Issue 4: Labels was completed in January 2020. Labels was Jam packed with content.
This issue opens with a lovely piece of writing on the idea of “labels” from Anthony Lovenheim Irwin, entitled Labels and the Residue of Meaning. This feature introduces us to the ideas the spawned the entire issue, asking questions about what labels mean and how we assign meaning to things.
Issue 4’s swag, was a limited edition run of screen printed 2020 calendars, featuring the art comic styling of the great, Micah Bornsein. At the time of our printing these, we had no idea of what was ahead for us in 2020. so innocent. so pure. such fools.
Our first essay in issue 4 was written by Dan Szymanowski, and looks at the underground music poster design scene in a very particular time and place for our writer, who came of age himself as a designer in Providence during the early 2000’s. We follow this essay, with our first “Artist Spotlight”, a selection of band posters by San Diego’s own, Dusty Dirtweed (Dustyn Peterman). His posters for underground psych rock shows have been a major part of San Diego’s music culture for the past 10 years, and represent a very recognizable style that is all Dusty’s.
For issue 4, we were very lucky to be granted re-publishing rights for Julia Bryan-Wilson’s Eleven (Contradictory) Popositions About Craft. Bryan-Wilson herself spoke with us and made minor changes to the original essay was from a panel at the College Art Association’s Annual conference in 2012, and was later published in the Journal of Modern Craft. We followed this wonderful set of guidelines for contextualizing this often confounding label, with a reader poll, asking our subscribers and friends of the project, “Craft is_____.”, and creating a simple list of our responses. They range from silly and playful to contemplative and puzzle-like.
As an interlude, this reader poll was followed by a wonderful comic drawn by Craft Desert’s in-house comic artist, Micah Bornstein. Mysterious and hilarious, this two page spread examines a strange object and its origins and comes to no concrete conclusions.
Finally, our guest writer, Buran Mori, writer, educator, and teacher at UCSD, ruminates on the theme, labels, in the fascinating and fantastic Labels for Future Objects to Remember Our Bodies.
Issue 4 was our most ambitious issue to date. with more content, and more pages than any before it. We hope you enjoy as much as we did.
love, Keri and Adam
CRAFT DESERT.
craftdesert.org 