With interviews of upstart graphic artists adn fonts that are miles ahead, Ian Swift's new fanzine proves that designers can be stars.
In the '80s and early '90s, some people claimed designers would soon be as big as rock stars. Most of those people, of course, were designers. Their belief stemmed from the close association of cutting-edge design, especially in the UK, with cutting-edge music: garage fonts were like garage bands, and grunge graphics like grunge music; Photoshop suggested techno music; and much of the new typography was akin to voguing. The upstart British graphics movement focused on producing logos for upstart British record companies and designing sleeves for 7-inch EPs.
Proof of the proposition that designers could be stars - at least to other designers - is Command [z], a new fanzine produced
by Ian Swift, a k a Swifty. Along with a portfolio of his own work and a "clipboard" of designs by his pals or admirees, the first issue includes an interview with art star
Ian Wright, a leading illustrator for the New Musical Express whose favored tools are MacPaint and a photocopier. More groupie material in Command [z] includes a portfolio of Wright's greatest hits and his font, Hand Job, which uses elements of the hand to make letters, as if from some advanced-placement course in finger painting.
Bound in a mini-slipcase with the fanzine is a disk that includes two of Swifty's own fonts, in PostScript form for the Mac. Miles Ahead offers type-spacing formats that alternate with the shift key. Dolce Vita appears to have been shaped with scissors and construction paper and evokes the poster letters of the left-leaning painter and photographer Ben Shahn.
Swifty's theme is clear, even couched in Swifty prose: "Whilst engaging the global techno-superhighway, we should not ignore the importance of the printed page." And he doesn't. This little book balances high tech with high texture. - Phil Patton
To encourage a second issue, contact
Paul Tully and Co.: +44 (171) 729 3003, fax +44 (171) 739 9799.
