A note from our friend Scott Massey:

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Come visit us at Printed Matter‘s LA Art Book Fair at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA (in Little Tokyo!)

February 1-3, 2013
Opening: Thursday, January 31, 2013, 6–9 pm

We’ll have a curated selection of books and independent publications by our talented artist and designer friends.

Contributors include:
Wax Magazine,
Julie Moon
Jim Newitt
Peter Sutherland
Mike Perry
Scott Massey
David Karwan
Sarah Gottesdiener
Bijan Berahimi
Laura Bernstein
Jon Sueda
The Art Park Journal
Kook Mag
…and more!

Work Forever / Vacation Forever
In our globalized economy, work seems to have interrupt our personal lives all the time, whether it be the beeping of an urgent email at 3am from your new boss or the announcement of a mandatory corporate retreat, work just seems to never, ever end – but then there’s that other kind of work…

For Printed Matter’s 1st Annual LA Art Book Fair, Leisure Labor is delighted to offer a curated selection of books, publications, and printed matter independently produced and conceived by designers and artists working toward their own agendas on their own time (most likely made while you were sleeping on the couch or sending emails, we probably should have been sleeping too).

A shot of the table

Chris Burnett is currently finishing his fourth and final year at CalArts in the graphic design program. His body of work consists of beautiful student and professional work. Ranging from lettering to illustration, with an attention to detail and care for materiality. Pieces are often produced in a unique way, in his portfolio you see a lot of screen printing as well as explorations in new materials. Which on top of well crafted typography and strong design skills makes for a quality driven aesthetic. Where concept and form find an extremely happy medium.

EL GATO is the thesis project of Stefano Giustiniani, a MFA candidate at CalArts. He will be occupying an old FedEx truck in four different parts of Los Angeles this week. More information below.

Here is their schedule:
January 16 – Skid Row & Downtown
January 17 – Mariachi Plaza
January 18 – Open for suggestions…
January 19 – Miracle Mile

If you’re in the area make sure you stop by and say hello, just look for the truck below.

More about EL GATO
EL GATO is a mobile open-ended news generator. An outlet and prototype machine servicing printed materials refusing extinction. By adhering to low run numbers and select interest groups, EL GATO is able to control all aspects of publishing. Be it content creation, design, printing or distribution in the constrained 24 hr. time frame of usual newsprint. More than a daily paper it is a rolling conversation trafficking information exchange between casually connected communities. A sort of documentary in print.

Remotas is a broadcast for procedural transparency. This confusion matrix allows visualization of the research, communication exercises, documentation and announcements, pertaining to the making and progression of EL GATO. Structurally the display of information is divided in sources that cling to a fixed surface (11” x 17” page). When necessary, in order to supplant the experience of following EL GATO physically, the entry may offer an extra format to enhance and clarify the mood of a signal.

Francesca Ramos shows an interest in playful typography, illustration and language. Her work is not in your typical “CalArts” style but instead shows a new wave of work coming out of the school. Work that has an extreme attention to detail, craft, and content but not in the expected deconstructive post-modernist style. The three posters below show a nice range in aesthetic interest and typography, which is one of the most noticeable traits of CalArts students.

Francesca applies a personal sensibility to her work but does not limit herself to a specific style. The three posters above are completely unique in their own right, but yet all three feel like Francesca.

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Francesca Ramos is currently a third year in the BFA program at CalArts. She has a cat named Bijou. She is currently open to internships, freelancing and collaboration.

We are mailing out an order of books this week. If you are interested in purchasing one, please send an email to info@wearefisk.com. Only 90 copies were made, they are all printed and bound by hand. The cover is a two color screen print and the inside pages are all printed on a Risograph. It is 102 pages in total. We are selling them for $10 including shipping. Thanks!

… we designed, printed, bound, and distributed this publication with our friends work. In case the prediction by the Mayans, who believe that a cataclysmic event will occur on December 21, 2012. Which could hypothetically result in this being the last issue of FISK. What better than celebrate our uncertain deaths and make a publication together?

