This past weekend I traveled to SxSW and ate tacos, drank too much, bought a bicycle and rode it around Austin, discovered a cave full of bats, met some internet friends, extemporenously spoke about Hitler and Helvetica in front of 200 people, ate more tacos, and illustrated a supplemental newspaper with Richard Turley and the Guardian.
It all started by accepting Mike Monteiro‘s duel for revenge since our Layer Tennis match last Fall. As the host for Battldecks he invited me to join five others in a public flogging all in the name of comedy. Then, Richard asked if I was interested in teaming up with him and his friends from The Guardian who were also going to SxSW. They were creating a pop-up newspaper and they had invited him to come and design it. Of course I said yes- I am incapable of enjoying a vacation without working.
The only plan we had was to not have a plan. We agreed to start thinking about it on the flight to Austin and to be honest I spent most of the plane ride sleeping.
So, for most of Saturday and all of Sunday I was locked in a room with MONSTER energy drinks and four handsome men- Ian Katz, Paul Macinnes, Stephen Abbott, and Richard Turley. We worked out of the offices of the Austin Chronicle Newspaper which was seven miles away from downtown… so when not designing we spent most of our dignity begging for cabs and car rides back to the bars.
Richard tells the SxSW story and more pictures on his tumblr. “The only cruel blow of an otherwise excellent day was Guardian’s Deputy Editor making a harsh late ruling, deeming the word ‘vibrator’ inappropriate for a family audience on the infographical page. But apparently he is in charge.”
Distributed exclusively at SxSW (available as of 3/14).
