Above: IDEA magazine (Japan) “What’s new in typography” 8-page feature on Plazm

“A jewel in Portland’s alternative crown.”
— Steven Heller

“Those who like their magazines slick and formulaic are hereby given a last chance to change their minds”
— Wired Magazine

“Plazm is unreadable”
— New York Press

To schedule an interview or inquire about booking Joshua Berger or Niko Courtelis as a speaker or for a workshop, please send us a note using our contact form.

Above: The Oregonian covers Wieden + Kennedy, Tinker Hatfield, and Plazm being named to the ID40.

Symposia

• Did I Do That? podcast interview with Joshua Berger
• OnCreativity, Bend Design Conference
• Citizen Designer, panel discussion, Design Week Portland, Joshua Berger, Michael Ellsworth, Bijan Berahimi, & Jen Thomas, moderated by Nishat Akhtar
• Come Fail With Us, workshop, Bend Design Conference
• Pecha Kucha, Joshua Berger: Survival
• The Curiosity Club, Joshua Berger, Doing Better: How I Broke My Brain and Changed my Mind
• Design, Drinks, and Discussion: Joshua Berger, Namita Gupta Wiggers, and Kate Bingaman-Burt in conversation, Liquid Space, Portland, Oregon
• The Curiosity Club, Niko Courtelis, Stamps Ate My Brain
• Making Meaning, presentation and workshop, School of Art Institute Chicago, Illinois
• Plazm: 20 Years of Art & Design, Archer Gallery at Clark College, Vancouver, Washington
• UCDA Annual Conference, keynote address
• The Back Room, Portland, Oregon – podcast Stephanie Snyder in conversation with Joshua Berger, Jon Raymond, and Tiffany Lee Brown
• Western Oregon University
• Design Madison lecture series
• AIGA Portland
• Ad Federation of Central Oregon lecture series
• AIGA National Conference, featured presenter, Vancouver, B.C.
• AIGA National Conference, featured presenter, Washington D.C., 2002 – one minute manifesto
• AIGA Lecture Series Charleston, South Carolina
• AIGA Lecture Series Cincinnati, Ohio
• ATYPI, featured presenter, Boston, Massachussettes
• AIGA Lecture Series Seattle, Washington
• Shop Talk: AIGA Lecture Series Portland, Oregon

Above: Factsheet 5 review of Plazm magazine, 1994.

“With an international client roster, a worldwide reputation, and a dossier that includes graphics, typeface design, and magazine publishing, a resolutely independent Portland-based design firm proves that it’s not the size of the company, but the size of its dreams.”
— Margaret Richardson, CreativePro.com

Selected Exhibitions

• SFMoMA, permanent collection, Plazm Magazine complete catalog
• Denver Art Museum, permanent collection, Plazm Magazine complete catalog, various posters & ephemera
• Portland Art Museum Library, permanent collection, Plazm Magazine complete catalog
• Princeton Architectural Library, permanent collection, Plazm Magazine complete catalog
• Plakatsammlung Museum fur Gestaltung Zürich, permanent collection, 150+ Plazm posters
• Poster House, permanent collection, New York City
• Plazm: 20 Years of Art & Design, Archer Gallery at Clark College, Vancouver, Washington
• Plazm retrospective, Liquid Space, Portland, Oregon
• 20 Years of Plazm, Disjecta, Portland, Oregon
• Baum-Geschicten, group show, Museum of Design Zurich
• In Other’s Words, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
• ZGRAF 10, honorary exhibition, Zagreb, Croatia
• “Stimulating Sales: Sex in Design” Museum of Sex, New York City
• Protest! group show, Museum of Design Zurich
• The Design of Dissent, Payne Gallery, Moravian College, Pennsylvania
• “XXX: The Power of Sex” Campbell Gallery, Western Oregon University, Monmoth
• “Now I Know my ABC’s” Wurst Gallery/The Office, Portland Oregon
• “Urban Forest” Times Square, New York City
• The Design of Dissent, Pratt, New York City
• CMYK Independent Magazine Culture Festival, Barcelona, Spain
• “Stimulating Sales: Sex in Design” Museum of Sex, New York City
• ZGRAF 9, honorary exhibition, Zagreb, Croatia
• “Counter Canvas” Portland Institute for Contemporary Art
• Sphere magazine, “Wish You Were Here” commissioned work
• Idea magazine (Japan), commissioned work
• SFMoMA, permanent collection, Campaign for PICA identity materials
• Anyone Can Color, Portland Oregon
• Designer as Author: Voices and Visions, nationally curated exhibition, Raleigh, NC
• AIGA Biennial Exhibition Portland, Oregon
• AIGA Traveling Exhibition, Oregon

“A passionate pursuit of editorial originality— no ordinary magazine”
— How Magazine

