For $7,000 a local artistwants your help to honor Bushwickwith a font inspired by the trendy Brooklyn neighborhood.
“The typeface Bushwick was conceived of about a year and a half ago after a day of documenting signage, murals and graffiti around St. Nicholas Avenue and Jefferson Street. The letterforms that I started drawing soon after that day evolved into the first iteration of Bushwick the typeface. Currently, I’m about halfway through the lengthy design process and I need your help to finish the typeface in classic DIY fashion, without client or commercial limitations and purely for the love of designing typography,”Pablo Medina writes on crowdfunding site Indiegogo. RELATED: Is Cypress Hills the next Bushwick? A video accompanyingthe post, further explains the “renaissance” that the neighborhood is undergoing, and how Medina likes to make typography inspired by urban environments.
“I just love Bushwick. It’s such an amazing place. there’s so much going on, said Median whose had studio,Design is Culture in the neighborhood since February. Medina describes Bushwick as “refreshing,” because people are building things in a grassroots, art-based way. He travels to cities across the world and photographs signage, letterforms, typography and handpainted signs, paying attention to styles and aesthetics. Letting what he photographs “inform the typeface,” Medina was inspired by the murals in Bushwick, many of which include letter forms. As Cuban and Columbian, Medina wanted to highlight the immigrant quality of Bushwick, which is shown in its sign painting.
“There’s an abundance of signage [in Bushwick] and I was really inspired by it all,” Medina said.
Graffitti, street art, the industrial aesthetics of the neighborhood and its Latino community also played a part.
He also hopes it can “continuetobe developfree from any client or commercial limitations.” And that’s where the donations play into the equation.
There are 40 days left in the campaign for Medina, whoruns his own studio calledDesign is Culturebased in Bushwick, to reach his goal.
In about the first 24 hours, he raised $283 for his project.
But as he explains on his campaign page, the money is going tomore than the creation of the typeface:
“Any artist or designer who works on self-initiated projects can tell you, it is not only project expenses that one has to cover but also living expenses, so I hope that we go well beyond conservative goal that I’ve set.”
Those expenses, for six months of work,include:mastering fees: $2,700 ($300 per style);promotion: $800;copyright fees: $200;six months studio rent: $3,600; and sixmonths living expenses including apartment rent, food, etc: $18,000.
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Contributors can get advanced copies of the typeface, including on a T-shirt and tote bag, and those that donate higheramounts will receivea dinner for two at Bushwickrestaurant Faro.
“To be able to finishit with the same level of creative freedom I need your help,” Medina says in his crowdfunding video.”By contributingto this cause you’ll helpsupport independent typeface design being created right here in this community. and you’ll also help see Bushwick the typeface all the way to completion.”
