Website and archive for the political arts organisation
Studio
Rectangle is a graphic and interaction design studio based in Glasgow, Scotland and founded by Daniel Powers and Lizzie Malcolm in 2017. We work with information and technology and content and form to develop projects in various media.
Work
We write software, build tools, create archives, design interfaces and explore technologies. Our work is focused on building tools to structure stores of information, and interfaces to access them.
Clients
We work with journalists, human rights organisations, cultural organisations, artists, curators, workspaces, publishers, researchers and educational institutions.
Contact
studio@rectangle.design
9 May Terrace
G42 9XF Glasgow
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A feminist experiment in imaging and reimagining the planet in an era of climate crisis
A redesign of the website for the Berwick Film Festival for their 2020 online festival, updated in 2023 for the return to in-person viewings
A website of written commissions reflecting on a shifting media landscape
An archive of Scotland’s contributions to the Venice Biennale in both art and architecture
A presentation of excerpts of testimonies from Afghan women and girls
An interactive environment for artist Leontios Toumpouris
A series of graduate exhibition sites for the Glasgow School of Art.
A redesign of the website and update to the identity of the Centre for Investigative Journalism.
A memorial for civilian casualties of the war on ISIS in Iraq & Syria.
Feature inforgraphics, interactive tools and videos for Airwars.
An identity and website for a research project exploring the intersection between the arts, society, and technology.
A identity and website for the Critical Making research consortium.
A tool to explore facts and statistics on the benefits of cultural investment.
An identity and website for an avant-garde performance space in Amsterdam
A poster with an identity crisis for the Center for Interdiciplinary Methodologies at Warwick University
A website chronologising the work and process of the Dutch artist Myung Feyen
A twitter visualisation of the conversation surrounding the Scottish Independence referendum in 2014
A photographic archive of The Glasgow School of Art after a fire in 2014
An online platform that serves as a digital extension to the CCA’s physical galleries
An annotated bibliography and open-access list of texts written by women on architecture
A tool to hire creative work and event spaces at Civic House and Glue Factory in Glasgow
An archive and collection of teaching tools for 20th century periodicals of Left, anti-imperial and anti-colonial critical production.
A website for the the Glasgow-based music festival
A collection of 77 stories to explore, celebrate, and promote oral storytelling traditions in Scotland
A microsite detailing the systematic abusing being carried out against Muslims living in Xinjiang
A website for the Non-Linear Narrative project Who Speaks? Artificial Intelligence, Language, and Democracy.
A library of graphics and animations for the Centre for Investigative Journalism website.
A website for the civilian casualty monitor.
A website for an Israeli artist and choreographer, exploring information density in web design
A series of infographics on the 2019 protests and internet shutdown in Iran in which security forces killed at least 304 people.
Digital publication and newspaper for a bi-lingual journal
Map and document database of timber regulation resources for lawyers and environmental activists
An identity and poster series for an annual theme at the Center for Interdisciplinary Methodologies at Warwick University
A subversive browser extension that suggests alternative methods to manufacture, repair, or replace items as you shop on IKEA.com
Covers for a new book series for Amsterdam based Octavo Publicaties
A website giving new life to old ways of finding music
A timeline visualisation of women's political rights around the world since 1892
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Workshops
- Test Unit, 10–16 June 2019, Glasgow
A project concerned with debunking the myth of seamlessness or immateriality around data and technology. By exposing or visualising the seams between systems we can reassert our understanding of, and agency within, the technological landscape.
photo credit: Jassy Earl
- Archives, March 2019, CCS DetroitOver two days we worked with students to create digital archives using WordPress and custom fields.
- Participatory Web, October 2018, Goldsmiths UniversityAn exploration of online participation, collaboration, and competition.
- Greenpeace @ KABK, September 2018Again with the NLN Master, we directed a workshop to kick off a year long collaboration project with Greenpeace.
- Psychographics, April 2018
A week long workshop at the KABK’s Non Linear Narrative Master. Following the recent investigations into the practices of Cambridge Analytica, we asked students to download their entire Facebook archive. Using a combination of text and image analysis, they designed an interfaces to their dataset, confronting the quantity and intimacy of the information. - Command & Control, Tech Week, January 2018A workshop examining the proliferation of dashboards and control rooms outwith their traditional domains, and into our everyday lives. In collaboration with Thomas Boland.
Talks + Lectures
- Disentangling Conflict Data at Scale, London, 20 February 2020
- Templeton on the Green, Glasgow, 3 September 2019
- The Whisky Bond, Glasgow, 12 June 2019
- College for Creative Studies, Detroit, 20 March 2019
- Design Theory, GSA, 16 October 2018
- Rectangle & Make Works, Mozilla Festival, London, 29 October 2017
Teaching
Both Lizzie and Dan taught Interaction Design and Coding in the Non Linear Narrative masters programme at the KABK in The Hague.
Dan previously taught in the Interaction Design department at ArtEZ in Arnhem for 8 years and Lizzie in the bachelor programme for Graphic Design at the KABK for 4 years, as well as the the Communication Design department at the Glasgow School of Art for 2 years.
Interns
We’ve been lucky to have Samuel Rynearson (2018) and Josh Krauth-Harding (2020) as student interns.