I contain multitudes

[imomus]

In my new piece for the AIGA Voice, Letraset as Aleph, I manage to sound like a 65 year-old graphic designer misty-eyed for the 1970s Letraset catalogue (and verging on some sort of Jewish mysticism with his vision of the dry transfer lettering system as a sort of "aleph", the magical point from which everything in the world can be seen simultaneously). Well, if I can pull off the 25 year-old Williamsburg brat voice in my pieces for Vice, why can't I be a 65 year-old designer for AIGA? I contain multitudes, you know.

Sorry I don't have anything more exciting for you today... I'm finishing off my Thames and Hudson photoblogging book, setting up a summer art show in New York, and preparing a piece for tomorrow's Design Observer. It's just as well I contain multitudes, because otherwise all this stuff just wouldn't get done. This multiple personality disorder thing is productive. Why don't we tell Nick that he's not a chicken? Because we need the eggs.

Comments

[fufurasu.livejournal.com]

I spent a lot of my childhood in my parents' architectural studio developing a fetish for stationery products (which I eventually replaced with a powerbook, a moleskine, and a muji 01 pen). Letraset (and Mecanorma) catalogs featured heavily in the context of boring summer mornings, probably since age 7. I used to leaf through and pick the typefaces I'd like to have in my arsenal: one serif (Times), one sans (Helvetica), one slab (was it Rockwell?), one script (Mistral), one gothic script (Fraktur), several others (Broadway, Arnold Böcklin, Copperplate, Optima, Cooper black). The letterpress architectural symbols were an excellent source of entertainment too. They had Citroën DSs, trees drawn in various styles, and toilet fixings, all in plan and elevation... And I fondly remember the amazing illustration style they used to showcase their Pantone colour markers. Days upon days of fun.

You don't have to be 65 to appreciate Letraset catalogs.