After several months of reflection, strategy and design, I’m proud to launch LOKI as an independent design studio resolutely focused on graphic design and social change work. The (re)launch includes an overhaul of our visual identity, a new website to showcase our portfolio of work, and the clarification of our positioning and purpose.

Bringing together over a decade of work split between the commercial, cultural and community spheres, the formation of LOKI marks a renewed and unified commitment to the creation of images, objects, and experiences that empower, engage and oppose. Graphic design aligned with movements, organizations and individuals that contribute to positive social change.

The launch also marks LOKI’s establishment within a great new office space in the Mile End, shared with Studio Byebye Bambi, JLL Photography and Pauline Loctin. If you’re in the neighbourhood, please feel free to come by for a visit some time!

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Papirmass is an amazing art subscription project run by the talented Kirsten McCrea. I was honoured to have Kirsten invite me to contribute to the upcoming issue, as both writer and designer (with art by former Four Minutes contributor Kevin Ledo on the flip side). In lead-up to the issue, Papirmass has just posted an image-rich interview with yours truly, and I couldn’t be more chuffed to share some thoughts on design, typography and activism!

Read the interview here.

P.S. For those that make it all the way to the end, there’s a little surprise in store on the studio front. More on that very soon…

Kevin Yuen Kit Lo is a Montreal-based freelance art director and graphic designer. He has previously worked at the agencies Sid Lee, Bluesponge and Cossette, and currently teaches in the Design and Computation Arts department at Concordia University. He runs an independent design and communications consulting practice under the name of LOKi design, specialising in work within the cultural sphere. He publishes the zine Four Minutes to Midnight, exploring the intersections of typography, poetics and politics.

As a community organiser and activist, Kevin is engaged on many levels with various non-profit organisations in Montreal and beyond. He is a founding member of Howl! Arts Collective, a member of the Artivistic Collective, a board member for Archive Montreal, a contributing editor at Art threat, and a long-standing jury member for Memefest. 2356 publishing is also involved in organising and documenting events in Montreal that bridge the gap between art and activism.

His work has been widely exhibited, recognised and awarded, including a Cannes Cyber Lion, several SXSW interactive awards, and recognition for design excellence from Print and Communication Arts.

He holds an MA in Typo/Graphic Design from the London College of Printing and a Graduate Certificate Degree and BFA in Design Art from Concordia University.

Arjen Noordeman of Elasticbrand has just posted an in-depth interview with me over at the Cranbrook Design site (updated link). The recently revamped web site once hosted a vibrant discussion that played a large part in shaping Four Minutes to Midnight during its early stages, so it’s fitting that 5 years on, I’m on there once again to talk about it.

I have to tell you something: an interview with Kevin Yuen Kit Lo

Thanks Arjen for the challenging questions, I’m really happy to be featured amongst such design luminairies, past and present. My very own little taste of Cranbrook…

Copies of Four Minutes to Midnight are currently available at these fine establishments:

MONTREAL

Drawn & Quarterly Bookstore
211 Bernard Ouest ~ 514 . 279 . 2224

Librairie Formats
2 Sainte-Catherine Est, espace 302 ~ 514 . 842 . 5579

Monastiraki
5478 St-Laurent ~ 514 . 278 . 4879

TORONTO

Type Books
883 Queen W ~ 416 . 366 . 8973

Book City
716 Queen St. West ~ 416 . 964 . 1167

You can also purchase copies online through Paypal on the individual issue pages of this website.

(updated 16 Dec. 2013)

LOKi design is the creative studio of Montreal-based graphic designer and art director Kevin Yuen Kit Lo. The studio was founded in 2001 in response to the reissuing of the First Things First Manifesto out of a desire to explore alternative approaches to design practice. Coupling intensive design research with a commitment to progressive social objectives and values, LOKi design creates work that seeks to bridge the gap between art and activism. The studio also diligently maintains a traditional graphic design practice, crafting useful and attractive pieces of communication at affordable prices.

Kevin studied graphic design at Concordia University and Post St-Joost (NL) before completing his Masters degree at the London College of Communication. He has previously worked as an interactive art director at the Montréal agencies Sid Lee, Bluesponge, and Cossette. He currently teaches typography and graphic design at Concordia University.

Download his cv here, a selected portfolio of work here, or feel free to contact him, at which point, he promises to stop referring to himself in the third person.

Four Minutes to Midnight (23:56) is an experimental literary arts zine edited, designed and published by Kevin Lo and John W. Stuart. The zine began with an open question posed to friends and acquaintances, “what’s wrong?” and has since developed into an annual showcase of experimental writing, design and visual art.

Based in the firm belief that the personal is political, the zine explores the possibility for small stories, bad poetry, vast dreams and private pains as a means of advancing social change. We aim to shed some beauty onto our individual struggles, drawing the connections between them and fostering more honest expressions of love and dissent. Though realistically, we know one little booklet isn’t really going to “change things”, we do hope it’s something that people will carry around with them, flip through, and find a little encouragement and energy when needed.

The zine is also a space for radical typographic experimentation, blurring the line between form and content. We see typography (and graphic design more generally) as a critical and contested area of cultural engagement. We fuck with typography because typography fucks with you…

We’re always looking for new contributors and collaborators, so please feel free to get in touch.