Background Layer #10
In this issue: XYZ in New York, pt 2, reflections on Typographics, Jim Parkinson’s legacy, and finding hope in community.
Thank you, Ben, for writing the last four issues. Jesse wrote this issue with help from Tyler. (I would never have finished it without her first draft.)
On the ground at Typographics
In the eleven years of Typographics, Cooper Union’s annual festival for people who use type, Ben and I have hardly missed a year. It’s an excellent opportunity to reconnect with our peers in typeface design, clients, and former students. This year I was there with Zrinka, but sadly, Ben’s schedule kept him away this time, and Tyler couldn’t make it.
Walking through Cooper Union and seeing my underused typeface Export making a big impression throughout the festival’s identity was surreal. It was a full-circle moment on the campus where I spent four years teaching at the Type@Cooper program I helped start. Thanks to Nick Sherman for choosing Export and pairing it beautifully with Tick by Cyrus Highsmith (my former teacher) and Paragraf by TienMin Liao.
Reminder: We always love it when people tip us off to examples of our fonts in use! Hit reply on this email if you have something to share.
Typelab
Typelab offered a casual adjunct to the main stage, with more informal presentations where you can actually talk with the speakers. It was great to catch presentations by my former students Greg Gazdowicz and CJ Dunn. Amy Papaelias & Nina Paim spoke about the much-awaited Alphabettes Soup book, which XYZ sponsored. Congrats to Frederik Berlaen—the creator of our beloved Robofont—who just launched Font Club Belgica and presented the process behind the typeface Filter.
Main stage
There were more talks than we can discuss in detail here, but I’ll shout out three memorable moments.
After sharing his studio’s gorgeous design system and book for the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah, Wael Morcos schooled us on the life and work of Palestinian-American graphic designer-artist-activist Rajie Cook. Did you know who designed the iconic DOT pictograms?
I can’t stop thinking about nicole killian’s installation “between a book and a soft place,” which included a human-scale version of foam book wedges (which we know well from library special collections) topped with a cloth book in which one can climb between the pages.
Alan Bell’s talk traced his meandering path through tabletop letterpress printing, typesetting closing credits for Star Trek, and founding the groundbreaking queer publications Gaysweek and BLK.
There were plenty of other interesting talks, but most of all, I enjoyed the more spontaneous moments of catching up with folks in the liminal spaces of Cooper Union and its surrounding area.
Remembering Jim Parkinson
While I was at Typographics, brilliant lettering and type designer Jim Parkinson passed away. I was grateful to be there, where I could talk with a few people who knew him better than I did, including Stephen Coles, who wrote a loving obituary for him on Typographica.
The last time I was in the Bay Area (2012!) Stephen organized a type-people picnic gathering. That’s the one time I met Jim myself, and I snapped the photo below of his unforgettable tattoo. He was an incredibly kind and humble person. I recall stumbling into giving him some advice on his typeface in process, which didn’t seem quite right in my relative youth.
My lettering work for the Rolling Stone logo redesign was directly built off of three previous iterations Jim drafted. Even though I didn’t get to work directly with him, the process of studying his work closely enough to decode and reconstruct it digitally felt like an intensive workshop in his methods. Jim’s work and his warm presence will be missed. My condolences to those of you who were close with him.
Ears, eyes, heart
Elisapie Isaac
While my mother was visiting us in Beacon recently, my partner and I drove her to Tivoli an hour north, for a concert by Inuk-Canadian singer-songwriter Elisapie (ᐃᓕᓴᐱ). Her singular take on a range of familiar pop songs (and some originals) mostly sung in Inuktitut left me energized and entranced by the language. You can hear more on her album Inuktitut (ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ) or catch her live in one of her upcoming tour dates in Canada.
Baghdad Modern Art Group
Before the show, we visited the Bard College Hessel Museum for their fantastic Baghdad Modern Art Group exhibition. The Arabic posters below blew me away, adding to my excitement as I embark on my first Arabic typeface collaboration. (More on that soon, I hope!) I was also taken by Jawad Saleem’s paintings. The show runs through October, and is well worth a stop.
Gender affirming care saves lives
It’s entirely possible that you need to own a heavy metal-style shirt with that true statement, lettered by multi-talented lettering/type designer and clinical counselor Phædra Charles—a fundraiser for a Colorado nonprofit for affirming therapy and community care.
Find your people
I’m grateful to have a business partner like Ben, who chose to close out our last installment by getting real about the state of the world, which—let’s face it—has brought a cloud of despair over many of our lives.
Although ICE raids have continued in my area, the community response has been outstanding and heartwarming. Due to the hard work of my neighbors, we now have a rapid-response chat network, fundraisers for families of the recently abducted, and frequent informational sessions and resource distribution. Even Beacon’s city government has given me a moment of pride by standing by its previous resolution not to support ICE in its efforts.
I collaborated with a few people on a zine for BCAN, our local climate action group, and I want to close with a bit from it:
Get to know your neighbors. They’re probably fired up too! We can make the greatest impact working together as a community. Many activists—including elders and lifelong residents—are already working hard and would love our support. Find them and plug into what they’re doing.
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