In case you are Mad Max, Coby Kennedy's typo weaponry is for you!
Coby Kennedy is an imaginative person, whose work is both provocative and politicized with an undisputable sense of humor that makes it both satyric and cheerful. After several years of working in Japan as a car designer for Honda, he returned home to Brooklyn to look even deeper for his creative and artistic side. His political concerns drove him to the decision to abandon the field of industrial design in 1992 and work as an artist. He has finally ended up creating something quite impressive combining signage with typography: In a Bushwick (“home of failed artists…”) warehouse Coby Kennedy transforms street signs into large blades. The artist carefully elaborates the signs and the outcome is weathered weapons from an alternate future.
The concept is based on a narrative that takes place 400 years from now in a post-apocalyptic atmosphere according to artist’s words on Animal New York. His science fiction influences, combined with colonial history and the reality of Brooklyn being rapidly gentrified around him are the basis for his work. The narrative reflects contemporary situations in which historical places in Brooklyn, from which these signs derive from, are losing their cultural identity. The native residents of Brooklyn have to defend their territories and themselves against each other using these weaponized street signs reflecting their own heritage and history.
Despite the science fiction side of the narrative, there is a contemporary and timeless truth to Coby Kennedy's weaponized street signs
Kennedy is inspired by everything he sees, although he easily hates many aspects of art. We can easily agree to the fact that Kennedy is a down-to-earth person, who realizes and comprehends everyday reality. Despite the science fiction side of the narrative, there is also a contemporary and timeless truth to his work that stimulate further thought. Not to mention that these signs will be treasures one day in the future, hopefully hanging on a typography museum wall (science museum wall works as well) designating exact periods along time. This is how history is made Coby! And we are with you. So, dear Mad Max, grab your weapon here
Tags/ typography, inspiration, social, street signs, weapons, coby kennedy