Plazm (magazine)
Encyclopedia
Plazm magazine has been published since 1991 by a collective of designers, writers, and others in Portland, Oregon
, United States
. The complete catalog of Plazm magazine is included in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
and the Denver Art Museum. Plazm Media has become an influential and award-winning design firm, font foundry (which is now plazmfonts.com an independent design firm and letter-founder) , and publisher.
In 2010, the nonprofit organization New Oregon Arts & Letters became the publisher of Plazm magazine, winning a Regional Arts & Culture Council Opportunity Grant for printing costs of Plazm Issue #30, and an Oregon Cultural Trust grant to aid in developing a new website at plazm.org.
, Art Chantry
, Milton Glaser
, Rebeca Mendez
, Reza Abedini
, Modern Dog, Scott Clum, John C. Jay, Bruce Licher, Frank Kozik
, Pablo Medina, The Attik, Why Not Associates, and Ed Fella
.
Contributing artists have included Raymond Pettibon
, Todd Haynes
, Storm Tharp, Guillermo Gómez-Peña
, Yoko Ono
, Michael Brophy, Seripop
, Vanessa Renwick, Susan Seubert, and Terry Toedtemeier. Writers contributing to Plazm magazine include Julia Bryan-Wilson, Portland Monthly editor Randy Gragg, curator Stephanie Snyder, and Pere Ubu founder Dave Thomas, along with editors Jonathan Raymond
and Tiffany Lee Brown
.
The magazine has also run original pieces by interviewees, such as a handwritten fax-rant from Iggy Pop
and faux McDonald's employment applications from Poison Ivy and Lux Interior of The Cramps
.
joined Jon Raymond as co-editor of the magazine, and Sarah Gottesdiener became the magazine's Editorial Coordinator and frequent contributor.
The magazine started as a large-format newsprint quarterly publication and is now a thick, perfect-bound, four-color, book-style magazine published annually. The magazine's blog was launched in 2008 on plazm.com; local Portland newspaper The Oregonian wrote, "We always take Plazm's recommendations seriously" and "These guys are among the most creative characters in the city, though, and we've already bookmarked them." However, the newspaper noted that the blog's "first few entries seemed a little heavy on 'great typefaces we've known and loved.'.
A collection of archived articles from the magazine's 18-year history appears on the website as well. Urban Honking referred to Plazm's "octopus identity" that has "spread tentacles into Portland's creative world and far beyond."
Plazm was listed in 1997 in I.D.
as one of the world’s 40 most influential design firms and has been featured in numerous publications and award shows including the 100 show, AIGA, the professional association for design national show, the Art Director’s Club, Eye, Communication Arts, Graphis, and IDEA (Japan). Plazm received the creative resistance award from Adbusters
in 2001.
Clients of Plazm design have included Nike, LucasFilm, ESPN, Burgerville, The Cooley Gallery, Portland Center Stage, Jantzen Swimwear, and MTV.
The statement's current version is published on the Plazm website. It reads: "At Plazm, we believe that designers, writers, and artists have a responsibility to the world. We know how to use the tools of creativity and communication; we can use them for social change along with personal vision. As individuals and collectively, we work toward environmental, social, and political causes and contribute our services to organizations promoting arts, culture, social change, and sustainability."
Plazm nonprofit clients and collaborators receiving pro bono or discounted work for social, artistic, community, and environmental causes include the PICA (Portland Institute for Contemporary Art), ORLO, Pacific Northwest College of Art, New Oregon Arts & Letters, Northwest Film and Video Festival, Red Bull Theater, and KMHD radio. Plazm's Joshua Berger has shown political art in Times Square in the Urban Forest Project , The Organ Review of Art, UMASS, Mark Woolley Gallery, the Public Works series at Someday, and in 2GQ, a publication of 2 Gyrlz Performative Arts
.
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The complete catalog of Plazm magazine is included in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
and the Denver Art Museum. Plazm Media has become an influential and award-winning design firm, font foundry (which is now plazmfonts.com an independent design firm and letter-founder) , and publisher.
In 2010, the nonprofit organization New Oregon Arts & Letters became the publisher of Plazm magazine, winning a Regional Arts & Culture Council Opportunity Grant for printing costs of Plazm Issue #30, and an Oregon Cultural Trust grant to aid in developing a new website at plazm.org.
