GET TO K NOW
You may not immediately recognise his name, but there’s no escaping the Scottish mixed-media artist’s erotically charged work. He has been featured in and collaborated with publications around the globe, and his clients read like a Rolodex of who’s who in fashion, with Dsquared2, Moschino, Valentino, Diesel and H&M among many others making the cut. And now, his vision shines through on this month’s cover and fashion spread (page 114), shot by regular BAZAAR Singapore collaborator Paul McLean. “I’ve have been a fan of Paul McLean’s work for a while now. I love his approach to photography. As a filmmaker, he has a very cinematic style, which speaks to me, as I’m a huge fan of movies,” he says of the collaboration. “To create the cover, I selected images from the cover story that excited me the most and presented them in a way that I hope will give the reader a glimpse of how exciting the full cover story is within the pages of the magazine. The goal with any collaboration is to create an image that reflects both the photographer’s personality and my own. I wanted the cover to be bold and striking, with a sci-fi/anime twist.”
Flip through the pages of our magazine and you’ll notice the appearance of a special typeface, created especially for us by the 28-year-old graphic designer. Though he’s quick to correct you if you refer to his work as a font, preferring instead to see what he does as letterform design. “The lettering work that I do has a different process, very different intentions, and serve different purposes—and it’s also not a full set. I still have a lot to learn and to practise before I can attempt making a font,” he explains. It’s clear that he has a deep respect for the discipline, which he dabbles in when designing letterforms to create “bespoke identities and art direction” for the projects he undertakes at his eponymous design studio. On the custom letters he designed for us, he says: “I wanted to create letterforms that complement Didot, the typeface with such a long history of being the face of Harper’s BAZAAR, but at the same time frame it with a revitalised look. Didot was designed with extreme contrasts between its thick and thin lines, while remaining extremely harmonious when viewed as a whole. In the same vein, I wanted the custom letterforms to contrast with Didot (and to look a little bizarre) but remain harmonious when set together.”