Dubbed the "Dark Lord of Logos" and the "Paul Rand of Metal, " prolific logo designer Christophe Szpajdel is best known for a style now copied by countless death-, black-, dark-, white-, gothic-, and Nordic-metal bands: dense, rhizomatic, with gestural flourishes that alternately conjure images of moss, talons, corpuscles, or decay. Fittingly, he's designed logos for bands from Pyre, Vultures, Human Remains, Vomit of Torture, and Sadistic Passage. During his visit to Minneapolis as part of the Walker Art Center's 2011–2012 exhibition Graphic Design: Now In Production, I asked him to do one more logo: that of the museum itself. He obliged, creating a Walker logo that combines references to Art Nouveau and plant life in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, with a touch of black metal thrown in. In my video interview he discusses the logo that now graces Walker t-shirts and totes and, briefly, the Walker homepage.
Video: Designing Obama with Sol Sender and Scott Thomas
Shortly after Barack Obama’s historic 2009 election to the US presidency, I was invited by Walker Art Center design director Andrew Blauvelt to moderate a discussion with Sol Sender and Scott Thomas, the minds behind Obama’s game-changing campaign graphics at an event in the Walker Cinema. But first, I was asked to offer an introduction on the history of political graphic design: the context for how radically their work for Obama changed the way political campaigns communicate. My intro grounded the discussion in the local context, from more expected designs for the campaigns of Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale to more unorthodox approaches taken by the campaigns of Jesse Ventura and the late, great, green-bus-driving Paul Wellstone. It also contrasted Obama’s graphics with those of opponent John McCain, whose typeface choice—the same one used on the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial—offered a more resolute and militaristic vibe than Obama’s optimistic and acccessible one. Marking my first public return to the Walker after leaving in 2007 to become editor of the Minnesota Independent, the evening still stands as a fond memory of how art and politics can co-exist in compelling and unexpected ways.
Watch it:
Museopunks Podcast: Museums as Media Organizations
What can museums learn from news and media organizations in order to change and adapt their practices to work effectively in an increasingly online and social media context? The excellent Museopunks podcast welcomed me and Sree Sreenivasan, the Metropolitan Museum’s Chief Content Officer, to discuss digital publishing for innovative museums. Thanks to Jeffrey Inscho and Suse Cairns for the invitation.
Can Art Change the World? And Other Musings from the Pages of Adbusters
As associate editor of the Vancouver-based countercultural publication Adbusters from 2003 to 2005, I contributed stories on art, media, and culture each issue, from profiles of artist-activists (including Emily Jacir and Allora & Calzadilla) to think-pieces (including "Divinity for the Reality-Based Community," "Anarchy in the RNC," and others). I was guest art editor of issue #51, entitled "Art Fart" and featuring cover art by a then little-known UK street artist, Banksy. Among my contributions was a survey of top figures in the contemporary art world—from artists Thomas Hirschhorn and Rirkrit Tiravanija to curators Hou Hanru and Robert Storr—to address the question "Can art change the world?"