As part of this year’s Toronto Design Offsite festival, LOKI will be presenting a collaborative exhibition with Studio JayWall. I met Jay at the AMC conference last summer in Detroit, and I’m excited to get to work with him on this exhibition that merges our interests in typography and the dynamics of cities.

Reading/Writing the Junction is a documentary project that examines and reimagines the signage and lettering of the Junction neighbourhood, as an oblique commentary/criticism on gentrification and urban change.

The collaboration also extends to the brilliant JP King at Paper Pusher, who will be producing the series of risograph prints that will be exhibited/distributed as part of the show.

The exhibition opens on Jan. 21 (fb event here), and runs until the end of February. Hope to see you there!

Cheap Wig at Brasserie Beaubien on NYE 2014

It might be a little late, but I’d like to wish a happy new year, and express heartfelt thanks, to all LOKI’s clients, collaborators and friends.

2014 was a big year, marking the shift to a studio framework, which has been exciting and challenging to say the least. We launched some great projects, including the latest issue of Four Minutes to Midnight, Thien’s Intimate Distance Zine and the Precari-Tee. 2014 also took us to Detroit for the Allied Media Conference, and to Melbourne, Australia to collaborate with Memefest. Both these events were truly transformative experiences for me, working at the intersection of design, art, critical theory, and on the ground communications activism. I’ve met so many amazing people, doing such great work. Here’s to much more of this in 2015.

The new year has already seen some heavy tragedy, with the attack on Charlie Hebdo grabbing news headlines worldwide. My reaction to this, and especially the (racist) recuperation of it, is complex, and this post isn’t the place to break it down right now. But it does highlight one important thing for me, as a signpost for my practice in the new year.

Graphic design plays such a significant role in the definition of a community’s identity, internally setting parameters for how people (self)identify, who is included/excluded, and how it is externally represented and positioned within society as a whole. This is a fiercely contested site. And this is where I, and the studio, need to be. Especially as a person of colour.

As seen above, I spent NYE in a small bar, rocking out to punk rock. Love and rage my friends, love and rage…