Plazm Magazine: Documenting Creative Culture Since 1991
Founded by artists as a creative resource, Plazm publishes an eclectic
design and culture magazine with worldwide distribution. The entire
catalog is now part of the permanent collection at SFMoMA. Order
Plazm 29 Now.
The Past, Present and Future of the Political Poster
Lincoln Cushing has spent the better part of his career making and
preserving historic posters. Cushing has published three books about
poster art; Revolucion! Cuban Poster Art and Chinese Posters:
Art from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Much of his
renowned archival work was done with a collection of Cuban political
posters from the 1960s to the 1980s. view >>
In Conversation with Emigre
Rudy VanderLans was born in the Hauge, The Netherlands in 1955 and studied
graphic design at the Royal College of Fine Arts. He moved to California
from the in 1981 and studied photography at UC Berkeley, where he met the
Czech-born designer Zuzana Licko. They married in 1983. In 1984 VandeLans
launched Emigre magazine. VanderLans and Licko were some of the first
designers to adopt the Macintosh computer as a tool...view >>
Doing What it is He Does: David Byrne
Beth Urdang conducts an interview, and we publish photographs made by
Mr. Byrne for Plazm #15.view >>
Patrick Long: Cop Love
Plazm is proud to feature the first printed publication of Patrick's series "Cop Love." The drawings met with protest at their first exhibition in New York. Some of the work featured here is not in the printed issue of the magazine, and some of the work featured in the magazine is not found on the web site.view >>
Timeline of Dissent
The twentieth century saw nearly constant war and nearly constant protest
of war. The self-published handbills and underground newsletters of World
War I gave way to the guerrilla theater of the Vietnam era; more recently,
new forms of activist communications spread graphics rapidly and globally
online. In the following pages, Plazm assembles a timeline of dissent.view >>
Iggy Pop
A handwritten rant by the musician, an interview by Joshua Berger, and an
illustration by Joe Sorren. Spitting, cursing, drugs and rock &
roll. view >>
The Political Problem of Luck
Julia Bryan Wilson talks to Steve Kurtz of Critical Art Ensemble, the
artist pursued by the US government as a suspected terrorist.view >>
Listening to OMD with Stephin Merritt
The musician behind the Magnetic Fields narrates while listening and
responding to the album "Architecture and Morality" by the band
Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark. Little revelations occur.
view >>
Reversible Destiny
Architecture of Arakawa & Madeline
Gins. If you barrel down the Grand Neutralizing Parkway, a pedestrian thoroughfare piercing through a park in the town of Yoro, Japan, you may safely lose your mind.
view >>
In Conversation with Matthew Carter
Matthew Carter has spent a lifetime working with typography. He is famous
for creating ubiquitous typefaces such as Georgia and Verdana as well as
specialized custom works like Walker for the Walker Art Center. Carter is
a unique witness to the evolution of technology, working with everything
from the puncutters to pixels. view >>
DevoLanguage
"The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and
truth." --John 1:14
"Language is a virus from outer
space." --William Burroughs
"Rash poets get caught in the
traps set for animals. Some, unable to endure the cruelty, maim themselves
in order to escape." —Ursula K. LeGuin
"What we have
here is a failure to communicate."--Cool Hand Luke
view >>
On Piracy, Victory and Shaping of Letters
In March of 2004, Plazm was served a cease and desist letter by Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg, attorneys representing global hamburger giant, McDonald's Corporation. McDonald's attorneys claim that Plazm's usage of the "golden arches" as the letter M in the Capitalis Pirata font is "likely to confuse the public into believing that Plazm is in some way associated with McDonald's" and that such use "dilutes McDonald's Corporation's trademark rights." Stanley Moss wrote the following article in response.View article, McAttorney letters, and download free fonts>>
Photographs by Daniel Peterson
Somewhere, someone is always doing it. In the '70s, it was Larry Clark,
turning the camera on his beautiful, wayward friends. In the '80s, it was
Nan Goldin, documenting her clique in the East Village. Most recently,
it’s been Ryan McGinley, immortalizing his circle of vandals and
young artists. The magic of bohemian youth is fleeting but intense. Daniel
Peterson, a photographer in Portland, has lately been catching his friends
and times in full flower. –Jon RaymondView article>>
Plazm Contributors, 1991-2007
For the record.View list>>
Malia Jensen
When Malia Jensen was little, growing up in the wooded foothills of rural Oregon, an issue of Esquire magazine informed her of a little fact that has stuck with her ever since. Earthworms, her father’s magazine reported, feel pain.view >>
Colorface
"Plazm argues that language 'is anything that communicates
information'. Type is no longer merely the letters and punctuation marks
that form words, sentences and paragraphs, but 'the building blocks of
meaning in whatever form that meaning arises. Type can now be an image.
Type can be a sound. Type can be a color.'" —excerpt from Emily
King's Restart: New Systems of Graphic Designview >>
Out of Darkness: DIN and the Mythic Power of Type
Rarely is typography viewed as part of an organic process of evolution, a
working construct of ephemeral existence in a greater time continuum. As
fonts evolve they carry forward echoes of the history that created them
and the myths they bear. One cannot easily place a monetary value on myth,
though some will try.view>>
Against Livability: A Polemic
Last fall, not long after their attorneys general returned home with the
Big Tobacco peace agreement, the States fired the opening salvo in a new
war on yet another great enemy of American health and prosperity: Sprawl.
The new enemy, rather than threatening life itself, menaces an even more
ephemeral state of being known as Livability. view >>
Looking for a New World
As host of a New York nightclub I had the opportunity to socialize with a group of artists whose determination and ambition to create themselves in a multimedia environment is making a strong, clear statement of how the world should be.view >>
Out of Hand: an Interview with Leonard Peltier
Imprisoned since 1976, Leonard Peltier is a martyr for many. While serving two consecutive life sentences, he continues to thrive as a writer, painter, optimist and an active member of the American Indian Movement (AIM). His words still ring true, verbatim from within prison walls.view>>
Whipper Snapper Nerd
Hand writing is excerpted from writings by John McKenzie which first appeared in Whipper Snapper Nerd a magazine produced by Harrell Fletcher and Elizabeth Meyer of work by students from Creativity Explored, a non-profit art center for developmentally disabled adults in San Francisco.view >>
Women In Design
"I’m pleased to be writing a commentary for this magazine, but I’m worn down that it’s about Women in Design."view>>
Men, Women, Children
Taken from Plazm, issue 22. Featuring photography by Robbie McClaren,
Jürgen Teller, Cindy Jackson, Mark Ebsen. Text by Jon Raymond. Design
by Joshua Berger. Concept by Jon Raymond and Joshua Berger. view >>
MTVPE
This article, about our experiences in creating the Mtvpe proprietary type family, was originally written for Upper & lower case magazine, circa 1998.view>>
The Need
The Need talk bearded men, lesbian sex, and Lisa Marie Presley.view>>
Art and Commodity Capitalism:
Mark Hosler of Negativland in conversation with Joshua Berger - circa
1996Negativland are collage artists, acting in the rich, centuries old tradition of visual and aural composers, creating arrangements using found objects comprising the world that surrounds us. They are famous for being sued by Island records over their 1991 single, “U2” which contained samples of the U2 song “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” along with with a bootlegged tape of Casey Casum bitching about having to play U2 again and again...
view >>
Ambushed at 50
The only man in the world with a permit to possess uranium outside
corporate entities and the defense industry, James Acord works to create
radioactive art. view >>
Declaration of Scene Dependence
The first page of the first issue of Plazm magazine - a manefesto for the
future, circa July 1991. view >>