMe Design Studio, Loop, Servant Jazz Quarters, Business Bay, Opera at Home, Helsinki and Tokyo University Hospitals, THIS IS Studio, Artangel collection, The Renaissance Society, London College of Communication, Research Project, Feng Cheng Wang, P. B. Willberg Studio, Museum of Everything
Lectures & Talks: University Of The Arts London, Middlesex University, Better Bankside, Herdfordshire University, Tate Collectives
Selected Press: It's Nice That, People of Print, Exhibition Art · Graphics and Space Design, Tate Learning, It's Nice That Annual, Imprint · Innovative Book and Promo Design, Art in Book, Etapes, Slanted Magazine, Page Online, Neue Graphic
Graphic DesignerTATE
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Leading the visual design of high-profile exhibitions and campaigns across all four Tate galleries.
– Design and production of exhibition campaigns
– Design and brand development for Young Peoples Programmes
– Cross media design and implementation of visual identities
– Typography for screen and print
– Supervision and development of the Tate brand
Skills
- Packaging
- Branding
- Environmental Design
- Corporate Identity
- Print Design
- Art Direction
- Websites
- Typography
- Wayfinding Design
- Brand Design
- Brand Identity
- Logo Design
- Illustrator
- Indesign
- Photoshop
Education
Contemporary Typographic Media
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MA Contemporary Typographic Media is a course about visible words, exploring language in printed, virtual, moving, environmental and interactive spaces.
Rapid technological change is a condition of contemporary culture and has a profound effect on how we transmit, receive and understand messages. These rapid developments are creating new forms of dialogue between producers and users, authors and readers, in both commercial and cultural discourse, giving rise to many new, exciting challenges.
Students on the MA Contemporary Typographic Media course seek to address these issues by investigating the dynamics of visible language. Through self-directed research project work, we undertake intensive practical explorations of word and image, message and audience, media and technology, type and typography, and develop a unique set of critical skills and knowledge. Our research studies are based on significant current debates about typographic communication, contrasting its deep humanist origins with more recent systematic and generative approaches to form-giving.