SPECIMEN

A collaborative exhibition by VaryLab and A Collection Of.

Opening: Thursday 23 April 2026 - 6.00pm to 9.00pm
Dates: Friday 24 April to Sunday 26 April 2026
Location: Allotment, Unit 8, Ability Plaza, Arbutus Street, London E8 4DT

SPECIMEN is a collaborative project between VaryLab (screen printing and textile practice) and A Collection Of. (furniture design and fabrication), using typography and letterforms as a shared starting point.

Developed through ongoing conversations across a shared studio building in Peckham, the project explores how typographic elements can be broken down, reinterpreted and translated into new surfaces and forms.

At the centre of the collaboration is a back-and-forth making process. Tanguy Bertocchi of VaryLab hand-prints typographic compositions onto wooden panels, which Peter Haynes of A Collection Of. then used to construct a series of stools. Through this exchange, typography shifts from a graphic and communicative role into something structural and physical, where letterforms become material, surface and object.

Rather than working toward a fixed outcome, SPECIMEN, conceived as an evolving series of test pieces, embraces experimentation, testing and learning through making. Each piece carries visible traces of both practices, reflecting a shared interest in process-led design and the dialogue between disciplines.

The exhibition will present a series of ten stools alongside textile works by VaryLab, including bags and canvas pieces. The space will also feature prototypes, process material and documentation that reveal the evolution of the project from initial exploration through to final outcomes.

Throughout the duration of the exhibition, the space will host a workshop, inviting visitors to engage more closely with the processes, materials and ideas behind the work.