Along with a visual contribution, we asked contributors to supply us with one sentence of how they would spend December 20, 2012. If, hypothetically, we were all going to cease to exist the following day…

CalArts
24700 McBean Parkway
Valencia, CA 91355

Ben DuVall (b. 1989) is currently studying graphic design and political science at Cal State Long Beach. Ben’s work shows an interest in content & typography. His portfolio shows a big jump in aesthetic interest. Some pieces seem a little more straight forward, while others seems more experimental and contemporary. Above is his more straight forward work and below is his more contemporary work.

There is a distinct divide between designers who have talent and designers who produce what I call lazy design. Ben obviously has talent but being in design school makes it very easy to fall into design trends. They are trends for a reason, most of us are subject to using them at times. Why does type look so damn good on four sides? But when your work begins to feel familiar, and not because I’ve seen your work before, but because I saw something very similar on tumblr yesterday. Does that raise concern? I think it should. There is so much visual potential with the tools we have at hand now, go explore! Type can’t only look good stretched or on four sides.

With that said, I think there is a sweet spot that designers are missing out on. I do agree that designers should stay contemporary but that they should also challenge themselves and keep progressing rather than being stagnant on aesthetics that have already been done before.

I enjoy the pieces below by Ben a lot. They both interact with the space they live in. I appreciate his interest with words and with creating an experience in a physical space. Ben is designing issue 35 of RipRap, a literary journal from Cal State Long Beach – submissions are open until December 21, 2012.

Image by Ben DuVall

Every university should have a publication like the RipRap Journal by the California State University, Long Beach English Department. Ben DuVall a graphic design student at CSULB who is designing the upcoming issue of RipRap has been kind enough to open up submissions to all students. The journal will be published next spring & the deadline for submissions is December 21, 2012.

Below is all of the information you need to submit and more info on RipRap as well as it’s history.

RipRap 35
CSULB Literary Journal

1) Submission Deadline Friday 12/21/2012
2) Submit Your Work Electronically to RipRapJournal@Gmail.com
3) We accept Poetry, Nonficition, Fiction, Original Art, Illustations, and Photography (even of Illustrations/Textiles).

Welcome to RipRap, a literary journal designed and produced annually by students in the Master of Fine Arts, Creative Writing program at California State University Long Beach (CSULB). Since its inception in 1951, the journal has evolved from its original title, Hornspoon until it was renamed Gambit and finally in 1979, RipRap.

RipRap reaches farther than the wide regions of its home in Southern California and highlights writers from across the country as well as enlightening interviews of award winning, published writers who are featured in the English Department’s Visiting Writers Series.

RipRap offers an invitation to all talented and aspiring writers of all genres and is open to everyone. Specifically, RipRap publishes creative short fiction and non fiction, poetry, and art such as photography, illustration, and original art pieces as well as comics.

Our goal has always been to promote the work of students but with the recent relaunch of FISK, I have made an effort to contribute to the graphic design discourse with what we post. Rather than just posting eye-candy with no context or dialogue, I have made an effort to point out what is obvious in people’s work, good or bad. With that said, by no means is any offense meant, I only hope to start an open, clear and honest conversation between myself, the designer & you, the viewer.

Los Angeles Aqueduct Day is the least noted, most important nonexistent holiday in Los Angeles. Every Sunday this month I shared the story of how water came to Los Angeles through a pop-up shop & make-shift museum at the Melrose Trading Post in Hollywood, California.

This Sunday will be my last day celebrating Aqueduct Day & I would like to invite everyone to come out to Hollywood to see this month long project come to an end. I did another run of tote bags & kitchen towels this week that I will have for sale on Sunday. I might have cookies too.

The most unique aspect of this project, and most rewarding, has been the opportunity to share my story with the public of Los Angeles. With Aqueduct Day I’ve had the pleasure to talk to such a wide array of people; some local, some foreign, & some super creepy, but all interesting. I’ve learned so many new things about water & Los Angeles through conversations about this project. It has been an eye-opening experience about the power of design & story telling.

If you can’t make it out this Sunday, you can view the official website at laad.bijanberahimi.com where I have been documenting the entire project. I will be updating Week 3 & 4 photos shortly.