Marblehead Helps The 500X Gallery Celebrate 30 Years

Like every big city, Dallas is full of diver­sity if you know where to look. Just west of all the big build­ings and shiny night clubs, lies a maze of pre-​war fac­tory build­ings and crum­bling one-​way streets. This is where you’ll find some of the most inter­est­ing enter­tain­ment Dallas has to offer. Right in the center of it all, lies a 90 year old tire fac­tory that has been home to the 500X Gallery for the past 30 years.

The 500X Gallery is the oldest artist run coop­er­a­tive gallery in Texas. They fea­ture the very best of the up and coming Dallas art scene. Since the gallery is a coop­er­a­tive, the artists are free from pres­sures to make com­mer­cial work. This allows them to really cut loose and push the limits. Some­times it’s scary, some­times its wild, and some­times it is great. The best part is, it’s never boring.

To cel­e­brate their 30th anniver­sary, the cur­rent mem­bers hosted a ret­ro­spec­tive show fea­tur­ing work from all the former and cur­rent mem­bers. In addi­tion to the show, the gallery com­mis­sioned Mar­ble­head to design a 30th anniver­sary cat­a­log. The 64 page per­fect bound book fea­tures work form 46 artists and for­wards by two former mem­bers. We also shot custom pho­tog­ra­phy for the gallery which serves as an intro to the book. For the cover, we worked with Ussery Print­ing to develop a foil stamped pat­tern of 30 x’s on spe­cial black rub­ber­ized paper.

We had a great time making the book and loved going to the show open­ing to see all the work in person. It was great to hear that so many cur­rent and past gallery mem­bers loved the book. (We even saw one guy buy 8 cop­pies!) We are also very pleased to announce that the book will be included in this year’s DSVC Pro­fes­sional Show fea­tur­ing the best of design in our area.

*Update* We are happy to announce that the 500X will be included in the Print 2008 Regional Design Annual. We are hon­ored and want to again thank the gallery and print­ers for work­ing with us to make such a great piece.

Below are a few sample spreads: