I was so lucky to be invited to participate in the livestreamed and recorded interview/conversation series Universal Lunch (Un)Common Hours curated by Design Inquiry and hosted by Gabrielle Esperdy and Jimmy Luu.

I and Denise Gonzales Crisp got to chop it up with Gabrielle and Jimmy for an hour or so—you can check out the recorded video here shortly: https://www.youtube.com/user/DesignInquiry/videos

Very excited to announce that my recent publication Visual Strategies for the Apocalypse won the STA 100 design competition — for 40 years, Chicago’s Society of Typographic Arts has held this competition which awards the top 100 pieces of typography in North America. Read more: https://100.sta-chicago.org/winners

I have a new essay titled “A Futuring: Frugality, Online Dating, and Some Rain” in the 2019/2020 Yearbook of Type just released by Slanted Publishers in Germany. Check it out here: https://www.slanted.de/yearbook-of-type-2019-20-out-now/

The Yearbook of Type is now in its 4th edition: 158 typefaces from 178 designers from around the world are presented in this 400-page, colorful, and gobsmackingly typographic book. The Yearbook of Type is both a practical guide that helps users navigate the diverse, ocean-like, typographical landscape, as well as a critical guide to the best type today.

The highlights in short:

– Detailed presentation of 158 recent typefaces
– Ample background information
– Index of typeface classifications
– Index of all 176 type designers and 98 foundries from 36 countries
– Explanation of all OpenType features
– Essays, interviews, and tutorials by Pedro Amado, Massimiliano Audretsch, Bianca Berning, Ian Lynam, Lilo Schäfer, Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer, Mark van Wageningen, Amber Weaver, Stefan Willerstorfer, Anuthin Wongsunkakon, and Benjamin Wurster
– Microsite online linking the typefaces directly to the foundries’ websites

I just published “Radical Empathy“, a transcription of the welcome speech to the VCFA MFA in Graphic Design Fall 2019 Residency. You can read it here.

The Thing is included in DesignInquiry’s Futurespective exhibition Readin Room at Maine College of Fine Arts presently.

More: https://designinquiry.net/projects/futurespective/

I’m very excited to announce that the new TUJ campus in Sangenjaya is open!

I worked with TUJ, James Lambiasi Architect and Gensler as a consultant for the interior design, identity, and signage for the university, an institution where I have taught for over a decade. I am very excited for this new phase and am looking forward to the future!

I have a new essay in the book Hardcore Fanzine out now from Draw Down:

Focused on seven issues of Good and Plenty fanzine produced in the late 1980s/early 1990s, Hardcore Fanzine looks at the series through the lens of graphic design and typography, as a project that reflected and embodied technology of the period. Contributions from graphic designers, graphic design educators, and hardcore enthusiasts trace the history of zines and photoduplication; the idea of the body in punk and hardcore; how zine-making created community and alternative social space in a pre-Internet era; key typefaces used in straight edge iconography; and the importance of zines to successive generations of designers.

Good and Plenty was published as a labor of love and fandom by Zion, Illinois’s Gabe Rodriguez. Originally produced as a collaboration with friend Mike Good, Rodriguez took over editing and production of the zine, assisted by a team of friends and helpers. With their assistance and a network of fans from around the country and the world, Good and Plenty featured original photography documenting shows by Gorilla Biscuits, Judge, Bold, and other hardcore bands of the period; band interviews; reviews of shows and record releases; and essays by Rodriguez and friends (including Alyssa “Blowing Chunx” Murray and Kim Nolan) on a range of topics beyond music—from vegetarianism, women’s rights, gender relations, and straight edge, to racism, pop culture, and the Iraq War.

A text by Walter Schreifels—American musician, member of Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today, Quicksand, and many other bands—places G&P in historical context, outlining the context for individual issues and highlighting specific moments in the cultural and sonic landscape.

Hardcore Fanzine includes the full reproduction of all seven issues of Good and Plenty plus reproductions of a selection of the zine’s original paste-ups and photography.

With text by Walter Schreifels
Preface by Gabe Rodriguez

Contributions from Kristian Henson, Briar Levit, Ian Lynam, Gabriel Melcher, Anthony Pappalardo, Nate Pyper, Ali Qadeer, and Gabe Rodriguez

Designed by Partition

Published by Draw Down Books, 2019

Softcover, 144 pages, 2-color offset printing, 6.5 × 9.5 inches

ISBN: 978-0-9857337-9-7

Get it here!

At the printer now: a new 64-page zine about critique called CRITIQUE: THE WAR OF A̶R̶T̶ DESIGN, which is available for pre-order here: http://crit.wordshape.com.

A bit ago, a book about critique with the subtitle “A Student Manual” came out, but it sure didn’t feel like it was for students… or teachers, particularly of graphic design. I thought that the topic was deserving, so I wrote it, illustrated it, and designed it.

Edited by the intrepid Taro Nettleton and offset printed in 3 colors in Niigata, Japan with wraparound covers, CRITIQUE is an approachable and relatable guide to considering critique and criticism from a variety of viewpoints. Pre-orders receive bonus stickers and Risograph posters! Imagine: it’s like Kickstarter, but the project is already at the printer! You can’t lose! Also contains silly drawings of snakes playing saxophones! 🎷🐍 And a semiotics primer for the layperson! You too can ⚡️master⚡️the science of signs, symbols, and meaning! Order now! http://crit.wordshape.com

I just gave a talk at ATypI Tokyo 2019 called “From Bijin-ga to Brutus”, which is derived from the latter part of my recent publication The Thing.

“From Bijin-ga to Brutus” is one of the least known stories in Japanese graphic design history is the emergence of Sun Studio / サン・スタジオ, one of Japan’s very first graphic design studios.

Sun Studio was run by poster designer Hokuu Tada / 多田北烏 (1889–1948), who influenced countless early graphic designers and typographers in Japan in the Taishō and Shōwa periods through his contributions to the literature of nascent commercial art. Posters designed by Tada for Kirin Beer festoon countless businesses in Japan today, intimating a sense of nostalgia and history in the bustling megalopolis—yet the story behind them is largely unknown.

Another important figure, one whose story has largely been disconnected from greater Japanese graphic design history, is Seiichi Horiuchi/ 堀内誠一 (1933–1987), whose design work for Japanese lifestyle magazines largely defines Japanese consumer-fashion culture today.

This heavily illustrated presentation will explore the direct historical connection between Tada and Horiuchi—from the birth of commercial art (商業美術) in Japan to the refinement of graphic design (グラフィックデザイン), helping to contextualize both historical and contemporary graphic design and typography.

Read more about the presentation here.

I designed two logos for the Portland, Oregon supergroup Arrow of Light. This is one of them.

This is the other.

I also designed two new 24″ x 36″ fluorescent posters for them. Get them at their debut show!