Foreword

Polymode

Polymode wanted a typeface that could speak our language. To carry the energy, range, curiosity, and polymodal nature of our studio, it would need to express a view while navigating neutrality. Where neutrality usually means one way of being, we hoped to counter that with an expansiveness, an openness that welcomes complexity—a pseudo-neutrality that allows space for multiple interpretations, moods, and identities to coexist. No small order. That's when we reached out to Jesse Ragan and Ben Kiel at XYZ Type.

We didn’t know yet that creating Polymode Sans would become an act of self-expression. Feeling basic today and opulent tomorrow, that’s kinda like us. It has helped us define who we are as a studio of multi-modal thinkers and become a tool for how we want to express ourselves in the world.

The four of us got there through our studio’s Poetic Research process, where we reference everything and the kitchen sink to frame a project's context. We dig in the archives, we honor marginalized voices, we call to our ancestors, and we channel them, with a divine kiss of queerness. The only catch was that we also had to step into the shoes (alternating between four-inch stilettos, sneakers, flip-flops, and sandals) of “the client” for Ben and Jesse, and for our studio writ large, as it was still forming its collective self-identity—which continues to evolve. It was so satisfying to see our typeface come to life in projects for artists like Fred Eversley, Amanda Williams, and Paul Mpagi Sepuya; for clients ranging from Letterform Archive to the Art Gallery of Ontario; and on our first fully fleshed-out website.

The real surprise was how expansive it became. What started as a tool for our own voice quickly evolved into an intuitive and generative system for others through its public release. Together, we created a variable, adaptive system that invites new forms of expression. Polymode Sans has opened up a new typographic space for us, one that bridges our studio’s diverse practices and amplifies the variety of our clients’ voices. More than a typeface, it’s a living framework that continues to evolve and create space for others to find their own expression—like Type Electives, which uses it to help shape a more inclusive and equitable type and design world through education.

The same spirit of curiosity that shaped Polymode Sans extends to the essays curated in this book. As true collaborations go, we wouldn’t be here without XYZ Type and, further, all the contributors whose voices and perspectives have made this collection possible. Our deepest thanks to Elizabeth Goodspeed, Diana Guerrero-Maciá, nicole killian, Kyle Letendre, Saki Mafundikwa, Ziddi Msangi, Duy Nguyễn, Be Oakley, Sadie Red Wing, Mindy Seu, Chris Skillern, Kruttika Susarla, David Jon Walker, and WORK/PLAY for lending their insight, imagination, and care—this book is a collective expression made possible by their generosity. The authors gathered here reflect an expansive ethos. We chose these writers because each offers a different perspective on what typography can hold. Together, their essays form a plurality of voices that reconsiders how type shapes us and how we, in turn, shape type. There certainly is room here for everyone, so come play with us.

Brian Johnson

Brian Johnson is a partner of Polymode, where he focuses on creative direction, design production, writing, and teaching. Born into a family of printers, Johnson is deeply invested in the production of good design without the expense of sacrificing our humanity or environment. He is a member of the Monacan Nation and holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. He has guest lectured at the School of Visual Arts, Washington University, University of California Santa Barbara, and the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University. His recent clients have been Glenn Kaino Studio, the Getty Museum, Studio Museum Harlem, Pulitzer Art Foundation, Phaidon Press, The New Museum, and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum where his writing appears in Willi Smith: Street Couture. His most recent publication, Queering the Grid: Reading Codes in Dan Friedman’s Teachings (with Silas Munro), has led him to his current design writing research on Friedman’s 1994 Radical Manifesto.

Silas Munro

Silas Munro is a partner of Polymode, a studio that leads the edge of contemporary graphic design through poetic research, learning experiences, and making cool shit for clients in the cultural sphere, innovative businesses, and community-based organizations. Past collaborations include the City of Los Angeles Mayor’s Office, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, Mark Bradford at the Venice Biennale, and MoMA. Munro’s writing appears in the book W.E.B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America, published by Princeton Architectural Press. The book is covered by articles in Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, and Black Perspectives. Munro has been a visiting critic at Maryland Institute College of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and Yale. He is particularly interested in the often unaddressed post-colonial relationship between design and marginalized communities. Munro holds an MFA from CalArts and a BFA from RISD, where he met Brian Johnson and began collaborating. Munro is Founding Faculty and Chair Emeritus at Vermont College of Fine Arts.