Contributors
Notable designers who have been affiliated with Plazm include David CarsonDavid Carson (graphic designer)
David Carson is an American graphic designer. He is best known for his innovative magazine design, and use of experimental typography. He was the art director for the magazine Ray Gun. Carson was perhaps the most influential graphic designer of the 1990s...
, Art Chantry
Art Chantry
Arthur S.W. Chantry II is a graphic designer often associated with the posters and album covers he did for bands from the Pacific Northwest, such as Nirvana, Hole and The Sonics. He is also notable for his work in logo design...
, Milton Glaser
Milton Glaser
Milton Glaser is a graphic designer, best known for the I Love New York logo, his "Bob Dylan" poster, the "DC bullet" logo used by DC Comics from 1977 to 2005, and the "Brooklyn Brewery" logo. He also founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker in 1968.-Biography:Glaser was born into a Hungarian...
, Rebeca Mendez
Rebeca Mendez
Rebeca Méndez is an artist and designer living in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is professor at UCLA Design Media Arts Department in Los Angeles, California.- Biography :...
, Reza Abedini
Reza Abedini
Reza Abedini, is a world renowned Iranian designer and a professor of graphic design and visual culture at Tehran University.Abedini is one of the most famous graphics designer in Iran because of his modern Persian typography...
, Modern Dog, Scott Clum, John C. Jay, Bruce Licher, Frank Kozik
Frank Kozik
Frank Kozik is an American graphic artist who has worked with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Melvins, The Offspring and Butthole Surfers. Kozik runs Man's Ruin Records, a media outlet and record label, and has published several books including Man's Ruin:...
, Pablo Medina, The Attik, Why Not Associates, and Ed Fella
Ed Fella
Ed Fella is an artist, educator and graphic designer whose work has had an important influence on contemporary typography. Ed worked as a commerical artist designing...
.
Contributing artists have included Raymond Pettibon
Raymond Pettibon
Raymond Pettibon is an American artist who currently lives and works in Venice Beach, California.-Early life:...
, Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes is an American independent film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his feature films Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Poison, Velvet Goldmine, Safe, and the Academy Award-nominated Far from Heaven and I'm Not There.- Style and themes :The writes that "Haynes is...
, Storm Tharp, Guillermo Gómez-Peña
Guillermo Gómez-Peña
Guillermo Gómez-Peña was born in Mexico City and moved to the US in 1978, where he established himself as a performance artist, writer, activist, and educator. He has pioneered multiple media, including performance art, experimental radio, video, performance photography and installation art...
, Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
, Michael Brophy, Seripop
Seripop
Chloe Lum and Yannick Desranleau work together under the Seripop name to design album covers, prints, books and illustrations. Seripop is based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They won the 2007 Juno Award for CD/DVD Artwork Design of the Year for designing the cover of The Looks album by MSTRKRFT.The...
, Vanessa Renwick, Susan Seubert, and Terry Toedtemeier. Writers contributing to Plazm magazine include Julia Bryan-Wilson, Portland Monthly editor Randy Gragg, curator Stephanie Snyder, and Pere Ubu founder Dave Thomas, along with editors Jonathan Raymond
Jonathan Raymond
Jonathan Raymond is an American writer living in Portland, Oregon.-Biography:He published his first novel, The Half-Life in May of 2004. He has also worked as a screenwriter and wrote the short story inspired by the photography of Justine Kurland on which the film Old Joy is based...
and Tiffany Lee Brown
Tiffany Lee Brown
Tiffany Lee Brown is an American writer, editor, and interdisciplinary artist. Author of A Compendium of Miniatures , she is the Executive Director of the 501c3 non-profit organization New Oregon Arts & Letters...
.
The magazine has also run original pieces by interviewees, such as a handwritten fax-rant from Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
and faux McDonald's employment applications from Poison Ivy and Lux Interior of The Cramps
The Cramps
The Cramps were an American rock band, formed in 1976 and active until 2009. The band split after the death of lead singer Lux Interior. Their line-up rotated much over their existence, with the husband and wife duo of Interior and lead guitarist Poison Ivy the only permanent members...
.
Brief history (magazine)
Founders of the magazine were Patrick Bardel, Joshua Berger, Karynn Fish, Neva Knott, Andrew McFarlane, Rueben Niesenfeld. Plazm magazine editors have been Neva Knott (issues 1-9), Yariv Rabinovitch (issues 10-17), and Jonathan Raymond (issues 18-28). In 2005, Tiffany Lee BrownTiffany Lee Brown
Tiffany Lee Brown is an American writer, editor, and interdisciplinary artist. Author of A Compendium of Miniatures , she is the Executive Director of the 501c3 non-profit organization New Oregon Arts & Letters...
joined Jon Raymond as co-editor of the magazine, and Sarah Gottesdiener became the magazine's Editorial Coordinator and frequent contributor.
