Burnt Coffee Shadows

Burnt Coffee Shadows caught our eye in The Newsagent recently. It's got a great title, for one thing, and feels like an old school zine -- no wonder, since the ongoing project from Paul Richards features fax machine prints and journal pages from the mid-'90s. It's very cool to see these monochrome experiments gathered together in a whopping 64-page digital tabloid newspaper.

We wanted to know a bit more about these 'typescapes' and Paul obliged us:

"Too many late nights and lots of caffeine have led to the design of a typographic journal entitled ‘Burnt Coffee Shadows’. This black & white, 64-page newspaper includes material taken from note and sketchbooks that date as far back as 1996. Featuring visuals generated from thoughts, scribbles and experiments with hardware (old fax machines feature prominently) this book uses impression and expression to create dark, brooding typographic landscapes — typescapes."

"These typescapes mirror the cacophony of noise around us, the visual and audio onslaught of the modern environment – be it amongst the sprawling mish-mash of London, the complexity of Tokyo, or the towering grids of New York. The constant barrage of half-heard conversations, snippets of thoughts, emotions and overlapping communications combine in a visual flux conjured from and inspired by the milieu."

"An on-going experiment, this newspaper is the first ‘pause’ in a continuous process. Taking inspiration from the music scene, this edition will be followed by a series of companion ‘remix’ titles, released as alternate versions including collaborations with other artists. Just like the contemporary website, blog or software, the material is in a constant state of renewal and versioning, with this initial release being the catalyst for additional volumes."

Burnt Coffee Shadows is for sale in The Newsagent now for £12.50, including postage. Thanks for sharing your project with us, Paul!