On publishing to find comrades.
A has just released the first single from her upcoming album Jiā! She’s been working so hard on this project and I’m really excited to see it entering the world. It’s a beautiful song that evokes time travel and nurturing of your past self. In researching “ethical” distribution, we came across Subvert, a new music platform that is structured as a cooperative. It’s beautifully designed and you get…
The room reeks with the thwarted desire for meaning Photos by Kevin Yuen Kit Lo Matter vs. Spirit 2026 v1: v2: Sewn-bound booklet Sewn-bound booklet Mohawk 80lb. Cover uncoated, 80lb. Text uncoated Astrobright (red, gray, and cream) 24lb. Text paper 36 pages 36 pages 5.25” x 8” 5.25” x 8” Fusion stamped blue foil on cover, digital printing by Photosynthèse Digital Black, printed by Zoubris…
I just got back from a short trip to New York City with A. We had a great time staying in the historic New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan, steps from MSG and Penn Station. While A attended her conference, I explored and set myself some small missions and found a pair of Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66s at probably the only store that still sells them in North America! The next mission was to get a tattoo that…
A friend and colleague recently shared with me the positioning paper she is working on arguing for the development of “Relational Design Intelligence” within design education. It’s a very astute analysis and critique of where design education is at now, who or what it serves, and makes a strong argument on why and how it needs to change. I really appreciate much of what she is arguing for, but had…
Remedio Vol. 1 by Des Revol Free Des Support Committee / Matter vs. Spirit 2026 Saddle-stitched booklet Coloured cardstock cover, Gray text-paper interior 28 pages 5.5” x 8.5” Digital Black On June 23, 2026, eight people in Texas were sentenced to 30-100 years in prison following a noise demonstration outside the Prairieland ICE detention center that took place a year earlier (July 4th, 2025). The…
I always wanted to design a “Death Metal” logo, even though I’m not much of a fan of the music, I do really dig the lettering and aesthetic. I’ve proposed the direction maybe twice for clients, when I thought there could be a conceptual fit, but they never went for it. So last night, I got a bit obsessed and just ended up making my own. This will probably out me as a poseur, but hey, it was fun! I…
While preparing the talk I gave in Rotterdam, I was working through the extensive list of qualifiers ascribed to the types of publishing I’m interested in. As a bit of a joke, poking fun at all the discourse around “expanded publishing” from a few years back, and as a bit of a pun on font classifications, I came up with the term “Condensed Publishing” to categorize what I thought I might be…
Avoid Grotesk Type Specimen Matter vs. Spirit 2026 10 pages, bound with 2x80mm prong fasteners 14” x 8.5” Digital Black, printed recto-only Avoid Grotesk is my contribution to MvS 03 , our first typeface collection, and the first “full” typeface I’ve designed in over ten years. This new ten-page publication holds closely to the design of a traditional type specimen, showcasing the typeface at…
The last few weeks I’ve been thinking a lot more about images, specifically photography, than my usual obsession with text/typography. I re-read Catherine Taylor’s poetic essay Image Text Music (where she hangs out with the spirit of Roland Barthes) and picked up Hito Steyerl’s latest book Medium Hot: Images in the Age of Heat that I’m looking forward to digging into. I’ve been looking into…
the grain of your voice the tear forming in your eye humid, salty, distinctly you, but, who is you? the multiple yous of yesterday the you of tomorrow day by day, night by night the you, incomplete, unrelenting always desiring, unresolved rhythms, push/pull, in/out Boom Bap don’t land, so please, please, do not satisfy the we that are everywhere the we which refuses to form