The magazine started as a large-format newsprint quarterly publication and is now a thick, perfect-bound, four-color, book-style magazine published annually. The magazine's blog was launched in 2008 on plazm.com; local Portland newspaper The Oregonian wrote, "We always take Plazm's recommendations seriously" and "These guys are among the most creative characters in the city, though, and we've already bookmarked them." However, the newspaper noted that the blog's "first few entries seemed a little heavy on 'great typefaces we've known and loved.'.
A collection of archived articles from the magazine's 18-year history appears on the website as well. Urban Honking referred to Plazm's "octopus identity" that has "spread tentacles into Portland's creative world and far beyond."
Plazmfonts
In 1993 Pete McCracken founded Plazmfonts in collaboration with the magazine. As Director of Plazmfonts division he led the creative efforts in designing the exclusive corporate typefaces for Nike, Adidas, and MTV . In 2006, McCracken, a Creative Director and partner in the Plazm design firm, left the magazine to create an independent branding and typeface design studio, also called Plazmfonts.Plazm design firm
Plazm Design was founded in 1995 by Joshua Berger, Pete McCracken and Niko Courtelis. The design firm has created brand identities, advertising, interactive and retail experiences, editorial content, custom typography, books, and magazines. Some designers who have worked for the firm have included Enrique Mosqueda, Jon Kieselhorst, Jon Steinhorst, Gus Nicklos, Carole Ambauen, Lotus Child, Ian Lynam, and Yoko Tsukahara. Plazm authored the book 'XXX: The Power of Sex in Contemporary Design' which won the Gold Medal at the Portland Design Festival "DNA-PDX."Plazm was listed in 1997 in I.D.
I.D. (magazine)
I.D. was a magazine covering the art, business and culture of design. It was published eight times a year by F+W Media....
as one of the world’s 40 most influential design firms and has been featured in numerous publications and award shows including the 100 show, AIGA, the professional association for design national show, the Art Director’s Club, Eye, Communication Arts, Graphis, and IDEA (Japan). Plazm received the creative resistance award from Adbusters
AdBusters
The Adbusters Media Foundation is a Canadian-based not-for-profit, anti-consumerist, pro-environment organization founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz in Vancouver, British Columbia...
in 2001.
Clients of Plazm design have included Nike, LucasFilm, ESPN, Burgerville, The Cooley Gallery, Portland Center Stage, Jantzen Swimwear, and MTV.
Plazm and Social Responsibility
Plazm publishes a statement of social responsibility and environmental sustainability. Co-founder and current principal Joshua Berger became known for his work in ecological concerns and recycling systems in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as noted by Oregon Business Journal and other magazines. The Feminist Review and Adbusters magazine have taken note of Plazm's work in social responsibility and gender equality; the former called the magazine "challenging and explicit."The statement's current version is published on the Plazm website. It reads: "At Plazm, we believe that designers, writers, and artists have a responsibility to the world. We know how to use the tools of creativity and communication; we can use them for social change along with personal vision. As individuals and collectively, we work toward environmental, social, and political causes and contribute our services to organizations promoting arts, culture, social change, and sustainability."
Plazm nonprofit clients and collaborators receiving pro bono or discounted work for social, artistic, community, and environmental causes include the PICA (Portland Institute for Contemporary Art), ORLO, Pacific Northwest College of Art, New Oregon Arts & Letters, Northwest Film and Video Festival, Red Bull Theater, and KMHD radio. Plazm's Joshua Berger has shown political art in Times Square in the Urban Forest Project , The Organ Review of Art, UMASS, Mark Woolley Gallery, the Public Works series at Someday, and in 2GQ, a publication of 2 Gyrlz Performative Arts
2 Gyrlz Performative Arts
2 Gyrlz Performative Arts is an artist-run presenting group, based in Manchester, England...
.
External links
- Plazm Magazine website
- Plazmfonts website
- Steven Heller interview with Plazm founder Joshua Berger
- The Back Room, January 2008 - Jon Raymond, Tiffany Lee Brown and Joshua Berger in discussion with Stephanie Snyder
- CreativePro.com - Design Doyenne: Plazm Media's Fluid Approach to Design