Graphic of the Day: Chris Habib

May 1, 2008 on 1:00 pm | In Product, Art, - Jauretsi |

(Limited Edition Poster available now)

This graphic of the day is a spanking new poster and comes with a short story (true, no less). A while back I wrote about a creative spirit called Chris Habib who will be showing a large body of his work this summer via a Sonic Youth retrospective exhibit which he was highly integral in. The post was about one of his personal projects, Fore, which I highly encourage you to jump on since he’s almost reached his 1000 limited edition book count. I gotz mine!

The poster above is an off-shoot story from when Chris was working late nights in his office slicing up more stencil pages for his Fore book.

His exact words in an email to me this morning:

The night security guard came poking around at 2AM a couple of months ago.

“What’s that racket?” He queried in a Jamaican accent–matched only in
Kingston-grace by that of my grandmother.
“My laser. Sorry. The exhaust system’s noisy.”
“You cuttin’ stencils on that thing?”
“Yeah. It’s a book I’m making. I make ‘em one-at-a-time with this.”
“If I… if I tell you something I want as a stencil–you draw it and cut it for me?”
“Sure.”

He comes back up a few weeks later at midnight or so–clutching a pad of paper to his chest.

“I…I know what I want. It’s sometin for the children–like this.”
He reveals the pad. “I’M ALL 4 JESUS : )”

“You want me to make you a stencil of a Christian text message? OK. I’ll do it tomorrow.”

I did. It was too big though. He needed a smaller copy.
I gave it to him and he was thrilled. He said he’d say a prayer for me.

I pinned the big one atop one of those “Thug” targets I’d shot up with a 9mm at the range.
A couple of weeks later, this “Smiley Face Killer” is in the news, and well–

Ltd. edition of 200 signed/numbered 11″x17″ posters. Stencil-board glued atop xerox. Packed in a stay-flat mailer. $20 ($25 post-paid). Buy from Chris directly now or at Printed Matter next week.
J

Visitor Design (Chris Habib’s Official Website)

Printed Matter, NYC.