“You can’t describe Plazm as a cutting-edge publication— it’s light years ahead”
— Step Magazine

“The best American magazine since Interview”
— Nieuws Bulletin (Netherlands)

“Plazm offers an introduction to an attitude, one that may explain why the revolution of the artists of Generation X won’t be televised — and probably won’t appear in local galleries either. Plazm’s international distribution can’t help but germinate the ideas it plants.”
— Randy Gragg, The Oregonian

“Cool and classy”
— Advertising Age

“Plazm is an expertly crafted blend of brain food, eyecandy, smart design and sexy typography.”
— Portlandart.net

“In an era when more and more media are controlled by fewer and fewer outlets, small press and independent media allow outsider voices to be heard. Art, — capital “A” Art, not craft or design–is often the expression of a voice that would otherwise be unheard, even unacceptable. Plazm provides a fine glimpse into the world of art, prompting further exploration on the part of the reader. Find a copy and expand your perceptions.”
— Feministreview.blogspot.com

” ‘Magazine’ doesn’t quite cover it. Not even ‘art magazine’. Maybe ‘magazine as art’ is closer to the mark…”
— Oregonian

Publications

– Steven Heller in conversation with Joshua Berger & Niko Courtelis
– Socially Responsible Designers feature, Joshua Berger & Tiffany Lee Brown, GDUSA
– Communication Arts, Exhibit
– Steven Heller in conversation with Joshua Berger
– Blight, feature interview
– Plazm’s transfusion gives the art and culture ‘zine new money, new energy, Oregonian
– Oregon Art Watch, The Devil and Other Delights
– Buspass: Joshua Berger Portland Tour
– From Cover to Layout, Liaoning Publishing House
– The Big Brand Theory, Sandu Publishing
– 1000 More Greetings, Quayside Publishing
– Fingerprint 2, Rockport
– International Visual Communication Design, Liaoning Publishing House
– Grids, Rotovision
– Designing for the Greater Good, Crescent Hill Books
– The Graphic Eye: Photographs by Graphic Designers from Around the Globe, Chronicle Books
– Flashback, Victionary
– Art Directing Projects for Print, Rotovision
– MEISHI / Little Graphic Art Gallery Of The World, ICO Japan
– ITCH magazine
– Writing for Visual Thinkers, Peach Pit Press/AIGA Design Press
– Stereographics, Victionary
– 1000 Music Graphics Rockport
– International Design Yearbook, Guangzhou, MDX
– Design for Special Events Rockport
– Communication Arts
– Education of Design Entrepreneur, Rockport
– SustainAble, Rockport
– 1000 Retail Graphics Rockport
– Fashion Unfolding: Uncover the Power of Graphics in Fashion Victionary
– The Little Book of Promotions Rockport
– Handmade Ginko Press
– IdN
– Influences: A Lexicon of Contemporary Graphic Design, die-gestalten
– Idea magazine (Japan)
– Novuum (Germany)
– Creativity magazine
– Fast Company
– Page (Germany)
– Grafik (UK)
– Print magazine
– Creative Review (UK)
– Eye (UK)
– Gobshite Quarterly
– Pen (Japan)
– Index-A, Charles Wilkin forward by Joshua Berger
– Step magazine
– Creativepro.com
– E-Design (Taiwan)
– Education of a Design Entrepreneur, Abrams
– Oregon Business magazine, 50 to watch
– The Portland Tribune, business page cover story
– Communication Arts, Exhibit
– How Magazine
– Adbusters
– Provocative Graphics, Rockport Publishers
– Then is Now: Sampling from the Past, Rockport Publishers
– Graphic Design Time Line: a Century of Design Milestones, Steven Heller, Allworth Press
– Limited Resources, Limitless Creativity, PIE Books
– Next: The New Generation in Graphic Design, North Light Books
– Oregon Business Journal
– Oregon Humanities
– Visible Music, PIE Books
– DesignNet (Korea)
– Cool Type 2, North Light Books
– Extreme Fonts: Digital Faces of the Future, Madison Square Press
– IdN (Hong Kong)
– One and Two Color Graphics, PIE Books
– Oregon Business magazine
– Radical Type, North Light Books
– Graphis, Design Annual
– Magazine Editorial Graphics, PIE Books
– Print Magazine Computer Design Annual
– Radical Graphics, Chronicle Books
– Cool Type, North Light Books
– I.D. magazine, I.D. 40
– Typefetish: Obsessive Design in the Digital Age PBC International, 1997- Typography Now 2, Booth Clibborn Editions
– Street Smart Design, North Light Books
– Adobe magazine
– A Blip in the Continuum of Graphic Design, Peach Pit Press
– Print Magazine Regional Design Annual
– The Best in Cutting Edge Typography, Quarto Publishing
– Wired
– Upper and lower case
– The Oregonian
– Portland Mercury
– Willamette Week