garden of contrast Returning to The Red Barn we decided to make this workshop all about contrast. Well, and gardening. We used the framework of the garden as an excuse to mess around with huge pieces of cardboard, small segments of tube, rooms covered in bright orange on the inside, black and white on the outside, soft stepping stones in a stream of cold, hard, black concrete. We tried hard to avoid making this an "Alphabet City, part II" despite working with the same formal elements (The setting, students divided into groups, three dimensional structures) This week-long project came alive and became a different beast altogether. This one was harder for the students, as typography is a more tangible subject than the loose and floaty concept of "contrasts". The purpose was to make students think in opposties and to keep their mind and eyes open in general. We ended the whole thing with a garden party complete with gardening competition, pretzels and homemade, spiked lemonade.