Modern industrial society is based on rapid stimulus, immediate gratification and superfluous over consumption. The number under the age of 18 who don’t read increases exponentially as information is spoon fed to them through modern methods of convenience in communication. Design can help to overcome this hurdle by sensibly communicating ideas. This is not always the result of our attempts.

We are committed to an evolving aesthetic, to challenging the status quo and our readers on a variety of levels. Writing, illustration, photography, and many other forms of expression are submitted to us from around the world. Three quarters of the magazine is this work. The designers who create the layouts which make up Plazm are given a great deal of latitude in their interpretation of submitted art. What you are seeing is one artist’s translation of another artist’s work. We encourage interaction between the artists in this process.

There is a balance which we try to maintain between exploration of form and the communication of ideas. Some readers may choose to interpret a layout as being unreadable; as having crossed that line between form and function. The question is: If we didn’t experiment, if we set all our type in a three column grid, would you even be interested? Probably not. The “Clean Grid of Modernity"* has been formally rejected by the nihilism of the Industrial Youth Culture.

The current renaissance in typography and the deconstructivist design movement that adjoins it are a pure expression of our cultural climate. We are all products of our surroundings. Legibility in typography is a direct result of a reader’s familiarity with the typeface.** The frenetic pace of the information age decreases the probability that what you see will be immediately readable. A person may actually have to spend some time with written words in order to understand them.

The future is a choice, not an obligation.

Joshua Berger
Art Director