Plazm Magazine: Documenting Creative Culture Since 1991

Founded in 1991 by artists as a creative resource, Plazm publishes an eclectic design and culture magazine with worldwide distribution. The entire catalog is now part of the permanent collection at SFMoMA. Order Plazm 29 Now.

 

The Making of MTVPE (continued)

The collective atmosphere we work in, continually mold and fight against, has proven its long term validity. Plazm consists of Sumaya Agha, Joshua Berger, Niko Courtelis, Dan Garland, John Kieselhorst, Pete McCracken, Riq Mosequeda and Yariv Rabinovitch. Creative decisions are made through group discussion by everyone in the collective that's available for input. A series of internal meetings was scheduled to decide on the creative direction. Pete then shaped the seminal design and upon approval from the client finessed the typeface to completion. Josh and Riq constructed templates and animations for on-air usage, conceptually building on the aesthetic of the typeface.

Filtering into the creative process are each individual's belongings, experiences, and the environment. The typeface was influenced by the type on Pete's sandals (subconsciously, we think), the shape of his new thermos, and the unbearable afternoon temperature of the Plazm office in August. Imagine beads of sweat rolling off our foreheads, we're gulping gallons of water, donning shades in an effort to focus on the screen and work before us.

We adjusted our hours and made a point of being at our desks by 6 am (9 EST) to connect with New York.

It also took us three weeks to find a company that could bring the channel into our office. Finally someone climbed on the roof and pointed a satellite dish at just the right angle between two buildings and main-lined us our MTV. Once we were plugged in, we made a rule: turn it on when you walk in and don't turn it off until you leave.

The aesthetic of Mtvpe is what we have come to refer to as "the soft edge." A post-Helvetica attempt at utilizing the nature of the broadcast environment to our advantage. Mtvpe's smooth edges, reverse italics and varing stroke widths suggest a knowledge of tradition tempered by modern style. The typeface is based on a simple geometric architecture. Certain characters don't adhere to normal x hieght rules, the i, j, t, and f all vary in hieght. The face was designed to be read primarily as lowercase in short line lengths and for short periods of time. It's seminal design was constructed based on the characters which made up five key veejay names.

During a four day non stop work binge at MTV, we decided that we were not the cutting edge but an entirely new genre of designer on the soft edge.

Part one was creating the typeface. Part two was determining the usage.

MTV's overall aesthetic has relied on off balance, rapid cut-up, pseudo-amateur editing. We wanted to slow everything down; to create something bold that could be used with the existing aggressive, in-your-face attitude but still maintain an elegance.