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spreads from the journal, Strips Club, 2014
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typ gr ph c ........
Up until late last year, typ gr ph c ........ was a fiction, a figment, an illusion. Later, it would push on as the notion began to sniff existence, but it was still a sort of fiction. It became material only at the moment it went public. Within ten days, eight people had registered for #1.
Each workshop in the series is a fiction that steadily morphs until it completes. Then the next one begins, another fiction to materialise. These workshops are not unlike the cacophony of cicadas outside my studio window. After years underground, they emerge, mate and die within two to four weeks. Except typ gr ph c ........ doesn't die, it's recorded both as memory and ink on paper — the participants remain a part of its ongoing reality.
typ gr ph c ........ is intended as occasional and experimental, in the forest at our two studios — a weird mix of public and private, of space and spaces, metaphysical and physical.
Off the record, I remind myself that the space of typ gr ph c ........ is "experimental, avant-garde, and outside the institutions". On the record, the scene is set, and the participants perform — the evidence is in the experience, what each wanders away with — in mind and practice.
The participants at typ gr ph c ........ #1 ........ A Type of Improvisation included several practitioners in graphic design and advertising, the curator of a project and research space, an academic (Head of Design) emerging from maternity leave, and a notable contemporary music composer and university professor, who trained in graphic design in the 70s.
The day kicked off with strong coffee and Granny Smith apple doughnuts served up by photographer Bruce Connew (who'd given over his studio, and taken on the role of chef du jour) to rally everyone from the winding, narrow, tunnelling forest drive. This had everyone take a breath, meet and chat. After an introduction to the day's intentions, we headed straight onto Skype with Italian designer Leonardo Sonnoli (late evening for him), who appeared on the large screen, 1:1 scale, with his work projected onto the wall above. It was as if he were here in the studio with the group — his thought and design process compelling and inspiring.
The day was intense and full. Everything worked — the spaces and connections, the forest and isolation (cicadas still underground at this stage) — but the group worked in earnest. Organic apples, chocolate and water kept minds fresh, a lunch of bread, salmon and salad allowed other conversations to occur, and the day finished with water, good wine, beer and snacks, with the last to drive away at 8pm, before we headed, impromptu, over to the neighbours for a light dinner and conversation. I cannot debrief objectively, as you have asked, Cameron, it is my point-of-view, but emails and conversations since, have been more than enough to suggest typ gr ph c ........ is on track.
As I write, post-workshop, and in the lead-up to #2 with Paul Barnes, Masayoshi Kodaira sent a note. Right now, he is responding with a critique of the posters from typ gr ph c ........ #1 from NY attending the exhibition, Tokyo Graphic Passport in NY, in which he is represented.
Very soon, the participants from #1 will reconvene at s/f, to view the printed posters, discuss over tea the critiques from Leonardo and Masayoshi, then wander away knowing the work they made in that single day is not end game, but an improvisation, a pivotal first in what will be an ongoing collation of outcomes for typ gr ph c ........ — for the record — and, most importantly, they extended themselves, however fictional or otherwise.
CG
12.03.14
NZ
Catherine Griffiths, for Strips Club, issue #1, 2014
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photographs / Catherine Griffiths
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04 writing & critique
Walk With Me
by Stephen Cleland
curatorial essay, »Catherine Griffiths: Walk With Me«, Te Wai Ngutu Kākā Gallery, Aotearoa NZ, July 2025
Blood lines
by John Warwicker
exhibition review, »Catherine Griffiths: Out of Line«, Eye Blog, UK, June 2025
On the Expanded
by Megan Patty
curatorial essay, »Catherine Griffiths: Out of Line«, The Design Gallery, University of Melbourne, Australia, May 2025
The Shapes of Sound
by Ela Egidy
curatorial essay, »Catherine Griffiths: Out of Line«, The Design Gallery, University of Melbourne, Australia, May 2025
Read this space
by John L. Walters
book review, »catherine griffiths : SOLO IN [ ] SPACE«, Eye, UK, Spring 2023
typ gr ph c
by Catherine Griffiths
Strips Club, 2014
Featured in the inaugural issue of Strips Club, a New Zealand graphic design journal, Catherine Griffiths describes what started out as a fiction ...
