studio catherine griffiths

A note on Desktop, issue #294

Issue #294, In the Neighbourhood, focuses on the Asia Pacific community, the definition of community, and what purpose a community might serve. Earlier this year, Desktop editor Heath Killen contacted me wanting to run a feature-length interview, and have me design the cover for the June issue using lasercutting as the embellishment. Of course I needed to have the inside spread as well to execute my offering! Hard to imagine I will ever again get access to such prime real estate, and how Killen persuaded everyone to move further in, I have no idea, other than Killen has real gumption and a generosity of spirit.

Typeset in two of my favourites — Dala Floda and Pitch — with the third in FF ThreeSix which I have only just begun to explore, the cut-out shapes are a composition of diacritical marks used to alter the sound of speech when added to a vowel or consonant. Through these marks of sound, are glimpses of sound: a reduced detail from Sound Tracks, a seven metre long digital-analogue drawing of the sound of the vowels (an installation at The Dowse), overlaid with the blood red, brush-lettered O from the title of Bruce Connew’s Muttonbirds — part of a story, an artist book of photographs and oral history text with Dean Tiemi Te Au.

Catherine Griffiths / June 2013

Along with the interview, #294 includes guest Lucy Feagins (The Design Files); The Value Exchange, by Stuart Buchanan; What is your definition of the 21st century? with Robyn McDonald, Seb Chan, Aaron Moodie, Sali Sasaki, Tina Roth Eisenberg and Jess Scully; The Shape of Libraries to Come, by Christian Duell; Trade Routes with words and work by so+ba (Japan), Na Kim (Korea), Guang Yu (China), Jackkrit Anantakul (Thailand), Wang Zhi Hong (Taiwan); Dual Citizenship, with three Australian studios, Atia Cader (Paper Stone Scissors), Martin Maher (Zebra) and Brett Phillips (3 Deep); projects — Gap Filler (Christchurch), and Candy Chang’s I Wish This was ... ; Broached East, an interview with Lou Weiss (Broached Commissions); and a small entry remembering the late Joseph Churchward.

04 writing & critique

An installation on an installation on an installation ...
Artist statement, »catherine griffiths : SOLO IN [ ] SPACE« A documentation, Pocca, CHINA
September 2021

Porto Design Summer School 2017
Looking back on the fifth edition
April 2018

Notes from ‘Designing the perfect photobook’
A short talk as part of a panel discussion, PhotobookNZ
March 2016

A meditation
Sir Ian Athfield, 1940 — 2015
by Catherine Griffiths
Architectural Centre, NZ
April 2015

The Design Kids interview
The Design Kids, Jul 2015

A Playlist : CG >> CG
by Catherine Griffiths
DPAG Late Breakfast Show, NZ, Aug 2014

Body, Mind, Somehow: The Text Art of Catherine Griffiths
by Gregory O’Brien
Art New Zealand #150, NZ, 2014

Nothing in Mind
by Chloe Geoghegan
typ gr ph c, Aug 2014

typ gr ph c in Strips Club
by Catherine Griffiths
Strips Club journal, Mar 2014

In the Neighbourhood
by Catherine Griffiths
Desktop #294, Australia, 2013

Interview by Heath Killen
Desktop #294, Australia, 2013

FF ThreeSix
by Catherine Griffiths
Typographica, Mar 2013

A note on the D-card
by Catherine Griffiths
Apr 2013

She’s Got Legs
by Lee Suckling
Urbis, NZ, Jan 2013

Truly, No Idea
by Catherine Griffiths
for Flash Forward, Desktop, Australia, Nov 2012

Look for the purple lining
by Catherine Griffiths
Eye Blog, UK, Mar 2012

Q&A TBI
The Big Idea, NZ, Jun 2011

Shots in the air
by Catherine Griffiths
Eye Blog, UK, Jan 2011

John & Eye
by Catherine Griffiths
ProDesign 110, NZ, Jan 2011

Quite a Blast
by Catherine Griffiths
ProDesign, NZ, Jan 2011

Inner-City Modality
by Mercedes Vicente
ProDesign, NZ, Aug 2010

Beautiful World of Typography
by Catherine Griffiths
excerpt from a talk, Govett-Brewster Gallery, NZ, Jun 2009

For the record
by Catherine Griffiths
Introduction to TypeSHED11, NZ, Feb 2009

Locating Our Feet
by Catherine Griffiths
Threaded, NZ, Oct 2008

Notes on Feijoa
by Catherine Griffiths
ProDesign, NZ, Apr 2007

Life in Italics
by Helen Walters
Print, New York, Sep-Oct 2006

Writing by Types
by Justine Clark
Artichoke, Australia, Apr 2003

In the Neighbourhood

Cover design and an interview with Catherine Griffiths

by Heath Killen

Desktop magazine, issue #294 June 2013, with cover and inside spread designed by Catherine Griffiths