The NationalBorn out of the process of working on the “Whenever, Wherever” zine, The National’s bassist Scott Devendorf asked for some typographic ideas for shirts of their two recent singles.
Earlier that summer after a post-dinner walk meandering around downtown Detroit with an old high school friend
I saw a sign in a deli window that had been made with vinyl letters. We had a lively conversation about how some forms and a symbol were reappropriated to make others. The O from a Q, the arrow from a Y, the M from a W.
That sign became a departure point, as well as an homage to both artist Christopher Wool’s stencil pieces and my studio mate Colin Strohm’s resistance shirts.
Scott and I worked out some of the nuances of the hacked letterforms, making compositions that were both intriguing and arresting. Scott developed the color ways that were drawn from the sleeves of the singles - the yellow and black for Alphabet City, and the light blue texture and black for Space Invader - and epic track on its own, and transcendent when performed live.