Typography relearns its ABC with a retro 1970s throwback
![‘ABC We Print Anything’, by Carolee Schneemann and Abyme, 2017, with a cat](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/xne5eeAvChGeNqzjZ6fH3C-415-80.jpg)
In 2017, designers John Morgan and Adrien Vasquez launched Abyme – a digital foundry, that creates visionary typographic stuff – from fonts to Ouija boards. Now, they’ve screenprinted a punchy, Seventies throwback sweatshirt with American artist Carolee Schneemann, and basically, we want it now.
Collaborations come naturally to Morgan, whose eponymous studio (established in 2000) revolves with cultural and creative figures (he has designed projects for the likes of Edmund de Waal, Helen Marten, the Barbican, Valentino). ‘Many Abyme ideas have developed through working together on other projects,’ he explains. ‘A work often begins life within another work.’ The same is true for the Schneemann sweatshirt.
The collaboration began when John Morgan Studio designed the second issue of The Magazine (of the Artist’s Institute, New York) which was dedicated to Schneemann. It features previously unpublished images from her studio, documenting half a century of morphological connections between her work and other visual material, including art, advertising, and popular culture.
Carolee Schneemann wearing the ABC sweatshirt in the mid 1970s
‘While working on the publication, I saw a faded and tightly cropped photograph of Carolee with a hand holding her around her waist, from the mid 1970s wearing a sweatshirt with the slogan “ABC We Print Anything”,’ explains Morgan. ‘The typography, erratic colouring and care-free sentiment was irresistible, so we proposed – with the support of Carolee and The Artist’s Institute, New York – to remake the sweatshirt in a limited edition.’
The shirts are on sale from today (23 March), for a short period at Tenderbooks in Cecil Court, London, where they will ‘hang in the window as Carolee may have originally seen them.’ They’re also available at the Abyme website, which is a work of art in itself. The site is a masterclass in digital design, with a dancefloor of typographic wizardry to feed your browser, and imagination. Happy typing.
‘ABC We Print Anything’, by Carolee Schneemann and Abyme, 2017
‘ABC We Print Anything’, by Carolee Schneemann and Abyme, 2017.
INFORMATION
‘ABC We Print Anything’, by Carolee Schneemann and Abyme, 2017, £280. For more information, visit the Abyme website
ADDRESS
Tenderbooks
6 Cecil Ct, London
WC2N 4HE
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Elly Parsons is the Digital Editor of Wallpaper*, where she oversees Wallpaper.com and its social platforms. She has been with the brand since 2015 in various roles, spending time as digital writer – specialising in art, technology and contemporary culture – and as deputy digital editor. She was shortlisted for a PPA Award in 2017, has written extensively for many publications, and has contributed to three books. She is a guest lecturer in digital journalism at Goldsmiths University, London, where she also holds a masters degree in creative writing. Now, her main areas of expertise include content strategy, audience engagement, and social media.
-
Commune’s sustainable personal care products look ‘quite unlike anything else’
Commune’s Somerset-made products stand out in the sustainable skincare crowd. Madeleine Rothery speaks with the brand’s co-founders Kate Neal and Rémi Paringaux
By Madeleine Rothery Published
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
‘Mental health, motherhood and class’: Hannah Perry’s dynamic installation at Baltic
Hannah Perry's exhibition ’Manual Labour’ is on show at Baltic in Gateshead, UK, a five-part installation drawing parallels between motherhood and factory work
By Emily Steer Published
-
Francis Alÿs plots child play around the world at the Barbican
In Francis Alÿs' exhibition ‘Ricochets’ at London’s Barbican, the artist explores the universality of play, even in challenging situations
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
At Glastonbury’s Shangri-La, activism and innovation meet
Glastonbury’s south-east corner is known for its after-dark entertainment but by day, there is a different story to tell
By Rhian Daly Published
-
‘I am almost an anti-sculptor’: Dominique White on her Whitechapel Max Mara Art Prize show
The artist mines the ocean to explore Afrofuturism in ‘Deadweight’, opening at London’s Whitechapel and detailed in a new film
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
Remembering Rusty Egan's Blitz Club: a place to 'avoid the mob and the homophobes', where the New Romantics were born
As he releases new vinyl boxset, 'Blitzed!', Wallpaper* meets DJ Rusty Egan to talk about London's scene-building Blitz club – the antidote to the late 70s punk scene and a hot-bed of experimental fashion
By Craig McLean Published
-
Suzannah Pettigrew's 'tender and ghostly' new show at Surrealist photographer Lee Miller's former home in East Sussex
London-based artist Suzannah Pettigrew's photographic stills create a snapshot of her Sussex coast childhood, conjuring up a hallucinatory world of memory
By Mary Cleary Published
-
The body, pleasure and play: Beryl Cook and Tom of Finland united in London
Tom of Finland’s homoeroticism meets Beryl Cook’s female-oriented camp as Studio Voltaire unites work by the two artists in a London exhibition
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Zanele Muholi celebrates South Africa’s Black LGBTI communities in LA and London
Zanele Muholi's portraits and sculptures are currently on show at Southern Guild Los Angeles and the Tate Modern, London
By Hannah Silver Published