Not so dawdlin at the River & Rowing Museum

Design for Print recently completed in record time some new exhibition panels for the River & Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames. They tell the story of two very different boat clubs. Seven panels commemorate 150 years of rowing at Magdalen College, Oxford and and a further set describe the rise and fall of the Shanghai Boat Club.

For Magdalen we selected the elegant typeface Janson Text with its non-ranging numerals and small capitals. Oscar Wilde's career as an oarsman was brief, since he followed advice to avoid 'fruitless slashing of the river'.

To tell the Shanghai story we chose a typeface called 'Sho' - which looks convincingly oriental rather than being a clumsy pastiche.