We Are Here: Art and Design Out of Context
Through July,  MCA, Chicago We Are Here is a weekly series of four multidisciplinary art and design situations with Chicago-based participants. Using the gallery as a workspace, the activities of product design collective Object Design League, artist-run project space Golden Age, designers Tim Parson and Jessica Charlesworth, and screen-printers Sonnenzimmer illustrate how the practical becomes performative when placed out of context. Curated by James Goggin, MCA Design Director.

Kaugummi Books Retrospective
July 9, 2011 / 6:00 – 9:00pm
@ Golden Age

Golden Age is hosting a retrospective of French publisher Kaugummi. Golden Age will display more than 70 zines from Kaugummi’s 7 year publishing history along with a retrospective book to be launched at the event. Publications from Kaugummi’s catalog will be available for purchase at the event. The event will include a drawing from frequent Kaugummi collaborator Félicia Atkinson.

Newer Alphabets
05.17.11

The Lÿon Family (above) is a type family by Czech graphic designer, Radim Pesko (RP Type Foundry) and French designer Karl Nawrot. The family is comprised as a set of four rather unique type faces—each based on its own autonomous subject—while each optionally intended to  contribute to the overall family as a whole. I first became aware of Pesko’s work from encountering his catalog design for the 2006 WORK FROM MARS exhibition. Being interested, I wrote Radim an email asking if any copies of the catalog were still available. After a small thread, I was surprised to learn that I was being mailed two copies of his catalog; included was a kind note thanking me for the interest. It was a small gesture that instilled a sense of gratitude and continued interest in Radim’s work.

Getting back to the Lÿons. The project was introduced in a small supplemental booklet entitled NEWER ALPHABETS, which first appeared in tandem with the “Typefaces Issue” (no. 16) of GRAPHIC magazine. Each member of the family is represented by it’s own subject-matter: ULYS (taken from the 1981 Franco-Japanese Anime series Ulysses 31, that updates the Greek Mythology of Odysseus), STAN (after photographer and director, Stanley Kubrick), WALT (named after Disney founder, Walt Disney) and JEAN (after Jean Arp, the German-French sculptor, painter, poet and abstract artist).

Each typeface does its own work by creatively capturing the essence, and character of its own theme with a formal approach. James Langdon reinforces this concept in the NEWER ALPHABETS booklet “…they are open and various and their spirit is this: to resist normative tendencies and to reject the idea of definitive form.” This notion itself, nods to a direction of progress and evolutionary attitude in type design—looking away from the expected by embracing a more transformative, and pluralistic approach to contemporary typography. An Approach that can ultimately find opportunities in other facets of design applications, creating a more responsive, explorative and nuanced result.

Colophon Foundry
05.14.11

Colophon is an independent type foundry run by Brighton, UK based design studio, The Entente. Given their short life-span as an established type foundry, Colophon has managed to garner some well-deserved attention in result of their selective commissions (below) and self-initiated type designs; in concert with limited-edition releases, and type-specimen booklets.

Raisonné, by designer Benjamin Critton is a recent commission initiated by Colophon.

Raisonné is a contemporary sans-serif typeface, designed by Benjamin Critton over the course of several months during the summer of 2010. Its single weight—demibold—was drawn for use at all scales.

Raisonné was initially conceived as a typeface that would comprise the written portions of of a comprehensive catalogue raisonné, the creation and publishing of which is required of each MFA candidate in the Department of Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art.

The typeface is parodic-serious, intended to be a bit dumb, blunt, candid, affable—honest in the same way Modernism liked its materials. It pays homage here and there to noteworthy precedents, among them Rudolf Koch’s Kabel, Sol Hess’ Twentieth Century, Joseph Churchward’s Crossbred, and Herb Lubalin’s Avant Garde.

Typeface as Programme
05.11.11

Typotheque recently released the texts from the École Cantonal d’Art de Lausanne’s (ÉCAL) Typeface as Programme book; which has long been sold out, and which Amazon lists for close to $600. The texts include a comprehensive essay by Jürg Lehni (Hektor, Scriptographer), as well as interviews with Peter Bil’ak (Dot Dot Dot, Typotheque), Erik Spiekermann (Metadesign, Fontshop), and Dimitri Bruni (Norm).

D-Crit: At Water’s Edge
04.26.11

A collection of writings from The School of Visual Art’s Design Criticism Program (D–Crit). These writings were made by first-year students in the “Reading Design” class, taught by Akiko Busch. Purchased via Lulu. Designed by the Walker Art Center design department.