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…

Bowl full of Memefest badges from the last few years.

It feels next to impossible to synthesize the experience that was this year’s Memefest at this point, however it seems important to provide at least a cursory overview of what happened in Melbourne a few weeks back, while it’s still fresh in my memory. It was an intense and deeply transformative experience for me, and I hope the following words and images might do it a bit of justice.

Artist Alana Hunt, Sam Burch from the Brisbane Aboriginal Sovereign Embassy, and Oliver Vodeb of Memefest opening the symposium, articulating the themes of Radical Intimacies and Decolonization.

The event kicked off at Swinburne University with 3 days of “extra-disciplinary” symposium presentations on design, media, art and activism. Over 30 presentations from local and international participants took place, with an incredible diversity of subject matter, between theory and practice, from the personal to the political.

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Two days ago, I arrived in Melbourne, Australia, after an insane 30-hours of travel, to the generous hospitality of Oliver Vodeb of Memefest and his lovely family. We’re now at Swinburne University setting up for the extradisciplinary symposium/workshop/direct action that starts tomorrow, tied to this year’s theme of Radical Intimacies. It’s quite hard to get a handle on the fact that I’m now halfway across the world, having conversations about radical design practice with Oliver again, conversations that we’re continuing from the last time we met up in the Netherlands almost 4 years ago. Plus ça change…

I’m very honoured to be here, presenting amongst an impressive international crew of communications experts, activists, and artists. I’m particularly excited to be working with Memefest and members of BASE (the Brisbane Aboriginal Sovereign embassy), and look forward to learning about the aboriginal context of resistance here. BASE was instrumental in organising against the G20 summit in Brisbane last week, and I’m hoping to be able to lend my skills to their struggle, and will certainly be bringing some powerful knowledge back home.

My presentation will address ideas around material culture and resistance, with a particular focus on the Quebec Student Strike of 2012. It feels good to be able to share knowledge drawn from our local movements and moments of social upheaval, and I hope it will be relevant here, and spark an interesting dialogue. I’m also happy that I had the opportunity to meet up with Decolonizing Street Art before leaving Montreal, and that I managed to bring some amnazing gifts from them to communities here.

Everyone I’ve met so far has been fantastic. It’s been great to reconnect with Tom Liacas, a culture jamming collaborator from way back in the day (circa. 2001). I’ll be here for another 8-days, and will try to keep the blog updated, or at the very least, I’ll be posting frequently on LOKI’s facebook page.

PS. Unlike the G20 leaders, I have yet to find any koalas. Those bastards always take everything first…

A series of behind the scenes images from the photoshoot for our latest project, The Precari-Tee. I’m happy to have worked with such a great team, including Maude Pascale doing make up, photographer Julie Langenegger Lachance, and Thien V who took these shots. And of course the amazing models, Jenni, Sophie, Faiz and Thien. Full project details soon!

Also, a shoutout to my co-workers at studio 305, who were working on an amazing, soon to be revealed project at the same time.

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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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In collaboration with Artivistic and Howl! Arts, we’ve just published Intimate / Distance, a new photo portfolio zine for Võ Thiên Viêt. Thiên has been a long standing friend and collaborator, and we’re very pleased to release this special project with him. The careful selection of photos reflects a desire to represent, within an albeit small sample, the breadth of Thiên’s work, beyond his celebrated documentation of the student strike of 2012.

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Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics 2: Illustrated by Google, Marie-Noelle Hebert

I’m happy to announce that I’ve recently brought on Marie-Noelle Hebert as a design intern at the studio. Marie-Noelle is a recent graduate of the Master’s of Design at York University, and completed her undergraduate degree at Concordia University, where I was lucky to have her as a student in my Culture of Images class.

Marie-Noelle brings a shared critical perspective of graphic design alongside a sophisticated editorial and typographic approach that will enrich the work we are doing.

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A beautiful video of pure letterpress goodness, from a master of the craft. More info here.

Remix Ferguson x Memefest. Info and more variations here.