How do you create a desire for something that everyone tells us is obsolete?

How do you make something that people want, that evokes the senses, and is impossible to replicate digitally or via a virtual experience?

You will explore the communication of ideas and create a 'publication' while questioning the nature of publication itself, and exploring the irresistible, the limited edition, the unique. In this studio, you will use yourself and your world as subject matter, research independent creators and alternative publishing, and find out where we can go next.

Through exercises and research, you will investigate the advent of small press publishing and its purpose as well as where it stands today. You will explore the form of the publication itself - challenging you to go beyond a 12-page saddle-stitched A5 zine. Discover ways of working with type and image and experiment with the construction of story within the parameters of print. Examples of DIY small press and independent publishing, as well as high-end luxury publications, will be used as research references. We will visit a small press studio and explore independent booksellers.

Monday evenings are for discussions and showing research materials and Thursdays are for developing concepts and making.

The focus of the studio is to produce a desirable and unique publication that challenges conventions of form and content. This will involve creative thinking, experimentation, failure, missteps, mistakes, accidents, getting out of one's comfort zone, research, and probably some crying from either frustration or the sheer beauty of your achievements. There will be a lot of ideas and iterations generated, so buy a few sketchbooks, and prepare to get messy.

You're going to go beyond the usual and enter another part of your brain through a lot of experimental practices. Keep your mind open. There will be workshops in creating content, with an emphasis on experimental writing and image creation. You will also learn different ways to control paper and print through folding and cutting techniques and organising information. There will be participatory activities, field trips and weekly readings/visuals to discuss, and ample opportunity for student-led inquiry. Independent research leading down vast rabbit holes is encouraged.

There will be three assessment tasks in this studio that are interlinked and build upon each other, with the main component being the SKO: Studio Knowledge Object - which will be a printed 'publication' – the form of which will be developed throughout this studio.

Brief 01: A collection of workshop outcomes exploring form and content – journal-style documentation.
Brief 02: SKO
Brief 03: Exploration of distribution and the creation of desire for your creation.

The Address Book, Calle, Sophie
Design As Art, Munari, Bruno
Press Here, Tullet, Hervé
Stolen Sharpie Revolution, Wrekk, Alex

We will be partnering with Tree Paper Gallery to print a part of your project on the Risograph machines.

Designing Experiences, Designing through Image, Designing Publications, Designing Disobedience