"Distant Early Warning" by Marshall McLuhan

Last week I got this beautiful present, an unpacked deck of cards Distant Early Warning. They were created by Marshall McLuhan in 1969.

A deck of playing cards designed to be used as a problem-solving device. First edition. (It was originally given to subscribers to the “DEW-Line Newsletter.”) In slipcase: choice of colors green, red, black, blue, or brown. Cards cellophane-wrapped. Includes inserted instruction sheet.

"The cards are fantastic and are real playing cards rather than simply prompt cards. I think this might be one of the first examples of playing cards as a non military political/social tool. Military propaganda units have used playing cards since before WWII as a means to both identify and lampoon their enemies. Considering the publishing date of 1969, (when anti Vietnam War sentiment was high). Although there's no overtly antiwar messaging in McLuhan's deck.

There are some wonderful statements in the deck. It's full of the humour, sharpness and provocativeness that you can't help but associate with McLuhan. A fabulous object with several pithy statements that seem as apt today as ever." – Murray Grigo-McMahon

1917-2017 Exhibition

To mark the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution, President of the Moscow International Biennial of Graphic Design Golden Bee Serge Serov decided to invite a group of prominent graphic designers around the world to create a poster as a personal assessment on what has happened in those 100 years. I'm honored I was one of the invited designers.

Within the framework of the Moscow Design Week, 23 works from the project were shown at the Media Centre of Zaryadye Park, very symbolically next to Kremlin / Red Square. The exhibition will be open until October 31st.

What's nice about this show is that my poster is hanging next to Milton Glaser's poster (on the right).

Underground Images at Artediez Art School

"Underground Images" the traveling retrospective of SVA's long-running subway poster series, recently opened in Madrid, Spain at Artediez Art School, that has a great tradition in teaching visual arts and design. It was organized and designed by Sonia Díaz and Gabriel Martínez from the collective Un Mundo Feliz. The show will be open until October 31st.

Lecture at Facebook headquarters

Poster announcing my internal lecture at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California on October 12th. The talk was part of the Facebook design lecture series. At the lecture I spoke about The Design of Dissent and Symbols of Hate. Facebook will soon be posting the video of the lecture making it available online.

The Medium is the Message

The smile on my face isn’t just because I’m at Facebook’s headquarters, but also because (Thanks to Scott Boms) I hold in my hand the prototype of Marshall McLuhan’s "The Medium is the Message" book. In my opinion, this is one of the 100 most important books of the 20th century. "The Medium
is the Message" was designed by and the prototype was assembled by Quentin Fiore and still has Marshall’s notes and corrections.

More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message

At SFMOMA

In front of my poster Fuel (2002), among others, which is part of the show Get with the Action: Political Posters from the 1960s to Now at SFMOMA - San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
The show will be open until Spring 2018. More about the show here: https://goo.gl/HQHbs7

Madrid - The Light City

As one of the judges for The Light City, competition organized by the festival Madrid Grafica '17,
I was invited to design a poster for the show, without competition. Most honestly if it was in the competition, I don't think it would've made the cut seeing the quality of the selected posters.

The posters are displayed in front of Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, which made me happy for two reasons. That's the same museum where Pablo Picasso's Guernica is. And, as you can see from the signage on the museum, they're also hosting a big show NSK from Kapital to Capital by my friends from the Neue Slowenische Kunst. Maybe one day I'm gonna make my
way in too, although I hope it won't be posthumously.

Posters for a new season

I'm pleased to announce the beginning of cooperation with The Yugoslav Drama Theater in Belgrade, Serbia. I will be designing their posters for the season 2017/2018.

The first poster is for the play Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman, directed by Slobodan Unkovski, which will be premiered on October 15th.

The play fictionalizes Albert Einstein as a young scientist who is troubled by dreams as he works on his theory of relativity in 1905, and each dream involves a conception of time.

The second poster is for the play Mercy Seat by Neil LaBute directed by Jana Maričić, whose premiere is scheduled for November.

It's a 2002 play that was among the first major theatrical responses to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Set on September 12, it concerns Ben, a man who worked at the World Trade Center but was away from the office during the attack, with his mistress, Abby, who is also his boss. Expecting that his family believes that he was killed in the towers' collapse, Ben contemplates using the tragedy to run away and start a new life with his lover.