WE'LL NEVER BE ROYALS

Graphic design, the discipline of aesthetic production, is facing a crisis as it reconciles with catastrophic effects of network technology on its profitability. Even prolific designers who produce work with a characteristic original aesthetic are quickly copied. As their work is pillaged and reproduced downstream (leftstream), it becomes increasin... See more

There is something unspoken lurking in the background of the most impassioned critiques of generative AI. Between the cries of plagiarism and unoriginal lazy mimicry is the fact that there is almost nothing original or unique about culture now in the first place. Putting aside the dangerous and ahistorical simplification of creativity as originalit... See more

This is peak Lifestyle. Easier than ever to launch a brand. More goods than ever. Software-enabled, integrated supply chain driven business models. An explosion of online social media cultures. These elements have become omnipresent, splashed across our lives like the patterned splotches of a magic eye book. Stare long enough, and you begin to see ... See more

Despite all the crises we face – the cost of living, climate change, AI – any of which should surely be enough material to inspire real and meaningful art, the overwhelm of information paired with exhausting post-capitalist forces has created an atmosphere that is nihilistic and excruciatingly mid.

“We are no longer sitting in a restaurant, ordering our own meal,“ Alexandra Hildreth explained of the this tension materializing in fashion, of those who are dressed “by” the algorithm versus those who are informed by other inputs. The same can be said of ideologies, of approaches to the world. “We are at an all you can eat sushi conveyor belt, wh... See more

MANIFESTO

After working in fashion e-commerce for years I've come to the conclusion that in e-commerce we do not sell clothes... we sell images of clothes. Compressed, digital versions of physical products. As Roland Barthes pointed out in The Fashion System, a product image is a symbol or metaphor of a product. Media--in this case images--mediates ... See more