This Saturday, Feb. 18 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the Maryland Institute College of Art will host a book launch for D.I.Y. Design It Yourself, a guide to graphic design created by MICA students under the direction of MICA professor Ellen Lupton. The event will be an exhibition of the works presented in the book. Everything from hand-designed T-shirts to self-published zines will be on display.
The event is in line with the recent "No Logo movement" that has been in vogue, particularly amongs college students, since Naomi Klein's book No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Job hit the streets, preaching the ideals of an anti-corporate, pro-creativity philosophy.
While the No Logo movement may seem like a recent development, in reality, the D.I.Y. ethic represented in Lupton's book has been around since the 1970s with the early stirrings of the punk movement. In both the United States and England, teenagers swore off the amenities of factory-produced ideals, fastening their shirts together with safety pins and publishing their writings with the sole aid of a photocopier and staplers. But even punks could not outrun the demons of commercialization. The punk image itself began to become marketable. In this day and age, a Hot Topic can be found in every mall and Avril Lavigne can be heard from every Top 40 radio station.
In retaliation to the image exploitation of modern day, multiple no-brand companies have started up. One such organization, Adbusters, sells the Blackspot Sneaker, which is a direct imitation of the Chuck Taylor All-Stars made famous by Kurt Cobain and widely-worn by many aspiring hipsters, only in place of the ordinary star is a hand-painted circle signifying the liberation from the commercial logo.
The D.I.Y. exhibit at MICA will display the works of several MICA students. A T-shirt by Michelle Brooks shows the silk-screened image of a single white tag at the nape of the neck and a pair of silver scissors prepared to cut it off. Chris Jackson, another MICA grad, presents a shirt aptly titled "De-Branded," which is a rectangle of white floating on a black tee, representing the absence of label but presence of creative thought.
Price of admission is $5. The exhibit will be shown at the Pinkard Gallery at MICA and will continue through March 12. D.I.Y. workshops will be given from Feb. 27 to March 2 from 3 to 6 p.m. For more information call (410) 225-2300 or visit http://www.mica.edu.
