Featuring an overview of 41 strip-malls, artworks by Catherine Opie, a conversation between strip-mall developer Sam Bachner and urban planning scholar Jonathan Crisman, texts about the perceptions of strip-malls in our past (via a Garfield cartoon), challenges strip-malls face in our digital present, and a series of speculative digital renderings of what they could be in our future. We developed a style guide that encapsulated the quirkiness of strip-malls into the book’s layout and typography. Combining different fonts, we created pleasingly awkward textures and shapes on the page. We offset these details with exaggerated structure—framing with bold weighted lines and rigid fields of stripes to represent each strip-mall. This approach gave some uniformity while allowing the idiosyncrasy of each strip-mall’s distinct silhouette to shine.
“We wanted to keep that sense of variation going, with differing paper stocks and ink types. To achieve this we worked with two different, locally-based, printers—renowned Pasadena printer Typecraft for digitally printed parts and binding, and newer Chinatown-based outfit Press Friends for risograph inserts. For a dynamic effect on the cover, we hand-applied varying stickers. To tie it all together, we chose the fittingly irreverent spiral bind.” - Use All Five