How To Stay Hard, James Victore, 2009.
I love that my pal James signs his work. That is, he signs before the thing is printed as a means of crediting. Artists do this of course, but it was also common practice for graphic designers in the 50’s and 60’s. It is rare today. Most (including myself) make do with a inconspicuous line of copy somewhere on our work that probably no one will ever read.
While the implications of ‘sign’ or ‘don’t sign’ are huge In terms of the nature of the work we do as designers, I am bringing this up for an different reason entirely. I think.
When James gave me a copy of this poster I asked him to sign it. The result being that I now have a poster that’s signed twice (see detail). When I pointed out the odd redundancy of this situation he just shrugged and said something like, “Why wouldn’t I sign it twice?”
Mr. Victore you are indeed Still Hard.
