Pop and Politics Poster Series, 2005

A series of posters designed for the 2005 edition of the Pop and Politics conference, part of the Pop Montreal music festival. Working with my good friend Jay Delmarr, we created a series of bold typographic posters to promote the conference which dealt with wide-ranging issues at the intersection of music and politics. The conference included performances by Saul Williams and K’naan, two of my favourite artists, and having the opportunity to design these posters was an absolute treat.

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With much help and encouragement from the spectacular Amber Goodwyn, the hospitality of Yan Basque of/and Lab.synthese, and the generosity of the (kick-ass) bands Flames!, Parlovr and American Devices, the much-anticipated launch of Four Minutes to Midnight Issue 9 will be taking place on Saturday, January 26th.

More than an ordinary rock show, the launch of Issue 9 will also act as the starting point for issue 10, with the audience invited to participate in a variety of collaborative acts of art-making. The writing on the wall, so to speak…

Hope to see you there!

Flames! | Parlovr | American Devices

Lab.synthese

PS. Credit for the event’s title is due to A Silver Mt. Zion‘s beautiful song “Triumph of our tired eyes”.

Quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave. I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I’ve watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die…
Rutger Hauer, as Roy Batty, in Blade Runner

Four Minutes to Midnight is a visceral reaction to the encounters between: typography and language, language and culture, culture and politics, politics and fear, fear and love, love and sex, sex and death. Between death and memory, memory and the printed page. In the wake of our sadness, joy, anger and hope. This issue is dedicated to the birds…

True to the expansive definition that introduces this issue of the zine, Issue 8 features the diverse work of over 20 international writers and artists. Some personal highlights include Ralph Dfouni’s personal account of the war in Lebannon, Vincent Tinguely’s polemical poem Oilers, photography by Brigitte Henry, a graphic interpretation of Nadia Myre’s scar project, and of course Fugue 8. With the Fugue, I think we finally articulated the core concept behind the project; composing all the textual fragments and dialogue we’ve shared into a compelling, 28-page typographic epic.

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While I slowly work on feeding my design work into wordpress, I’ve created a PDF portfolio containing selected projects I’ve worked on over the last few years. You can download it here (it’s 15 MBs though!).

More excitingly for me, I’ve just finished delivering my first class at Concordia University in Experimental Typography. Overall, I was really impressed by my students’ work and enthusiasm for the subject matter. I’ve compiled a small selection of their work into a pdf for presentation purposes. Download it here (2.3 MBs). I’d love to hear what people think, so please get in touch!

It’s time to build a new architecture of resistance…

Issue 7 of FMTM was the first issue published out of Montréal in the new format. Growing out of the concepts developed in my thesis work, but unrestricted by any academic criteria, this issue brings together the work of over 25 artists and writers, remixed, edited and designed by John and myself into a 124 page visual essay on typography, poetry and personal politics.

The issue features a cover design by Abe Burmeister from his Wind Is The Enemy days, and is printed on Strathmore recycled cotton writing paper. Perfect-bound in an edition of 150 hand-numbered copies.

Two years and two issues later, I think it is safe to say our first foray into “radical” self-publishing was quite successful, building a strong community of interest (who knew?) and selling out over the course of the first year. So, if you picked up a copy at some point, thanks!

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Four Minutes to Midnight issues 1 through 5 were created as part of my MA thesis at the London College of Printing in 2004. The ideas behind them and the desire to create a design magazine had been running through my head for many years before (often in frenzied dialogue with John), and the MA provided the perfect opportunity for me to realise them. They were created in a very limited edition (though available for free as printable pdfs) and released over the span of three hectic months.

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