The Art of Comics
Client: Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) and the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS)
Period: 2019
Multi-stakeholder partnerships
Awards & events
Arts, culture & heritage
01 — The sneak-peek
More than speech bubbles — the universal language of comics
The Art of Comics, a collaboration between the Johannesburg Art Gallery and the French Institute of South Africa, was the first exhibition of its kind at a major South African museum. BBA Liminal developed the branding, collateral and educational supplement — the face and the welcome that helped a fine-art institution open its doors to families and a popular medium.
02 — The liminal moment
Comics had surged in South Africa — ComicCon Africa alone draws more than 45,000 people in a weekend — yet the form had never been shown at a major South African museum. The Art of Comics changed that, the first exhibition of its kind, bringing South African comics and the French Bande dessinée together at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2019.
03 — The transformation
We made the museum feel open. We developed the branding and collateral so a fine-art institution read as welcoming across every age and level of art knowledge — built around the exhibition's central aim of drawing new museum audiences and families through the doors together.
We turned the show into something you do. We created a rich educational supplement: an extensive comics glossary as a teaching aid, empty panels inside for visitors to make their own comics, and a colour-in poster by the celebrated South African artist Loyiso Mkize.
We held two visual cultures as one. The collateral had to carry South African comics and the French Bande dessinée side by side — 89 framed works across the two traditions — in a single identity legible to a curious newcomer and a seasoned reader alike.
04 — The craft
An identity that opened the gallery's doors
A welcoming visual language for a first-of-its-kind museum show, carried from exhibition collateral to a hands-on educational supplement — glossary, make-your-own-comic panels, and Loyiso Mkize's colour-in poster — across a show that placed 47 French and francophone works alongside 43 South African ones.
The event
05 — The validation of purpose
The work did what it set out to do: it brought new audiences into a major museum. Over the September-to-November run the exhibition drew 6,000 visitors, more than 2,000 of them school learners through dedicated education programmes, and generated press coverage worth over R9 million across 119 features. A popular medium found a home in a fine-art institution, and the institution found the families and young readers it had hoped to reach.
6,000 attendees
2,000+ school learners
R9m+ press across 119 features
Brand & communications strategy
Thought leadership
Capacity building
Print production
Signage & wayfinding
Copywriting
Event & convening design
Publication & editorial design
Brand identity design
Cultural diplomacy
Public value framing
Positioning & narrative
