Calligraphuck makes exquisitely profane letterpress cards
Linus Boman is a graphic designer and sometime comedian based in Brisbane, Australia. He’s also the brains behind Calligraphuck, a new company creating exquisitely profane letterpress cards that you’d actually want to give to your friends. We caught up with Linus and asked him about starting Calligraphuck, doing stand up comedy in London, and his new Indiegogo project.
Give us a little of your background. How long have you been a designer?
I’ve been a designer for 7 years. I studied at QCA in Brisbane, Australia, then moved to London and worked there for nearly 4 years, mostly in brand design. Last year I moved back to Brisbane, and now I’m in the process of moving back to London again. So design has really taken me far! At least, geographically speaking.
Where did the idea for Calligraphuck come from?
I’ve always been fascinated with letterforms. From being obsessed with graffiti as a kid and covering my notebooks in my own “tags”, to becoming an obsessive type-nerd in university (I could tell Arial, Helvetica, Helvetica Neue and Akzidenz Grotesque apart from 50 paces), but only in the last few years did I get back into handwritten type.
As a comedian, I hang out with people whose vocabulary of swear words often outnumbers their vocabulary of non-swear words, so I began by sketching some of the more obscure and colourful combinations (jizzmuppet, fuckstick and cuntflaps being some of my favourites). Then I read about Dame Judy Dench and how she would embroider cushions as gifts for her directors with “You are a cunt” on them, and I thought, wow, that’s exactly the kind of thing my friends would love.
Meet Linus, the mind behind Calligraphuck
Of course, I am not the first person to utilise the contrast between salty words and beautiful lettering. Legendary designer Herb Lubalin did with this famous piece from 1964 (redone in 1978). The amazing lettering artist Alison Carmichael also did so with an award winning self promotional piece.
But those were projects aimed at other designers. I wanted to create something with more broad appeal, that had a practical purpose. Greeting cards were a natural fit, because around that time I had a cluster of friends with birthdays. A facebook post or an ecard are hardly worth a shit, but as far cards went, there was nothing out there for my friends. The retail card options are an abomination, and most of indie alternative were too serious or too cutesy for their tastes.
I told a few of my friends about the idea and they were all encouraging. So I started posting sketches and pieces on instagram and tumblr and started getting a following, so that made me think, why not actually try to produce these properly?
It’s a birthday card your friends will actually enjoy receiving
You’re running a campaign on Indiegogo – what are your goals for it?
I’m hoping to raise $5000 on indiegogo to cover the cost of printing the cards, envelope manufacture, production cost of bonus rewards and the shipping costs to send out all our rewards.
This will cover the overall cost of production of the first line of Calligraphuck cards, which will feature 4 different designs. If we can beat the funding goal significantly, I hope we can print 8 designs. Either way, the funders will get to vote and their favourites will be selected for printing.
Donate $50 to the Calligraphuck Indiegogo project, get this shirt & more
Aside from the letterpress cards, do you plan to offer other products?
Reaction has been really great overall so far, but people have particularly loved the t-shirt! This particular design is exclusive to funders of the campaign, but I’d definitely be looking into offering new shirts in the future. I’m still looking for the right screen printer. I’ve been very lucky to work with this awesome letterpress shop in Melbourne, Australia, the Hungry Workshop, on the cards, and I want to find someone just as dedicated to doing things the right way before getting into apparel. God knows, the internet has enough cheap and nasty shirts. I’m only interested in the quality and nasty.
I’d love to do poster prints, the problem is they’re so awkward to ship internationally. Postcards I would love to do. I miss the written word. I think today with disposable messaging, we really need to combat that with dead trees and ink. Write something to a friend that actually means something, something that will be relevant if they get it today or a year from today. Hopefully my project can help people break the tension of that kind of sincerity with a few rude words in a pretty package!
See more designs at Calligraphuck.com
In addition to being a designer, you’re a stand up comedian. How did you get started and where can we see you in action?
I started performing comedy when I first moved to London and I knew nobody. My best friend was moving back to Australia and I had no social network, so I took an improv class. Improv wasn’t for me, but some of my classmates invited me to an open mic, and not only did I find a community, I found a new obsession. I love the rawness of stand up. I love being able to put a thought into another human’s head, with just words, and make them react to it. And I get to watch their reaction, live! There are very few creative forms where you get to create and see the reaction to your creation in real time.
I’ll be performing again in London from mid-September, one of my favourite clubs is Up The Creek in Greenwich. Otherwise, you can like my balls on facebook for upcoming gigs.
See more of Linus’ exquisitely profane designs at Calligraphuck.com or contribute to his project at Indiegogo. You can also like Calligraphuck at Facebook.
