Thanks to Aviva Michaelov at the New York Times Op-Ed page for inviting us to create an Op-Chart this Memorial Day. For this piece, about how the use of DNA technology has allowed the military to identify the remains of each of the unknown soldiers from Vietnam on, we created a paper flower wreath to memorialize the death of the soldiers that died in each war. The size of each flower is (roughly) proportional to the total number of soldiers lost in each war.
Thanks goes to master crafters Cara Brower and Sarah Lutkenhaus, who helped mastermind the flower making for three days straight.
Rock Paper Show is a history of the Flatstock festival, featuring interviews and essays by artists, collectors and bands, and a compilation of the posters created for the first 20 Flatstocks. The deluxe edition features 20 original limited edition prints created for the book by prominent poster-makers from the festival. It was truly a pleasure to meet all of the wonderful folks from Flatstock and the API, and see this long-running project finally come into fruition.
Below, some photos from Soundscreen’s booth at Flatstock and a few sneak peeks of the new book. The book will be officially released in June, so stay tuned for more events this spring.
Hello friends! You’re busy, I’m busy, but we wanted to share a couple of things that are now Real. The design process is good & satisfying, but there’s nothing as thrilling as seeing a finished object.
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Bidoun
The new issue of Bidoun magazine is out on the shelves. We took over the art direction with this issue; there are many noticeable changes, but the key transformation was in the typography. We went with Lyon, the handsome & versatile Granjon-esque serif designed by our good friend Kai Bernau, equally handsome & versatile.
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Week in Review
Also: We were asked by Kelly Doe at the New York Times to develop an illustration accompanying the article “America’s Identity Crisis” (not the final headline), contextualizing the recent debates over curriculum ideologies.
Incidentally, this piece was drawn on a chalkboard slate, for which we spent half the day hunting. The slate, roughly 4 x 6′, was acquired from a friendly Father at a parish in Greenpoint. The Catholic school on the premises, St Cecilias, had recently been closed due to a slowly dwindling Catholic population, and some of the classroom chalkboards had been disassembled, slab by slab. After picking through the selection, we found one of ideal size and took it back to the office (not without struggle, either, the thing’s as heavy as a house). Upon propping it up, we realized it still had writing left on it:
St Cecilias Forever
So we took a photo, wiped it clean, and now it’s in the newspaper.
If you’ll be in Austin for the epic South by Southwest festival, come visit us! Find @rendamorton at SXSW Interactive from now through Tuesday 3/16. Find HG at Flatstock & SXSW with brand new preview copies of Rock Paper Show from Thursday 3/18 to Sunday 3/21.
After 18 months of work, we’re truly proud to launch the website for Commercial Type, a new type foundry conceived by Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz. We don’t like playing favorites with our kids, but this one is close to our hearts. Check it out and buy fonts! Thank you Brana, Christian, Abi, and Berton for all your hard work and Kai for your support.
To celebrate, we splurged on a really nice bottle of champagne. A new website launch tradition?
Who are we kidding, websites are never ever done. Photo by Chad.
So, being the dutiful new (been working at Rumors for a month now… hi! I’m Ho-Mui.) intern, I went to support Holly at Fan Letter last night at The Cooper Union. It was delightful.
