or, Strange Letters Dirty Letters
//the 2025 edition//
was our first experimental workshop using Sign-Shop Letters and Artifacts that we gathered from our facility after it was vacated by a storied Buffalo sign fabricator.
Conceived and led by Joel with staging ideas from Avye, this workshop used tiny letters, fat letters, giant letters, cursive letters, metal letters, flat letters, rusty letters, wooden letters, acrylic letters, kid magnet letters, capital letters, inverted letters, along with studio lights, everyday lights and interfering materials commonly used in product photography.
We used phone cameras for ease and enjoyment, to focus on the sculptural possibilities and resulting compositions.
Joel then guided the image assembly in Photoshop and we printed a few results from each artist with white toner on black paper.
Inspired by the historic interplay between design and photography:
Moholy-Nagy
Berenice Abbott
Herbert Bayer
Herb Lubalin
Robert Indiana
Deborah Kass
Paula Scher
Herbert Matter
Saul Bass – titles
Jennifer Gray
And the S.O.S. in Texas
Special thanks to Olivier 🫶 for helping us dig up bonus rad signage.
Here’s a peek at the process, with photos by all of us:
