This past week I’ve been getting little sleep in preparation for the “Evening With Anarkon,” this Tuesday evening (see previous post). I thought I’d post some photos of the process. Right now I have a bunch of final comped pieces littering my room and took photos of a few included “Anarkon Amber Beer,” which will be available at the event, the printing of those labels, various packaging for various products, an Anarkon Brand Standards Guidliness, an Annual Report and a bunch of posters.

I just found out that on election night I’ll be given some space at the gallery I work in to show the Anarkon project off. This is in conjunction with the closing party for their current exhibition entitled “The Art of Democracy: War and Empire.”  If you haven’t seen it yet I would highly recommend it. All political art.

So come one and all, bring your friends and check out my thesis project in progress. This is of course election night and I believe we will be showing live coverage on the giant projector screen upstairs. I’ll be on the third floor in the room currently occupied by ISH, the design “experiment” I work at with this guy, and these fine people.

Information

What: An Introduction to Anarkon / Closing party for the “Art of Democracy: War and Empire”
Where: Merridian Gallery / 535 Powell Street (at Sutter)
When: Tuesday, Nov 4 Election Night / 6PM - Midnight

I’ll be there around 6:30 or so. See you there.

Over the past month I’ve been working on the first edition of the, “Anarkist Handbook: An Instructional Guide.” This will be a perfect bound 6×9 inch book at around 100 pages that gives step by step guidelines for successfully navigating the revolution. The first chapter starts out with topics like protesting, how to deal with police, how to avoid being arrested, how not to get shot, how to handle chemical exposure, etc. The guide then moves on to breaking and entering (picking locks, hotwiring cars, etc.) and into how to make some basic revolutionary items (guide to 3 different types of Molotov Cocktails, how to make your own tear gas, smoke bombs, fake ID’s, napalm, etc.)

I’ve posted a few of the preliminary illustrations here. If anyone has anything they think should be in guide let me know.

I just got some new flyers in the mail back from Vista Print. They are smaller versions of the posters I’ve been working on. Look for them in the record stores and coffee shops around S.F. If you’d like a handful let me know.

This weekend I finally got anarkon.net up and running. It’s a discussion board where I’m hoping users can talk about issues concerning branding, advertising, corporate responsibility, government and our relationship as citizens to all of the above.

If you haven’t been yet please sign up and chime in.

The past two weeks I’ve been reworking the Phase 1 advertisements which present future consumption possibilities pending the success of Anarkon’s branded take-over. I’ve taken them away from the illustrated style I had going before and comped them to look like real products you might be able to buy from Target, Walgreens, etc. I think my favorite thus far is the Heroin Fun Kit followed closely by the Plan Z Emergency Contraceptive Pill.

Feedback very much welcome.

I’ve been slapping up more posters around town and need to start hitting up some new neighborhoods. In the mean time I’ve been working on a few more for “Phase 1” of the Anarkon plan which I’ll post soon.

Just got some more stickers in the mail from Contagious Graphics. Relatively cheep and they do a good job. As always if anyone would like 1 or 2 (or a handful) let me know and I’ll see what I can do about mailing some to you.

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This past week I printed and pieced together some actual (not comped) packaging for the Anarkon Basic Gas Mask. I bought the mask from Amazon.com of all places. It’s an Israili Civilian mask and was a mere $30 after shipping. The photos aren’t the greatest but I was pretty happy with how the packaging itself turned out. I made a little warranty card and a product description piece that goes inside.

I just got a pile of new posters back from ShortRunPosters.com and was relatively impressed. They print 18×24 full color on a glossy 80lb paper for $2 a piece. Color and quality is surprisingly impressive for the price.

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