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.

…I was trying to draw out a comment by you about what you think poetry does? Or what is poetry for?

Poetry done right stops time.

As follow up to the above, with the cultural landscape so crowded with everyone, uhhh, doing their own thing how can a writer be heard?

Take hostages.

F.A. Nettelbeck interviewed by Mr. Jim Hayes. Four Minutes to Midnight Issue XI, featuring Nettelbeck’s Happy Hour, is coming very very soon!

On Friday, I received my much anticipated copy of Ruud Linssen’s Book of war, mortification and love in the mail. Published by one of my favourite typefoundries, Underware, the book, which consists of a collection of personal essays on the concept of “voluntary suffering”, also acts as a type specimen for their Blackletter typeface Fakir.

The book is beautifully designed and crafted, which is not a surprise given the quality of Underware’s work. I was pleasantly surprised by how well Fakir reads as a text face though, since I had always considered it a bit of a playful display typeface. Even more impressive is how well it sits in such a serious and sombre context, accentuating the darkness of the essays with its jagged edges.

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Last weekend, I was in Toronto to protest the G20 summit and the now all too obvious emergence of a full-out police state in Canada. During most of the weekend, and especially during the evening jail solidarity demonstration, I was fortunate to be with friends far more reasonable than myself, and I owe them a debt of gratitude for keeping me out of trouble, out of jail. Considering what I’ve now seen and read, my weekend was spent in relative safety and I left Toronto unscathed and unharrased. The same cannot be said for many friends, comrades and random passers-by.

Much has been written, recorded and revealed over the last week. Many disgusting and disturbing things about the excessive force exerted by the police/state. The assault on basic democracy and civil rights. It’s a disservice to gloss over it, but also rather pointless for me to address here. Do the (easy) research yourself and see how much you can stomach.

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The Otesha Book: From Junk to Funk! was one of the first books I ever designed from start to finish (on 100% post-consumer stock and printed with vegetable inks no less), circa 2004, and I’m still very proud of it.

Six years on, the Otesha Project (official site | facebook page) just posted a pretty little photoset of the books hanging out in the wild and I was reminded of all the hard work and fun I had while designing and producing it in collaboration with Colin, John and the Otesha girls. This was a great, efficient, effective and worthwhile project that is still paying dividends (of the social variety) today. Thanks Otesha!

More about the book here.

First up, check out the wonderful work of Montreal-based artist and illustrator Kirsten McCrea. Her illustrations have recently graced the covers of the Winterhouse designed Poetry magazine (I’m so jealous and impressed!), and having had the pleasure of hanging out with her a bit lately, I can tell you that there are great things on the horizon for this talented and prolific lady.

I recently finished teaching my third course at Concordia University, a portfolio class for graduating students. It was a challenging class, but I’m quite happy with the results and think that my students were as well. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find the time to properly document their very well crafted print portfolios, but here’s a selection of their portfolio websites: Gaia Orain, Catherine Wakim, Zacharie Delavertu, Emmy Huot, Rebecca Rosen and Stefan Spec. Great work guys!

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spotted by Joshua Mensch in Bechyne, south Bohemia, Czech Republic