Ah, grunge typography. Best remembered probably as a fad, a blip in time in the late nineties marked by David Carson making dire predictions about the end of print and the Plazm and Emigre folks mixing scripts and sans and serifs like hothouse flowers. However, grunge typography was not the pet rock of the typographic world: one still sees it in use today. It will continue to flourish wherever the designer wants to indicate a rejection of clean, mechanical modernism – these days the aesthetic has changed a bit from 7evenish grime to 21st century indie-craftiness. The king of the form? Eduardo Recife.
Lots more after the jump.
He’s one of the best practictioners of the genre, and one who has only gotten better as the years go on. I remember discovering [ths] his original dirty, awesome website back in 1998 or 1999 – it may have been the first website I ever saw to use a gigantic image background, with like dust and scotch tape. He’d updated his site (now misprintedtype) several times since, and yet in a boldly transparent move for someone whose work is so of the moment, you can still visit prior versions of the site.
I’ve made use of a few of his free fonts and deliciously grungy photoshop brushes over the years, and honestly am just waiting for the right client to have an excuse to go out and get some of his excellent commercial releases, from the overinked mess of a script Nars to the madly flouriated tuscan Le King. His drawings, collages and photographs are likewise inspiring; I’m all-around a fan.
I always thought ths was actually the website of thomas schostok, who also put out the pdf-based “beast” mag.
but thanks for reminding me about eduardo’s beautiful work.
JM, You’re totally correct. http://www.ths.nu/ (which still exists) is Schostok, who in the intervening decade I came to confuse with Recife.
Schostok is more aggressively cut-up punky but equally inspirational. No one makes a workhorse sans serif feel so edgy as that guy.