related
typ gr ph c
Strips Club journal
Making Noise
by Catherine Griffiths
contribution, Alphabettes Soup: 2015–2025, Bikini Books, Portugal, March 2026
Walk With: A Survey Exhibition by Catherine Griffiths
by Catharina van Bohemen
exhibition review, Art New Zealand #196, Aotearoa NZ, November 2025
A paper record
by Catherine Griffiths introduction, Present Tense : Wāhine Toi Aotearoa — a paper record., Aotearoa NZ, May 2023
An installation on an installation on an installation ...
by Catherine Griffiths
artist statement, »catherine griffiths : SOLO IN [ ] SPACE« A documentation, Pocca, China
September 2021
A Paper Vehicle
by Catherine Griffiths and
Bruce Connew
Dwelling in the Margins, Gloria Books, 2020
Figures that don’t add up
by Catherine Griffiths
Eye Blog, UK, March 2019
1997–2017, 43 Black Pins, 40 men, 3 women
by Catherine Griffiths
The Spinoff, Aotearoa NZ, August 2018
Power in the Poster
by Catherine Griffiths
Designers Speak (Up), Aotearoa NZ, August 2018
Peace
by Catherine Griffiths
Word—Form, Australia, 2018
Porto Design Summer School 2017
by Catherine Griffiths
review, looking back on the fifth edition, Portugal, April 2018
Notes from ‘Designing the perfect photobook’
notes from a short talk as part of a panel discussion, PhotobookNZ, Aotearoa NZ, March 2016
A meditation
Sir Ian Athfield, 1940 — 2015
by Catherine Griffiths
Architectural Centre, Aotearoa NZ,
April 2015
The Design Kids interview
interview with The Design Kids, Australia, July 2015
A Playlist : CG >> CG
by Catherine Griffiths
DPAG Late Breakfast Show, Aotearoa NZ, August 2014
Body, Mind, Somehow: The Text Art of Catherine Griffiths
by Gregory O’Brien
Art New Zealand #150, Aotearoa NZ, 2014
Nothing in Mind
by Chloe Geoghegan
typ gr ph c, Aotearoa NZ, August 2014
typ gr ph c in Strips Club
by Catherine Griffiths
Strips Club journal, Aotearoa NZ, March 2014
In the Neighbourhood
by Catherine Griffiths
Desktop #294, Australia, 2013
Interview
by Heath Killen
interview for Desktop #294, Australia, 2013
FF ThreeSix
by Catherine Griffiths
Typographica, March 2013
A note on the D-card
by Catherine Griffiths
Aotearoa NZ, April 2013
She’s Got Legs
by Lee Suckling
Urbis, Aotearoa NZ, January 2013
Truly, No Idea
by Catherine Griffiths
for Flash Forward, Desktop, Australia, November 2012
Look for the purple lining
by Catherine Griffiths
Eye Blog, UK, March 2012
Q&A TBI
interview with The Big Idea, Aotearoa NZ, June 2011
Shots in the air
by Catherine Griffiths
Eye Blog, UK, January 2011
John & Eye
by Catherine Griffiths
ProDesign 110, Aotearoa NZ, January 2011
Quite a Blast
by Catherine Griffiths
ProDesign, Aotearoa NZ, January 2011
Inner-City Modality
by Mercedes Vicente
ProDesign, Aotearoa NZ, August 2010
Beautiful World of Typography
by Catherine Griffiths
excerpt from a talk, Govett-Brewster Gallery, Aotearoa NZ, June 2009
For the record
by Catherine Griffiths
Introduction to For the record, TypeSHED11 11–15/2009, Aotearoa NZ, February 2009
Locating Our Feet
by Catherine Griffiths
Threaded, Aotearoa NZ, October 2008
Notes
on Feijoa
by Catherine Griffiths
ProDesign, Aotearoa NZ, April 2007
Life in Italics
by Helen Walters
Print, New York,
USA, September-October 2006
Writing by
Types
by Justine Clark
Artichoke, Australia, April 2003
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